Trading On Heterosexuality Analysis

My chosen academic journal article is Contesting silence, claiming space: gender and sexuality in the neo-liberal public high school by Susan W. Woolley. This article examines how educational institutions and its actors introduce and reinforce a heteronormative binary ideology, and reject any non-normativity that may occur. Through this deep-rooted theoretical framework, high school students struggle to freely explore individual interpretations of sexuality and

Through the 1940s-50s, gay bars were a crucial time for the gay community. Gay bars were not just a place for gays and lesbians to go to but it also was a “safe haven” for them because they were be able to be comfortable in their own skin. Homosexual men had more “freedom” to express themselves in public (such as parks, and bars) than homosexual women. The only places that homosexual women could express themselves were at lesbian bars. Lesbian bars enabled them to form their identity, including black lesbians. According to Elizabeth Kennedy and Madeline Davis, in their article “I Could Hardly Wait to Get Back to that Bar,” they define a lesbian bar as “a place where patrons felt relatively safe,” (33). This quote demonstrates the fact that

Kelly transitions into his argument about why hookup culture should be concerning. Referring to his four main factors, he summarizes how each could be potentially harmful, especially to women in college. A lack of commitment takes away the emotions and connection made through physical contact. Future relationships are at risk due to this detachment. Ambiguous language creates a lack of trust between partners, causes classmates to make assumptions, and distorts risks. Alcohol impairs judgement relating to hooking up. This ends up in several undesirable scenarios, including rape and regrettable sex. Lastly, social pressure forces students into the hookup culture. Kelly stresses that there is a severe skewness against women. There is a fine line for them between participating in the culture and being known as a slut. There is a substantial double standard in hookup culture.

Throughout the book, Bogle places particular attention to gender differences. Supporting Bogle’s findings, there is still a double standard for men and women. Participation in the hookup scene is risky for women, while men have few, if any risks. Women who behave too “sexually” in the hookup culture have to recognize that there are repercussions. These repercussions include damaged reputations, being labeled, and being ostracized by peers. Women can get labeled, damage their reputations, or ostracized by having too many partners, hooking up with two guys that know each other well, dressing in a seductive manner, constantly hanging around a fraternity house, or drinking too much.

There are various perceptions of gay and lesbian couples that they represent a more egalitarian relationship. (Civettini 2015:1) However, when same-sex couples are observed there is still a tendency to believe that the relationship contains a masculine and feminine figure following the heterosexual model. So, it is necessary to address both how these couples deviate from society’s norms as gay individuals but might still be reproducing the same behaviors as heterosexual couples because the ideologies are so deeply rooted in social institutions. The stereotypical connotations of masculinity and femininity influence all aspects of American society and gender display relies heavily on meeting those given expectations. So, in the case of this article, the author Civettini views a connection between sex, gender, and sexual orientation when it comes to displaying

In the book American Hookup: The New Culture of Sex on Campus, By Lisa Wade, she addresses the issues and concerns that she sees within the “hookup culture”. Lisa Wade’s book is a mixture of important statistics and personal accounts of what happens in the hookup culture on various college campuses. To define the hookup culture that Wade is addressing, we can look to the book as Lisa defines the hookup culture as essentially casual sex with no strings attached, another sociologist Kathleen Bogle described this as a “new norm” for campuses and that this an be very harmful for women especially (Wade, 2017, p.16). Michael Kimmel a well-known sociologist of masculinity was quoted saying that hooking up is “guys-sex” and that guys run the

In her essay titled “Compulsive Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence,” Adrienne Rich claims that any alternative to heterosexual outcome is discouraged by society. The essay claims that Western tradition has used the heterosexual family model as the basic social

This paper will shed light on the discussion regarding lesbian women. Although LGBTQ+ women’s rights are a subset of the larger women’s rights movement, the broader movement often ignores and under-represents these issues. While this essay explores the lesbian wage premium – the finding that lesbian women make more money than heterosexual women – including its influences and extensive implications on the broader women’s movement, I must note the difficulty in exploring this topic. At this time, the data and literatures regarding LGBTQ+ women are murky and incomplete at best. Working with these limitations, in this paper I will first argue that the lesbian wage premium exists. Then I will draw on previous literature and explore four predominant

Additionally, exclusion is not only the exclusive phenomenon among homosexual and heterosexual people, but also exists between gay men and gay women. For instance, SHE SOHO is a lesbian bar and at the same time the women’s priority venue. The music can be understood to exclude male in the lesbian bar. Such as the word ‘he’ barely exists in the lyrics of lesbian bar’ music. Also, the meaning of exclusiveness shows on the tips before you go. The official website of SHE SOHO describes itself as a modern space for ladies and their male guests. The word ‘guest’ somehow conveys the sense that men are ‘subordinated’ to women in the lesbian clubbing scene. In other words, a gang of the male guest might be refused by the doormen of SHE SOHO, due to

The heterosexual imaginary is immensely ingrained in our everyday experience that most people, including feminist sociologists, has become inclined to conceptualize and theorize based around the heteronormative. The heterosexual imaginary acts as an invisible framework at play that structures our thinking processes and in which constructs our social identity. For instance, the inquiry of a survey taker’s marital status in most social science surveys come to show that our recognized and appropriate social identity is formed around heterosexuality. That is, any deviation from this heterosexual norm would be considered abnormal and be marginalized. To a minimal extent, this focus has served the interests of women because of the lack of activism

As students progress in their studies, they seem to become more comfortable working with or relating closely to homosexuals as compared to their juniors who have high tendencies of being homophobic. For instance, a study of ‘attitudes towards the LGBT community in higher education by Holland, Matthews & Schott (2009) using a survey with a sample of 1768 students in a university in South Eastern United States found that, students in the upper levels exhibit more tolerance towards homosexuality than their first and second year

Going through life as a lesbian is hard; going through high school as a lesbian is nearly impossible. Society's indoctrination of expectations insinuates itself into the subconscious minds of adolescents who

Sexuality is an issue that has been widely discussed and has often been misunderstood by society. It has often been a misconception by members of the heterosexual community that all lesbians want to be men. Through applying common sense, it can be understood why people may think gay women want to be men when looking in on the lesbian community, some lesbians prefer to express themselves and their sexuality through the way they dress and act; their short hair, masculine clothing, wearing no make-up and their macho

The club Emily and I attended was the “Dark Lady”. I have heard of many gay scenes, but not many in providence were lesbian clubs. The Dark Lady has a combination of men and women who are gay and lesbian. Dark Lady has a variety of events going on like karaoke, live bands, and drag shows to name a few, but on the night I went it was just another Saturday. The music was loud, but not blearing, so I could still carry a conversation with Emily. There were groups of people dancing and individuals dancing. Some were hanging by the bar enjoying drinks. Like many I made the assumption that everyone there was gay or lesbian, until I seen a friend of mind that was heterosexual. I then thought to myself it’s silly to assume that everyone in the club might be a part of the LGBTQQ. It’s like saying everyone is a heterosexual bar or club will be straight. I realized that men and women that are gay and lesbian tend to go to a gay or lesbian bar to dance, laugh, and have a good time “without feeling

For my first assignment, I spent two hours observing customers’ interaction in a fancy bar in downtown Toronto. During my observation, I see people chatting, playing their phones and doing make-ups. These are the type of interaction commonly found in a bar. As a space defined by alcohol selling, bars have become the exclusive place where adults find entertainment, socialise with other like-minded people and escape temporarily from the scary world of stress, work, and sometimes, oppression. Lesbian bars are a potential candidate that fulfil all of them. Do lesbian-bar-goers think that lesbian bars are safe shelters? Do they behave or express themselves differently in lesbian bars compared to when they are in other public space because lesbian bars are safer? What are the reasons and meanings behind the ways in which they choose to behave or express themselves? What is the significance of having lesbian bars in their daily lives? I propose to answer these sociological questions through my research. I will also use gender-neutral pronoun to avoid exclusion in this assignment.