Kai Myers

Special Topics: Women's Studies

Professor Soyoung Park

11-20-13

Homosexuality and Heterosexuality

      According to Jagose's Theorising Same-Sex Desire, there have been conflicts in defining homosexuality. Essentialists see homosexuality "as natural, fixed, and innate" while constructionists "assume identity is fluid, the effect of social conditioning and available cultural models for understanding oneself". (Jagose, 1). Most scholars use a combination of ideas of supposed sexual abnormality. But is it really helpful to dissect orientation?

      For organizational purposes, the division of sexual orientation between homosexual and heterosexual is beneficial; however, groups have taken into account negative connotations. Homosexuality (although scientifically defined earlier) is considered abnormal while heterosexuality is the consistent norm. This ideal is to benefit and keep those, of our patriarchal society, in power. For example, Jagose clearly links the relation between feminism and lesbianism as seeming like uncharacteristic aspects of women that threatened the authority of the nation."Hence, the sexologists' theories frightened, or attempted to frighten women away from feminism and from loving other women by demonstrating that bother were abnormal and were generally linked together".

      It is perplexing to think that heterosexuality is not taken into consideration as heavily as homosexuality given both are just as prevalent.

Kai Myers

Special Topics: Women's Studies

Professor Soyoung Park

11-13-13

Racism and Heterosexuality

      Patricia Hill Collin's Prison's for our Bodies, Closest for our Minds stresses several issues of African American orientation identification. There seems to be a dominating stereotype that non-white people, specifically those of African descent are strictly heterosexual. This notion, however, is obviously not the case. How did this idea of African Americans only having hetero-based desires come into play? Simply put, racism and heterosexuality are integrated.

      "American historians point to the significance of sexuality to chattel slavery. In the United States, for example, slave-owners relied on an ideology of Black sexual deviance to regulate and exploit enslaved Africans" (Collins, 115). In other words, sexual exploitation was another form of control the white, male plantation owners and slave-traders would use in order to maintain their position of power, and because this abuse is always attached to slavery, the idea of (African American women, specifically) heterosexuality is reaffirmed.

      To be African American in the United States is to be in a metaphorical prison of constant oppression. Racism creates a barrier between a falsified reality of orientation-based ideals and the true reality, that African Americans are just as equal under the spectrum of gender, sexual, and cultural diversity as anyone else.

Response to People Like Us: PBS Special

         This video reaffirmed my belief that the economic classes of today's society are founded on a foundation of money and controlled by those with superiority complexes. "My family was rich, we got the money after they died". This quote is typical to hear from the working class, those who envy the more well off. Ultimately, America is divided by class, whether we as a nation believe it or not. And pathetically enough, those who have the most power are focused on things that honestly do not even matter. More wealthier citizens do not fear making payments or being able to afford a roof over their heads- rather, they are scared of criticism from their peers. This fear of criticism developed in high school and continued well into their- the upper class people's- adult lives. 

        Finally, I found the entire segment about food informative yet disturbing. Realistically, food that is better for you is more expensive because of the type of ingredients that go into said food. The comparison being between the organic sourdough loaf and the 99-cent white bread. Obviously, the white bread is cheaper because it is essentially water and starch. It makes me wonder if there is a more effective way of making people eat healthier but not to give them the impression that what they eat makes them less of a person?

      In sum, the economic divide between classes is astounding and far more apparent than we like to believe.