Third Sex: Third Generation

Households were strictly patriarchal in which the man of the house made all the important decisions. Women's jobs at the time were mostly relegated to domestic service and occasional work at harvest time. The jobs were always of low pay, low status, and required little training. In addition to this females were not legally permitted to inherit land or property. This was the bleak life of a woman, with little hope or power, and always the subordinate of men.

The events that marked the last decades of the nineteenth century led to important historical changes that resulted in a wide crisis of masculinity. Economic growth and advances in technology attracted immigrants to America and soon less-skilled workers outnumbered the highly skilled ones. Men's self-making abilities were challenged by two factors: the increased competition, and the growing women's influence in the public arena. In order to fight these pressures and elevate their sense of manhood, the native-born men turned to "social Darwinist arguments that relegated blacks, immigrants and women to rungs of the evolutionary ladder below white Anglo-Saxon men" (qtd. in Furumota). Men's anxieties further increased with the public emergence of homosexuality in society. For the Middle class men, heterosexuality became a symbol of manhood, "and heterosexual men began to define themselves in opposition to anything considered feminine" (qtd. in Furumota).

Throughout most of documented history women of all cultures and civilizations have lived under patriarchal circumstances. In almost every religion and civilization women's status was not equal to that of a man's. Women in most cultures are looked at as subservient, obedient creatures that were put on this world for very few reasons, mainly to bear children and do what their husbands require of them. In fact, religions are a big part of the reason of this oppression due to the religion's reinforcement and justification of patriarchal conditions. In this week's selected readings from different aspects of Islamic, Byzantine Christian, and Western Christian cultures, it is very apparent as to how these three religions did reinforce and

Professor of religious studies Karen Armstrong finds in the early Christian Church examples of hostility toward women and fear of their sexual power, which she contends led to the eventual exclusion of women from full participation in a male-dominated church.

Masculinity has changed and evolved since the beginning of human creation. Males have had to adhere to the social norms of their time to survive without undue persecution. In the beginning of the 19th century, there was a shift in the way men could attain manhood. It was no longer easy for a man to enter into manhood with straightforward expectations and rituals. The state of manhood became difficult to obtain because of its precarious nature. During the same period, the industrial revolution was in full bloom giving birth to mass information outlets like newspapers, magazines, and advertisement: media. This set a prevailing state where boys and men alike could gain material on how to become or be men

Two forces which gathered strength in the last half of the twentieth century now dominate the world religions at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The first is the globalization of religions and their resulting encounter with each other, and the second is the need to redefine attitudes toward gender as women have stepped forward to insist that their full humanity be acknowledged in the religious as well as the social realm.

During that era, the entirety of sexual intercourse (irrespective to the practice of married couples with intentions to procreate) was deemed immoral. This was because any practice of sexual activity was

All across the world, since the dawn of time, men have taken a dominate role in society in their everyday lives. This role

Historically, men have held every position of power and status in known societies, civilized or otherwise. Men have been the fore-runners, the providers and the respected warriors of every age since the dawn of recorded time. These cultures did not confuse their identities or cultural roles in regards to gender; men were expected to win fame and fortune for themselves and their families, tribes or clans while women were expected to support their men in domesticity and child-rearing. Men knew what was expected of them since birth as they were often surrounded by masculine role-models in their own societies. However, modern masculinity has become something else entirely. Too much has been written about these time periods to rehash any of the

Vern L. Bullough's article, "On Being a Male in the Middle Ages," addresses how vital it was for a man living in the middle ages to be sexually active in order to maintain a masculine identity by explaining:

The Middle Ages were a time of expanding and experimenting sexually for the people. Religious figures who had taken vows of celibacy had children, sometimes with more than one woman. Even some popes of the time had illicit affairs. However,

From prehistory to 1450 CE, in many different and complex civilizations, religion has influenced the gender roles of many societies. From prehistory to 600 BCE, in Mesopotamia, women could own property, maintain their dowry, and even trade. However, from 600 BCE to 600 CE, in Rome, women were completely under the control of their paterfamilias. Than, from 600 to 1450 CE, in the Byzantine Empire, women were constrained to their homes, and when they went out, they had to wear veils over their faces. Religion influenced the gender roles of many societies and civilizations from prehistory to 1450 CE.

Homosexual conduct between a teacher and a student was considered a valuable part of the education process. Since the children were taken care of mostly by the government, it was important to establish a lasting relationship with someone that would teach you how to become a young man. The military supported homosexuality, as they thought that one would fight harder to protect his unit if he had a lover or multiple lovers in the same unit. It was also believed to bring about a sense of comradeship. "Similarly, the Greek attitude toward sex was, for the most part, value-neutral... And though exclusive homosexuality was probably discouraged as a threat to the family, it was widely tolerated both for older men who had children and for younger men prior to marriage."-(Blumenfeld and Raymond 1988. 155) Yet, as time went on, people who performed homosexual acts were considered polluted and to have become like women, and were therefore expelled from the military. The Greeks had double standards. Even though they recognized passion and attraction towards the same sex, those who were not attracted to women were not tolerated. Therefore, if a man was homosexual, he had to already have a wife and children. These double standards came from the fact that the society had to reproduce in order to survive. Homosexuality was only tolerated if both of the men have already established a family and met their obligations to reproduce. Social status was also

For years, many scholars have provided many discussions over the topic of gender and sexuality. However, one needs to ask themselves: Are these two topics, gender and sexuality, useful as a category for historical analysis? The articles written by both Joan W. Scott and Afsaneh Najmabadi, answer such a question. By critically examining and assessing their two article, can the usefulness of gender and sexuality as a category for historical analysis be proven.

Unlike twenty-first century America, ancient Greece viewed human sexuality depending on the person’s control on their sexual impulses. Bisexuality was very accepted and the most widespread same – sex relation was between an adult man and a pubescent boy. This relationship was usually just for sexual pleasure, than an actual emotional committed relationship. Like mentioned before ancient Greeks did not believe in sexual orientation rather, it depended whether the person was the penetrator or the penetrated. As a dominant male centered society, men imposed their