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The Binary Epistemology Of Homosexuality

Decent Essays

When syphilis became hazardous to the health of the population, “sexual practices” were put under control by the British authorities. Several Contagious Diseases Acts were introduced to regulate the spread of this disease (1863, 1866, 1869). Intercourse with prostitutes endangered not only the men’s health, but also their wives’ condition, so the Acts were drawn in defense of women, too. Prostitutes were put into lock hospitals for a certain period of time when they had been found suffering from syphilis. As Duncan Crow describes their situation very aptly, “everyone must be regarded as innocent until proved guilty [Habeas Corpus], where under the Acts [a] woman was guilty unless she could prove herself innocent” (244). So, guiltiness was attached …show more content…

Using Sigmund Freud’s term, it can be claimed that vampires are not exclusively homosexuals, but they are amphigenously inverted (30), that is their sexual objects are members of both sexes. However, the concept of bisexuality has largely been ignored in the history of sexuality (Angelides 24) when it was beginning to be observed as a sexual identity, it challenged the binary epistemology of sexuality, that is the gender structure of hetero- and homosexuality (Angelides 5). Like homosexuality, bisexuality triggers negative social reactions; thus bisexuals are outcasts and socially isolated. Both homosexual and heterosexual communities are inimical to them, so bisexuals have to cope with ‘double marginality’ (Weinberg, Williams and Pryor 190). Homosexuals think that bisexuals are inherent homosexuals who simply dare not admit this fact — not even to themselves — and are engaged in opposite-sex relations in order to keep up public appearance. On the contrary, heterosexuals usually lump bisexuals with homosexuals. Both are false. Bisexuality is a continuum of sexuality, but not always a transitory state between the shift from heterosexuality to homosexuality as many might think; it is an established sexual

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