In nineteenth century, a discourse on homosexuality started to occur; meanwhile, boundaries between black and white became more and more clear. (16) It was the era when the issues that were considered as minority started to appear, and it was also the time when people were reinforcing their ideal “social norms” into the society. It was a dark age for LGBT people, African American people and female. In the article, Scientific Racism and the Homosexual Body, the author, Siobhan Sommerville, makes a strong connection between scientific racism and sexology and women’s bodies. “Although some historians of the scientific discourse on sexuality have included brief acknowledgement of nineteenth century discourses of racial difference in their work, …show more content…
When talking about female homosociality, sisters and friends are the first impressions that come to my mind. Female homosociality compares to male homosociality, seems to have a closer and more intimate relationship. Also, male, white and heterosexual tend to be superior to female, black and homosexual. If people on the higher class, which is male, white, and heterosexual, have a tendency to switch to the lower class, such as a biological male identifies himself as a female, or a white guy consider himself as a gay, those people’s behaviors will be more unaccepted by the mass, cause they are not treasuring their original high status. On the other hand, people in the lower class tend to have connections with the lower class itself, it seems to be more accepted. For instance, if two guys are holding hands on the street, people will directly relate them as gay and may be more unfriendly to them; however, if same thing happen to girls, people will just view them as good friends. That is why studies on sexology in the nineteenth century mainly focus on female. As Ellis asserts “We are accustomed to a such greater familiarity and intimacy between women than between men, and we are less apt to suspect the existence of any abnormal passion.” (28) By observing female homosexual people, we can get the data that we used to ignore …show more content…
“One of the most consistent medical characterizations of the anatomy of both African women and lesbians was the myth of an unusually large clitoris.” (27) Another medical journals in 1921 also stated that “Female homosexuality will in practically every instance disclose an abnormally prominent clitoris, and so in colored women.” (27) Even though these data may sometimes be exaggerated because researchers wanted to emphasize on the difference, it still showed that women’s bodies had a strong connection with race and sexuality
In the essay, Late Victorians written by Richard Rodriguez discusses an extremely controversial topic about homosexuality in San Francisco, California during the nineteenth century. Rodriguez begins his essay with a captivating perspective about human unhappiness as he writes, “Human unhappiness is evidence of our immortality,” (Rodriguez 121). This gripping statement conveys the meaning that happiness or forever happiness is an illusion, therefore it cannot exist in the individual's life. The main idea of the essay Late Victorians draws out numerous opinions because of the historical impact of this specific era. For example, the limitations of sexuality or thoughts about sexuality for women, and homosexuals. The reoccurring theme appears to be stereotypes of
Language is a powerful tool. The artful manipulation of language has sparked countless revolutions and has continuously fueled social progression over the course of human history. In Carmen Vàzquez’s “Appearances,” Vàzquez argues that homophobia is a serious concern in society. She rallies for all people, regardless of sexual orientation, to challenge society’s unyielding gender roles and homophobia. Through the art of persuasion, Carmen Vàzquez blended careful diction, emotional stories, and persuasive structure to aggressively address the problem of homophobia both coherently and effectively.
In Deborah E. McDowell’s essay Black Female Sexuality in Passing she writes about the sexual repression of women seen in Nella Larsen‘s writings during the Harlem Renaissance, where black women had difficulty expressing their sexuality. In her essay, she writes about topics affecting the sexuality of women such as, religion, marriage, and male dominated societies. In Toni Morrison’s short story, “Recitatif” there are examples of women who struggle to express their sexuality. The people in society judge women based off their appearance, and society holds back women from expressing themselves due to society wanting them to dress/act a certain way.
Jordanova, Ludmilla. Sexual Visions: Images of Gender in Science and Medicine between the 18th and 20th Centuries. London: Harrester Wheatsheaf, 1989.
The lives of men and women, women more than men, have changed a lot of the past couple years even decades and more than that. The interconnection of race and gender in the evolving social hierarchy of the early South, Colonial North Carolina, has changed. In Colonial North Carolina the main difference was on how the ways of “ordinary people” interacted with different genders and how race was different between the people of North Carolina. Peoples’ beliefs were the main thing that changed these views, but sometimes it reflected on political beliefs also. Between men and women sex was seen differently. Men and women’s views on sex were far from similar and this has affected their views on race and their views on each other. Views on sex has been
She sheds a light of how early Black feminist scholars such as Collins have been criticized for relying too heavily on colonial ideology around the black female body. Subjectively neglecting the contemporary lived experience of Black women. Critiques such as these highlights the Black female agency in the representation of the body. viewing this as a human and sexual rights or health perspective has been lending to the contemporary Black feminist debates about the representation of Black female bodies and Black eroticism within the culture of
Homosexuality is a sensitive topic and often avoided in conversation. For centuries the human race has oppressed and persecuted others strictly because they are gay, lesbian, bisexual etc. Although it is disturbing to most of us, these actions still occur in our society today, as many believe that homosexuality is abnormal and disgraceful. One supporter of this belief is Michael Levin, who strongly believes that homosexuality is highly abnormal and thus, undesirable. Although his beliefs and theories supporting this claim are subjective, there is evidence that can support his stance on this topic; we will analyze this claim in further detail and how it relates to his other views mentioned in this essay.
The reading Heterosexualism and the Colonial/Modern Gender System by María Lugones stated the idea of heterosexuality is a modern invention which dated back to the late nineteenth century. Therefore racism and heterosexual could not exist without each other even though their views are different towards race, gender, and sexuality. In the meantime, the author adjusted to the point of views brought into mention by Anibal Quijano who created the coloniality of power. Coloniality of power being the “basic and universal social classification of the population of the idea of race [and gender]”. For which the authors realize the concepts of gender and race are similar in some ways. “Understanding these features of the organization of gender in the
She told me that even though gay/lesbian are not widely acceptable and exposed back then, but they are now. Society used to reject heterosexual and some people, including Mrs. Jackson, did not know about them until later. In contrast, gay/lesbian today play important roles in the (black) church. Mrs. Jackson describes how homosexual currently takes leadership positions in churches. I found it interesting that people are more open to homosexuality in black churches than in white churches. Lastly, I asked her to differentiate sex and gender. Mrs. Jackson believes that sex is only the biological appearance (genitals) of a person but gender is the identity that the individual would consider themselves to be. She thinks that society has changed so much these past 40 years; their views on sexuality, gender role, and
Martha Nussbaum’s novel, From Disgust to Humanity, demonstrates a change in time where our society is moving forward from politics of disgust to politics of humanity. According to Nussbaum, the politics of disgust is a viewpoint that connects homosexual activities with things that are normally categorized as disgusting, such as saliva, feces, semen, and blood. These practices performed by homosexuals tend to invoke the emotion of disgust; thus, the term politics of disgust. The politics of humanity is quite the contrary. An individual’s freedom, liberty, and decisions are looked upon with utmost respect regardless of others’ personal attitudes, as long as they don’t inflict harm on the bystanders. In Nussbaum’s From Disgust to Humanity, disgust stands as the reason for discrimination against homosexuals. Using several descriptive examples that relate to privacy, sodomy laws, discrimination, marriage, and public sex, she is able to bring out disgust’s two main challengers: respect and the use of imagination to sympathize to argue that disgust should not be held as a criteria to create discrimination laws against homosexuals.
As Tamsin Wilton explains in her piece, “Which One’s the Man? The Heterosexualisation of Lesbian Sex,” society has fronted that heterosexuality, or desire for the opposite sex, is the norm. However, the reason behind why this is the case is left out. Rather, Wilton claims that “heterosexual desire is [an] eroticised power difference [because] heterosexual desire originates in the power relationship between men and women” (161). This social struggle for power forces the majority of individuals into male-female based relationships because most women are unable to overcome the oppressive cycle society has led them into. Whereas heterosexual relationships are made up of the male (the oppressor) and the female (the victim who is unable to fight against the oppressor), homosexual relationships involve two or more individuals that have been freed from their oppressor-oppressed roles.
Thesis: In a society ruled by hypersexulaity, asexuals are often depicted as freaks with a mental or physical disabilities, however
Stein, Edward. The Mismeasure of Desire: The Science, Theory, and Ethics of Sexual Orientation. New York, NY: Oxford UP, 1999. Print. 20 Oct. 2011
The article that I have chosen to analyze is entitled “Challenging the Biological: The Fantasy of Male Birth as a Nineteenth Century Narrative of Ethical Failure”. The author of this article is Galia Benziman. Benziman states her main thesis as “I will discuss four nineteenth century works that examine such possibilities, emerging in an era that offers a particularly rich treatment of the theme. With the rise of the belief in, and anxiety about, the supremacy of science, we witness in nineteenth-century fictional works a recurrent staging of the male subject’s attempt to harness technology for the purpose of overcoming the biological limitation of his sex and procreating a new being.” This is a rather extensive thesis but really works well
... decades ago. This book is one that will allow the reader to view many aspects of sexuality from a social standpoint, and apply it to certain social attitudes in our society today, these attitudes can range from the acceptance of lesbian and gays, and the common sight of sex before marriage and women equality. The new era of sexuality has taken a definite "transformation" as Giddens puts it, and as a society we are living in the world of change in which we must adapt, by accepting our society as a changing society, and not be naive and think all the rules of sexuality from our parents time our still in existence now.