The Social Construction Of Heterosexuality Summary

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

Sexual orientation is a topic that is very debatable and contains a lot of information. The information I have learned since beginning this research paper has been memorable and has taught me alot. The sociology of sexual orientation teaches us a lot without us being aware about it. Looking at someone else’s puzzle piece and incorporating it into one’s own life is the mission of sociology. Dealing with sexual orientation, it teaches us not to discriminate against someone because they are different than what we are accustomed to and learn to accept others who are different. If you look at it from a broader perspective everyone, is different to someone else and once the world understands this, it will be a much more safer and positive place to

The author Gayle Rubin in the textbook “Social Construction of Sexuality,” talks about “Sexual Conflicts” and how society perceives them and how they handle differences. Battles happen with different groups and their sexual ideologies, especially when individuals believe what another individual or group of individuals are doing is wrong. Laws can be created to prevent them from expressing their sexuality and taking away basic freedoms. Gayle Rubin explains, to be able to stop the struggle over sex laws they need to get rid of all laws that include sex, except ones that project individuals from sexual violence. Besides laws being created, daily life within society can cause human beings to feel uncomfortable or unaccepted with their sexuality, which will create sexual migration.

Heterosexism, according to Warren J. Blumenfeld, is the system of advantages given to heterosexuals based on the social construct of gender roles and heterosexual norms, while marginalizing and oppressing homosexuals and others who do not fit into the heterosexual culture (373). The enforcement of this system is known as heteronormality. This is seen in the binary system, which is a social construct that divides people into different strictly bordered categories organized by “social roles, values, stereotypes, and behavioral and attitudinal imperatives, expressions, and expectations” (Blumenfeld 373). Those who stick to the binary system, maintain power and privilege. People who may live in the binary system, but also intentionally

In society, heterosexuality is a principal method of organizing institutions and regulating individual behavior. A culture based on ideas of heterosexuality values relationships that are between men and women; as a result, sexual contact occurring between same sex individuals is seen as deviant and labeled as homosexual. In her book, Ward explains how straight white men can have sex with other white men while retaining their heterosexuality in addition to gaining a masculine appeal. Ingraham and Namaste’s discussion of heteronormativity, heterogenders, and supplementarity aids in understanding why straight white men are not labeled as homosexual and how this functions to reproduce inequalities based on race, gender, and sexuality.

Heterosexism is a term used to describe people who discriminate against gays and lesbians. Throughout history, an intimate relationship between members of the opposite sex was considered the norm, and breaking this norm would make a person deviant. From birth, children are taught certain characteristics on how boys and girls are suppose to behave. Children learn these things from their parents, the schools they attend, and society that they live in. The characteristics that they learn shapes them into what they become when they’re adults. According to Barrie Thorne, “the sociological significance of children’s play is that boys and girls are helping to socialize one another into primary adult gender roles, girls being more concerned with

Stereotypes are damaging ideas about how a group of people are supposed to behave and act. It dehumanizes them by lumping them into broad categories it takes away their traits that makes them unique and it does not define their personality and turns them into a form of objects. The idea that the male homosexual is directly linked to feminism is inaccurate. While there are some males who express themselves in behaviors that are considered to be feminine, there are others who do not. Gay men are displayed to seem interested in fashion, are meticulous, and are emotional but in reality not all men display these characteristics. This stereotype damages gay males in the extent that they are playing a role in which gay men are hiding their uniqueness as individual human beings because of the formation of these stereotypes.

In life, humans are forced by society to live up to extreme expectations and stereotypes based on gender. If for any reason one doesn't comply to those they are often seen as odd or even at times a homosexual. For example, a celebrity that can be taken into consideration with this is Oprah Winfrey, someone who hasn’t exactly followed the expectations society has set for women. At 63 years old, she has paved her own path at a successful career without having a husband or children, many question her sexuality and choices in life for this. Writers Michael Kimmel, Stephen Hinshaw, and Jamaica Kincaid, among others, have contributed to the conversation of the idea that men and women have to comply to societal standards writers.

For example, some people believe that lesbians are not a real sex experience because there is no phallus involved. This translates to the idea that there needs to be a man and a woman, or aka, the dominant and the submissive. Therefore, women cannot emulate masculinity- only a man can assume that role. Not even butch lesbian women could mirror that aspect, and if a woman were to claim that feature then they were pretending to be man. Therefore, a stigma gets attached to lesbian relationships, and renders the butch as a less desirable being. While in the 19th century Butch-Femme was a more prominent trend in lesbian relationships, it does not translate to today’s times (Smith and Stillman). In itself, this occurrence may be a revolt, and may be one of the main contributions to the lightening of homosexual views as ‘revolting’. On the one hand, common lesbians are stereotypically viewed as obese, short haired, and ‘ugly’ women. On the other hand, with the rise of online dating apps, especially for the homosexuals, more attractive women are gradually coming out to shed the image of the stereotypical lesbian. Consequently, lesbian women are demeaned as only something physically appealing to look at by others, as observed by the considerable porn websites like Pornhub categorizing lesbian porn under a ‘straight’ category. Likewise, while female body issues are in general more prominent in the media than men, males are experiencing increasing pressures to attain a certain

more time with straight people. There may also be a small ripple effect, due to the years of Bible thumping pulsing through her unconscious as well. Hopefully, that will be erased from the mind with time.

The 10 Percent Problems and The Social Construction of Sexuality were definitely my favorite two articles that I have read for this class. I have learned no matter how advanced our world is, there are still people that are afraid to come out and admit they are gay. Even in 2016, there are people that would be against LGBT communities. After the election, a large number of crimes have been committed towards the LGBT community. It will influence my thinking by being more sensitive towards LGBT people. In the past, some of the ideas I had about LGBT effected the way I communicated with them. After reading this article, it made me realize how rude or insensitive that was. This year I have personally met my first Transgender individual. It gave

The author states, “heterosexism, or ‘the view that heterosexuality is the “norm” for all social/sexual relationships and...certainly permeates many discussions of sexism” (Dahl, 2015). This shows that there is an expectation that the female gender is automatically presumed to be interested only in the male gender, and this correlates to sexism. Heterosexuality is considered the norm in today’s society; however, that is stereotyping against the gender, which leads to sexism. This also leads to the assumption that females must behave like the stereotypical girl. The author states, “femininity [and] the restrictions it placed on me, was a learned role” (Dahl, 2015). This explains ever since she was young, expectations and gender roles were given to her such as learning to only be interested in the opposite gender and acting lady like. It it also stated that sexism “is rooted in the presumption that female and male are rigid, mutually exclusive, ‘opposite’ sexes” (Dahl, 2015). This tells the reader opposite sexes should only be attracted to one another and not the same sex, creating an unrealistic expectation since people cannot control their brain’s sexual interest. The researcher agrees with all of the statements above because they are clearly portrayed through everyday events. The article covers the stereotyping of relationship requirements in a thorough manner.

Although sometimes it is hard to realize it, a lot of the ideas we believe in and the way in which we understand them falls under social ideals. Due to what we as a society have developed to be categorized as the right and normal sex, rather than one that does not perfectly fall into either of the two categories we have set up, it is difficult to understand the science portion of the reasoning as to why such "abnormalities" are actually not so easy to categorize. It has never really come to mind that there was science behind all of those that we labeled as "intersex", rather it has always been society telling us about all those people who apparently were born strange.

Homosexuality has had a big impact on the world based on rights and beliefs. One religion that known for not “allowing” homosexuality is: the Catholic faith. According to the Catholic Church homosexuality is a sin based on acts done (Brom, 2004), priests can be homosexual (Squires, 2014), homosexuality goes against the natural law (Brom, 2004), homosexuals are allowed in the Catholic faith under special treatment (Brom, 2004), and the not all Catholics agree with the Catholic faith being against homosexuality (Lipka, 2014). The following is the information everyone should know about the Catholic views on homosexuality. All of the following has been written from the past to the current events.

even though sexuality can be considered universal, the sexual behaviors affiliated with it offer different attitudes in various communities. Sexuality is aligned to sexual attraction where individuals can identify themselves with a broad range of sexuality that is bisexual, gay or being lesbian. Sexuality can change over time in a person depending on the circumstances surrounding him or her. It may be affected by the social circle and emotional imbalances that may occur in an individual. Interestingly there exists sexual inequality among many societies in the world. As observed, many societies encourage men to have multiple sex partners but forbid it in women. Moreover, pre-marital sex is promoted in men, but women are flaunted if they participate in pre-marital sex. Across the globe, Western Europe has embraced certain norms in sexuality such as homosexuality whereas African society embraces a negative attitude towards the same.