Threatening the Patriarchy: Testing an Explanatory Paradigm of Anti-lesbian Attitudes

There has been relatively little research on heterosexuals’ attitudes toward lesbians that has utilized the considerable amount of feminist scholarship on the topic. The present study examined an explanatory paradigm derived from Pharr (Homophobia: A weapon of sexism, Chardon, Inverness, CA, USA, 1988) that considers defined norm, sexism, economic beliefs, and attitudes toward institutional violence to be associated with anti-lesbian attitudes. Using data from 365 heterosexual undergraduates from the Midwestern USA, the results of a structural equation modeling analysis found support for Pharr’s paradigm and suggest several directions for future research on anti-lesbian attitudes.