Rubyfruit Jungle illustrated many ways in which gender and sexuality played a role in the everyday life of all the characters throughout the novel. The late 60s were the first years to bring extreme cultural change in the views of the LGBT community, meaning Molly grew up in a time where societal acceptance of lesbians was rare. To overcome this, many LGBT individuals spent time at bars and clubs where they could meet other LGBT people, which this novel clearly addressed. Rita Mae Brown also addresses the gender binaries present in the 50s and 60s culture in the various places she lived. Similarly, Molly seems to invalidate those lesbians who choose to wear more masculine dress, further contributing to the systemic view of lesbians at that …show more content…
After rejecting a butch woman’s advances, Molly questioned, “What’s the point of being a lesbian if a woman is going to look and act like an imitation of a man?” Her apparent disdain for butch lesbians seems to originate in her perception that butch lesbians uphold the gender binary she puts so much effort into resisting. Literature, however, argues that butch-fem relationships are much more than a personal preference (Davis). She argues that these relationships are a “powerful social source.” The visual representation given by women in these relationships establishes and announces to the public that they are in fact in a relationship, whereas fem-fem couples might get mistaken for close friends. This visibility is important to many members of the LGBT community, so Molly’s direct opposition to this defined role comes off as insensitive and exclusive of the diverse array of gender expression. Behaviors like this, acted out by individuals who are not part of the LGBT community, come off as homophobic and exclusive. Therefore, Molly’s personal views negatively contributed to the way society viewed lesbians and added to the unacceptance and backlash Molly experienced as a
In certain countries such as the U.S, people discriminate against others to a certain extent based off their gender, race, and sexuality. Butler states that “to be a body is to be given over to others even as a body is “one own,” which we must claim right of autonomy” (242). Gays and Lesbians have to be exposed to the world because some of them try to hide their identity of who they truly are because they are afraid of how others are going to look at them. There are some who just let their sexuality out in the open because they feel comfortable with whom they are as human beings and they don’t feel any different than the next person. The gender or sexuality of a human being doesn’t matter because our bodies’ will never be autonomous because it is affected by others around us. This is where humans are vulnerability to violence and aggression. In countries across the globe, violence and attack are drawn towards tran...
In Vicki L. Eaklor’s Queer America, the experiences of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender people in the years since the 1970s gay liberation movement are described as a time of transformation and growth. The antigay movement, threatened, now more than ever, created numerous challenges and obstacles that are still prevalent today. Many of the important changes made associated with the movement were introduced through queer and queer allied individuals and groups involved in politics. Small victories such as the revision of the anti discrimination statement to include “sexual orientation”, new propositions regarding the Equal Rights Amendment and legalized abortion, were met in turn with growing animosity and resistance from individuals and groups opposed to liberal and
Rita Mae Brown's first novel, Rubyfruit Jungle made waves when it was first released in 1973. Its influence has not gone away over the years and is in its seventh printing. While mainstream critics failed to acknowledge Rubyfruit Jungle in their papers, magazines and discussions on contemporary literature, there are plenty of non-mainstream voices to fill the void. While these lesser-known sources are not always credible, and certainly not always accurate they have created a word-of-mouth reputation of the novel and have facilitated its continuous success.
Kidd expands on society’s sexual perspectives in mass media and illuminates the stress pushed towards the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender population. He outlines sexuality as one of many influences on the ways we interpret the culture we consume. He supposes that popular culture has five major social roles: generating basic social norms, producing social boundaries, producing rituals that generate social solidarity, generating modernization, and generating social progress. He pays particular attention to Emilie Durkeim and connects his sociological
“Boys will be boys, and girls will be girls”: few of our cultural mythologies seem as natural as this one. But in this exploration of the gender signals that traditionally tell what a “boy” or “girl” is supposed to look and act like, Aaron Devor shows how these signals are not “natural” at all but instead are cultural constructs. While the classic cues of masculinity—aggressive posture, self-confidence, a tough appearance—and the traditional signs of femininity—gentleness, passivity, strong nurturing instincts—are often considered “normal,” Devor explains that they are by no means biological or psychological necessities. Indeed, he suggests, they can be richly mixed and varied, or to paraphrase the old Kinks song “Lola,” “Boys can be girls and girls can be boys.” Devor is dean of social sciences at the University of Victoria and author of Gender Blending: Confronting the Limits of Duality (1989), from which this selection is excerpted, and FTM: Female-to-Male Transsexuals in Society (1997).
According to Gwendolyn Smith (2010), lesbians, gays, transgender, transsexual, cross-dressers, sissies, drags king and queens, have someone they view as freak. Smith considers this to be a human phenomenon, especially among marginalized groups. Smith expresses that those that consider themselves as gender normative finds comfort in identifying the “real” freaks, in order for them to seem closer to normal. Smith attempts to tear down the wall of gender normality as it is socially constructed as simply male and female. According to Smith (2010), “we are all someone’s freak” (p. 29). Smith asserts that there may be some type of fear in facing the self’s gender truth, “maybe I was afraid I would see things in my own being I was not ready to face, or was afraid of challenging my own assumptions” (p. 29).
Gender roles in a small, rural community are specific as to what a woman “is” and what a man “is”, and these norms are strictly enforced by the rural society. Cooper says that in childhood, “Rejection of the traditional feminity appeared in three ways:1) taking the role of the male, 2) being a tomboy, and 3) avoiding feminine dress and play” (Cooper, pg. 168). This rejection of the traditional roles as a child creates a stigma, or label, attached by society to these individuals. The punishment from society is greater than the punishment of an unfulfilled self. The lessened ability to obtain health insurance, health information on the partner, and other benefits also plays a key role in coming out. The rural lesbian society is so small a...
Unlike gays, lesbians faced little prosecution, and understanding why requires an examination of the threat lesbians were felt to pose. In Nazi ideology, men and women had natural gender roles they were to occupy, and they extended to sexual relations, where men were to play the active role and women the passive one. Simultaneously, manliness and toughness were held up as Nazi ideals, while weakness was despised. Within these parameters, women who took on active ‘male’ roles in sexual relations were less threatening than men who took on passive ‘female’ ones. While still deviant, lesbians at least exhibited the ideals of action and power, unlike homosexual men, who undermined all the qualities the Nazis
Marilyn Farwell discusses what makes a lesbian narrative in her book Heterosexual Plots and Lesbian Narratives. Does the text have a political purpose? Can we identify the lesbianism of the authors and characters? What do these writers and characters say about lesbianism and more particularly their own lesbianism?” (Farwell 11).
A theory that has taken the world of promiscuous thinkers by storm is one that is loosely called the “Drag Theory” (dubbed by Judith Butler). This basically states that a person performs their gender rather than simply is their gender. Raphaël Lellouche clarifies how this is done in his blog, “’Gender Trouble’ by Judith Butler and the question of ‘performing gender’ decoded by Raphaël Lellouche”. Judith’s writing generally emphasizes on having a more open mindset about sexuality and how this concept is grasped; but this paper is going to pinpoint how social media influences the way a person changes their so called “drag” due to the content on another’s account.
Gender is a socially constructed phenomenon, and how acceptable one’s relationship is determined by society’s view of gender roles. Because the majority of the population is characterized as heterosexual, those who deviate from that path are ...
Introduction The topic explored in this paper is the issue of race in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. While movement forward for LGBT rights in the past ten years has been monumental, there is still much work to be done. Racism still runs through the LGBT movement, though often in the form of microaggressions and other covert forms of discrimination. Often times, people tend to believe that all LGBT folks share the same experiences, when in reality, LGBT people of color face harsher discrimination than their White counterparts, even within their own community.
While sexual difference may not exist between lesbians all other forms of difference do. These include differences of identity: race, class origins, employment status, age, religion, physical abilities - and while we may struggle against these differences within our individual ‘spaces’ they have a material and institutional reality that cannot be wished away
Homophobia: This Generation’s War Cultural views today split between a fine line of what is considered normal and abnormal. People tend to take drastic standpoints on controversial issues backed by their own beliefs and in turn, cause social controversy. Among society’s controversial topics however, it may be argued that any LGBT+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, and other) related topics have become a primary target for mainstream society to attack, ridicule, and tear apart.
When one hears the words “LGBT” and “Homosexuality” it often conjures up a mental picture of people fighting for their rights, which were unjustly taken away or even the social emergence of gay culture in the world in the1980s and the discovery of AIDS. However, many people do not know that the history of LGBT people stretches as far back in humanity’s history, and continues in this day and age. Nevertheless, the LGBT community today faces much discrimination and adversity. Many think the problem lies within society itself, and often enough that may be the case. Society holds preconceptions and prejudice of the LGBT community, though not always due to actual hatred of the LGBT community, but rather through lack of knowledge and poor media portrayal.