Misrecognition Constructs

2. In the essay “Gender Treachery: Homophobia, Masculinity, and Threatened Identities” the terms ‘homophobia’ and ‘heterosexism’ are discussed. Hopkins contends that there is no distinct boundary between the two terms, but he outlines ways in which to distinguish the two terms. First,

The topic of sexual orientation is both sensitive and controversial. This is evident in events, such as the Pride Parade, and also in media, where authoritative figures preach against it and speak of its “sinful nature” (Emmanuele, Blanchard, Camperio-Ciani, & Bancroft, 2010). Sexual orientation exists in various forms, it differs in the way it is viewed by different cultures, and researchers propose different perspectives to explain the emergence of an individual 's sexual orientation. In the discourse of sexual orientation,

In society, heterosexuality is a principal method of organizing institutions and regulating individual behavior. A culture based on ideas of heterosexuality values relationships that are between men and women; as a result, sexual contact occurring between same sex individuals is seen as deviant and labeled as homosexual. In her book, Ward explains how straight white men can have sex with other white men while retaining their heterosexuality in addition to gaining a masculine appeal. Ingraham and Namaste’s discussion of heteronormativity, heterogenders, and supplementarity aids in understanding why straight white men are not labeled as homosexual and how this functions to reproduce inequalities based on race, gender, and sexuality.

HIV/AIDS, was a disease with social stigma due to its association with the gay community. However, after the rise of sexual liberation starting in the 1960s, the fear of homosexuals became more concrete, as sexuality was discussed more openly[footnoteRef:35]. Historically a disease was viewed in both social and cultural terms, and the ill can be viewed as being caused by perversions from societal norms[footnoteRef:36]. This happened with the HIV/AIDS epidemic. For conservatives, HIV/AIDS was a justified specter, one that could be vindicated as “God’s Judgement” and as a crackdown on the “heinous lifestyle”[footnoteRef:37]. Because HIV/AIDS was so concentrated in particularly deviant groups, the logical linkage of the disease to the gay lifestyle was easy. “Gays (IDUs) chose to be gay (and drug injectors) of their own will. A Supreme Court decision in June 1986 reinforced the moral

Much of queer theory developed out of a response to the AIDS crisis, which promoted a renewal of radical activism, and the growing homophobia brought about by public responses to AIDS. The consistent belief that AIDS is a gay disease has long been

I will be writing about George Chauncey’s Gay New York. In this text, George Chauncey seeks to restore that world to history, to chart its geography, and to recapture its culture and politics by challenging three widespread myths about the history of gay life before the rise of the gay movement. These include the myths of isolation, invisibility and internalization. The homosexual community is considered a subculture to the heterosexual community, which identifies as the dominant culture. George Chauncey wants to know why the dominant heterosexual culture often misinterprets the heterosexual subculture. He also talks about the assumptions the dominant culture carries about sexuality and culture. I believe there are two reasons the dominant culture misinterprets and make assumptions about the homosexual community; these two reasons consist of religious beliefs and social stigma of the dominant culture towards the subculture.

Further, Gould (2009:50) informs us that “by the mid-1980s all levels of government were increasingly considering punitive laws” for example “tattooing HIV inflicted people.” In addition Gould (2009) highlights that gay and lesbian communities were under attack and the occasional demonstration or protest was not sufficient to stop this or make the government take correct action. Therefore, governments were able to avoid the epidemic and it was widely believed that gay men were responsible.

Both terms ‘gender’ and ‘sexuality’ are very common, broad and the meaning of it differs from person to person. Eugenically the term ‘gender’ is defined to have socially composed roles, activities, behaviours, and peculiarity that a given society considers right for men and women (WHO, 2015). Whereas the term ‘sexuality’ has various meanings, it is described as feeling or having attraction or having sexual thoughts and preferences towards same sex or opposite sex (reachout.com, 2015). This essay will explore Pascoe’s (2005) article on sexualised insult ‘fag’ by American teenage boys. It will also focus on the racialized nature of this ‘fag’ discourse. As it is not the only identity related to homosexual men but can briefly associate to heterosexual men as well. Another sexualised insult ‘slut’ depicted in Attwood’s (2007) work has many meanings and has changed overtime. This will be illustrated by highlighting how the word ‘slut’ was used to define women sexually and their struggle over class, race and generation. The term ‘bitch’ explored in Crawford & Popp (2003) study share similar perspective to Attwood’s work where talking about sexuality or gender would involve making assumption about race and class. This will help present the different identities which people use to define their sexuality and gender such as gay, fag, slut and bitch in terms of race and class. This will be explored in various academics work. This implies that understanding about sexuality and gender in

This is because in modern America, there is a blurred line separating the continuum of homo-sociality and homosexuality, and this line is the product of homophobia (Mullhall 317). “Homophobia simultaneously denies and exploits the continuity between homosociality and homosexuality: in so far as the point at which highly valued male bonding turns into highly disvalued homosexual bonding is difficult to locate” (Mullhall 317). Homophobia provides an ever present threat of social rejection and even physical violence upon those who approach the imagined line and those who in fact cross it. This creates anxieties based upon feelings of vulnerability caused by “homophobic pressure,” (Mullhall 318) and leaves men unable to have close bonds with other men without the fear of being seen as homosexual, and consequently a victim of violence and rejection. Despite homosociality and homosexuality being continuous with each other, a line has been drawn in attempt clearly define what is homosexual in attempt to keep themselves safe from violence (Mullhall 317).

The discovery of a “gay disease”, while certainly shocking at the dawn of the AIDS epidemic, was not a new notion. The medicalization of homosexuality was a common thread since the turn of the century and had previously defined homosexuality as a disease and as a mental illness, so when medical professionals encountered a situation in which homosexuality appeared to be the common theme among afflicted individuals, it was not an absurd notion to use the constructs of homosexuality as medical reasoning and cause for the physical manifestations evident in patients (Seidman 172). The gay lifestyle that had been put forward in a positive and progressive manner to contrast the notion of homosexuality

Normally, it has been discovered that heteros who accept sexual minority status is naturally decided and unchanging hold more great mentalities toward sexual minorities, than the individuals who see it as uninhibitedly picked or learnt (e.g., Aguero, Block, and Byrne, 1984; Haslam and Levy, 2006; Haslam, Rothschild and Ernst, 2002; Hegarty and Pratto, 2001; Jayaratne et al., 2006; Whitley, 1990). Given the inescapable ness of homophobic disgrace and segregation, and the ensuing battles numerous LGB individuals confront in tolerating their sexuality, sexual introduction convictions may hold profound individual criticalness for some LGB people. Many additionally hold hostile to essentialist convictions, keeping up that sexual introduction is

This shows the rapid change in attitudes by the general public towards homosexuality which was still considered a mental illness in Britain until the early 1950s when official medical research discounted this theory (Stonewall- 2014). Despite these positive statistics, police particularly in England are still facing a shockingly high number of homophobic attacks with 174 incidents in the first ten months of 2014 alone in the West Midlands (Birmingham mail-

The acceptance of “abnormal” sexualities has been a prolonged, controversial battle. The segregation is excruciating and the prejudice remarks are so spiteful that some people never truly recover. Homosexuals have been left suffering for ages. Life, for most homosexuals during the first half of the twentieth century, was mostly one of hiding: having to constantly hide their true feelings and tastes. Instead of restaurants and movies, they had to sit quiet in the dark and meet each other in concealed places such as bars. Homosexuals were those with “mental and psychic abnormalities” and were the victim of medical prejudice, police harassment, and church condemnation (Jagose 24). The minuscule mention or assumption of one’s homosexuality

When gay leader Matt Foreman called AIDS a gay disease in 2008, narrow-minded groups seized the opportunity to renew their tired argument that homosexuality is a “dangerous lifestyle” (an odd analysis given the rarity of HIV transmission through lesbian sex). But

Upon entering this course, my understanding of human sexuality was decent; I was aware of certain aspects of sexuality such as being straight, gay, lesbian, queer, transgender, etc. Nevertheless, I did not realize how expansive sexuality is; it never occurred to me that sexual health, prostitution, marriage, rape, sex trafficking, divorce, families, etc., all fell under the umbrella of human sexuality. Books and essays such as Renee Hill’s Walk Together and David Shneer’s “Out of School” showcased the multiple facets of human sexuality and how terms like queer are not directly related to homosexuality. While sexuality and homosexuality are linked, frequently, people mistake them as being synonymous; before entering this class, I was searching for a definition of sexuality, and often in the thesaurus section of dictionary websites homosexuality and or sexual orientation was considered a synonym of sexuality. Formerly, I too would have agreed they were the same, however, after taking this course, I concluded that homosexuality is just one topic in the broad discussion of sexuality. My understanding of sexuality now is that it