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Why the media has an influence over sexuality
Personal essay on homophobia
Why the media has an influence over sexuality
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You know, I didn't just heed what I was taught, men and women should be together, it's the natural way, that kind of thing. I'm not with you because of what family, society, life tried to instill in me from day one. The way the world is, how seldom it is that you meet that one person who just gets you - it's so rare. My parents didn't really have it. There were no examples set for me in the world of male-female relationships. And to cut oneself off from finding that person, to immediately halve your options by eliminating the possibility of finding that one person within your own gender, that just seemed stupid to me.
Alyssa Jones, the heroine of Chasing Amy, calmly explains this in order to reaffirm her love for her boyfriend, Holden. In this quote, Alyssa exudes that she has always felt that individuals mustn’t falter to societal heteronormativity. In society, there is an accepted standard, and that standard is heterosexuality; anything that falls outside of that social norm is seen as wrong. Alyssa was adamant about not allowing herself to fall under the ideal that a male partner was the only acceptable end goal in life. The particular agenda that Alyssa set for herself, along with other characters dealing with promiscuity, homosexuality, and homophobia are the reason that I have chosen to analyze Kevin Smith’s film, Chasing Amy. In this essay, I aim to establish that Chasing Amy serves as a positive stride for gays and lesbians within a heteronormative culture.
Chasing Amy centers around two freelance comic book writers/best friends, Holden and Banky. A homosexual acquaintance, Hooper, introduces Holden to a fellow comic book writer, Alyssa. Holden immediately falls for Alyssa and strikes up a close relationship with ...
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...iewers from making the same sort of mistakes. Chasing Amy serves as a milestone for all those who choose to work against what they are taught as being socially acceptable and opens the door to social change.
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Gay male, lesbian, and transsexual networks/communities, and cultural practices often had their own differences that coincided with meshing similarities. From the late 1940s to the 1960s, these identities were shaped through experiences of “the closet” and living a “double life,” among other factors. Alan Berubé explores the war’s impact on homosexual identity, speaking for both gay males and lesbians in “Marching to a Different Drummer: Lesbian and Gay GIs in World War II.” In “We Walk Alone,” Ann Aldrich helps identify the varying types of lesbians, addressing their intimate relationships with each other that are becoming more visible. Harry Benjamin touches more on the medical and scientific side of transsexualism and the obvious fact that
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Discrimination has always been prominent in mainstream society. Judgments are quickly formed based on one’s race, class, or gender. The idea that an individual’s self-worth is measured by their ethnicity or sexual preference has impacted the lives of many Americans. During the early colonial period, a social hierarchy was established with white landowners at the top and African-American slaves at the bottom. As equality movements have transpired, victims of discrimination have varied. In the late 1980’s when Paris is Burning was filmed, gay rights were still controversial in society. The lack of acceptance in conventional society created hardships in the lives of transgender women and gay men.
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...present powerful characters, while females represent unimportant characters. Unaware of the influence of society’s perception of the importance of sexes, literature and culture go unchanged. Although fairytales such as Sleeping Beauty produce charming entertainment for children, their remains a didactic message that lays hidden beneath the surface; teaching future generations to be submissive to the inequalities of their gender. Feminist critic the works of former literature, highlighting sexual discriminations, and broadcasting their own versions of former works, that paints a composite image of women’s oppression (Feminist Theory and Criticism). Women of the twenty-first century serge forward investigating, and highlighting the inequalities of their race in effort to organize a better social life for women of the future (Feminist Theory and Criticism).
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“…sex attains meaning in social relations, which implies that we can only make appropriate choices around sexuality by understanding its social, cultueral and political context.” (Quote: 9293 jeffrey weeks)
The 1990s saw surge of gay characters in both television and movies. From Ellen Degeneres and her character Ellen Morgan coming out under much scrutiny on the TV show ‘Ellen,’ to Julia Roberts and Rupert Everett comedically playing off each other in the motion picture ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding.’ Sure, gays and lesbians have been around forever, especially in Hollywood. But never has there been a time to be more out. With the popularity of shows like Will and Grace, which feature leading gay characters, as well as Dawson’s Creek and it’s supporting character of teenager Jack McPhee, we are slowly seeing gay and lesbian characters creeping into the mainstream media.
When Amy turned nine years old, her father left the family. This drove Amy to pursue in music, but also hurt her mentally. She attempted suicide att 10. She began to cut her wrists to relieve herself from her troubles. She then took the advice of her grandmother to go to theatre school for a start in her career. Amy begin to train at Susi Earnshaw Theatre school. While attending, she started to write and record music with a neighborhood friend, Juliette Ashby. They created a short-lived music group called “Sweet & Sour”. Music was a way to keep her from thinking about her father, but Amy couldn’t handle the pressure. She began to smoke marijuana and started to get tattoos and care little about what she did anymore. Amy attended Susi for four years, then decided to seek full-time training at Sylvia Young Theatre school. Months later she got to appear in an episode of “The Fast Show” a 1997 tv series. Her disrespe...
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Adam Sharpiro, Megan Schultz, Christina Roush, Cassandra Schofar, Emily Shilling, Tawnia Simpson, Natalie Sampiller. Portrayal of Homosexuality in Media. 26 March 2014 .