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COLLEGE PHYSICS Chapter # Chapter Title PowerPoint Image Slideshow

INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY

Chapter 12 GENDER, SEX AND SEXUALITY

What is Gender?

Gender

refers to the personal traits and life chances that a society links to being female or male.

Sex

is the biological distinction between females and males.

Intersexed

(click for video)

Gender identity: Psychological gender perception. Personal experience and performance of gender.

sociologist argue that gender is both externally and internally prescribed.

Gender role: cultural norms for male and female behavior. Social expectation in gendered behavior which is specific to culture.

What are Sex and Gender?

Intersex

people born with any of several variations in sex characteristics including

chromosomes
gonads
sex hormones
genitals that "do not” fit the typical definitions for male or female bodies

Intersexed (click for video)

Androgen (male hormone)

Androgen insensitivity syndrome (unable to respond to androgen) AIS

Klinefelter syndrome (XXY)

Triple X syndrome

Challenging the Gender Binary

Third Gender

Gender Fluidity

Androgyny

Agender

Gender nonconformity

Gender fluidity: flexible range of gender and gender expressions that can change over time.

Third gender: a social category in which an individual can represent gender in a variety of ways independent of male or female or feminine or masculine; intermediate between genders; as neither gender; cross or swap genders.

Androgyny: display both feminine and masculine gender characteristics.

Agender: someone who does not identify with either gender; gender neutral

Gender non-conformity: doing gender in ways that are atypical for their prescribed gender assignment.

Gender Identity and Gender Role

Native
Fa’afafine
Latin America
Muxe/Muxhe (click for video)
African
Mashoga
Europe
Burrnesha
Asian
Hijra (click for video)

Gender Roles and Gender Identity

Theories of Gender

Theories of Gender Roles

Essentialists

Evolutionary

Materialist/Economic

Essentialists: rely on biological or natural explanations of gender and gender role assignments: gender behavior is shaped by hormones

Evolutionary: Also based on biological or natural explanations of gender, but claims human beings are in constant state of adaptation to their environment in order to ensure survival. Gendered division of labor is functional need for the human family to survive. This is a very functionalist perspective.

Materialist/Economic: emphasize the impact of basic human economic needs in the formation of gender roles. Also explore and critique gender roles within the economic system of capitalism.

According to Bourdieu, cultural capital comes in three forms—embodied, objectified, and institutionalized. One’s accent or dialect is an example of embodied cultural capital, while a luxury car or record collection are examples of cultural capital in its objectified state. In its institutionalized form, cultural capital refers to credentials and qualifications such as degrees or titles that symbolize cultural competence and authority.

Structural-Functional Analysis: Gender and Complementarity

Differences between men and women help build families, integrate society as a whole
People of each sex need people of the other sex.
Boys and girls are raised differently:
Masculinity involves an instrumental orientation
Femininity involves an expressive orientation

The Functionalist Perspective

Talcott Parsons posited that sex roles became divided along the lines of instrumental tasks and expressive tasks.

Functionalists argue that a problem exists when the sex-role division of labor is no longer consistent with the needs of a particular society.

Structural Functionalism:

Functionalists stress the importance of regulating sexual behavior to ensure marital cohesion and family stability.
homosexuality cannot be promoted on a large-scale as an acceptable substitute for heterosexuality.

Symbolic-Interaction Analysis: Gender in Everyday Life

Men have greater freedom in personal behavior because they have more power.
Men tend to use more space and move into others’ “personal space.”
Female pronouns used for possessions.
Criticism of this micro-theory is that it overlooks the broad importance of gender to society.

Men and Women in Society

The Interactionist Perspective
social definitions and symbolic representations of appropriate behavior for males and females in trying to understand sexual inequality.
Conversational styles of men and women can reflect and reinforce gender patterns of dominance and subordination.

Social Learning Theory

Gender differences are products of differently socializing males and females.

Learning Gender Roles and Playing Gendered Roles through numerous agents of socialization:

Childhood and Adolescence

i. Soon after birth, parents begin to describe their sons and daughters based on gender stereotypes.

ii. Parents react to young children based on their social and cultural ideas about gender and are important socialization agents.

a) They construct the physical and social environment in which the child will develop.

b) In general children are socialized by their parents through four subtle processes: manipulation (treating boys and girls differently), channeling (exposing children to gender specific objects such as toys and clothing), verbal appellation (using different words to describe the same behavior), and activity exposure (exposing boys to different, often opposing activities for example sports).

In general fathers pressure their children more to behave in gender appropriate ways.

Sociologists found that there were five general patterns of parental behavior regarding gender in their children:

a) Naturalizers, who see gender as a biological fact.

b) Cultivators, who see gender as largely social.

c) Refiners, who see gender as a mixture of biology and social learning.

d) Resisters, who resist gender structures.

Innovators, who oppose gender stereotypes, but worry about nonconformity.

Gender and Socialization

Gender socializations’ 4 major agents:

Family

Education

Peer groups

mass media

Children learn at a young age that there are distinct expectations for boys and girls at about 2 or 3 years of age.

Social-Conflict Analysis:
Gender and Inequality

Gender generates conflict between male “haves” and female “have-nots.”
Friedrich Engels expanded Marx’s theory to include gender.
Patriarchy is a system by which wealthy men transmit their wealth to their sons.
Capitalism exploits men in factories for low pay and exploits women in the home for no pay at all.

The Conflict Perspective

Sexual differentiation becomes a “battleground” for the struggle over scarce resources.

Conflict theorists view sexual inequality as a problem when some group, such as women, realizes it is being exploited and strives to do something to change the situation.

Intersection Theory: The Case
of Minority Women

Intersection theory: analysis of how race, class, and gender interact, often creating multiple disadvantages for some categories of people.
Minority women earn less than white women and less than minority men.
In 2012, African American women earned 64% as much as white men and Hispanic women earned 54% as much as white men

HEGEMONIC MASCULINITY

Establishing and Maintaining Domination
Through practice and ideology
‘Justifies position and the subordination of women
Male Norms Stress;
Courage
Autonomy
Adventure
Aggression
A lack of ‘feminine’ emotion

R.W. Connell (1995)

Embodies the ideas and stereotypes of masculinity including the claim of authority and privilege

*not every man can fit the hegemonic standard and, in fact, most do not!!

Complicit masculinity: men who do not fit the characteristics of hegemonic masculinity but do not necessarily challenge such ideals either.

admire the characteristics of hegemonic masculinity, but do not live up to them.

Marginal masculinity: describes men who sit on the margins of dominant social groups, but still subscribe to hegemonic masculinity in ways that are closer to their specific group ideals.

*men of color or men with disabilities

Subordinate masculinity: Exhibits qualities that are opposite of those valued in dominant society

*those who are effeminate, gay or emotional

Emphasized Femininity

Exaggerated form of feminine gendered behaviors and compliance to expected sex roles of femininity.
This is about women’s subordination.
Sexual desires
Acceptance of marriage
Childcare
Beauty

Passivity, dependence, nurturing, submissiveness, emotional, irrationality

Pariah femininity: when women do not exemplify ideals of femininity and instead enact masculine behavior. Behaviors that threaten or contaminate the relationship between masculinity and femininity. Usually stigmatized and sanctioned.

Alternative femininities: those that don’t articulate a complimentary reaction to dominance and subordination.

Hyper-femininity: exaggeration of feminine behaviors as they relate to heterosexual relationships; women believe their success is determined by maintaining a romantic relationship with a man; the use of sexual behaviors to obtain/maintain relationships;

Gender Stratification and Patriarchy

Gender is an important dimension of social inequality.
Patriarchy, a social pattern in which males dominate females, is found in varying degrees around the world.

Societies, more than biological factors, shape the social differences between the sexes.

Unequal distribution of resources (money, power, rights, etc.) along gender lines and boundaries

Social Stratification and Inequality

The United States is characterized by stratification: race, income, occupation, economy, ethnicity, and gender.

Gender stratification is especially evident within the economic realm.

Men outnumber women in powerful, authoritative and higher-earning positions

Women generally make only 77 cents for every dollar a man makes.

Before 1809—Women could not execute a will

Before 1840—Women were not allowed to own or control property

Before 1920—Women were not permitted to vote

Before 1963—Employers could legally pay a woman less than a man for the same work

Before 1973—Women did not have the right to a safe and legal abortion

The Problem of Sexism

Sexism is the belief that one sex is innately superior to the other.
Sexism supports patriarchy.
Is sexism harmful to men?
Sexism is built into the operation of U.S. social institutions, including:
Workplace
Religious life
Family life
Education

Sexism means discrimination based on sex or gender or the belief that men are superior to women and thus discrimination is justified. Such a belief can be conscious or unconscious. In sexism, as in racism, the differences between two (or more) groups are viewed as indications that one group is superior or inferior.

Sexist discrimination against girls and women is a means of maintaining male domination and power. The oppression or discrimination can be economic, political, social, or cultural.

Thus, included in sexism are:

Sexist attitudes or ideology, including beliefs, theories, and ideas that hold one group (usually male) as deservedly superior to the other (usually female), and that justify oppressing members of the other group on the basis of their sex or gender.

Sexist practices and institutions, the ways in which oppression is carried out. These need not be done with a conscious sexist attitude but may be unconscious cooperation in a system which has been in place already in which one sex (usually female) has less power and goods in the society.

Sexism is a form of oppression and domination. As author Octavia Butler put it, "Simple peck-order bullying is only the beginning of the kind of hierarchical behavior that can lead to racism, sexism, ethnocentrism, classism, and all the other 'isms' that cause so much suffering in the world."

Some feminists have argued that sexism is the primal, or first, a form of oppression in humanity and that other oppressions are built on the foundation of oppression of women. Andrea Dworkin, a radical feminist, argued that position: "Sexism is the foundation on which all tyranny is built. Every social form of hierarchy and abuse is modeled on male-over-female domination."

Feminist Origins of the Word

The word "sexism" became widely known during the Women's Liberation Movement of the 1960s. At that time, feminist theorists explained that the oppression of women was widespread in nearly all human society, and they began to speak of sexism instead of male chauvinism. Whereas male chauvinists were usually individual men who expressed the belief that they were superior to women, sexism referred to collective behavior that reflected society as a whole.

Australian writer Dale Spender noted that she was "old enough to have lived in a world without sexism and sexual harassment. Not because they weren’t everyday occurrences in my life but because THESE WORDS DIDN’T EXIST. It was not until the feminist writers of the 1970s made them up, and used them publicly and defined their meanings – an opportunity that men had enjoyed for centuries – that women could name these experiences of their daily life.“

Many women in the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s (the so-called Second Wave of feminism) came to their consciousness of sexism via their work in social justice movements. Social philosopher bell hooks argues that "Individual heterosexual women came to the movement from relationships where men were cruel, unkind, violent, unfaithful. Many of these men were radical thinkers who participated in movements for social justice, speaking out on behalf of the workers, the poor, speaking out on behalf of racial justice. However, when it came to the issue of gender they were as sexist as their conservative cohorts."

How Sexism Works

Systemic sexism, like systemic racism, is the perpetuation of the oppression and discrimination without necessarily any conscious intention. The disparities between men and women are simply taken as givens and are reinforced by practices, rules, policies, and laws that often seem neutral on the surface but in fact disadvantage women.

Sexism interacts with racism, classism, heterosexism, and other oppressions to shape the experience of individuals. This is called intersectionality. Compulsory heterosexuality is the prevailing belief that heterosexuality is the only "normal" relationship between the sexes, which, in a sexist society, benefits men.

Can Women Be Sexist?

Women can be conscious or unconscious collaborators in their own oppression if they accept the basic premises of sexism: that men have more power than women because they deserve more power than women.

Sexism by women against men would only be possible in a system in which the balance of social, political, cultural, and economic power was measurably in the hands of women, a situation which does not exist today.

Are Men Oppressed by Sexism Against Women?

Some feminists have argued that men should be allies in the fight against sexism because men, too, are not whole in a system of enforced male hierarchies. In a patriarchal society, men are themselves in a hierarchical relationship to each other, with more benefits to the males at the top of the power pyramid.

Others have argued that males benefit from sexism, even if that benefit is not consciously experienced or sought, is more weighty than whatever negative effects those with more power may experience. Feminist Robin Morgan put it this way: "And let's put one lie to rest for all time: the lie that men are oppressed, too, by sexism — the lie that there can be such a thing as 'men's liberation groups.' Oppression is something that one group of people commits against another group specifically because of a 'threatening' characteristic shared by the latter group — skin color or sex or age, etc."

Some Quotes on Sexism

Bell Hooks: "Simply put, feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression... I liked this definition because it did not imply that men were the enemy. By naming sexism as the problem it went directly to the heart of the matter. Practically, it is a definition which implies that all sexist thinking and action is the problem, whether those who perpetuate it are female or male, child or adult. It is also broad enough to include an understanding of systemic institutionalized sexism. As a definition it is open-ended. To understand feminism it implies one has to necessarily understand sexism."

Caitlin Moran: “I have a rule for working out if the root problem of something is, in fact, sexism. And it is this: asking 'Are the boys doing it? Are the boys having to worry about this stuff? Are the boys the center of a gigantic global debate on this subject?”

Erica Jong: "Sexism kind of predisposes us to see men's work as more important than women's, and it is a problem, I guess, as writers, we have to change."

Kate Millett: "It is interesting that many women do not recognize themselves as discriminated against; no better proof could be found of the totality of their conditioning."

Gender and the Family

In low-income countries, sons are valued more highly than daughters.
Men: provide economic support for the family and make key decisions
Women: provide emotional support to husbands and raise children
The second-shift

Stay at home dads

In some cultures, women do all of the household chores with no help from men, as doing housework is a sign of weakness, considered by society as a feminine trait. (Photo courtesy of Evil Erin/flickr)

Gender and Politics

Thousands of women serve at the local level as mayors and council members.
At the state and national levels, the numbers are much smaller:
In 2019, 25.4% of state legislators
9 of the 50 state governors
23.7% of the members of the U.S. Congress
Globally, women hold just 23% of seats in the world’s 188 parliaments.

Gender and Work

In 1900, 1 in 5 women worked for income; today, 58% do, most full-time:
60% of women with children under age 6
71% of women with children ages 6 to 17
In 52% of all married couples, both work for income

For example, white women narrowed the wage gap in median hourly earnings by 22 cents from 1980 (when they earned, on average, 60 cents for every dollar earned by a white man) to 2015 (when they earned 82 cents). By comparison, black women only narrowed that gap by 9 cents, from earning 56 cents for every dollar earned by a white man in 1980 to 65 cents today. Asian women followed roughly the trajectory of white women (but earned a slightly higher 87 cents per dollar earned by a white man in 2015), whereas Hispanic women fared even worse than black women, narrowing the gap by just 5 cents (earning 58 cents on the dollar in 2015).

Gender Stratification: Income

Reasons for the “gender gap” in pay:
Men and women hold different kinds of jobs.
Men end up with more seniority than women who take time off to raise young children or care for aging parents.
Gender discrimination
Women in Authority and stereotypes
“Glass Ceiling” refers to subtle discrimination that effectively blocks the movement of women into the highest positions in organizations.

Gender and the Military

2012: Women represented 15% of U.S. military force in Iraq and Afghanistan.
3.6% of all U.S. military deaths from 2003 to 2014 were of women.
2013: women permitted to engage in ground-combat operations
Serious problem of sexual assault

Sexuality, Gender, and Globalization

Global flows related to sex and sexuality
Sex trafficking, sex tourism, and the sexual diaspora provide opportunities to disperse sex globally.
Global Sex Industry
The sex industry is a multi-billion dollar industry.
Sex Trafficking
Sex Tourism

Violence Against Women

Violence is the most serious problem linked to patriarchy.
Violence is a gender issue because physical aggressiveness is a key element of the cultural definition of masculinity.
Domestic Violence/IPV (click for video)
Most violence against women takes place in the home.
Female genital mutilation: using violence to control the behavior of women

Domestic violence can be:

Physical. This includes (but is not limited to) slapping, hitting, punching, kicking, physical restraint, aggravated assault, and forcing someone to take drugs.
Emotional. This includes (but is not limited to) extreme displays of jealousy and/or possession, intimidation, blaming you for their problems, degrading and/or disrespectful behavior and comments, withholding communication, social isolation (i.e. preventing you from seeing friends or family), and threats of physical or sexual violence.
Verbal. This includes (but is not limited to) name-calling; yelling; criticizing your appearance, actions and/or beliefs; humiliating you in public.
Sexual. This includes (but is not limited to) sexual activity following a physically abusive incident, threats of infidelity, coerced sex acts, and forcible intercourse.
Reproductive. Sexual. This includes (but is not limited to) includes explicit attempts to impregnate a partner against their will, control outcomes of a pregnancy, coerce a partner to have, and interfere with contraceptive methods and reproductive choices.
Economic. This includes (but is not limited to) refusing to share control of family finances; destroying, giving away or selling your property without your consent; and using money as a tool to control your behavior or get what they want.

Sexuality

What Determines Sexual Orientation?

Cultural Factors
Diversity of sexual expression around the world suggests cultural influence
Patterns of socialization have an impact
Biological Factors
Sexual orientation largely fixed at birth
Studies focus on genes, hormones, epigenetic research

Homosexuality

Homosexuality refers to sexual feelings, attractions, and actions directed toward members of the same sex.

Common synonym for homosexual is gay
Used to describe homosexual men and women, as well as social and political concerns related to homosexual orientation
May also be used as a negative label

Stage 1: Identity Confusion

This is the "Who am I?" stage associated with the feeling that one is different from peers, accompanied by a growing sense of personal alienation. The person begins to be conscious of same-sex feelings or behaviors and to label them as such. It is rare at this stage for the person to disclose inner turmoil to others.

Stage 2: Identity Comparison

This is the rationalization or bargaining stage where the person thinks, "I may be a homosexual, but then again I may be bisexual," "Maybe this is just temporary," or, "My feelings of attraction are simply for just one other person of my own sex and this is a special case." There is a heightened sense of not belonging anywhere with the corresponding feeling that "I am the only one in the world like this."

Stage 3: Identity Tolerance

In this "I probably am" stage, the person begins to contact other lgbt people to counteract feelings of isolation and alienation, but merely tolerates rather than fully accepts a gay or lesbian identity. The feeling of not belonging with heterosexuals becomes stronger.

Positive contacts can have the effect of making other gay and lesbian people appear more significant and more positive to the person at this stage, leading to a more favorable sense of self and a greater commitment to a homosexual self-identity.

Stage 4: "Identity Acceptance"

There is continued and increased contact with other gay and/or lesbian people in this stage, where friendships start to form. The individual thus evaluates other lesbian and gay people more positively and accepts rather than merely tolerates a lesbian or gay self-image. The earlier questions of "Who am I?" and "Where do I belong?" have been answered.

Coping strategies for handling incongruity at this stage include continuing to pass as heterosexual, and limiting contacts with heterosexuals who threaten to increase incongruity (e.g. some family members and/or peers). The person can also selectively disclose a homosexual identity to significant heterosexuals.

Stage 5: "Identity Pride"

This is the "These are my people" stage where the individual develops an awareness of the enormous incongruity that exists between the person's increasingly positive concept of self as lesbian or gay and an awareness of society's rejection of this orientation. The person feels anger at heterosexuals and devalues many of their institutions (e.g. marriage, gender-role structures, etc.) The person discloses her or his identity to more and more people and wishes to be immersed in the gay or lesbian subculture consuming its literature, art, and other forms of culture. For some at this stage, the combination of anger and pride energizes the person into action against perceived homophobia producing an "activist."

Stage 6: "Identity Synthesis"

The intense anger at heterosexuals -- the "them and us" attitude that may be evident in stage 5 -- softens at this stage to reflect a recognition that some heterosexuals are supportive and can be trusted. However, those who are not supportive are further devalued. There remains some anger at the ways that lesbians and gays are treated in this society, but this is less intense. The person retains a deep sense of pride but now comes to perceive less of a dichotomy between the heterosexual and gay and lesbian communities. A lesbian or gay identity becomes an integral and integrated aspect of the individual's complete personality structure.

Sexuality: Language and Identification

Bisexuality: Emotional and sexual attraction to members of both sexes

Lesbian: Homosexual woman

Gay: Homosexual men (click for video)

Sexuality: Language and Identification

Queer: Self-identifier to indicate that the person has a non-heterosexual orientation

Genderqueer: Person does not identify as either male or female

In regards to sexuality, socialization in the U.S. and Western countries most notably adheres to heteronormativity, or the marking of heterosexual unions as normal and homosexual unions as socially abnormal and deviant. While homosexual unions are the types of unions most commonly marked in opposition to normative heterosexual unions, heteronormativity marks any type of non-heterosexual sexual activity as deviant, as heterosexual sexual acts are considered the norm.

There is extreme variation in sexual expression across historical periods and cultures. This indicates that there are no universal sexual norms. Rather, an individual is taught sexual norms of their particular cultural and historical moment through socialization. At the current moment in Western societies, sexuality is evaluated along a continuum of heterosexuality and homosexuality, with heterosexuality as the privileged mode of sexual expression. Obviously, this is a basic schematic; it does not capture all of the existing ways in which people behave sexually, but it is the basic rubric by which sexual behaviors are evaluated.

In contrast, the Ancient Greeks categorized sexuality not in terms of homosexuality and heterosexuality, but in terms of active and passive sexual subjects. What was salient for the Ancient Greeks was whether one took an active or passive sexual position, whether one was the penetrator or was penetrated. In this sense, biological gender was obviously relevant, but not in the same way as evaluating homo- or heterosexual orientation. Men could be either active or passive, but women could only be passive. It is misleading to say that homosexuality was tolerated in Ancient Greece; rather, the Ancient Greeks conceived of sexuality in completely different ways than the current Western norm.

So how is it that one becomes socialized into certain sexual behaviors and proclivities? The rest of this section seeks to explore how socializing agents impress sexual norms into their members by looking at three primary agents of socialization: religion, the law, and the media.

Given that most religions seek to instruct their followers on the proper and holy ways in which to live life, it follows that most religions seek to offer guidance on the proper ways to sexually comport oneself. For example, many evangelical Christians value abstinence and believe that men and women should wait until marriage to engage in sexual activity. The Catholic Church asserts that homosexuality is unholy. Leaders of the Jewish faith promote sexual activity between married couples to reinforce the marital bond and produce children. Like most of the other denominations of monotheistic religions, Islam encourages sexual activity so long as it is practiced by married partners. This is not to say, of course, that all adherents to a particular faith stringently follow the faith's guidelines, but rather that individuals growing up within a particular religion are instructed on how to behave sexually.

The legal system is another mechanism through which individuals are instructed on proper sexual conduct. The laws within a particular jurisdiction simultaneously reflect and create social norms regarding sexuality. For example, based on American law, Americans are socialized to believe that prostitution and rape are improper forms of sexual behavior. The interactions of homosexual sexual acts and their (il)legality provides an opportunity to see how the law both mirrors and molds American understandings of sexual norms. Sodomy laws, or laws prohibiting particular sexual acts between two consenting partners such as anal sex between two men, were on the books in most American states for decades.

The media is one final example of a cultural program through which individuals encounter normative discourses of sexuality. Individuals are socialized to replicate the sexual behaviors that they see on television, in movies, and in books. These representations are typically heteronormative. Pornography presents another way in which individuals are socialized towards particular sexual practices through the media. Over 70% of male internet users between the ages of 18 and 34 visit a pornographic website in a typical month. Follow-up studies show that many of these individuals—in addition to female pornography viewers—attempt to incorporate the actions they witness in pornography into their own sex lives.

Heterosexism

Denigration and stigmatization of any behavior, person, or relationship that is not heterosexual
Based on the belief that heterosexuality is superior to homosexuality
Results in prejudice and discrimination

Heterosexism refers to “the institutional and societal reinforcement of heterosexuality as the privileged and powerful norm.” (assumptions, attitudes and bias and even denial)

Paints heterosexuality

-as superior; therefor more desirable

-assumptions that people are heterosexual

We live in a predominantly heterosexist society and that this attitude is used to justify the mistreatment, discrimination and harassment of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and others.

Making LGBTQ invisible: always asking women about boyfriends and men about girlfriends, telling people that they are over reacting when they get upset about oppression that they feel, downplaying the importance of sexual identity all together.

High rates of harassment, physical assault and sexual violence.

Increased dissatisfaction and psychopathologies:

Mood disorders, mental illness, substance abuse and high-risk of sexual behaviors.

MSM account for about 60% of new HIV cases

Young black gay and bisexual men have higher rates

High rates of homelessness among LGBTQ youth.

Family rejection is the leading cause

Abuse

Homophobia and Homonegativity

Homophobia: Negative attitudes toward homosexuality
Internalized homophobia
Sense of personal failure and self-hatred among lesbians and gay men
Result of the acceptance of negative social attitudes and feelings

HOW DO YOU RECOGNIZE HOMOPHOBIA IN YOURSELF AND OTHERS?

There are four distinct but interrelated types of homophobia: personal, interpersonal, institutional, and cultural. Personal (internalized) homophobia is prejudice based on a personal belief that lesbian, gay and bisexual people are sinful, immoral, sick, inferior to heterosexuals, or incomplete women and men. Personal homophobia is experienced as feelings of fear, discomfort, dislike, hatred, or disgust with same‐sex sexuality. Anyone, regardless of their sexual orientation or preference, can experienc personal homophobia; o when this happens with LGBTQ people, it is called internalized homophobia.

Like heterosexuals, lesbians, gays, and bisexuals are taught that same‐sex sexuality is inferior to heterosexuality, and many internalize this to the point where self‐ acceptance is difficult. One result of this is that some LGBTQs desperately try to deny or change their sexual orientation; and some have tried or succeeded in committing suicide.

Interpersonal homophobia is individual behavior based on personal homophobia. This hatred or dislike may be expressed by name‐calling, telling "jokes,” verbal and physical harassment, and other individual acts of discrimination.  Interpersonal homophobia, in its extreme, results in LGBTQs being physically assaulted for no other reason than their assailants' homophobia. Most people act out their fears of LGBTQ people in nonviolent, more commonplace ways. Relatives often shun their LGBTQ family members; coworkers are distant and cold to LGBTQ colleagues; heterosexual friends aren't interested in hearing about their LGBTQ friends' relationships.

Institutional homophobia refers to the many ways in which government, businesses, churches, and other institutions and organizations discriminate against people on the basis of sexual orientation. Institutional homophobia is also called heterosexism. Institutional homophobia is reflected in religious organizations which have stated or implicit policies against lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgenders leading services; agencies which refuse to allocate resources for services to LGBTQ people; and  governments which fail to insure the rights of all citizens, regardless of their sexual orientation. Cultural homophobia refers to social standards and norms which dictate that being heterosexual is better or more moral than being LGBTQ, and that everyone is or should be heterosexual. Cultural homophobia is also called heterosexism.

Cultural homophobia is spelled out each day in television shows and print advertisements where virtually every character is heterosexual, every erotic relationship involves a female and a male, and every "normal" child is presumed to be attracted to and will eventually marry someone of the other sex. In the few cases where LGBTQ are portrayed, they are usually unhappy, stereotyped, engaged in self‐destructive behaviors, or ambivalent about their sexual orientation.

WHAT ARE THE CAUSES OF HOMOPHOBIA?

Personal (internalized)homophobia (prejudice) is primarily caused by misinformation. As with racism and sexism, people are taught to be homophobic. Myths about LGBTQ people are perpetuated in our society despite the availability of accurate information.  Few children are given any unbiased information about LGBTQ people;  many adults continue to believe the stereotypes they learned as children; and some religious and conservative organizations promote lies about lesbian, gay, and bisexual people. Interpersonal homophobia (harassment and individual discrimination) can be explained by considering psychological factors in conjunction with prejudice. People who are not comfortable with their own sexuality, or who feel threatened by same‐ sex sexuality, tend to be more rigid about what is sexually "right" and may try to punish or force their beliefs on LGBTQ people. Institutional homophobia is caused in part by competition for power. Societies such as our create scapegoats to maintain the status quo and the positions of those in power. LGBT Resource Center 5/2010 During this century, groups such as Jews, African Americans, Asian Americans, Latin Americans, American Indians, women and LGBTQ people have all been blamed for a variety of social and economic problems. o When scapegoating is successful, dominant groups don't need to take responsibility for injustice or give up privilege. Cultural homophobia is largely caused by social norms which dictate "correct" sexuality. Sexual contact between women, and between men, has been practiced in all societies throughout history and is openly accepted in many cultures. But Western civilization is generally repressive of sexuality in any form, other than intercourse necessary for procreation or sexual activity in the context of heterosexual marriage. Therefore, same‐sex sexuality will certainly be feared or damned.

CAN HOMOPHOBIA BE ’CURED’?

Homophobia is pervasive in this and many other societies. Because we are all products of our society, most of us are homophobic, regardless of our sexual orientation. Assume that you are homophobic. Dealing constructively with homophobia first requires an acknowledgment of its pervasive existence. We cannot easily eradicate our homophobic feelings, but if we are willing to acknowledge that we are all homophobic, then we can begin to take responsibility for our choices and change our behaviors. In addition to assuming the ever presence of homophobia, we can do the following:  Identify homophobia, not homosexuality, as the problem to be addressed. In conversations with friends and colleagues, speak out about homophobia. For many people, the only time that they talk about LGBTQ people is in the context of homophobic "jokes”

Think about the similarities and differences between homophobia and other forms of oppression. Use what you know about racism, sexism, classicism, etc., to better understand homophobia and to look for ways to respond to homophobia.  Listen to the experiences of LGBTQ people and assume that their experiences with oppression is valid. Similarly, assume that the ways in which LGBTQ people experience the world are different from the ways in which heterosexuals experience the world. Actively support anti‐discrimination efforts, as well as campaigns to stop homophobic prejudice and violence

REFLECT ON THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS

What do you think caused your heterosexuality?
When and how did you decide you were straight?
Do your parents know you are straight? Your friends? If not, why haven’t you told them?
Is it possible that your heterosexuality is a phase that you may grow out of?

The term homophobia is commonly used to refer to negative attitudes and emotions toward homosexuality and those who engage in homosexual behavior. Other terms that refer to negative attitudes and emotions toward homosexuality include homonegativity (attaching negative connotations to being gay) and antigay bias.

Homophobia and homonegativity are sometimes expressed as hate crimes or violence against homosexuals. Such crimes include verbal harassment (the most frequent form of hate crime experienced by victims), vandalism, sexual assault and rape, physical assault, and murder. The Sex Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) notes that “individuals have the right to accept, acknowledge, and live in accordance with their sexual orientation, be they bisexual, heterosexual, gay or lesbian.

Characteristics associated with positive attitudes toward homosexuals and gay rights include younger age, advanced education, no religious affiliation, liberal political party affiliation, and personal contact with homosexual individuals (Lee & Hicks, 2011). Negative social meanings associated with homosexuality can affect the self-concepts of LGBT individuals. Internalized homophobia is a sense of personal failure and self-hatred among lesbians and gay men resulting from social rejection and the stigmatization of being gay and has been linked to increased risk for depression, substance abuse and addiction, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts.

Homophobia:

Homophobia is a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards homosexuality or people perceived as homosexual . Homophobia is observable in critical and hostile behavior like discrimination and violence. Much like racism or sexism, homophobia involves the targeting of a specific population of individuals with certain traits. Homophobia, or the fear of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) individuals, is often the impetus for discrimination, which can be expressed through either institutional or informal means. Institutional discrimination involves the state apparatus. If homophobic discrimination is institutional, it means either that non-heterosexual sex acts are criminalized or that LGBTQ individuals are denied the same legal rights as heterosexuals. Informal discrimination is not necessarily sanctioned by the state, but involves social pressures against LGBTQ individuals, behaviors, and identities.

In the United States, the social disapproval of homosexuality is not evenly distributed throughout society. That being said, it is more or less pronounced according to age, ethnicity, geographic location, race, sex, social class, education, political identification, and religious status. Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to have negative attitudes about people who are LGBTQ. Likewise, people who consider themselves to be religious are more likely than secular individuals to hold negative views about LGBTQ people.

Historical Institutional Homophobia: Holocaust

On many occasions in Western nations in the twentieth century, LGBTQ individuals have been stigmatized because of homophobia. One notorious example of homophobia and extreme discrimination was the persecution of LGBTQ individuals by the Nazis during the Holocaust. After the rise of Adolf Hitler, homosexuals were one of the many groups targeted by the Nazi Party and became victims of the Holocaust. Beginning in 1933, gay organizations were banned, scholarly books about homosexuality were burned, and homosexuals within the Nazi Party itself were murdered. Between 1933 and 1945, an estimated 100,000 men were arrested as homosexuals, of whom some 50,000 were officially sentenced to imprisonment. Most of these German men served time in regular prisons, but an estimated 5,000 to 15,000 were forced to serve their time in concentration camps. Like Jews and the disabled, Hitler labeled homosexuals as defective and systematically persecuted them.

Current Institutional Persecution of Homosexuals

Today, homosexuality is still punishable by death in some countries around the world. Uganda, for example, criminalizes non-heterosexual sex acts and most Ugandans consider non-heterosexuality to be taboo. In October, 2009, a member of the Ugandan Parliament introduced the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill to broaden the criminalization of same-sex relationships and apply the death penalty to repeat offenders. Under the statues of the bill, individuals convicted of a single act of non-heterosexual sex would receive life imprisonment. Additionally, individuals or companies promoting LGBTQ rights would be nationally penalized. The bill also created a public policing policy under which Ugandan citizens would be required to report any homosexual activity within 24 hours or face a maximum penalty of three years in prison. Additionally, if Ugandan citizens were found to be engaging in same-sex sexual or romantic activities outside the country, Uganda would request extradition.

Homophobia and the United States

Although non-heterosexual sex acts are legal in the United States, LGTBQ people still face institutional discrimination because they are not afforded the same rights as heterosexual couples. Most evidently, same-sex couples are not allowed to wed in most states. Gay marriage has become a sensitive political issue over the past decade, partially due to the fact that the federal government and state governments have different laws about gay marriage. The federal government does not recognize gay marriage, but individual states can choose to recognize it. In 1996, the federal government passed the Defense of Marriage Act. According to this act, the federal government cannot recognize gay marriages, and a state that does not recognize gay marriage does not have to accept the marriage license given to a same-sex couple in a different state that does recognize same-sex marriages. As part of this debate about the legality and morality of gay marriage, 41 states have explicitly banned same-sex marriages, 12 by statute and 29 through amendments to the state constitutions.

Informal Homophobia

Prejudices do not have to be institutionalized to be harmful. Many instances of homophobia and discrimination occur by informal means. Homophobia can occurs when heterosexual individuals feel anxiety about being perceived as gay by others. This phenomenon is most commonly experienced by adolescent boys. The taunting of boys seen as eccentric, many of whom are usually not gay, is said to be endemic in rural and suburban American schools. At times, this abuse can lead taunted individuals to take dangerous risks in efforts to prove a normative masculinity. Adolescents in the United States often use phrases like "that's so gay" in a pejorative

Conversion Therapy

Designed to change a person’s homosexual orientation to a heterosexual orientation
Known as reparative therapy
Motivations to seek change
Religion
Emotional dissatisfaction with the homosexual lifestyle

Theoretical Perspectives on Gender

Structural Functionalism:

Family (social fact) as the most integral component of society.
Gender roles were established well before the pre-industrial era when men typically took care of responsibilities outside of the home and women took care of domestic responsibilities.
During the economic climate of WWII, the family structure changed due to women taking on the role of the breadwinner.

Homosexuality and Public Policy

In 1960, homosexuality was widely regarded as wrong
Created a hostile atmosphere; result: most lesbians and gay men staying “in the closet”
In 1973, American Psychiatric Association:
Declared that it no longer considered homosexuality to be a mental disorder
North Carolina-HB2 Law (click for video)

Theoretical Perspectives on Gender

Types of Feminism (click for video)

Types of Feminism

Queer Theory

Queer theory refers to a movement or theory dating from the early 1990s. The theory is that society should support a more fluid range of sexual orientations and that individuals can move through the range as they become more self-aware

Queer theory can also refer to a specific subset of gender and human sexuality studies.

The influential work of Judith Butler, particularly Gender Trouble, with its now broadly overused concept of “performative” sexuality and gender identity, seeks to reject stable categories altogether. While thoroughly disruptive of mainstream “truth regimes” of sexuality, it also challenges standard gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, and transgender politics. In Butler's conception, these terms are rendered meaningless when stripped of the institutional means that support them.

Alexander Doty's notion of “queer reception,” in Making Things Perfectly Queer, is another way in which standard categories are challenged. Doty separates “reception” from “identity” and stresses the way a spectator may derive “queer pleasure” by deviating from standard categories in viewing film and television. Thus straight-identified women spectators might experience “queer pleasure” at the sexual tension generated between

Kinsey suggested that heterosexuality and homosexuality represent two ends of a sexual-orientation continuum and that most individuals are neither entirely homosexual nor entirely heterosexual, but fall somewhere along this continuum.

Sociological Perspectives on Sex and Sexuality