As I began to immerse in reading and understanding How To Be A Real Gay: Gay Identities In Small-Town South Africa by Graeme Reid, I was presented with an insightful and challenging learning experience. Reid’s research takes place in an important historical place in time for South Africans due to their newly introduced Constitution that took effect in 1996. The introduction of this Constitution brings along legislations that promote moral castigation towards “gays” as a result of conflicting notions of gender identities between traditional, African gender expectations versus activist approach on sexual identity. The modernization of gay identities in Ermelo, South Africa demonstrate the conflicts that arise from intersections of global and local notions of identity which causes a sense of contestation from “Gays” in …show more content…
With two distinct discourses offering different interpretations and possibilities of self-representations it becomes a chaotic experience for those individuals who can’t perceive themselves to fit any category mentioned. Due to the pervasiveness and visibility of Gays in Ermelo, they create spaces in which it is accepted to discuss these topics. At the same time, they try to belong to their greater community. Problems arise when their self-identifications is not authenticated as “African” and thought as to be of western origin. Thus, the creation of identities that embody both modern interpretations of gay identity and traditional concepts of femininity are accepted because there is a feeling of belonging in both contexts. The global discourse of being several forms of homosexuality privileged over other forms is contested in Ermelo yet merged with local context providing new ways for gays to survive their hostile environments and experience new ways of integrating to their local and global stance without dissociating from their
All human beings are born with genes that are unique to them and make us the individuals we become. The right to exist as an individual in society achieving the best possible potential of one’s existence irrespective of any bias is expected by most humans. In the essay, ‘The new Civil Rights’ Kenji Yoshino discusses how the experience of discovering and revealing his sexual preference as a gay individual has led to him proposing a new civil rights by exploring various paradigms of the rights of a human being to exist in today’s diverse society. In exploring the vast demands of rights ranging from political or basic human rights we have differentiated ourselves into various groups with a common thread weaving through all the demands which
In an effort to legitimize all subcategories of sexuality considered deviant of heterosexual normatively, queer theory acknowledges nontraditional sexual identities by rejecting the rigid notion of stabilized sexuality. It shares the ideals of gender theory, applying to sexuality the idea that gender is a performative adherence to capitalist structures that inform society of what it means to be male, female, gay, and straight. An individual’s conformity to sexual or gendered expectations indicates both perpetration and victimization of the systemic oppression laid down by patriarchal foundations in the interest of maintaining power within a small group of people. Seeking to deconstruct the absolute nature of binary opposition, queer theory highlights and celebrates literary examples of gray areas specifically regarding sexual orientation, and questions those which solidify heterosexuality as the “norm”, and anything outside of it as the “other”.
In a structured society, as one we’ve continued to create today, has raised concerns over the way society uses the term queer. Queer was a term used to describe “odd” “peculiar” or “strange” beings or things alike, but over the centuries societies began to adapt and incorporate the term into their vocabulary. Many authors such as Natalie Kouri-Towe, Siobhan B. Somerville, and Nikki Sullivan have distinct ways of describing the way the word queer has been shaped over the years and how society has viewed it as a whole. In effect, to talk about the term queer one must understand the hardship and struggle someone from the community faces in their everyday lives. My goal in this paper is to bring attention to the history of the term queer, how different
A person who unlawfully kills another, as not to constitute murder is guilty of manslaughter. An element that diminishes responsibility of murder to manslaughter is provocation. Charges of manslaughter have lenient sentencing as opposed to murder, which is a mandatory life sentence.
Hoff, Bert H. "Gays: Guardians of the Gate – An Interview with Malidoma Somé." MenWeb - Men's
It is therefore important to highlight the difference between the Fa’afafine and the western concept of homosexuals. In other parts of the world,
Many come from different socioeconomic statuses creating different socializations. Although there is not a distinct culture, some may become closer to a gay community rather than their own culture that has rejected them. Even though there is not a distinct culture for sexual minorities, the authors support the idea of understanding them from a cultural context. Lukes and Land write, “In the process of accepting a homosexual identity one is socialized into a new set of norms and values.” Like the biculturality of minorities, the socialization of one’s sexual orientation affects “the evolution of self-concept.”
The contemporary Euro-American idea of identity as coherent, seamless, bounded and whole is indeed an illusion. On the contrary, the self carries many internal contradictions and nuances as a reflection of the many roles that a person plays in various social circles. Identity is partially post-social and socially constructed though rituals and disciplinary acts. In turn Delany challenges the concept of a Gay Identity, an entity of being that could be defined as referential. "The point to the notion of Gay Identity is that, in terms of a transcendent reality concerned with sexuality per se (a universal similarity, a shared necessary condition, a defining aspect, a generalizable and inescapable essence common to all men and women called 'gay'), I believe Gay Identity has no more existence than a single, essential, transcendental sexual difference" (Delany 1991:131). The meaning of Gay Identity does not carry over across all time, sharing itself in a congruent way to every gay community to encompass an irreducible gayness. In fact, the very notion of the existence of any gay properties characterizing the Gay Identity is seriously questioned and refuted, as is the concept of a universal, timeless sexual difference (Delany 1991).
Gender identity refers to a person’s individual, subjective experience, and internal sense of being male, female, neither, or both genders. Cisgender refers to individuals who identify as the gender they were assigned at birth. Transgender refers to individuals who do not identify as the gender they were assigned at birth.
Many of us have been reflecting on questions about intersex and what it actually is. I’ll be explaining the definition of intersex, how common it is the conditions of intersex and what is basically considered to be intersex. Intersex is when a person is born with a sexual anatomy or reproductive system that doesn’t quite fit the description of male or female. Some examples are, a person could be born with an outer appearance as a female but could have male anatomy on the inside. Also a person can be born with what looks to be as both male and female genitals, such as, a boy can be born with a small penis or a scrotum that’s divided forming what can look like a labia or a girl can be born with a very large clitoris or even not having a vaginal opening. Then there’s the gene mix up. A person can be born with mosaic genetics which means that some of her cells have xx chromosomes and some have XY chromosomes.
In the face of a homophobic society we need creative and critical processes that draw out the complexity of lesbian lives and same sex choices, not a retreat into the comforting myths of heroines and unfractured, impeachable identities
Moral panic occurs when a certain group of people pose a threat to the norms of a specific society and because their behaviour challenges societal norms and expectations they are perceived to be deviant. When a moral panic occurs, there are two groups involved, the moral entrepreneur who practices and promotes the obedience of societal norms and the folk devil who rejects this and does not conform to these norms. In this essay, I will be using sexual orientation as an example of a moral panic, I will analyse the role conservative individuals in a society undertake as the moral entrepreneur and how the non-conforming queer individuals are viewed as the folk devil. The media, particularly in South Africa, has a crucial role to play regarding
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
There are different gender identities such as male, female, gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual that exist all around the world. There is inequality in gender identities and dominance of males regardless of which sexuality they fall under. The males are superior over the females and gays superior over the lesbians, however it is different depending on the place and circumstances. This paper will look at the gender roles and stereotypes, social policy, and homosexuality from a modern and traditional society perspective. The three different areas will be compared by the two different societies to understand how much change has occurred and whether or not anything has really changed.
The treatment of the LGBT community in American Society is a social injustice. What most people think is that they just want to be able to marry one another and be happy but that’s not it. They want to be treated like humans and not some weird creatures that no one has ever seen before. They want to be accepted for who them are and not what people want them to be and they deserve the right to be who they are just the same as any other human being. After all the discrimination they have endured they should be allowed to be who they are and be accepted as equals just like people of different skin color did in the times of segregation. We have a long way to go as a country but being the greatest country in the world in the eyes of many great America will make big steps to make things fair.