The Social Construction Of Black Female Sexuality

In Deborah E. McDowell’s essay Black Female Sexuality in Passing she writes about the sexual repression of women seen in Nella Larsen‘s writings during the Harlem Renaissance, where black women had difficulty expressing their sexuality. In her essay, she writes about topics affecting the sexuality of women such as, religion, marriage, and male dominated societies. In Toni Morrison’s short story, “Recitatif” there are examples of women who struggle to express their sexuality. The people in society judge women based off their appearance, and society holds back women from expressing themselves due to society wanting them to dress/act a certain way.

As female adolescence is a time in which girls come to terms with their rapidly changing bodies and perhaps heightened sexual desires, they are often left vulnerable to conflicting patriarchal (and heteronormative) messages in which simultaneously police and objectify their bodies. These messages are frequently reflected and inscribed by the media, and as Deborah Tolman writes, work to “divert them from the possibilities of empowerment through sexual desire” (Tolman 1994: 324). However, as it is important not to universalize the female adolescent experience, studies in recent years have looked at the implications of race in regards to adolescent female sexuality, particularly with African-American adolescent girls, in order to better understand

Gender is a topic that not many people are educated on. When people think of gender, they think of boy and girl, people usually think of a girl having a vagina, and a boy having a penis. Many people have their thoughts on how each sex should behave which would be giving people gender roles, girls should play with Barbie dolls, and boys should play with trucks. There is more to gender than just the vagina and penis, In “Understanding The Complexities of Gender”, Sam Killermann talks about the distinct pieces that also comes with gender, like gender identity, gender expression, and biological sex. When people think of gender, the only part people think of is the biological sex.

Schulman, Gary I. "Race, Sex, and Violence: A Laboratory Test of the Sexual Threat of the Black Male Hypothesis." American Journal of Sociology 79.5 (1974): 1260. Web.

Throughout America’s history there have been many struggles with equality amongst the many racial identities that live in this “melting pot.” Acceptance of the many races is a continuous goal in the war on racism in America. Once accepted, many racial identities go under huge scrutiny by the media, society, and their other racial counterparts, etc. Black Sexual Politics by Patricia Hill Collins is a critical analysis of blacks in America and blacks as a race. The book analyzes this race on various levels, and these levels include, but are not limited to the following: the concept of “new” racism, gender ideology within the race, and the potential for progression of

First of all I am going to begin with defining sex and gender. Sex in a sociological perspective is defined as the biological and physiological differences between men and women which are contrasted in terms of reproductive function(Abercrombie et al 2000 :313). On the other hand gender is sociologically conceived as the social roles allocated to men and women in society that is to say gender is learned not innate. However previously it was believed that sex determined gender thus the differences between men and

“They never seen black people kissing or making love on screen” (Lee ,1987).After decades of black love not being portrayed in the film industry, one young black director, by the name of Shelton Lee, also known as Spike Lee, brought this new visual aspect of African American love. Lee was the first to display black love, both figuratively and physically, on the big screen. It is not only the intimacy of black people that attract larger audiences but it is the inclusion of black female sexuality. The look of a woman through a male gaze quenches the subconscious thirst of a male’s fantasy. In Lee’s films, males portrayed on screen as multidimensional, and are defined by their unusual characteristics and attributes. The women, on the other

“Gabrielle Union Shows Off Taut Tummy and Glowing Skin with Husband Dwayne Wade.” (US Weekly) “President Barack Obama Loves Michelle 's "Curves".” (TooFab) “Happy Birthday, Serena Williams! See Pictures of the Tennis Pro 's Best Booty Moments.” (Amos) All articles depict mainstream media celebrating the success of these woman but somehow their bodies come into the picture. Most often the Black woman is wrongfully represented and sexualized in the media. This view of black women as sexual objects we see in the media today has its roots in the common practice of rape during slavery by white male owners of their black female slaves. Many Black novelists attempt to complicate this idea of Black women as sexual objects through literature. The

Gender and Sexuality Social Issues Within “Obsolete” Throughout the past century, there has constantly been conflicts of gender and sexuality among America’s society. More recently than not, women have found to break barriers and take steps towards the equality of all sexes. However, there are still many environments in which inequality takes place, traditional gender stereotypes are held, or gender exploitation. As art imitates life, author Chuck Palahniuk explored these influences in his own writings.

Even though, the concept behind gender is understandable; however, gender is many times perceive as the sex of the person. However, that is not the case because in truth gender is demonstrated as the act of portraying the sex after birth. When children are born, they are given a gender: male or female. However, this gendering of children is based by their genital parts rather than their being. The gendering of children demonstrates a different meaning than what most people will perceive it as.

Judith Butler questions the belief that behaviors of either sex are natural. She proposes a rather radical theory that gender is performative and that sex is constructed. When gender is being performed, it means that someone would take on a role, acting in such a way that gives society the idea of their gender and constructs part of their identity. To be performative means that we produce a series of effects.Gender is constructed and is not in any way connected ‘naturally’ to sex.

When we look up gender in the dictionary it states “Although it is possible to define gender as “sex,” indicating that the term can be used when differentiating male creatures from female ones biologically, the concept of gender, a word primarily applied to human beings, has additional connotations—more rich and more amorphous—having to do with general behavior, social interactions, and most importantly, one 's fundamental sense of self.” When I define gender I automatically define it as being a boy and girl or male and female. People define gender in so many ways, but it is in the way that we think more outside of the box based on people’s opinions, that make us wonder more.

The words ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ are commonly confused with each other in regular, everyday conversations when the two have very different meanings. The term ‘sex’ refers to the biological and physiological characteristics of a person, such as male or female; ‘gender’ is a social construction that refers to masculine or feminine roles in society ( Nordqvist). For

Sex and gender are not equal - contrary to common assumption. Sex, as defined by Rosman, is the “physical differences between male and female [based on] biological and anatomical composition of genitals and secondary sexual characteristics” (141). On the other hand, gender is defined as “the culture-specific set of behavioral, ideological, and social meanings constructed around the understandings of these biological and anatomical differences” (142). So what does this mean? Indeed, the assumption of sex equating to gender is not necessarily true because gender is culturally constructed. Different societies often have different perceptions of what gender is: for instance North American heteronormative culture in comparison with the gender relationships of people in Wogeo (minimal differences between men and women) or of the people in Samoa - specifically focusing on the fa 'afafine.

You are born with sexual attributes but gender qualities are developed after birth (Tovey and Share, 2003). The variations between the two sexes are an outcome of culture and society (Giddens, 2001). The best way to prove the difference between the terms ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ is the situation of transsexuals. These people fit biologically into one sex but feel they belong to the other. Through surgery and hormone treatment they try to change their biological sex and by doing this they also have to learn how to act like the sex they have changed to. They also have to take on new masculine/feminine roles (Browne, 2005). One in every two thousand babies is born intersex which is a baby with mixed female and male characteristics.