explain the problems inherent in defining and identifying sexual identity (as it relates to the category “homosexual,”) OR sex/gender identity, particularly in light of the essentialism/social construction debate.

Write a short critical response paper (500-800 words) in which you explain the problems inherent in defining and identifying sexual identity (as it relates to the category “homosexual,”) OR sex/gender identity (“intersex”), particularly in light of the essentialism/social construction debate.

Whose position do you find the most compelling, and what are the political implications of these theories?

Possible Questions/Topics to Address:

•       The “birth of the homosexual” – when? What defines a homosexual?

•       Medical discourse and the pathologization of non-heterosexual (queer) sexual practices/identities

•       Gender Performance and Performativity

•       Gender normalization and the notion of “The Closet”

•       Gender in film and “The Celluloid Closet”

•       Sexuality, gender, and social construction – are “homosexuals” born or made?