Odd Couples By Anna Muraco

Being straight is seen as “natural,” making queerness abnormal. Almost from birth, heterosexuality is the default for children. Parents talk about preschool-aged girls having “crushes” on male friends and vice versa, but never about their girls having crushes on other girls. This expectation continues throughout childhood, with parents asking boys if they have crushes on any girls or trying to imagine their girls’ future boyfriends. Whether or not these parents are supportive of LGB people, it is ingrained in them that the natural character of relationships is to be between men and women. This is partly because almost every story told about love and romance, whether it is in books or on TV or anywhere else, centers around a man and a woman. If there is a relationship between two people of the same gender, it is almost always in the background, secondary to the straight story. This default for media representation helps reinforce the norm of

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

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

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 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

Teenagers have become the generation of labels. Identities are being explored and questioned rather than assumed; the notions of people being made out of cookie cutters are being challenged. The concept of people being made out of cookie cutters, therefore identical, is being challenged by the young generation. Realizing sexuality is not a choice, but rather a characteristic people are born with is imperative for the betterment of society. The Rotary 4 Way Test essay helps to determine the how people with different sexualities are treated by asking whether there is truth, fairness, friendships which can be formed, and benefits in the situation.

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

After observing the behaviors and interactions of various groups comprised of individuals of the same gender and opposite genders at Orange Circle, it became apparent how heterosexism and heteronormativity play a role in interactions between people of the same gender and opposite genders. To further elaborate, it seemed that same-sex groups or pairings often appeared to exhibit reserved body language and distance in physical proximity when compared to opposite-sex pairings or groups. Additionally, it was also evident that many of the heterosexual pairings observed seemed to adhere to or enforce standard gender roles during their interactions. Although no overt examples of homoeroticism or homophobia were recorded, it was clear that heterosexism

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.

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

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

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

The purpose of this research paper is to portray how gay men are treated and how their friendships are made in a working society in general. I started my research for this paper by reading two books written by authors through personal research. They found many results when they were researching the topic of gay men and friendships. A part in both the books when they mention a gay man working got me interesting into researching that aspect. While researching, I came across articles that talked about my topic. From reading those articles, I can tell that the author was also very curious about how gay men were treated in a

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.

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.