Odd Couples By Anna Muraco

Living in a world full of social perceptions, expectations and limitations make it difficult to survive when everything about a person contradicts those social ideals. Humans are composed and influenced by multiple constituents: they are more than just “gay,” “fat,” or “white.” But because of a society filled with magazines, super models and stereotypes, it’s easy to lose sight of that. Secluded, pushed away and punished, Joe Schwartz lived most of his adolescent life alone, like many others, due to his sexual orientation. From reading his life story, a new perspective can be seen.

In Stephen Mays’ essay “What about Gender Roles in Same-sex Relationships?” published in They Say I Say, the author discusses how people often assign gender roles automatically, even with gay and lesbian couples. Mays stresses the concept of femininity and masculinity, and also shows the difference in their roles, supports them with vivid imagery, and gives a rare example of gay male preferences, all while using the correct diction when referring to personal experiences. Although the author reiterates gender roles and their effect on same-sex relationships, he gives clear examples that support the idea of masculine or feminine qualities.

The studies conducted used a wide array of individuals, brother-sister, brother-brother and twins. Throughout the article, majority of the focus caters to homosexual men in relation and comparison to

In her essay titled “Compulsive Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence,” Adrienne Rich claims that any alternative to heterosexual outcome is discouraged by society. The essay claims that Western tradition has used the heterosexual family model as the basic social

In this paper I am discussing the racial and prejudice issues of homosexuals. In the present day, homosexuals are being accepted in a better light than thirty years ago. Although, there are still racial slurs, non-acceptance issues, and violence that the homosexual communities are dealing with on a daily basis. In this paper I am discussing Lena. She is a lesbian trying to feel approval of the social world, and her family; by which she is trying to fit into the society. Therefore, the helper is directing Lena to take notice of

says Anthony Rotundo, attempting to define the boundaries between romantic friendship and erotic love, in relation to same gender friendships, in the late nineteenth century (Miller 4). Same gender relationships could exist on a physical level, expressing affection, without bringing up questions of sexual preference. Further, F.S. Ryman, a gentleman in his twenties, wrote of the very

In a society where homosexuality is an ever-growing topic, one might wonder why gay men tend to have the closest relationships with straight women. Ellen DeGeneres’ once said, “every straight woman has a gay best friend by their side.” Why is this? I decided to read and write about an experiment that was done to answer the question of why gay men and straight women have such close relationships. The article’s title is, “Friend with Benefits, but Without the Sex: Straight Women and Gay men Exchange Trustworthy Mating Advice.” Previous research has been done on this topic and found that women tend to enjoy a gay man’s companionship because there is not sexual strings attached and bias advice. Gay men find straight women to be extremely trustworthy. Prior research not only compared homosexual males vs. straight women, but homosexual males vs. homosexual males relationships and the same with women. For the current research in this article, researchers hypothesized that the trustworthiness and honesty that often characterizes gay male-straight female friendships may be rooted in mating relevant domains. Basically, with the absence of deceptive mating motivations, one is able to fully feel comfortable and honest within the friendship and not have to worry that they are being hit on.

Queer theory questions creations of normal and divergent, insider, and outsider.2 Queer theorists analyse a situation or a text to determine the relationship between sexuality, power and gender. Queer theory challenges basic tropes used to organize our society and our language: even words are gendered, and through that gendering an elliptical view of the hierarchy of society, and presumption of what is male and what is female, shines through. Queer theory rejects such binary distinctions as arbitrarily determined and defined by those with social power. It works to deconstruct these binaries, particularly the homosexual/heterosexual binary.4

The heterosexual imaginary is immensely ingrained in our everyday experience that most people, including feminist sociologists, has become inclined to conceptualize and theorize based around the heteronormative. The heterosexual imaginary acts as an invisible framework at play that structures our thinking processes and in which constructs our social identity. For instance, the inquiry of a survey taker’s marital status in most social science surveys come to show that our recognized and appropriate social identity is formed around heterosexuality. That is, any deviation from this heterosexual norm would be considered abnormal and be marginalized. To a minimal extent, this focus has served the interests of women because of the lack of activism

Regardless of whether they were comprised of two males or two females, it seemed that both members of each pairing would often look forward instead of at each other and often positioned themselves about one to three feet away from one another. As Warren J. Blumenfield (2013) suggests, “homophobia inhibits the ability of heterosexuals to form close, intimate relationships with members of their own sex” (p. 383). The noticeable divide between the members of each same-sex pairing reinforces the idea that heteronormativity has created the need for friends of the same gender to be physically distant from one another when interacting in a public space. Given that heterosexuals may be encouraged “to distance themselves from… [same-sex] friends, with the implication that their sexuality will be called into question” (Blumenfield, 2013, p. 383), the proximity of members of same-sex pairings is used to suggest that their relationship is in not based romance, intimacy, or sexual attraction. This allows heterosexuals to interact with other members of their gender while still “knowing that other people’s assumptions about their sexual orientation will be correct” (Johnson, 2006, p.

The LGBT community has been silently suffering through generations. But in this generation, they are finally showing the world their voice. There have been many instances where young adults were denied their right to be who they are and now they are speaking out about the mistreatment. Even though the united states have begun to be more open about the LGBT community here is still more change it come. These changes can be explained through many sociological perspectives including: functionalist, conflict, symbolic interactionism and interactionism. Along with these perspective religion, norms and deviance all impact these individuals who are striving to be open about who they really are inside and out.

For this analysis, I interviewed N, a 21-year-old white male college student that identifies as gay. He is a member of the ballroom dance team and also has a large social presence on campus. While it has not necessarily been easy for him to come out to those around him, he thinks he has been lucky overall and is thankful for the support he has received from his closest friends, as well as people he barely knew. By slowly revealing his sexual orientation, he has gained confidence, self-awareness, and better interpersonal skills.

This research paper has made use of interviewing members of the LGBT community in order to examine how LGBT couples feel performing public displays of affection in different spaces. This analysis pulls several reoccurring themes from each of the conducted interviews which feature one Bi women, one Gay man and One Lesbian women. The analysis will combine these interviews and theme with previous academic and scholarly research in order to try and provide an accurate look at the emotions and experiences of LGBT public displays of affection and how or if it has affected the ways in which they may interact with themselves and others in those spaces.

There is an omnipotent and elusory force that festers and conspires just beneath the placid surface of our society—protected and intact. It is a force that lingers—seemingly undetected—in every relation, in every interaction and in every corner of society that it can fill. This force is manipulative, coercive, powerful—and it structures nearly every aspect of social life. What is this force, you may ask? Well, it is popularly referred to as Heterosexuality. Indeed, heterosexuality, as an institution, produces and wields tremendous power over the lives and decisions of social actors. It cuts through every social facet, safeguards and constructs hierarchies and orders along lines of gender, sexuality, race, and class. Incontrovertibly, heterosexuality is a fundamental organizing principle of our society—maintained through cultural productions, discursive practices, and heterosexual norms. Moreover, the dominance of heterosexuality is nourished and privileged through the heterosexual imaginary – “a way of thinking that conceals the operation of heterosexuality in structuring gender (across race, class and sexuality) and closes off any critical analysis of heterosexuality as an organizing institution” (Ingraham, 2002, p. 76). Relying on illusory and romanticized abstractions of heterosexuality, the heterosexual imaginary obfuscates the institutionalized nature of this privileged status. This obfuscation

Being raised in a small town, it is easy to get accustomed to a societal view of how people should be. Everyone fits into a stereotype, whether it be the old Caucasian woman in the big house or the Mexican lunch lady at the local elementary school. These stereotypes are also enforced onto the gay community; Parents tell their young boys to avoid the new student who “acts gay,” and of course, everyone in the town knows about the high school girl who dresses like a tomboy. Coming into the city, these stereotypes are broken, and as time passes, it is clear to see what type of gay individuals there really are in the world.