Analysis: The Invention Of Homosexuality

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Short Essay

The article “The Invention of Homosexuality and Heterosexuality” addresses how homosexuality was invented and how society accepted this new form of sexual orientation. Homosexuality is more socially acceptable in modern times. However, dating back to the nineteen century homosexually was classified as a disease that had to be cured. In the nineteen century, homosexuals diverted from the “norm” thus, they were seen a disability. Mann and Susan Archer state that “Foucault argued that the invention of the reviled "homosexual" is one of the most significant and enduring legacies of this period in sexual history as well as a classic example of the way in which assorted sexual acts were re-conceptualized in the late nineteenth century from fleeting practices to symptoms of permanent disorder and sexual personage.” This article adopts concepts of normalcy, and race in relation to heterosexuality.
“The Invention of Homosexuality and Heterosexuality” explains that …show more content…

The authors of the article “The Invention of Homosexuality and heterosexuality” defined this disease as, “Inverts, according to Victorian sexologists, expressed homosexual desire because they suffered from gender dysphoria, or the sensation of being a man trapped in a woman 's body or a woman trapped in a man 's body.” Since the ideology of the time viewed homosexuality as a disorder, physicians invented ways to cure “inverts” and make them socially acceptable as normal. For example, they used the eugenics concept to justify the elimination of homosexuals.

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