The Cultural Matrix And Gender Identity

Alike gender, sexuality is also a social construct, especially when looking at the period before the 18th century, when one’s sexual orientation did not matter, hence there being no need for justification, just as pointed by Foucault: “Sexual practices had little need of secrecy; words were said without undue reticence, and things were done without too much concealment; one had a tolerant familiarity with the illicit.” (3). And the 19th century came and brought with it a big change, and not only did people become engulfed by social norms, whom they should abide at all costs, but they also had to keep their sexual preferences under lock and key: “But twilight soon fell upon this bright day, followed by the monotonous nights of the Victorian

Human sexuality can be fascinating, complex, contradictory, and sometimes frustrating. Sexuality is interwoven into every aspect of being human; therefore, having knowledge about sex is as essential as having education about human anatomy. However, it is highly recommended to pay close attention when sex education is delivered to youths. (Donatelle 171)

    In contrast to our contemporary understandings, back in the late nineteenth and twentieth century sexology had just emerged and cast a new way of understanding. There were controversial views on sex and its benefits or dangerous. Our view of sexuality was quite intertwined with biblical and religious inputs. At this time understandings and terminology of same-sex sexual relations were linked with mental illness or considered sinful. Laws were in place to criminalize male sexual activity.

have looked at the history of sexuality since the 18th century in what Foucault calls

My cultural identity is female. To say this is to identify myself as having personal characteristics pertaining to femininity, as oppose to masculinity. Femininity is often synonymous with sensitivity, passiveness, gentleness, nurturing, empathy, and compassion. My cultural identity as a female has influenced several aspects of my life, including family, social development, education, and health. It affects the roles I take on in my family. It affects how I socialize with other people, shaping personal relationships. It influences my education and health. For example, I was raised with the idea that women are caretakers and must be housewife material. As such, I have taken on multiple roles; I am my parents’ housekeeper, my grandparents’ chauffeur, and my cousins’ sitter. Consequently, this caretaker persona extends towards my social life. For example, I become a “mother hen” with my friends. In one particular case, my friend was drunk and incapable of taking care of herself at a party, so I looked after her until she was well enough to go home. As a woman, my caretaker persona has led to healthy relationships, based on communication and nurturance. In regards to education, I am a psychology major. Psychology is a female-dominant field in academia; this is most likely because psychologists often utilize traits common to females (e.g., compassion, sensitivity, empathy), so women tend to gravitate towards this

“A human being is essentially a sexual being”(Novak, 271). As David Novak above states, all humans are born with a natural inclination to fulfill his or her sexual right. Each person has needs that they yearn to have someone satisfy for them. The issue that isn’t so clear is how people satisfy these burning urges within them. We have discussed in class the many viewpoints that authors have presented us, some more liberal, others conservative, and some in between. In this paper, I will present David Novak’s idea of what good sex is, according to the values of traditional Orthodox-Conservative Judaism, as well as cover his view point on the morality of homosexual sex. To get a better understanding of Novak’s and others views, I will also discuss how a conversation may go between Novak and Yoel Kahn, another author who writes about Jewish ideas.

Gender is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as the state of being male or female. However after taking Psychology of Gender I would have to say I strongly disagree with this. I believe gender is a socio-cultural construct of female and male identity that shapes how individuals live and interpret the world around them. The older I get the more faults I find in my culture and the gender ideology behind it. Growing up Hispanic in the United States has made a huge impact in my life today, and while I believe it has benefitted me personally, research however seems to prove the opposite. Research today proves that even though these beliefs prove to be changing, the influence Hispanic culture has can negatively affect the way both men and women view their own gender roles and identity. Although research supports the idea of reinforcing negative stereotypes related to cultural gender roles. I also believe that these ideas are changing and will continue to evolve in the future.

While Foucault analyzes the Victorian view of sexuality through the repressive hypothesis, the same can be done for a contemporary view of sexuality. There are specific concepts and ideas which are considered acceptable to the public sphere. Foucault says that this is a “policing of sex: that is, not the rigor of a taboo, but the necessity of regulating sex through useful and

Women both on and off screen have been portrayed in a manner that represent some

The repression of sex started from Victorian bourgeoisie. Sex was “carefully confined”: there were a lot of taboos, silence became the rule, and sex was considered as serious function of reproduction. (3) Sex had to be repressed because “it is incompatible with a general and intensive work imperative”.

In The Introduction to the History of Sexuality, Foucault explains how during the 19th century with the raise of new societies, the discourse or knowledge about sex was not confronted with repulsion but it “put into operation an entire machinery for producing true discourses concerning sex” (Foucault 69). In fact, this spreading of discourse on sexuality itself gives a clear account of how sexuality has been controlled and confined because it was determined in a certain kind of knowledge that carries power within it. Foucault reflects on the general working hypothesis or “repressive hypothesis,” and how this has exercised power to suppress people’s sexuality. It has power on deciding what is normal or abnormal and ethical or unethical

Throughout history, definitions of sexuality within a culture are created and then changed time after time. During these changes, we have seen the impact and power one individual or group can have over others. In the Late Nineteenth Century into the Early Twentieth Century, we see multiple groups of people and or authorities taking control over the idea of sex and how they believe society is being impacted by sex. At this point in time, society had groups of people who believed they had the power to control how society as whole viewed and acted upon sex. Those particular groups and ideas changed many lives and the overall definition of sexuality within that culture.

Gender identity is the personal conception of being a man or a woman and the society creates standards and comes up with gender roles basing them on existing norms and traditions which will in turn influence gender identity. For instance, most societies associate strength and dominance to be masculine roles while caring and assisting or subordination known to be feminine roles. This clearly makes gender identity be bred within the society. One’s identity is important as it influences his or her life through events like life experiences, how one is being taken or treated, how to do one associate or socialize with others, the type of job one will have to do and also opportunities that may come up favoring a certain type of gender identity. One is also likely to face obstacles or discrimination due to his or her identity.

In the case of Spargo’s interpretation of Foucault the hegemonic ideal sexual subject is that of a straight man, who is presumably white and middle class. According to Foucault the category of homosexual emerged in the 19th century out of the development of the field of sexology, when medicine replaced religion as the primary producer of discourse on sexuality, and enforcer of (hetero)sexual norms . Foucault argues that despite their relative position individuals categorised as homosexual were able to create their own discourse (or counter-discourses) to the narrative on unnaturalness promoted by sexology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, thus finding agency within constraining discourses . In this way sexuality and sexual subjects are constructed, understood and questioned through the discourse produced by those individuals and institutions with access to power.

Michel Foucault was a French philosopher, historian, social theorist, philologist and literary critic whose work had a tremendous impact on several disciplines. He was not a sociologist by training, but he worked diligently on sociological issues and otherwise had significant influence on the work of other sociologists. One of his most famous works is the The History of Sexuality, in which he examines the emergence of "sexuality" as a discursive object and separate sphere of life. According to Foucault, the idea that everyone has a sexuality is relatively a recent development in the West. In Volume 1, Foucault discusses the relationship between sex and power in a historical context. He states that the ways in which humans think about sexuality is primarily shaped by the "repressive hypothesis," which claims that Western society had suppressed sexuality from the 17th to the mid-20th century, and this was due to the rise of capitalism and the bourgeois society. There are several key concepts in this book that will be discussed in this paper include repressive hypothesis, sexuality, power, and discourse. This paper will seek to show the ways in which sexuality is a discursive object, and how sexuality was linked to power throughout history.