Sayogi, Sahl Dzikri (2026) MINORITY STRESS IN RICHARD SIKEN’S POEM “A PRIMER FOR THE SMALL WEIRD LOVES”. Undergraduate thesis, Faculty Of Humanities.

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Abstract

This study aims to analyze minority stress as the cause of the speaker’s tendency to seek violence in same-sex relationships in Richard Siken’s narrative poem, “A Primer for the Small Weird Loves”. As a library research utilizing a psychological approach to literature, this study applies Ilan H. Meyer’s minority stress theory. Minority stress refers to the excess stress experienced by stigmatized individuals due to a prejudiced societal environment. The findings reveal that the speaker’s tendency to seek violence is tied to his minority stress, stemming from his accumulated experiences of victimization in both public and intimate settings. Specifically, the study identifies anti-gay violence as the distal minority stressor and internalized homophobia as the proximal minority stressor. These stressors’ impacts are amplified by his homosexual identity’s high prominence, negative valence, and poor integration. This causes the speaker to employ maladaptive coping mechanisms, leading him to over-normalize violence in same-sex relationships to the point where, in its absence, he feels something is missing. Ultimately, this distorted perception transforms the speaker from a victim into a perpetrator of sexual assault.
Keywords: minority stress, homosexual, anti-gay violence, internalized homophobia, maladaptive coping, a primer for the small weird loves, richard siken

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