Fear of the Opposite Sex
Sexophobia
Sexophobia is defined in one reference work as a fear of the opposite sex and in another as a fear of sexuality itself, which is a much larger claim. One is a fear held by a person and the other can be held by an institution.
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Which subject each source defines
The encyclopedia of phobias, in its 2008 third edition, defines sexophobia in a single line as fear of the opposite sex, with one cross-reference and nothing else.
Wikipedia describes a different subject under the same word: fear of sexual organs or of sexual activities and, in a larger sense, fear of sexuality. It then does something no phobia article normally does. The term, it says, can be applied to the attitude of an individual, shaped by their education, experience and psyche, or to general stigmatisation coming from collective entities such as religious groups, institutions and states.
A phobia that a state can have is not a phobia in the diagnostic sense, and the article is not confused about that. It is using the word the way homophobia is used, for a social attitude rather than an anxiety disorder, which is a second sense the encyclopedia's four words do not cover.
Why the doctor's vocabulary matters
The most concrete claim in the article concerns clinical conversation. Sexophobia shows up in the strategies people use to talk about private health problems, and the direction of the effect is the interesting part: where the doctor uses neutral and veiled language, the patient is discouraged from speaking openly about sexual difficulties.
That locates the problem in the consultation rather than in the patient. A euphemism offered by the clinician tells the patient which register the subject belongs in, and the patient answers in it. Most entries in this catalogue describe a fear that costs the person who has it something. This one describes a fear in the room that costs the other person their diagnosis.
How the word did analytical work
The historian and sociologist Cindy Patton identified three trends characterising the second phase of the HIV epidemic in Great Britain:
- sexophobia
- Homophobia
- germophobia
Those three make an unusually precise list. Fear of sexuality, hostility to homosexuality and fear of contamination are separable things that behaved as one during that period, and naming them separately is what allows an account of the response to be given at all. It is also the only place in the sources where sexophobia is used to do analytical work rather than to define a word.
What is not established about sexophobia
The word has been in the phobia lists since well before the 2008 edition and has gathered nothing since. No prevalence, no case series, no diagnostic listing, and no agreement on what the term denotes. A person with a persistent fear of the opposite sex would be assessed as having a social anxiety disorder or a specific phobia and the notes would say so. The word's usable life is in the second sense, as a name for a cultural attitude, and there it competes with plainer English.
Told apart
Often confused with Fear of the Opposite Sex
- Fear of SexErotophobia is the measured version of the same territory, with a scale behind it. Sexophobia has two definitions and no instrument.
- Fear of Beautiful WomenCaligynephobia names one direction of what the narrower definition of sexophobia names in both, and it is the term with an entry of its own in the reference literature.
- Fear of Sexual IntercourseGenophobia attaches to the act. The narrower definition of sexophobia attaches to the people, and the wider one to the whole subject.
Common questions
Questions about Sexophobia
- Does it mean fear of the opposite sex or fear of sexuality?
- Both, in different books. The encyclopedia of phobias gives four words in its 2008 edition, fear of the opposite sex. Wikipedia describes a fear of sexual organs, sexual activity and sexuality in general, and treats it as an attitude that can belong to a religious group, an institution or a state as well as to a person.
- How can an institution have a phobia?
- It cannot, in the diagnostic sense, and the source using the word that way is not claiming otherwise. It is being used as homophobia is used, for a social attitude rather than an anxiety disorder.
- What does it do in a consultation?
- It changes what gets said, and the effect starts with the clinician. Where a doctor reaches for neutral and veiled vocabulary, the patient is discouraged from speaking openly about a sexual problem. The euphemism signals which register the subject belongs in and the patient answers in it.
- Where has the term been used seriously?
- In Cindy Patton's work on the second phase of the HIV epidemic in Great Britain, where she names sexophobia as one of the main trends characterising it, alongside homophobia and germophobia. Separating those three is what makes an account of the response possible at all, since they behaved as one thing at the time and are three different things.
Added 2026-08-23 · Revised 2026-08-26
Nearby in the catalogue
Related entries
- Fear of SexIt names one end of a measured personality dimension, and where a person scores predicts their sexual knowledge, their openness and their condom use.
- Fear of Beautiful WomenThe word survives as a single sentence inside an article about gynophobia, and that sentence is the whole of what anyone has written about it.
- Fear of Sexual IntercourseThe Greek root means offspring and the Latin root means the act itself, and what people actually describe is usually neither of those two things.
- Fear of WomenAttested from 1886 and rising in frequency in every decade since. ICD-11 lists it as an inclusion term under social anxiety disorder, which almost nothing here has.
- HomophobiaGeorge Weinberg's word moved the diagnosis from the gay person to the one hating them, a year before the manual changed. Its 1969 debut meant the near-reverse.
- AcephobiaTwo studies found asexual people rated as less human than other orientations, and a built-in control for unfamiliarity failed to explain the result.