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Hannah Schneider / GSWS 0550 Midterm Exam

2.
The relationships between sexuality and gender are vastly intertwined; occasionally so
much that sexuality and gender are confused or mistaken for one another. This is because often
times, individuals communicate their sexuality through their gender, and their gender through
their sexuality. Different gender identities have different social expectations of communicating
their sexuality.
As stated previously, sexuality and gender are greatly intertwined in our highly socialized
world. In his piece The Invention of Sexuality, Jeffery Weeks explains, stating, There clearly
is a close relationship between the organization of gender and sexuality. Sexuality is constituted
in a highly gendered world, (41). In other words, gender and sexuality are tied closely together,
since sexuality is created and practiced within a very gender-focused society. This doesnt mean
that any individuals sexual orientation can be assumed primarily based off their gender identity
rather, that it is important to acknowledge the relationships between gender and sexuality to
help understand how they are communicated through one another.
There are a few widely accepted ways (primarily speaking in terms of Western society)
that sexuality is portrayed through gender. For example: the typical self-identified straight man in
Western society projects their sexuality largely through heterosexual masculinity. This means
that so long as a man displays a continuous presentation of masculinity in his behavior, he will
convey himself as straight. According to James J. Deans piece, Straight Men, typical practice
involves, acting in ways that are openly sexist or belittling of women and femininity, (246).
In this way, these men publicly declare a masculine gender identity by ridiculing what they are
not: feminine. Since femininity plus a male gender identity is often equated to homosexuality,
publicly belittling femininity secures a masculine gender identity, and therefore heterosexuality.
Heterosexual masculinity can further impact other gender identities and sexual
orientations. Going back to Weeks piece The Invention of Sexuality, its stated, [Sexual
desire] ispursued, recast and reformulated by menWe look at the world through our
concepts of male sexuality so that even when we are not looking at male sexuality as such we are
looking at the world within its framework of reference. (41) Basically, sexual desire and
expectation on a societal scale is largely maintained by male sexuality. Male sexuality is
prioritized, and therefore becomes the main framework that sexuality is viewed within.
Viewing sexuality through this framework impacts the sexual expression of other
genders. Some women are more comfortable expressing flexibility in their sexuality, as
explained in Nicole LaMarres piece Sexual narratives of straight women. She says,
[Researchers] have shown that women are likely to engage in an extensive array of sexual
behaviorssome of which transcend categorization [of sexuality], (254). Feminine genders
tend to be less strict and competitive than men in terms of their sexuality, since they have no
need to prove their feminine identity. As stated by the Boston Womens Health collective, The
roles of submission and aggression [disappear], (32). However, this autonomy is limited
through the framework of male sexuality. The BWHC explains this further: [Women are]
always so busy setting the limits and holding off this powerful sexuality coming from [men], that
we never get a chance to explore our own, (19). In short, men profit from feminine gender
characteristics such as passiveness, since competitiveness with weaker orientations helps them to
reinforce heterosexual masculinity. However, this process also prevents women from practicing
or exploring their sexuality.
Sexuality and gender greatly influence one another in definition and practice, and often
times they can be performed through one another. Different expectations of communicating
sexuality for different genders are able to influence both similar and different orientations.

3.
Scientists have always been intrigued with the human body sexologists in particular are
intrigued by the mysteries surrounding sex. Beginning in the 19th century, sexologists showed
particular interest in uncovering questions surrounding different sexual practices. Medical
approaches to sexuality are used to regulate and reproduce societal sexual norms and condemn
sexual deviance, narrowing our tolerance to anything deemed abnormal.
The medical field has often been a tool for social control. This idea is explained P.J.
McGanns piece, Healing Disorderly Desire: Medical-Therapeutic Regulations of Sexuality.
Medical social control can be used to increase conformity to sexual norms, even if deviance
isnt necessarily unnatural (e.g. heterosexuality being deemed as the norm and homosexuality
being condemned). This often leads to a biologically reductionist understanding (McGann,
429) of sexuality: analyzing sexuality in terms of possible biological benefits (e.g. reproduction).
If stripped from its social context and containing no biological benefits, sexual deviance is
commonly condemned. However, deviance is not always strictly based off science, as McGann
explains, the declassification of homosexuality as a mental disorder in response to social and
political developments outside psychiatry is the example par excellence that disease categories
rest on more than scientific facts, (430). Here, medicalization is used as a form of purposeful
ignorance to condemn sexual behaviors not widely accepted by society.
In a mostly male-dominated profession, male sexual health is prioritized, leaving women
and intersex communities uninformed of their own sexual health. As stated by the Boston
Womens Health Collective: Doctors blatant ignorance about sex stands in stark contradiction
to the fact that they are considered the only legitimate person to consult about any sexual
problem[he] cannot understand that his own ignorance and arrogance are the epitome of male
chauvinism, (8). In other words, prioritizing male sexual health creates a cycle of ignorance
surrounding womens health. Women seek medical advice about their sexuality, and doctors,
often being completely ignorant toward the subject, cant even begin to recognize that the reason
why they know nothing about womens sexuality is because they are biased toward male
sexuality. In this instance, medicalization of sexuality creates and aura of ignorance around
womens understanding of sexuality.
Sexology as a medical profession has a conflicting history. According to Medicine and
the Making of a Sexual Body by Celia Roberts, early European sexologists were a group of
scientists with clashing political agendas. Some wanted to use sexology to change society;
others thought sexology should be a pure and nonpolitical science, (69). Roberts also says that
because of these sexologists, contemporary sexualities have been formed in relation to the
production of medical and scientific knowledge, (68). In other words, even if early sexologists
didnt use sexology for biased political means, it still had an impact on the way we perceive
contemporary sexualities. Understanding sexuality thus becomes dependent on medicalization,
which can be problematic if someone demonstrates sexual deviance. Roberts says, [We] are
likely to consider them sickwe seek explanations of their behaviors and feelings from
medicine and psychiatry, and may well provide them with medical treatments, (67). This idea is
further reinforced by Thomas J Gerschick in his piece, The Body, Disability, and Sexuality,
where he says, researchers maintain that to have a less-normative bodyis not so much a
physical condition as it is a social and stigmatized one, (76). Here its shown that historically,
medicalization encourages ignorance by treating sexual deviance as physical instead of social.
Medicalization has had a useful place in society when studying the human body.
However, a medical approach to sexuality can be problematic when failing to recognize biases.
Medicalization largely contributes to ignorance in terms of understanding human sexuality.

4.
Many places in Western society have become a sort of melting pot of communities
large varying amounts of cultures, religions, abilities, appearances, skin tones, races, etc.
Specifically in terms of race, what impacts do these vast human variations have on sexuality?
Different racial communities have different expectations of normal sexuality from society, and
racial stereotypes often influence the perception of these expectations.
A piece of anecdotal evidence that shows a direct correlation between race and sexuality
is detailed in an account of a black man named Jason in James J. Deans piece Straight Men. It
says, Race is always central in the construction of Jasons heterosexual masculinity. He says
that his black racial identity positions him within an array of racial stereotypes that convey a
secure, straight identityhis black racial identity carries a sense of exaggerated masculinity and
therefore heterosexuality, (248-249). In short, Jason takes advantage of the stereotypes that
accompany black racial identities, such as a strong sense of masculinity. In this way, racial
masculinity reinforces his heterosexuality.
In contrast to Jason, white men dont have the benefit of relying on racial stereotypes to
secure their heterosexuality. A white racial identity is most often perceived as much less
aggressive than a black racial identity. Therefore, instead of relying on racial stereotypes, white
men, [act] in ways that are openly sexist or belittling of women and femininity, (Dean, 246).
In this way, a gendered dichotomy is created between black and white racial identities. This is
articulated well in the piece Scientific Racism and the Emergence of the Homosexual Body by
Siobhan Somerville: stereotypesused a simple analogy between race and gender in order to
understand [desire]: black was to white as masculine was to feminine, (261). Because of this,
black men dont have to rely on the same methods of sexism that white men commonly practice
to validate their heterosexuality instead, they can rely on the stereotype of blackness equating
to masculinity to validate their heterosexuality.
Racial stereotypes have been used in attempt to explain abnormal sexual behavior. In
the piece The Body, Disability, and Sexuality, Thomas J. Gerschick explains, Given the large
amount of human variationand the array of expectations and standards, the body must be
framed in terms of degrees of normativity There are many ways in which a body can be less
normative. Characteristics such as race, ethnicityand skin color predominate, (76). In other
words, any given race has a certain normal expectation for their body and sexuality. For
instance, Somerville details an account studied by Margaret Otis in 1913, where students at allgirls institutions regularly participated in widespread interracial homosexual behaviors. [She]
noted that the girls incorporated racial difference into courtship rituals self-consciously patterned
on traditional gender roles, (261). The white girls assumed the role of a typically feminine
character, while the black girls assumed the role of a typically masculine character, and either
party treated each other as such. In this way, two tabooed sexualities miscegenation and
homosexuality became linked in sexological and psychological discourse through the model of
abnormal sexual object choice, (260). Here, race is used to explain an abnormal sexual
behavior: because masculine was to feminine as black was to white, it was understandable to
Otis why girls of different races were frequently participating in homosexual behaviors. Hence,
racial masculinity communicated homosexuality.
Societys perceptions of normal sexuality often differ depending on the race of any
particular individual. Racial stereotypes may reinforce different sexualities or, in the absence of
racial stereotypes, individuals may have to rely on other methods to reinforce their sexuality. In
this way, sexuality is communicated through race.

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