What Is The Prehistorical Connections Affecting Kristen's Development?

Andrew Sullivan, author of, What is a Homosexual, portrays his experience growing up; trapped in his own identity. He paints a detailed portrait of the hardships caused by being homosexual. He explains the struggle of self-concealment, and how doing so is vital for social acceptation. The ability to hide one’s true feelings make it easier to be “invisible” as Sullivan puts it. “The experience of growing up profoundly different in emotional and psychological makeup inevitably alters a person’s self-perception.”(Sullivan)This statement marks one of the many reasons for this concealment. The main idea of this passage is to reflect on those hardships, and too understand true self-conscious difference. Being different can cause identity

Joyce Carol Oates’ “Life After High School” is a story of masked identity, which the one of the main characters, Zachary, experiences. Society’s views on sexuality and what was perceived as “right” or “wrong” influence how each character develops, but as the story progresses, the characters evolve and “shed” their masks. The descriptions Oates uses for each character’s persona are crucial in order to sway the reader’s perceptions on the evolution of the character. In Zachary’s case, he hides his true sexuality. This is shown through the use of diction, imagery and symbolism.

It is no secret that when Alison Bechdel was a child, homosexuality was not exactly met with open arms. Due to the unpleasant views many heterosexuals had in regards to homosexuality, Alison Bechdel was at first quite cautious when it came to being open about her newfound sexual orientation; however, she eventually opened herself up to her family, friends, and the world about who she is and did not let the political prejudices of others stop her. This is evident when Bechdel writes, “It was in that tremulous state that I determined to tell my parents. Keeping it from them had started to seem ludicrous anyway” (76). Here, Bechdel decides to come out to her parents, deciding that it was absurd not to tell them. Evidently, the prejudices of society could not keep Alison Bechdel down, and this resulted in her personality being shaped by the courage of being oneself, which is hardly an easy thing to

Identity defines the many aspects that make us who we are. It can be determined individually or by society, but in order to achieve true happiness identity must be established by one’s self. The novel Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood reveals this truth by displaying the unhappiness that results from society determining an individual’s identity. This is seen in multiple forms such as the demands placed on woman to behave in a “ladylike” way. These stereotypes contribute to the struggle placed on many women in this novel to abide to society’s expectations. Unhappiness is also caused by judgement. When characters in this novel are judged by others, it often leads them to question who they are and what they stand for. Lastly, individuals in this novel rebel because they do not like being identified by their social class. These are all examples of restrictions that affect the characters in Alias Grace, and prevent them from living a fulfilling life. A major theme explored in this novel is that unhappiness is often a result of one’s identity being determined by society.

Through out her book she continues to raise questions to make you think such as: “What does it mean to be a man?” and “What does it mean to be a woman?” In her circumstance she is a male to female transsexual who is also a lesbian, whose girlfriend actually ended up transitioning from female to male. And she raises the question, “What does all of this mean?” she also talks about those who define themselves as neither gender (Bornstein). Through her book she strives to make readers think about their life and the people around them. The overall questions she asks are: “What is Identity?” and “What is your identity?” She uses personal experience, stories, theories, political activist, television shows, and humor to back up her theories and arguments while continually raising questions about gender, orientation, desire, and why we as a society are so attached to a dualistic gender system. She does a great job of achieving her goal in teaching readers about the basics of the topic while making readers think.

Yoshino argues that because of these pressures to suppress aspects of our identity, the act of covering is “a hidden assault on our civil rights” (553), one that impedes people’s pursuit of personality authenticity. Many stories just like that of my gay friend are more than likely similar to other people’s experiences, people from numerous ethnicities, orientations or identities, and are most definitely in line with Yoshino’s perspective on the matter of covering.

In “Two Boys Kissing, ” David Levithan shares the stories of seven teenagers who are all gay, and the experiences they have while coming to terms with it. Even though three of the main characters have different stories and are at different stages their everyday experiences are influenced by gender as a process, the social construction of gender, and oppression. These three concepts shape and influence the stories shared in this book, but the main theme stands true and that is to be proud of who you are as a person and an individual no matter who that may be.

When an individual's pursuit of self-awareness is disrupted, it often becomes characterized by the creation of an opposite in other people. This theme is evident in Julia Scheeres's memoir Jesus Land. During her period of adolescent self-discovery, Julia is met with obstacles caused by fanatical authority figures in both her family and church. This struggle ultimately leads Julia to disown and even demonize her closet relation, her brother David. Although the book is a concentrated depiction of this pattern, the idea of othering is prevalent in our country as a whole. Specifically, gender othering always has and always will be an issue in America and the American Dream. Through the description of her adolescent experiences in her memoir Jesus Land, Julia Scheeres exposes

Above all, the passage deals with Cara Sykes coming out to wwher parents. Cara gathers her strength and announces that she is a lesbian to her parents. Her mom tries to make an attempt to talk her out of this by stating, “I wouldn’t worry too much. Lots of adolescents experiment with same-sex play. That doesn’t make you homosexual. But please don’t let it get in the way of a normal relationship.” Her mother doesn’t like the picture that having a lesbian daughter will paint. Cara knows that her mom thinks her sexuality will stain her mother’s name. To this Cara responds, “I’ve fought the ‘who’ of me for years. I wanted you to know the truth, but if you’re not mature enough to handle it, I don’t care. This is who I am- Straight-A, top of my class, Stanford-bound lesbian.” This is

Still today I cannot relate to anything that’s going on with my daughter, but I am accepting it”, in obvious discuss, hurt and shame. [Debating Diversity, ’02, R. Takaki] HOM quoting Lee goes on to say: “I was hoping that it was a stage she’s going through and that she could change”. Again cognitive dissonance rears its Janus Face again in the naïve thinking of Ms Lee’s believe that her daughter’s same-sexual gender travails are only superficialities that are motivated by the capricious actions that come along with youth. Life’s choices of a sexual partner are more in-depth and substantive than that.

For a long time I was not aware of the concept of sexual identity. When a boy likes a girl they develop a romantic connection, with the condition that the girl also finds the boy attractive. For a long time I considered that this was a classical receipt for romantic relationships and I could not separate romance from sexuality. The way I was raised, the religious precepts that have shaped my personality, the gender roles or the media and my relationships have contributed to who I am in terms of sexual identity.

There is a lot of different aspects to a person’s identity. The valuable information people have gathered and constructed throughout their lives to become unique individuals. The way others see people and a lot of different aspects bring out a personal identity. In this essay, I will be addressing some of the ways that Dawnette Hedge came to be herself and have particular identities. The steps and processes she has created and others have influenced, that have helped her create her identity through, relationships, empathy, emotions, and divorce.

He argues that psychologists as early as Freud have determined the importance of a person’s sexual identity in defining a person’s psychological make-up and then points out that it is impossible for a reader to divorce their sexuality from a reading of any text, that a reader brings to a text the entirety of his experiences and identity and therefore, he brings his sexual identity to the reading of a text also. I use the male pronoun at this point in this paper because the author of the article examined the homosexual male reader, which is separate from either the heterosexual identity and also separate from a lesbian identity because "the homosexual male, in spite of his ‘difference’ is still a biological man, and very importantly, he is a socially constructed man, with all that this implies for phallocentrism and patriarchy" (73). Therefore, it can be seen, a reader can neither divorce their sexual identity nor their gender identity from a reading of a text; in fact, because these factors play a major role in a reader’s psychological make-up, they also play a major role in a

Kristen seemed to lack confidence and self-awareness; however, after joining the feminist group her confidence seemed to grow as did her self-awareness. Kristen starts hanging out wit Taryn the leader of the feminist group and also a lesbian, and she finds herself becoming attracted to her. There's a directness in the way Taryn hugs Kristen, when Kristen tells her about the rape that tells you her soothing is thoroughly genuine and there's no sexual gratification to the act. Before Kristen met Taryn she felt like she could not trust anyone. Many curious young woman are

For queer theorists, identity has been constructed through performativity, which is based on the opinion of Judith Butler. Butler (1990, p.25) believed that “ there is no gender identity behind the expression of gender; that identity is performatively constituted by the very ‘expressions’ that are said to be its results.” In other words, there is not any factor to produce the identity, but identity creates itself through performativity. One should imitate and repeat the gender expression again and again according to norms, then the identity will be constituted, which also shows that identity is fluid and constructed. Moreover, Jenkins (2000,2004) stated that a dynamic social process generates identity, so identity is not static but fluid and dynamic.