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I chose to write about this specific question because I clearly remember recognizing my sexual orientation before accepting my sexual identity. As early as the second grade, I remember acquiring an “interest” in females that was not exhibited by my male peers. This interest was definitely not sexual in nature or anything I would deem developmentally inappropriate, but I remember suddenly developing this attraction toward females that I did not necessarily understand at this age. Since my peers did not seem to overtly share this interest, I chose to keep these feelings to myself, however. I remember wondering if something might be wrong with me actually. I knew it was okay for adults to feel attracted to others and have romantic partners, but …show more content…
Do these individuals ever accept that what their feeling is “okay” by receiving any form of validation from their peers like I eventually did? I would suspect that they do not, and especially not in the way that I did at least. I would expect that they have a lot more challenges with accepting and recognizing both their sexual orientation and sexual identity. I know that I temporarily had minor struggles with these issues, but I literally cannot fathom how challenging it would be to confront these issues if I were to have experienced feelings that deviated from my male peers. From my early experiences in early elementary school, it seemed like young girls and boys valued uniformity in peer groups. I guess this never really changes too much as individuals progress through their high school years, but different cliques emerge as individuals progress through their schooling. I think these cliques may allow for individuals to express their feelings in a much less critical environment. Therefore, individuals are more apt to express themselves alongside the emergence of these cliques, which could possibly offer an environment for non-heterosexuals to receive more positive sanctions for anything that may represent deviations from the majority. Nonetheless, I would imagine that it would be extremely challenging for …show more content…
I am glad that this question forced me to do so because I feel like these considerations have made me more sensitive to the challenges and opposition that could be faced by individuals that do not develop feelings for the opposite sex like I did. I will probably never know the extent of the challenges faced by these individuals or even begin to fully understand how challenging these paths truly are. I know realize that it would take an extremely brave and courageous individual to express any deviations from the majority during the years in grade school. I feel like writing this response has increased my sensitivity for these individuals and hope to use this to better help others confront their struggles with expressing, accepting, and experiencing sexual orientations that are not
“...an individual with [pedophilia] has the same ingrained attraction that a heterosexual female may feel towards a male, or a homosexual feels towards their same gender.” (Johnston, Pg. 1). Pedophilia - “the fantasy or act of sexual activity with children who are generally age 13 years or younger” (American Psychiatric Association, p.1) - a word that holds multiple negative connotations, is often seen as aberrant thought process or behavior, and is under debate as to whether or not it’s a sexual orientation. But can it be considered a sexual orientation? As a member of the LGBT community, this issue has surfaced among us and shocked the majority.
...younger children. My aspirations are to be an elementary or middle school special education teacher and then a school psychologist, so I know how important it is for me to not compromise who I am or what I do to fit with the male gaze, so that I can set an example for the students I work with. Additionally, as a school psychologist, it seems likely that I will be counseling students who are struggling for an identity, or perhaps those who realize they don’t fit the body that they were born in, or even those who discover that they don’t identify with either of the binary genders. These students will need to understand that they exist for reasons far beyond reassuring the identity of someone else. This is a problem that needs to be addressed, and as teachers, we can do so by teaching our students to be comfortable with who they are, no matter who they choose to be.
For years homosexuality in the United States of America has been looked down upon by citizens, religions, and even politicians. The homosexual culture, or the LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender), has been demoralized and stuck out and lashed against by the Heterosexual community time and time again. To better understand the LGBT community we must first grasp the concept of Sexual Orientation.
Gays in today’s society face many problems not only with the Media’s eyes, but also on college campuses. Young adults who self-identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual experience major stresses in managing their sexual orientation.
Sexual identity wasn?t something I had any sense about until the past few years. I was a ?late bloomer? some might say, but somehow it worked, just awkwardly timed. My first visit to a gay bar came at a very untimely period about a year and a half into my marriage with my ex-wife. There was so much of the world I didn?t know about. I was walking blindly, but seeking eagerly. My first marriage happened from ages twenty-one and lasted until I was twenty-five. I really gave it an honest try, but it just didn?t work. It became apparent to me rather quickly that the situation of my marriage was more than a bit obtuse, but once...
Coming out is never easy for anyone and when paired with being married and having kids and learning how to survive according to male construct in a heterosexually dominant society, it becomes even more difficult to define one’s sexuality.
The term sexual orientation is known as the preference of one’s sexual partners, whether the same sex, opposite sex, or both sexes. Sexual orientation occurs when a child reaches the adolescent stages in life (Broderick & Blewitt, 2015). Adolescents activate their sexual orientation within four steps that create their identity. Adolescents are unaware of their identity at the beginning stages of sexual orientation. They work their way into the exploration stage by learning their preference of sexual partners. Once they are aware of their sexual identity, they will start the process of acceptance. Once acceptance is achieved, they will begin to integrate their sexual orientation into their lives (Gallor & Fassinger, 2010).
What controls a human's sexual orientation? The long-standing debate of nature versus nurture can be extended to explaining human sexual orientation. Is it biological or environmental? The biological explanation has been gaining popularity amongst the scientific community although it is only based on speculations. It is argued that sexual orientation is linked to factors that occur during sexual differentiation. The prenatal exposure to androgens and their affect on the development of the human brain play a pivotal role in sexual orientation (2). Heredity is also part of the debate. Does biology merely provide the slate of neural circuitry upon which sexual orientation is inscribed? Do biological factors directly wire the brain so that it will support a particular orientation? Or do biological factors influence sexual orientation only indirectly?
The debate over homosexuality as nature or nurture dominates most topics about homosexuality. People often confuse the nature/nurture issue with the development of gay identity. In fact, the nature/nurture argument plays a small, insignificant role concerning gay youths (Walling 11). Homosexual identity is the view of the self as homosexual in association with romantic and sexual situations (Troiden 46) Many researchers have either discussed or created several models or theories concerning the development of homosexual identity. However, the most prominent is Troiden’s sociological four-stage model of homosexual identity formation. Dr. Richard R. Troiden desc...
There are several theorists that have presented models on sexual identity development. Many of the models have stages of sexual identity development suggesting that certain characteristics are present during a specific period. However, Anthony D’Augelli presents a model that suggests processes rather than stages. These processes take place over the span of one’s life and not necessarily in any specific order or fashion. D’Augelli’s (1994a) life span model of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) identity development takes into account “the complex factors that influence the development of people in context over historical time” (Evans et al, 2010). According to D’Augelli’s (1994) theory, identity formation includes three sets of interrelated variables that are involved in identity formation: personal actions and subjectivities, interactive intimacies, and sociohistorical connections. Personal subjectivities and actions include individuals’ perceptions and feelings about their sexual identities as well as actual sexual behaviors and the meanings attached to them. Interactive intimacies include the influences of family, peer group, and intimate partnerships and the meanings attached to experiences with significant others. Sociohistorical connections are defined as the social norms, policies and laws found in various geographical locations and cultures, as well as the values existing during particular historical periods (Evans et al, 2010).
But during this period of adolescence, I never really thought about what I was. All the things that took place in the emotional-sexual realm were, admittedly, real and concrete to me: I experienced real feelings for other boys (love, infatuation, sexual attraction). But at the same time, on an "intellectual" level, I never confronted these feelings, and so I continued having them without worrying about them or trying to transform them in any way. They just were, and that was fine with me. While some opponents of homosexuality often claim that it is "unnatural" (a claim which is thoroughly refuted in the essay "Homosexuality and the 'Unnaturalness Argument'"), for me, my homosexual feelings were very natural indeed.
Gender has been around throughout history; however, within recent years, gender has separated itself from the traditional view of sex, e.i., male or female, and has become centered on ones masculinity or femininity. Of course gender is more than just ones masculinity or femininity, gender has become a way for one to describe, he or she, in a way in which they are different from everyone else. Gender has turned into a sense of identity, a way for one to feel different and fulfilled among all of those around them. Of course gender’s sense of freedom would seem outside of structure and only affected by one’s own agency, however, structure is a key component in establishing gender. We can look into both ethnic Mexican’s culture practices regarding sexuality, children songs and games, and see that cultural traditions still heavily influence gender, creating what is masculine and what is feminine and what is the role of each gender, as well as challenging the notions that gender is solely based on agency.
In order to discuss the biology of gender identity and sexual orientation, it is necessary to first examine the differences between multiple definitions that are often mistakenly interchanged: sex, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Sexual orientation is defined by LeVay (2011) as “the trait that predisposes us to experience sexual attraction to people of the same sex as ourselves, to persons of the other sex, or to both sexes” (p. 1). The typical categories of sexual orientation are homosexual, heterosexual and bisexual. Vrangalova and Savin-Williams (2012) found that most people identify as heterosexual, but there are also groups of people that identify as mostly heterosexual and mostly gay within the three traditional categories (p. 89). This is to say that there are not three concrete groups, but sexual orientation is a continuum and one can even fluctuate on it over time. LeVay (2011) also defines gender as “the ...
Gender and sexuality can be comprehended through social science. Social science is “the study of human society and of individual relationships in and to society” (free dictionary, 2009). The study of social science deals with different aspects of society such as politics, economics, and the social aspects of society. Gender identity is closely interlinked with social science as it is based on an identity of an individual in the society. Sexuality is “the condition of being characterized and distinguished by sex” (free dictionary, 2009). There are different gender identities such as male, female, gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual that exists all around the world. There is inequality in gender identities and dominance of a male regardless of which sexuality they fall under. The males are superior over the females and gays superior over the lesbians, however it different depending on the place and circumstances. This paper will look at the gender roles and stereotypes, social policy, and homosexuality from a modern and a traditional society perspective. The three different areas will be compared by the two different societies to understand how much changes has occurred and whether or not anything has really changed. In general a traditional society is more conservative where as a modern society is fundamentally liberal. This is to say that a traditional society lists certain roles depending on the gender and there are stereotypes that are connected with the genders. One must obey the one that is dominant and make decisions. On the other hand, a modern society is lenient, It accepts the individual’s identity and sexuality. There is no inequality and everyone in the society is to be seen as individuals not a part of a family unit...
The sexual orientation of a person has been a critical debate over the past several centuries. For several...