Gender Treachery: Homophobia, Masculinity, And Threatened Identities The paper mentioned above, was written by Patrick Hopkins, is all about gender and the role that gender plays in our society. Sexuality, Heterosexuality, Gender roles, Identity and identity development are the issues of discussion here. It is all about gender treachery the way we use genders to look up to people and look down upon certain misfortunate ones. Prejudice against lesbians and gay men, is widespread in our society. Although attitudes toward lesbians and gay men have become less negative over the course of the past 30 years, and especially during the last decade, the majority still view homosexuality as morally unacceptable. That’s what makes it such a threatened identity. Homophobia is the common issue at stake here, but the question that arises in our minds is why can’t we just accept things as they are. Homosexuality and cross dressing represent human sexuality diversity. Since these lifestyles are generally not acceptable, homophobia and discomfort of cross dressers exist. Hopkins suggests that educating heterosexuals about homosexuality results in a reduction of homophobia. The idea is to create awareness in the society; these issues just can’t be hid behind and forgotten about, if they are present we have to sit up and take notice. Mr. Hopkins rightly calls such an attitude totally biased. The bias against women is closely related to the bias against homosexuals. It appears at first that the bias against male homosexuals is based on what they do in bed. But the deeper reason is that homosexual males are not loyal to their gender. In other words it is because they do things that are not manly. Psychological sophistication and social critique revea...
... middle of paper ...
...ow he is. The point is that female and/or sexual identity cannot be compartmentalized in this way, and the attempt to do so inevitably ends in disaster. Today, we live in a world we called modern, but have we learnt to tolerate others? For three decades gay liberation has worked to change straight people's opinions of gays, lesbians, and homosexuality itself. But it's not as simple as that it's not straights' views about gays that really matter. It's their views of themselves. As long as good equals masculine, gay equals feminine, and feminine equals bad, boys are going to use homophobia to prove themselves, no matter how many essays people write and people read about it. It isn't just transforming attitudes about homosexuality; it's transforming attitudes about gender and masculinity. Unless we succeed in doing that, we're just treating the symptoms, not the cause.
...ted her case coherently and effectively, she did not address all the concerns surrounding the issue of gender roles and homophobia. For instance, there is an argument for both homophobia and gender roles having a biblical origin, and the author did not mention it. Because of this, if the reader was a homophobic, and he or she deeply rooted his or her views in the bible, he or she would probably not be persuaded by Vàzquez’s essay. However, like a lawyer, covering the opposing side could prove destructive to his or her argument. Carmen Vàzquez’s goal was to show the reader that social reform was the only clear option and her essay accomplishes this coherently and effectively.
" That he speaks of homosexuals and heterosexuals is secondary to his idea that all men deserve to live openly, which involves expressing emotions. Men expressing themselves emotionally can be seen in plenty of other places. If one listens to the radio, they are bound to hear a number of songs about sex, and probably an equal number about love or other emotions. All sung by males. The same is true of other mediums of pop culture, such as movies and television.
In our world there has and will always have social issues that our society that is damaging our people. One of the proponent issue is in our world is Homophobia. As Homophobia is defined has people that dislike of or is prejudice against homosexual people. Recently our society has started to be more accepting with the LGBTQ community. Homophobia has really affected all people in very negative ways regardless of their sexual orientation. As homophobia is based on someone disliking or being prejudice to another person targeted to people that are homosexual. There are many people that want to fight against homophobia and help protect and support the LGBTQ community. The different sexual orientations of all individuals they have the right to be who they identity them selves as. As homophobia not only affects the LGBTQ community but affects every sexual orientation, seeing that much hate and prejudice toward people it is just sad and disturbing that people still hate on something they have no control over.
... It causes identity problems, confidence issues, and keeps people from experimenting with their true selves. Sullivan properly allows the reader to look at that point of view, and too understand walking in his shoes as a child. His explanation of self-difference explains why homosexuals contain themselves in order to live a normal lifestyles away from the negative views of our world. “It is not something genetically homosexual; it is something environmentally homosexual. And it begins young.” (Sullivan)
Aaron Devor’s essay “Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meanings of Gender” describes how despite popular belief, gender and sex are not directly related and how social norms affect individual’s choice of gender. Devor‘s main argument is that gender is not determined by genitalia, but instead by the individual's own choices. Michael Kimmel’s essay “Masculinity as Homophobia” claims that gender equality is a positive thing for males and that social norms force men to act a certain way. Kimmel’s main argument is that men are always having to protect their masculinity in order to prevent themselves from appearing weak. Both authors present compelling arguments for both gender equality and for how social norms influence individuals’ gender choice. However, the two authors approach the same topic in different ways. Kimmel takes a more laid-back approach to the topic by using simple words and a conversational tone that relates to the casual gender sociologist. Devor writes a more sophisticated essay using complex terms and a more formal tone that relates to the serious sociologist that research gender studies.
For example, “sociological and popular understanding of gay and lesbian relationships has been greatly distorted by the false presumption that only heterosexual relationships are normal ways of expressing sexual intimacy and love” (Andersen 1997, 95). This explains how society helps in influencing and identifying people sexual identities throughout their lifetime. Andersen admits that “heterosexual identity includes the belief that men have an overpowering sex drive and that women are considered more loving, soft and are link to sex [… and] contemporary sexual attitudes are shaped by phallocentric thinking-that which sees men as powerful and women as weak” (Andersen 1997, 94, 96). Although, society is lead to believe that men should be the dominant figure of the family. The reality is that, in gay and lesbian relationships, no one individual displays the behavior of an authoritative
Homosexuality has existed since the beginning of recorded human history and yet, attitudes towards gay and lesbian individuals vary extensively. Some societies tolerate them; others openly welcome and encourage them; and most blatantly condemn them (Bates, 46). Throughout our country’s history, homosexuals have been misunderstood and discriminated against, leading many to acquire an irrational fear of gays and lesbians. Known as homophobia, this fear has prompted heterosexual individuals with a feeling a superiority and authority when using the word “homosexual” interchangeably with the words pervert, faggot, sodomite, and so on. Homophobes typically perceive homosexuality as a threat to society. Nonetheless, the Gay Rights Movement has achieved impressive progress since 1973 when the American Psychological Association (APA) eradi...
the rest of the world, or is it simply the case that society has warped
A social problem, according to Thomas Sullivan (2012), is “when an influential group defines it as threating its values, when the condition affects a large number of people, and when it can be remedied by collective action”. Homophobia is indeed a social problem because negative stereotypes are prohibiting gay males and lesbians from living an equal, free life like their heterosexual counterparts. Whether the homophobic acts are minor or major, all homosexuals are discriminated, ostracized, beaten, or murdered every day. Further discussion of how homophobic stereotypes affect homosexuals, who is considered to be homophobic, and potential solutions to stop homophobia will be described below through peer reviewed literature.
In this article, Shaw and Lee describe how the action of labels on being “feminine” or “masculine” affect society. Shaw and Lee describe how gender is, “the social organization of sexual difference” (124). In biology gender is what sex a person is and in culture gender is how a person should act and portray themselves. They mention how gender is what we were taught to do in our daily lives from a young age so that it can become natural(Shaw, Lee 126). They speak on the process of gender socialization that teaches us how to act and think in accordance to what sex a person is. Shaw and Lee state that many people identify themselves as being transgendered, which involves a person, “resisting the social construction of gender into two distinct, categories, masculinity and femininity and working to break down these constraining and polarized categories” ( 129). They write about how in mainstream America masculinity and femininity are described with the masculine trait being the more dominant of the two. They define how this contributes to putting a higher value of one gender over the other gender called gender ranking (Shaw, Lee 137). They also speak about how in order for femininity to be viewed that other systems of inequality also need to be looked at first(Shaw,Lee 139).
It is important to note that I am viewing and analyzing this text from the positionally of a Caucasian, lower-class, female. Not only do I identify as female, but I also consider myself to be a feminist, which is one of my reasons for choosing the feminist framework. I also feel that it is critical to state that I identify as heterosexual, but consider myself an ally to the LGBTIQ community. Therefore, my views on gender may extend to my views on sexuality, since they often go hand-in-hand.
As Tamsin Wilton explains in her piece, “Which One’s the Man? The Heterosexualisation of Lesbian Sex,” society has fronted that heterosexuality, or desire for the opposite sex, is the norm. However, the reason behind why this is the case is left out. Rather, Wilton claims that “heterosexual desire is [an] eroticised power difference [because] heterosexual desire originates in the power relationship between men and women” (161). This social struggle for power forces the majority of individuals into male-female based relationships because most women are unable to overcome the oppressive cycle society has led them into. Whereas heterosexual relationships are made up of the male (the oppressor) and the female (the victim who is unable to fight against the oppressor), homosexual relationships involve two or more individuals that have been freed from their oppressor-oppressed roles.
This quote addresses directly the primary difficulty of the issue. The terms gay and lesbian are useful in literature in that they allow a group of people who have been marginalised and even persecuted to become visible. They enable a way of life and a set of identities, harmonious or conflicting, to be presented, to be questioned, to be understood and accepted. As categories they create ‘space’ in which there may develop a more evolved understanding of texts and they also create a genre within which many lesbian and gay writers are comfortable with being placed. A gendered reading of a text can reveal undercurrents and depths which might otherwise not be apparent. These categories also make ‘space’ for the author within the text which leads to a closer tie between the author and the reader in the reading process.
Throughout Western civilization, culturally hegemonic views on gender and sexuality have upheld a rigid and monolithic societal structure, resulting in the marginalization and dehumanization of millions of individuals who differ from the expected norm. Whether they are ridiculed as freaks, persecuted as blasphemers, or discriminated as sub-human, these individuals have been historically treated as invisible and pushed into vulnerable positions, resulting in cycles of poverty and oppression that remain prevalent even in modern times. Today, while many of these individuals are not publicly displayed as freaks or persecuted under Western law, women, queer, and intersexed persons within our society still nonetheless find themselves under constant
When one hears the words “LGBT” and “Homosexuality” it often conjures up a mental picture of people fighting for their rights, which were unjustly taken away or even the social emergence of gay culture in the world in the 1980s and the discovery of AIDS. However, many people do not know that the history of LGBT people stretches as far back in humanity’s history, and continues in this day and age. Nevertheless, the LGBT community today faces much discrimination and adversity. Many think the problem lies within society itself, and often enough that may be the case. Society holds preconceptions and prejudice of the LGBT community, though not always due to actual hatred of the LGBT community, but rather through lack of knowledge and poor media portrayal.