The Representations About the Homosexual Life

INTRODUCTION

The representations about the homosexual have changed throughout the centuries yet this

representation persists in poeple's mind. For instance, it is frequent to hear that a homosexual is a

feminine person.

Homophobia can be found anywhere but we worked about homophobia at work which is

still a difficulty nowadays. Indeed, many surveys show that homosexuals are victim of

discriminations. What's more, the coming-out on a work place is not frequent since according to a

survey realized by L'autre Cercle in 2011, 67% of homosexuals at work hide their sexual orientation

or invent a life in order to avoid serious consequences. This visibility is lesser for people with

qualifications and employees working in the big firms since only 43% among them decide to talk

freely about their sexual orientation (against 53% in global). Therefore, homophobia at work

remains a considerable phenomenon which deserves to be studied.

During this study, we targeted only male homosexuals executives as we may think that it's

more difficult to be executive and reveal the sexual orientation. That's why, the questions were

whether: how the homosexual executives manage their sexual orientation at work? How the gender

stereotypes can be harmful for them? Do they hide in order to avoid discriminations?

Let's begin with these questions as a starting point to define this study. We are going to

assess more precisely the experience about homosexual executives in a « manish » environment. On

one hand, the power is associated with virility and on the other hand the stereotypes tend to make

homosexuals more feminine than they actually truly are. That's why we have worked with the

concepts as stereotypes and discriminations affect the homosexual population.

First, we will develop the choices about this study as well as the motivations in order to

understand the context of the reflexion. Then, we will rely on a theoretical concept which is

indispensable for the comprehension of our research subject. . We thus carried an overview of the

main authors who have influenced