Data Analysis. In This Chapter, I Compare And Contrast

At a point in Noel Perrin’s life, he suddenly became conflicted over his masculinity. It was such a breakthrough, that he had to analyze the whole situation. Although it took some years to finally grasp the concept of it, Perrin is now comfortable and understands the logic behind the typical gender roles; not from research and other people’s work, but from his own experience and his own ideas.

We are all living in a society that is filled with social expectations of gender. From our early age, we seem to be able to response to these expectations accordingly. For example, we notice Barbies are for girls while robots and cars are for boys only. In the “Performative Gender”, “Doing Gender”, and “Nerd Box”, authors all indicate gender is learned instead of inherited. They bring out their insightful observation and critical personal experience to illustrate how the social expectations with punitive effects construct our gender unconsciously. These articles provide a great lens for us to understand the mental state and behaviors of the main characters in Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. In Fun Home, Alison Bechdel portrays how living in Beech Creek, Pennsylvania during the 1930s not only repressed both her father, Bruce, and her from coming out as a homosexual and genderqueer, but also trapped her mother, Helen, in her “women box”. Through the graphic memoir, Fun Home is able to present the struggling process that one may need to go through before admitting one’s unusual gender identity and sexual orientation.

Culture is defined by a construction of one's world-view, and it is transmitted by individuals and collectives through socialization and enculturation (Pederson & Ivey, 13). It contains values, beliefs, language, and perception. In studying cultural differences among members of distinct national, ethnic groups researcher have examined the concept of collectivism and individualism. People form individualistic cultures tend to view themselves as unique entities and independent form one another (Coon & Kemmelmeier, 348)

The conception that lesbians and gay men may be parents is frequently perceived in today 's society as impossible or immoral. Gay men and lesbians are often viewed as excluded from having children because sexual reproduction is related to men and women couples only. My approach to this uniquely controversial topic of gay parenting will be that of attempting to analyze the pro side. Gays and lesbians are human too and who is to say that they don 't deserve equal rights in society. Society has to realize that the modern family has developed into many different forms in recent years in that the traditional "nuclear family" is not necessarily the

While this visibility does afford transvestites formal recognition, the presence of satire in their representation undermines their plight for recognition as a definition of gender expression and sexual identity (Hennessy, 2000). This, therefore, acts to police and regulate the social and cultural bodies of transvestite individuals within the neoliberal state. Therefore, men and women who show characteristics inconsistent with the neoliberal state's prescribed gender roles are often regulated and policed through the labelling of marginalized and different groups (Keyes, 2014). An autonomous, feminist and individualised woman often is subjected to ‘lesbian' labelling and this form of ‘othering' contributes to the regulation and individualised policing marginalized groups experience under the heteronormative, neoliberal state and its subsequent restrictions on gender and sexual identity (Keyes, 2014). However, the sex-gender matrix that operates under heterosexuality can often be understood in terms of the social struggle of queer visibility in the consumerist culture, to recognise not the form but the function of families in the homosexual sphere (Dnes,

The article “The Family of a Different Feather”, written by Sarah Yoest Pederson, touches deeply on the issue of same-gender parents and how to explain it to a curious, yet ignorant, child using a well written children’s book. Pederson proposes that children are mostly “egocentric”, unable to grasp the emotional simplicities between two parents of the same gender. Pederson goes on to explain that it is unfortunate our society has deemed a children’s book as “most challenged and inappropriate material for its age group” only based on the taboo of same-sex parenting.

In the article, “Against Gay Marriage,” author William J. Bennett believes if the government extended the status of marriage to homosexual couples, long-term social corruption would follow. His nostalgia for the heterosexual normativity paints an ugly picture of modern society. William Bennett provokes the debates on religious affairs in society, the commitment and ability of homosexual parents, and gay history in general. In the article, “A Mother’s Day Kiss-Off,” author Leslie Bennetts demonstrates the web woven within the lives of working mothers regarding their roles in domestic and corporate culture. She prioritizes her commitment to family above all other avenues of livelihood, which creates tension within her relationship. She also focuses heavily on the inequality of the sexes and how women sacrifice unnecessarily and often times unintentionally because of gender roles forced on society through culture. Both authors’ perspectives effectively appeal to the reader which add to their arguments, and detract from them by using uncited or poorly sourced information and personal experience; however, Bennetts disproves a traditional outlook on marital roles as she advocates for a changing society while Bennett exclaims the danger of homosexuals, marriage equality, and the effects of the sexual immorality in our culture.

DANIEL WINUNWE RIVERS. Radical Relations: Lesbian Mothers, Gay Fathers, and Their Children in the United States since World War II. (Gender and American Culture.) Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2013. Pp. xii, 296. $32.50.

Similarly, the butch body “cannot be de-lesbianized” and thus, she embodies sexuality and “is already and always marked as lesbian” (Ciasullo 2001, 602). To align the characters with butch is to cast them as contradictory to a respectable maternal subject. Associated with the working class and racialized bodies, perceptions of butch include a lack of sophistication, crude and unrefined, and a threat to the order of the heterosexual matrix, since masculinity is held the exclusive property of men (Moody 2011). The butch body corrupts, contorts and colonizes masculinity (Soloman 1993). On the border of gender conformity, Nic and Stef embody sterile representations that dilute butch of “(homo)sexual residue” for mainstream consumption (Ciasullo 2001, 586). To portray the characters as gender failures would perpetuate doubt in lesbian women’s suitability for parenting. This would risk negating both historical and ongoing social and political advocacy for lesbian and gay parenting rights and it would be contrary to the productions’ political intentions which aim to normalize lesbian

The film that I have chosen for my critical analysis is titled Milk (2008). The film sheds light into the issue of discrimination of homosexuals in the time period of 1970s which triggers the gay rights movement in San Francisco, California. The film is a bibliography of Harvey Milk, an activist and leader of the gay rights movement. In this paper, I will discuss some of the major underlying themes that overlap with topics discussed in class, including gender identity, gender stereotype, discrimination, the close relationships of lesbians and gay men, backlash against agentic women, and gender and leadership.

Thus although the episode can bring the family together over appreciation for mothers, there is also an underlying sense of sexual divide being fed. Namely, that the mother is to be the nurturer, the sensitive one, whereas this is a line that the males in the family cannot cross. They are expected to be the emotionally strong figures instead. In the hiking scene, Gloria stating that her son should quit his poetry and kick a ball for once further highlights this expectation for families’ male members to be physically, not emotionally, inclined. It is undeniable that modern sitcoms seek to present a greater sense social and sexual equality (Patton and Choi 199). This idea will be discussed in a subsequent section. However as shown by the “Mother’s Day” episode, there is still an underlying sense of sexual and social division on television, but it is depicted as natural (Patton and Choi 199). It is depicted as natural for some of the sexist comments and expectations are not critiqued by the characters.

Gay writes, “A lot of ink is given over to mythologizing female friendships as curious, fragile relationships that are always intensely fraught. Stop reading and writing what encourages this mythology.” Likewise, Gay challenges the notion that only books by women are given the title of “women’s fiction,” and that topics of marriage and children, and parenthood are primarily marketed towards women when they concern both men and women. She argues against the stereotype of angry feminist as well. “When women respond negatively to misogynistic or rape humor, they are ‘sensitive’ and branded as ‘feminist,’ a word that has, as of late, become a catchall term for ‘women who does not tolerate bullshit.’” Gay says that women have always had to fight for their rights, when men have not, but that women’s struggles to succeed are chalked up to lack of ability. “What goes unsaid is that women might be more ambitious and focused because we’ve never had a choice. We’ve had to fight to vote, to work outside the home, to work in environments free of sexual harassment, to attend the universities of our choice, and we’ve had to prove ourselves over and over to receive any modicum of consideration.” She also finds great offense at the media’s portrayal of female relationships: “Abandon the cultural myth that all female friendships must be bitchy, toxic, or competitive. This myth is like heels and purses -- pretty, but designed to SLOW women down.” Like many third-wave feminists, Gay fights to draw attention to these issues in order to change

These required lesbian mothers to maintain a sanitized image of their relationships and family; consequently, this evaded honest conversations regarding the challenges of parenting as a lesbian mother (Epstein 2012; Garner 2004). Deriving from these custody struggles, the demonization of lesbian mothers entrenched pop culture, and attitudes which continue to prevail today (Epstein 2012). Most significantly, this contentious history of lesbian motherhood premised on moralistic interpretations about who has the right to parent provides insight into the reciprocal dynamic between social conditions and the absence of lesbian mothers in pop

In her first chapter ‘Feminine Pleasures, Masculine Texts: Reading The X-Files on the DDEBRP’, Rhiannon Bury examines the interpretations of television show The X-Files and also its actors among a female-centric private forum group. As an observation of a virtual space, there is a hybridity of speech and text (Turkle 1995, Mckee and Porter 2008, Hine 2000) that gives the methodology an ethnographic approach but with a textual focus. Using discussion threads and texts posts, which are backed up with data gathered from questionnaires and e-interviews, she focuses on performances of both normative and feminist heterosexual female identities in the context of how collective meaning is negotiated and produced out of the television show. Due to

Motherhood rhetoric – this sub-topic of rhetoric is niche and specific, but it relates to several vaster areas of rhetoric that are constantly being practiced and discussed. Feminism, gender norms, and social constructs all play into motherhood rhetoric, and consequently, these different areas of rhetoric that shape motherhood rhetoric also play a major part in “Mommy Wars.” Mommy Wars rhetoric is exceedingly prevalent and divisive in today’s society. In this Special Topics of Rhetoric Project, I will be examining and exploring the ideas in several sources that help clarify these issues, and consequently, the entities that are perpetuating this harmful rhetoric in today’s mothers. In both online and in physical relationships and interactions, the Mommy Wars rhetoric that divides mothers is perpetuated largely by cultural norms, societal norms, and media involvement.