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In this short essay “Context” (1994), written by Allison Dorothy, the author Dorothy explores the fear of not being accepted by her lover and family due to her sexual preference and lower class status. She demonstrates on how her lover might react to how different their life styles are. Dorothy describes her lover’s upper class life style in order to make the readers understand why she fears her lover’s reaction with her family. The intended audience for this short story is for people who can relate to the emotional process of having a different sexual preferences and fearing the acceptance by their loved ones. The details that she provides to show how they are from two different worlds makes me feel as if I can connect
with the narrator. “My lover was a Yankee girl from a good family, who spend the summers of her childhood on the Jersey shore” (134). “I wondered what she would have thought of Folly Beach, the poor man’s Jersey shore…” (134). In this quotes the author explain more in depth what she means by her and her lover being different. Based on their background, family and childhood memories. Also, how being different affects their romantic life in the present. I can relate based on how I have a family member that went through the same emotional draining situation. I recall her telling me that it was not an easy process to handle. She also once told me that the neglect from both sides of the families is the most difficult to deal with. So reading this short essay by Allison Dorothy gives me a better understanding of what my family member and others with the same situation go through. The way the short essay is written is weak, because the author should have provided enough information about herself in the beginning for the readers to connect with her context of who she really is. “It was not my family I feared. It was my lover. I was afraid to take my lover home…” (132). The word lover makes the short essay difficult to fully understand. We over analyze who and what the author is trying to say. On the other hand, the author provided textual evidence of how her lover reacted to her family. As the author stated what her lover said “I couldn’t understand one word in four of anything your aunt said” (132). The author family comes from down south where they are more traditional, while her lover is from up north where they are more liberal. It was a good short essay it was relatable with readers and it provided well detailed information about her family background. “She had a television, but it was for the kids in the living room. My aunt lived her life at the kitchen table” (132). This gives the readers a well understanding of how the author family is more cultural versus her lover’s family. “Context is so little to share, and so vital” (134). This quote signifies that communication is very important in any type of relationship. In the short essay the author did not mention to her lover where she originally came. She also did not state to her lover how her family was more conservative.
Connection: I felt I sense of connection to Tori Murden McClure because we are both
Reading through the very beginning of Susan Griffin’s “Our Secret” felt like reading Shakespeare for the first time as a sticky fingered, toothless, second grader. It just did not make sense...my mind couldn’t quite comprehend it yet. Nothing in the essay seemed to be going in any clear direction, and the different themes in each of the paragraphs did not make sense to me. There was no flow – as soon as you began to comprehend and get used to one subject, she would switch it up on you and start talking about something else that seemed unrelated. As I pushed forward, it seriously was beginning to feel like she was drawing topics out of a hat as she went. That was until I hit around halfway through the second page. This is where Griffin introduces her third paragraph about cell biology: “Through the pores of the nuclear membrane a steady stream of ribonucleic acid, RNA, the basic material from which the cell is made, flows out (234).” She was talking about the basic unit of
The influence of the family and the need to belong to one are extremely powerful forms of control. The deviance that many Latin families try to control is homosexuality as it conflicts with the one of the main concepts of Latin familism, which is to continue the family name and produce children. When it comes to the relationships between LBQ Latinas and their families, there are various degrees of acceptance and control they are subjected. Katie Acosta’s “How Could You Do This To Me?”: How Lesbian, Bisexual, and Queer Latinas Negotiate Sexual Identity with Their Families provides ‘three distinct interaction strategies that study participants report engaging in with their families of origin: (1) erasure of nonconformity, (2) sexual silencing, and (3) avoidance after disclosure’ (Acosta 64). Erasure control is the most direct form of control that the family has. Erasure of the nonconformity is used by the family by erasing and denying the queer identity, sometimes with ‘manipulation tactics’ (Acosta 64). Ways that the Latina women exert control over their LBQ identities are silencing it (and not coming out) and then avoiding their family after coming out. Despite nothing ever being spoken about homosexuality, ‘respondents believe everyone is silently aware of their same-sex relationships’. Familial control of sexuality is powerful, however, as sexuality is a core part of self it cannot completely be control or suppressed. Even though they must continue in secret, or move away, queer women continue to have same sex relationships though it is not always easy to do
Society has grown to accept and be more opened to a variety of new or previously shunned cultural repulsions. Lesbians, transgenders, and gays for example were recognized as shameful mistakes in society. In the story Giovanni 's Room, the author James Baldwin explores the hardships of gays in the 1960. The book provides reasons why it is difficult for men to identify themselves as homosexuals. This is shown through the internalized voice of authority, the lack of assigned roles for homosexuals in society and the consequences entailed for the opposite gender.
Andrew Sullivan, author of, What is a Homosexual, portrays his experience growing up; trapped in his own identity. He paints a detailed portrait of the hardships caused by being homosexual. He explains the struggle of self-concealment, and how doing so is vital for social acceptation. The ability to hide one’s true feelings make it easier to be “invisible” as Sullivan puts it. “The experience of growing up profoundly different in emotional and psychological makeup inevitably alters a person’s self-perception.”(Sullivan)This statement marks one of the many reasons for this concealment. The main idea of this passage is to reflect on those hardships, and too understand true self-conscious difference. Being different can cause identity problems, especially in adolescents.
Rather, more multiple categorized differences are confirmed with various dimensions. By applying the concept of “intersectionality” to the present social situations, the right of the same-sex marriage can be given as an another example. In regard to this, the subject’s identities are subdivided into the multiple existing frameworks, and the aggregation of these characters establishes one unique personality. The examples of what makes people separate from “others” are seen in the dissimilarities of their sex, age, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, and their geographical position, and these categories construct the different personal experiences and standpoints. For example, In Japan, the gay marriage is not authorized under the current law. Also, the amount of exposure about the LGBT in the media is still low, thus a subordinate social movements are not active. As a result, heterosexual people do not recognize the existence of the minority group, and even if they recognize it, people do not try to focus on the situation of them. Thus, the gender minority people are still in the positions of weak. On the other hand, in The USA, the same-sex marriage is legalized, and generally speaking, as a result of the legalization, the LGBT people have more access to the social life like heterosexual people have. This comparison indicates that due to their geographical location,
Discrimination has always been prominent in mainstream society. Judgments are quickly formed based on one’s race, class, or gender. The idea that an individual’s self-worth is measured by their ethnicity or sexual preference has impacted the lives of many Americans. During the early colonial period, a social hierarchy was established with white landowners at the top and African-American slaves at the bottom. As equality movements have transpired, victims of discrimination have varied. In the late 1980’s when Paris is Burning was filmed, gay rights were still controversial in society. The lack of acceptance in conventional society created hardships in the lives of transgender women and gay men.
Those who become marginalized can lose control of their own lives and the available resources they can access; they can become nothing more than stigmas and often negatively treated in public. Because of this, their social contributions are sometimes hampered and this, consequently, causes them to become socially isolated and/or sufferers of low esteem. Approximately, in America, thirty percent of LGBTQ youth were often abused by their parents over their orientation or gender, with an estimated forty percent of homeless youths identifying as LGBTQ themselves. (Chatterjee) These statistics and stigmas can affect those who haven’t fully comprehend their feeling and those who stay closeted (keeping their sexual orientation or gender identity as a secret) because they fear the possible negative reactions from family and
“Line of Color, Sex, and Service: Sexual Coercion in the Early Republic” is a publication that discusses two women, Rachel Davis and Harriet Jacobs. This story explains the lives of both Rachel and Harriet and their relationship between their masters. Rachel, a young white girl around the age of fourteen was an indentured servant who belonged to William and Becky Cress. Harriet, on the other hand, was born an enslaved African American and became the slave of James and Mary Norcom. This publication gives various accounts of their masters mistreating them and how it was dealt with.
Milstein, Susan A. Taking Sides Clashing Views in Human Sexuality. Ed. William J. Taverner and Ryan W. McKee. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print.
Gender is a socially constructed phenomenon, and how acceptable one’s relationship is determined by society’s view of gender roles. Because the majority of the population is characterized as heterosexual, those who deviate from that path are ...
... decades ago. This book is one that will allow the reader to view many aspects of sexuality from a social standpoint, and apply it to certain social attitudes in our society today, these attitudes can range from the acceptance of lesbian and gays, and the common sight of sex before marriage and women equality. The new era of sexuality has taken a definite "transformation" as Giddens puts it, and as a society we are living in the world of change in which we must adapt, by accepting our society as a changing society, and not be naive and think all the rules of sexuality from our parents time our still in existence now.
An issue that has, in recent years, begun to increase in arguments, is the acceptability of homosexuality in society. Until recently, homosexuality was considered strictly taboo. If an individual was homosexual, it was considered a secret to be kept from all family, friends, and society. However, it seems that society has begun to accept this lifestyle by allowing same sex couples. The idea of coming out of the closet has moved to the head of homosexual individuals when it used to be the exception.
Gender and sexuality can be comprehended through social science. Social science is “the study of human society and of individual relationships in and to society” (free dictionary, 2009). The study of social science deals with different aspects of society such as politics, economics, and the social aspects of society. Gender identity is closely interlinked with social science as it is based on an identity of an individual in the society. Sexuality is “the condition of being characterized and distinguished by sex” (free dictionary, 2009). There are different gender identities such as male, female, gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual that exists all around the world. There is inequality in gender identities and dominance of a male regardless of which sexuality they fall under. The males are superior over the females and gays superior over the lesbians, however it 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 a traditional society perspective. The three different areas will be compared by the two different societies to understand how much changes has occurred and whether or not anything has really changed. In general a traditional society is more conservative where as a modern society is fundamentally liberal. This is to say that a traditional society lists certain roles depending on the gender and there are stereotypes that are connected with the genders. One must obey the one that is dominant and make decisions. On the other hand, a modern society is lenient, It accepts the individual’s identity and sexuality. There is no inequality and everyone in the society is to be seen as individuals not a part of a family unit...
This was reflected in societies structures, for example the legal system, which involved human rights such as adoption and marriage or the definition of spouse and family not taking into consideration same sex couples until these injustices were challenged (Owens, 88). Owens points out these restrictions that were placed on same sex couples as to highlight discrimination that has been imbedded into societal structures which work to conserve a patriarchal society. This demonstrates how families who suffered from this inflicted abuse needed the home as a safe and accepting place where they could feel belonged, in a society full of evident inequality. Overall, this reflects how Owens and Hooks both recognize differences in value that society has placed on people and families through its negative effects it has on people’s lives which is why family as a place of belonging is necessary. However, this is not good enough to work towards change, which is by identifying this oppression and establishing safe places such as the home, individuals can now work towards eradicating the problem as a whole; by taking action through creating the family as an area of