Was Lister really homophobic?

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

For some reason I was thinking today of Series 7, for no particular reason, and alighted on Lister's bad reaction in "Duct Soup" to Kochanski talking about her dimension's Dave being gay. I've seen this brought up in discussions elsewhere, basically taking Lister (and Doug of course) to task for turning an otherwise tolerant and accepting character into a -phobe of some sort.

I feel like there's a far simpler explanation for why Lister reacted this way, that doesn't make him look like a bad person as some have indicated, who've said their opinion of him was lowered as a result of this episode. Perhaps the one most fanboys and others might accept is that he's afraid Kochanski will get the idea he's NOT interested in her, and never respond to his advances or take them seriously - so instead of just saying he's not and leaving it at that, he, like so many men before and since, overreacts, thinking this answers the question without any Unfortunate Implications to Their Character.

HOWEVER ... I think for our purposes and even within canon, there's a better explanation (I just kind of wish we didn't have to wait another episode to get to it, because as a standalone episode, it kind of makes him look bad). "Blue" immediately follows this episode; Lister spends the whole time moping over Rimmer. And as we know, it isn't the moping of missing a best friend - it's deliberately played as being a possibility of more than simply "missing a buddy." Lister is seemingly bothered by the implication he could find Rimmer attractive; my guess is this and "Duct Soup" are meant to be linked by the common thread of Lister worrying over this one thing, and not necessarily meant to show he's a homophobic man. Am I just stating the obvious, or has anyone else not considered this about "Duct Soup" before now, either?

Comments

[hazeltea.livejournal.com]

I think that Lister doesn't hate gay people, he's just had limited exposure to them ('You called him Bent Bob?')and hanging out with a rowdy pub crowd would naturally make him self conscious about being thought of as not 'manly', as they tend to tease each other constantly. It's a simple matter of ignorance, if you left Lister with a group of ten gay people for a day, he'd leave thinking they were good people and that he was worried about nothing.

[derien.livejournal.com]

I've found, too, that quite a few of my coworkers who you would assume were homophobic because they make comments all the time without thinking about them, are really not when it comes to people they know. The worst one for making comments, and the most riled by being teased about maybe him being gay, was/is also totally BFF with a gay guy. Because humans are not logical. Often what comes out of their mouths is a kneejerk "this is what we say in this kind of situation."

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

I think it's OK to be human, and humans can fear things that don't apply directly to them (or that do in some cases). For me, it's the idea of being imperfect, but being willing to change if someone points it out as being potentially hurtful.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

I don't think all homophobes hate gay people; I think like anything else, it's in degrees. But even a casual homophobe can change (and probably needs to) - it's like a guy who makes casually sexist jokes even as he says he's not a misogynist. Someone needs to point it out so he does it less often, at least, IMO.