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We often hear, and unfortunately, talk of homophobia but, when it comes to women, the right term to use is lesbophobia. What is it, what origins does it have and what does this intolerance consist of?
What is lesbophobia
There lesbophobia it is fear and hatred of lesbianism and lesbian women as individuals, couples or social groups. It manifests itself with negative attitudes and discriminatory behaviors ranging from contempt and general prejudice to psychological and physical violence.
The prejudice towards lesbian women stems from the belief that heterosexuality is to be considered “normal”, while other sexual orientations are unnatural.
Origin of the term
Lesbophobia is a term made up of words Lesbos and phobia (from the Greek phobìa = fear, aversion). As a lesbian and lesbian, she derives from the island of Lesbos, Greece, where the poet Sappho lived in the 7th century BC, who dedicated some of her famous verses to female beauty and eros between women.
For this reason, the adjective “Sapphic” also expresses the erotic love between two women.
Lesbophobia and sexism
Lesbophobia also manifests itself as one form of sexism. In fact, discrimination against lesbians is often perceived as a form of discrimination against women combined with homophobia and vice versa. There are many testimonies of lesbian women who suffer physical and psychological harassment from men who do not accept their sexual orientation and, at the same time, discriminate their gender.
Stereotypes of this type are, for example, considering female athletes in general to be always or predominantly lesbian. Or the same lesbophobia on the part of homosexual men who overshadow lesbian issues in LGBT campaigns. In some states, such as South Africa or India, corrective rape is widespread, in order to “correct” people who are deemed not to conform to gender norms or who are not heterosexual.
The law in Italy against lesbophobia
At the beginning of August, in Italy, the bill arrived in the Chamber with the deputy of the Pd Alessandro Zan as rapporteur, which punishes homophobia and misogyny. The law provides for the crime of homotransphobia for those who discriminate, threaten and attack gays, lesbians and transsexuals and fight hate crimes against homosexuals and transsexuals but also against women and introduce prison for those who commit violence or incite to commit violence against another person based on sexual orientation.
