Sexual Attraction To Spacers In Aye, And Gomorrah

The topic of homosexuality has become a constant issue throughout our society for many years. Many people believe that being gay is not acceptable for both religious and moral reasons. Because being gay is not accepted, many homosexuals may feel shame or guilt because of the way they live their everyday lives. This in turn can affect how the person chooses to live their life and it can also affect who the person would like to become. Growing up, David Sedaris struggled to find the common ground between being gay as well as being a normal teenager. He often resorted to the conclusion that you could not be both. Sedaris allows us to see things through his young eyes with his personable short story "I Like Guys". Throughout

According to Sullivan (2008), same-sex attraction has not always been considered a deviation. However, post-war societal reaction to prohibition, gay bathhouses and other establishments were adverse and a new war on immorality arose, which was supported by American individuals, religious and governmental institutions. This outlook prevailed throughout the 1950's and led to blatant anti-gay attitudes. The persecution of the gay life style brought on renewed shame and guilt for the homosexual community as gay men were forced to cope with the stigmatization by "passing" as heterosexuals and thus become invisible. This resulted in the development of their own discriminatory social construct, with a hierarchy where males who were able to prove their masculinity through assimilation were held in the highest regards, while those that did not were looked down upon by their own gay communities

Throughout the 1950’s, the United States belonged to the Leave It To Beaver era. Families were structured around a strong, hard working father and a wonderful homemaker mother. Children were brought up with solid ideologies on what society expects from them and were warned about living a different and dangerous life. Only one-year separates Tennessee William’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room from there publishing dates during this decade of unwavering beliefs. These texts were seen as extremely controversial during their time due to their themes of homosexuality. Sexual orientation was an awkward topic during such a “to the book” time period and these texts pushed the limits, making them remarkable and memorable works. Both Tennessee Williams and James Baldwin explore the panic men experience while trying to comprehend what sexual orientation they belong to and highlight the masculine gay man. These texts also examine the woman’s role in the mist of it all.

The 1960’s was a change for the world. One of the major things that happened was the Gay Liberation. The 1960’s was a sensitive decade. Would you want to be punished for your sexuality or liking the same gender.? NO, you shouldn’t. You don’t choose who you like or how you feel.

Gay is a gifted mechanic who can make any vehicle run. Steinbeck allows for most of his characters to posses a double-sided appeal. All of the boys lead relatively normal lives by Cannery standards, but can be seen in two different lights. On one hand they are do-gooders, holy-men, martyrs, the type one would always want on their side. On the other hand, with their refined manipulative abilities, they can be perceived as bullies, bottom-feeders, and lowlifes. They are the instigators and problem-solvers; the straight-men and the comic reliefs; the villains and the heroes. With any role they play, they proceed to play the opposite.

Vining had a social sphere consisting of predominantly homosexuals due to his metropolitan location. Vining, a gay male living in Manhattan, had a very complex social life that consisted mainly of gay, white men. Vining frequently went to the theater, parties, and dinner with his gay friends, and he would constantly be in contact with at least one of his friends (Vining Diary, p. 9, February 5 1947). World War II placed men in all-male, close quarters and allowed them to sexually explore, so men in the postwar period sought an extension of this freedom to explore. Fortunately, cities in the postwar period afforded men this continuation (Allan Berube, Coming Out Under Fire). Rather than being trapped in a small town with community policing, cities allowed men to be

hedonistic urges. Later on Dixon points out “We are facing the loss of our generation…gay men lost to AIDS. What kind of witness will you bear? What truth telling are you brave enough to utter and endure the consequences of your unpopular message?” (Dixon 73-74).

The overall theme the creators of The Gay Agenda wanted to unveil was that “homosexuals are violent, degraded monsters and their evil agenda is to destroy the very fabric of American society” (737). Benshoff refers to a critic of the name Robin Wood in his article, “The Monster and the Homosexual.” Wood composed numerous essays during the 1970s, discussing the main theme in horror films could be categorized into three distinct categories: normality, the “Other,” and their relationship amongst each other (739). Throughout Wood’s composition, he states his theory of which most horror stories consist of a heterosexual couple, and during the plot, a monster arises and causes commotion (739). The “Other,” in the circumstance of real life terms, homosexuality is portrayed as the monster who is tormenting the relationship. Carrying on with this theme, Benshoff mentions other sources of media, including films and books, which portray homosexuality in a comparable

Passing presents us with two women who are similar bet different in their sexuality, these levels are identity, race, and class division. Irene and Claire fight to support and defend their own race and endure polite society. The commonality between these two women are Irene Redfield is passing through polite society and Clair is completely passing as white along with her white husband not knowing the truth. Color lines as white. She controls her entire family to ensure that not a word of dissatisfaction is said about her. In her fantasy world, she had not deserted her own African American inheritance. Instead of embracing who she is on the inside, Irene sees the outward white world as something to gravitate to, mimic, and aspire to. This time

Sexuality of the Frontierswoman in Grey's Riders of the Purple Sage and Doctorow's Welcome to Hard Times

John Howard in his 1999 book Men Like That: A Southern Queer History explores gay and transgendered male-male sexual desire and actions that goes beyond self- identification as being gay and includes those men that are “like” that and self -label as gay, as well as men who “like” that and engage in homosexual activity but do not consider themselves gay. Howard aims for a more accurate accounting of homosexual desire in Mississippi during the postwar years after World War II and through the mid 1980’s and does not want to “…simply…recuperate past figures previously lost to history, but also to

The two authors opposed this conformity however with Yoshino, the situation was different, for many gays eventually were ready to ‘come out’ to fight while the redneck hillbillies wanted it served on

The background of homosexuality in the 1940’s and 50’s was harsh, but people started to be opened toward the rights. There were criticisms toward homosexuality in the early days of Milk. Gay men carried the labels of mentally ill or

Both the Spacers and frelks are socially marginalized for their sexual immaturity. Spacers are sexually immature through their lack of pubescence while frelks are immature for their lack of ability to form a typical, adult relationship. The Turkish frelk, at one point, theorizes that frelks “are the sexually retarded ones they miss” referring to how Spacers are chosen at a young age based on their sexual responses at puberty. Despite this similarity, the interaction between the two groups is based on a mutual misunderstanding.

In Arcadia, the conflict between emotion and intellect is a recurring juxtaposition of forces that drives the play. At the root of this conflict, is the mystery of sex. One of Arcadia's characters labels sex as "the attraction that Newton left out" , and she may not be so far off. Sex in Arcadia possesses a nature that is quite irrational. Sexual relations bring characters together and also breaks them apart according to its own unscientific rules. These events are accompanied by humorous and tragic effects. By frequently correlating sex and science only to emphasize the ways in which they don't fit together, Arcadia suggests that a strictly scientific world view is inadequate for explaining the full, irrational scope of human interactions.