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.

Defiant Performance

      Julie Bettie's How Working-Class Chicas Get Working-Class Lives puts into personal detail the complexity of social structures and how economic standing is a major factor. Several young women (mostly Hispanic) were interviewed on what their future goals and aspirations were. The results were non-conforming. The view of adult-hood to the young women did not contain financial and societal success, but rather parenting gained respect. "For them, expressions of sexuality, and by an extension motherhood, operated as a sign of adult status and served to reject teachers' and parents' methods of keeping them childlike" (Bettie, 449).

      The white structure of our society deconstructs the idea of adulthood and replaces it with white, economical, social success and behavior. Those who do not fit into the category of 'prep' are subjected to oppression. By regularly expressing interest in things such as the application of make-up, clothing, and early parenthood as more important than educational achievement, the young women that were interviewed (and those similar from all around the nation) are exposed to negative treatment; there is a very sharp slope in differences between the working class and the middle class that creates additional tension. Bettie points out that these girls, Las Chicas, defiantly work against the norms of society, and I cannot blame them. Society has made it out that the young women Bettie interviewed are limited by the standards predetermined by others. Their lives are a struggle, but they beautifully work around that struggle by focusing on what they deem is adult-like and important.

Kai Myers

10-23-14

Special Topics: Women's Studies

Professor Soyoung Park

Life

      Dorothy Allison's novel, Trash, is a powerful novel that tells the tale of one woman's struggles in combating against death- rather, the desire for escape through death. The main character is one of several children from a poor, rural family, and the sheer number of children create a sense of detachment and remove her own self-worth. "The mystery is how many no one remembers" (Allison, 10). As an adult, she reflects back on her life with a hardened, brash, almost crude view. In the chapter titled Mama, she recalls the fondness and love she has felt for her mother; how she saw her as a rock- an imperfect, cracked rock. She realizes and accepts at one point that her mother has faults just as she does, and she is proud that her mother is reflected in her. "My lovers laugh at me and say, 'Every tenth word with you is Mama. Mama said. Mama used to say. My mama didn't raise no fool.'/ I widen my mouth around my drawl and show my mama's lost teeth in my smile" (Allison, 45).

      These first few chapters have a compelling, gritting, painful sort of beauty that draws the reader in. There is a realness that the main character, in her turmoil, tries to achieve.

Stone Butch Blues

      Have you ever read something that made you question your entire set of thinking? Leslie Feinberg's novel Stone Butch Blues addresses the life of a transgender individual named Jess Goldberg. This novel, in essence, is an exploration on the development of a young person into mid-adulthood. Many questions are brought to light such as whether or not Jess is truly a woman after taking hormones.

      But, honestly, the real questions that the novel tackles is: Who should decide who is a man or a woman? Why should these differences really matter? 

      Society's gender binary has been so deeply rooted into our system that even those who are sworn to protect, those with power feel threatened by the notion of individuals who do not fit into the traditional social, gender roles. I found it sickening and horrifying that Jess and hir friends were subjected to such brutal treatment from all types of figures. I knew that transgender people had suffered, are suffering, but I did not realize to what extent until I was placed in Jess's shoes. I saw through hir eyes the trauma that violent, cruel oppression brought, and I was absolutely disgusted.

      People who are transgender are humans; they want to feel normal and accepted. However, the patriarchal social structure of this modern society has and will continue to be the major division between oppression and personal freedom unless something is done.

      

Kai Myers

10-9-13

Special Topics: Women's Studies

Professor Soyoung Park

The Evolution of Transgender Treatment

      In Leslie Feinberg's Transgender Liberation: A Movement Whose Time Has Come ze brings to note that the gender codes have never been stable. In fact, "they are changing social concepts" (Feinberg, 206). In essence, transgenders  have been a part of society for centuries and were once prominent part of the social structure. The development of the patriarchy has created the illusion that it has been the sole dominating  factor, and it has formed oppression toward those who are not white, male, heterosexual men.

      Several examples of transgender are recorded in history. For example, Native Americans found transgender women to be among the most influential and powerful. "Perhaps the most notable of all berdache Native women was Barcheeampe, the Crow 'Woman Chief,' the most famous war leader in the history of the upper Missouri nations" (Fienberg, 209).

      So why is it that trans people are treated with little to no respect and are supposedly subordinate to the binary gender division of today's society? The reason is simple: those with interest in power won important historical battles that ultimately altered the social structure of the gender code. The new gender code best meets the needs and interests of those who want security in important positions and the like.