Why is sexuality such a big deal? In class today (7/8/09) this question was raised in terms of why is it that one’s sexuality is such a necessary and intricate part of ourselves? This is because culturally and scientifically sexuality is the most dominate feature of how we interact with the world around us. Sex, lust, and love, are the things that separate us from our infantile and pre-pubescent counterparts. Furthermore it is the idea of being in control of these feelings, and selective about our encounters that gives us superiority to animals. Therefore sexuality plays a huge role in our day to day lives, and larger one in our society as whole. Through this article, I intend to prove that sexuality is our link to adulthood, and our sense of rigid sexuality is lingering remains of a system used to create social order in European society.
Sexual potency is the underlying factor that asserts our independence and rights in all societies. Facial hair, menstruation, muscles, and breast s are all markers of our sexuality to the outside world. Puberty itself is known as a “rite of passage” meaning that we gain rights, in our society after going through the passage of puberty. The amount of prestige and weight attached to mature sex organs is unmatched; Lacquer describes the discovery of the sperm and egg by early scientist as being able to restore “male dignity”( 171). This was the stem of idea that men, real, grown, men form sperm, and therefore women eggs. This emphasis on gamete production has come to represent responsibility and grandeur in the community as it finally created solid evidence for the institutionally set sexual discrimination in place. Thus the seemingly vigorus sperm came to represent man and the seemingly passive egg women. This idea of two genders, and the implications that went with their gametes, was so important that even in cataloging of “lesser beings” it was applied. For example “hence it seems rational to denote these apices by a more noble name and attribute to them the importance of masculine sexual organs…” (Lacquer 172). Notice here the care and emphasis of the speaker to denote the organs of the flower with “a more noble name” in order to confer the importance of the gender and sex that the organs portrayed. This is an important concept to understand as we try to understand the notions of gender and sexuality in our American culture. The two traditionally have been classically intertwined, by notions of questionable science and naturalism.
The use of science as a way of naturalizing the world , has been the classical model in which early Aristocrats were able to able to maintain their optimal social structure. By comparing the sexual feelings and patterns of women to that of beasts Rousseau, is able to simultaneously communicate two important facts. The first is that unlike the beasts, women are on a higher plane because they can control their sexual desires and have no periods of latency when it comes to love. However the language Rousseau uses, “ love is never seasonal” describes a scene that places it so women have no right to refuse love. In this way a woman’s scientifically validated sexuality describes her expected social obligations. Rousseau argued this point to refute the idea of a man dominated society based on physical size rather than, spiritual or more intellectually stimulating reason. Rousseau argues that his point proves that because men have no need to compete over mates, it is in fact the natural and correct order of a woman to consent. By doing so men are able to use their other superior qualities to help construct the world around them.
These classic ideas of gender and sexuality have lead to the rigid gender roles we see in early European society. To summarize what has been said thus far we see that men due to their vigorous and active gametes, are expected to lead. Women with their passive, and consenting nature are expected to follow. This then forms the idea of the two having a natural attraction for one another, the leader wants to lead and the follower to follow. With this idea in mind we can see why it was advantageous for the population to lean toward a hetero sexual positive lifestyle, to maintain the patriarchy. So with this in mind we can see why even today sexuality remains such an important part of the patriarchy. If males are willing to consent to other males, or females unwilling to consent at all, it threatens the stability of the patriarchy. Terry points out the idea that Krafft- Ebrigs holds the notion that “true inverts” (those who do not follow typical gender behavior) cannot be corrected. However those who: “have an unseemly habit of homosexuality as a result of ‘unfavorable’ conditions but who were manly men or womanly women were redeemable.” (Terry 48) This supports the idea that in fact the homosexuality is not the problem, but rather the atypical gender behavior is what the true problem is. Therefore, to protect the stability of the patriarchy, and actively seek to discredit the “habitual homosexuals” one needed to medicalize homosexuality into an illness.
However what are the benefits of medicalizing homosexuality? By medicalizing homosexuality and gender deviances, the group was able to turn normal variances in population into an illness. Like with other classical epidemics, such as leprosy , those afflicted were then to be discredited, pitied, and ultimately shunned. Prominent men and women were spurned for their homosexuality, like Karl Heinrich Ulrichs who was barred from his law career after being caught practicing homosexuality. Furthermore, they were able to use the illness to once again to legitimize their societal views, describing homosexuals as less evolved individuals. This idea of homosexuality as being a sign of regression in humans was then a good tool later when coming into contact with the Native American population and their Two-spirit individuals who exhibited atypical gender behavior. The scars we have from the use of early science to justify societal prejudices is still completely evident in our culture. We may never recover but we can acknowledge there presence and work around them.
Works Cited
Thomas Laqueur."Making Sex Body and gender from the greeks to Frued". Harvard University Press. 1990.
Jennifer Terry."American obsession Science medicine and homosexuality in Modern Society". The university of Chicago Press. 1999.
Pictures Citations:
50's ads.
http://www.wowowow.com/post/number-women-set-surpass-men-recession-workforce-gender-role-reversal-coming-198695
Family:
http://pics.hoobly.com/full/T1LW3JR8XNO5JMP4KU.jpg
No comments:
Post a Comment