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Shame originates from those who do not comprehend others. When individuals are different in any way, such as race, gender, status or even sexual orientation, those who do not understand them or their situation dive right into judgement and then result in shame. Sexual orientation shaming has history behind it which has damaged love in so many ways, the shaming continues even today. First of all, sexual orientation is what attracts or arouses one sexually and it consists of: heterosexuals, which are individuals attracted to the opposite sex, homosexuals, same sex, bisexual, attracted to both, and finally asexual, which is not attracted to any sex. The shame was present back in the early 20th century where homosexuality was a crime. It was considered a mental illness, as in something was wrong with the individual’s brain. To right this wrong, it was decided to use conversion therapy to actually convert those individuals from gay to straight. Somesh …show more content…
The film, La Mission, demonstrates examples of just that with its protagonist, Che Rivera, not accepting the circumstance that his son is gay. You see, Che Rivera is a very “macho” man with a reputation to protect, and for some reason, he anticipated his gay son would destroy that “macho” picture. Che rejected the reality and pretended differently and his son was forced to hide his true self. When he began to come out, he experienced shame from his own father and victimization from others in the neighborhood. Towards the end, Che forced his son to a choice: ‘you are either straight and leaving with me, or you will never see me again.’ His son chose to be himself and it ruined their relationship as father and son. His father was the one who built those walls and it lead him to, as Curti said “dissatisfaction and frustration.” Eventually he got over his differences and sought out his son to make up. (La
In the past decades, the struggle for gay rights in the Unites States has taken many forms. Previously, homosexuality was viewed as immoral. Many people also viewed it as pathologic because the American Psychiatric Association classified it as a psychiatric disorder. As a result, many people remained in ‘the closet’ because they were afraid of losing their jobs or being discriminated against in the society. According to David Allyn, though most gays could pass in the heterosexual world, they tended to live in fear and lies because they could not look towards their families for support. At the same time, openly gay establishments were often shut down to keep openly gay people under close scrutiny (Allyn 146). But since the 1960s, people have dedicated themselves in fighting for
... It causes identity problems, confidence issues, and keeps people from experimenting with their true selves. Sullivan properly allows the reader to look at that point of view, and too understand walking in his shoes as a child. His explanation of self-difference explains why homosexuals contain themselves in order to live a normal lifestyles away from the negative views of our world. “It is not something genetically homosexual; it is something environmentally homosexual. And it begins young.” (Sullivan)
offers a number of accounts of people in great pain, but what counts as suffering? Kushner seems to suggest that the pain closet cases undergo is often self-inflicted, the result of homophobic shame, and therefore not worth our notice or pity.
Treatments such as conversion therapy have been thoroughly debated by doctors, everyday civilians and even politicians. The question surrounding the topic asks whether or not the treatment is ethically and morally acceptable. Conversion therapy is an option of treatment catering to the LGBTQ community that claims to be able to change a person’s sexual behaviors such as orientation, preference and identity. The main controversies on the topic argue the physical and psychological side effects, treatment options and whether or not different sexual behaviors are mental illnesses that requires treatment.
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.
Conversion Therapy, also known as Reparative Therapy, is defined as a multitude of dangerous practices that claim to change a person’s sexuality or gender (hrc.org). The goal of Conversion Therapy is to try and make the patients behave stereotypically more feminine or masculine, teach heterosexual dating skills, and redirect arousal all together (dailybeast.com). However, the consequences of Conversion Therapy can lead to depression, anxiety, drug use, homelessness, suicide, or catching and transmitting Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) (hrc.org). Some of the techniques used are vomiting, inducing nausea, or paralysis while showing homoerotic images (huffingtonpost.com).
Reparative therapies, also known as conversion therapies, are a group of interventions whose aim is to alter one's sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual. Any attempts to reform or 'cure' one’s sexual orientation using these 'therapies' are likely to fail and to cause harm such as depression, anxiety, suicidality, and, in some cases, a loss of sexual feeling altogether. In cases where patients themselves expressed the desire to change their sexual orientation, the most effective and appropriate therapeutic responses that resulted in maximum mental health benefit have been provider-initiated support, acceptance, and validation of same-sex sexual orientation. These desires to change are the result of internalized social stigma, discrimination, external pressure.
The American Psychological Association states that it does not approve of the methods used in conversion therapy. A case from the early 1970’s explains where a young Kirk Murphey was reported by his parents that he was showing stereotypically feminine behaviors and interests to one Dr. Reekers who then instructed the parents to to reward kirk if he exhibited masculine behavior and to punish him both mentally and psysically for acting feminine, Reekers claiming this would prevent Kirk from becoming gay later in life. Reekers then went on to publish this as a success story when in fact Kirk indeed came out as gay later in life, and was suffering with the effects of Reekers “treatments” attempting suicide twice one of which was successful and took his life at the age of 38. The information given in the form of the APA and the story of Kirk Murphey show how dangerous the treatments used in conversion therapy should be enough to get the practice
... on the psychology of homosexual Orthodox Jewish young man and their homosexual identity is for them to completely abandon their homosexual identity. This is virtuous since he would be choosing the happiness of many while negating the happiness of just one person, himself. In the end this seems an honorable choice to favor the happiness of others to negate his own sexual appetites.
Shame is like a dark shadow that follows us around, making us second guess what we are about to do, and always something we refuse to talk about. As Brown puts it, shame “derives its power from being unspeakable.” If we recognize our shame and speak about it, it’s like shining a flashlight on it; it dies. This is why vulnerability and shame go hand in hand. We must embrace our vulnerability in order to talk about shame, and once we talk about shame and release ourselves from its bonds, we can fully feel vulnerable and use that vulnerability to find courage and dare greatly. In order to reach this level of wholeheartedness, we must “mind the gap,” as Brown says, between where we are and where we want to end up. We must be conscious of our practiced values and the space between those and our aspirational values, what Brown calls the “disengagement divide.” We have to keep our aspirations achievable, or disengagement is inevitable. Minding this gap is quite a daring strategy, and one that requires us to embrace our own vulnerability as well as cultivate shame resilience. Accomplishing our goals is not impossible if we simply cultivate the courage to dare to take action. We can’t let this culture of “never enough” get in our way, and we have to use our vulnerability and shame resilience to take that step over the
Homosexuality was once considered a mental illness which lead to attempts to “cure” it. One of the main theories of homosexuality is that it stems from deviant behavior experienced in childhood. Some men develop homosexual attractions due to a bad relationship with a distant father or in response to childhood molestation (Shapio 5). While some homosexual attractions have been caused by these issues, most homosexuals have not been exposed to molestation or family issues. One of the methods to cure homosexuality is conversion therapy. Conversion therapy consists of a variety of methods, both physical and psychological. Some of these methods include praying away the gay, electroconvulsive therapy, hypnosis, and drugs (“11 Ridiculous” 1). There are many camps which are designed for conversion therapy but many of their practices remain secret. There is little information to be found online regarding these camps because they realize that they are behaving inappropriately so they hide their acts. In the 1980s, homosexuality was determined to have a biological cause; this created two sides – supporters of conversion therapy and its detractors (Friedman 1).
When something shaming happens, and we keep it locked up, it festers and grows. It consumes us” (40). Brown believes that we should share our experiences with others, but not just anyone she believes that we should share with someone that we trust and that will not judge us because of what we did. She also considers that not everyone we communicate with is worthy of sharing our shame stories with. Shame is a part of all of our lives we have shame within us it helps us stay humble because it reminds us that we are human and make
Shame arises from many different sources. In Allies case, her shame comes from her belief that her being a homosexual is sinful. Her religion has actually made her homophobic and so she feels same for being exactly what she believes is sinful. We see this belief as a driving force for her going to Iraq, especially when she writes about the advice she got from her priest. “I must remember those words in times of temptation, Father Vicente said when he urged me to take this job. A chance to start over, he said, to leave your sinful tendencies in America and serve your country overseas. I thought maybe he’s right” (381). What is most important here is that Allie thinks Father Vicente is right. Her Catholic upbringing has told her that she must repent for her lesbianism, and she has bought wholeheartedly into that idea. We see that when Clara talks about Allie’s journal. “Allie told me she was going to Iraq to make more money so I could go to a good college. Then it tuned out it was an act of p...
In todays society being a homosexual is abnormal, people look down upon them and class them as unnatural and not quite the same. This therefore leads them into becoming alarmed and fearful of revealing their true identities and resort to covering in order to prevent further degradation. Homosexuals consequently find it necessary to down play their outsider identities in order to blend. This then leads to a wide range of effects on both the individual covering and to the society the person is trying to cover from.
In today's society, there exists a mixture of issues which tend to raise arguments with people all over. There are a handful of topics that always seem to escalate these differences between people to the point where one who earnestly participates in discussion, debate and argument can direct their anger towards their feelings on the person themselves. Some examples of such delicate subjects are the death penalty, abortion, and euthanasia. An issue that has in recent years, begun to increase arguments, is the acceptability of homosexuality in society. Until recently, homosexuality was considered strictly taboo. If an individual was homosexual, it was considered a secret to be kept from all family, friends, and society. However, it seem that society has begun to accept this lifestyle by allowing same sex couples. The idea of coming out of the 'closet' has moved to the head of homosexual individuals when it used to be the exception. Homosexuality is nothing to be ashamed of and we should all come to realize this.