Although homosexuality’s existence no doubt preceded scientific or academic scrutiny, its study and differentiation from heterosexuality emerged at the same time as boundaries of black and white bodies were being studied. In the Jim Crow segregation era, relationships between two people of the same sex would already be troublesome, but two women of different races, would be especially alarming. The existence of race within sexuality, and vice versa, amplified the other’s presence more.
Through the 19th and 20th century, the examination of sexuality morphed from the analysis of physiology to peoples’ object of choice. According to Siobhan Somerville, many people did not even define what homosexuality was before the late 1800s (243). As Halperin writes, the Greeks did not label or identify people by their object choice and many people assumed most men were capable of being sexually aroused by men and boys. They did not yet define themselves by their sexual preferences and did not consider discrete categories of people who only liked certain qualities. It seemed like “sexuality” was not even a consideration in …show more content…
As Somerville says, “women’s genitalia and reproductive anatomy held a valuable and presumably visual key to ranking bodies according to norms of sexuality” (253). Therefore, just as black women were inverts, so were lesbians. A consistent myth in the characterization of the bodies of African-American women and lesbians was the myth about an unusually large clitoris. These descriptions fueled sexual and racial ideologies of the 19th century “Cult of True Womanhood” and promoted ideas that white women were sexually pure and had “imprisoned” clitorises, while African women’s large clitorises demonstrated their “sexual accessibility”
Through the 19th and 20th century, the examination of sexuality morphed from the analysis of physiology to peoples’ object of choice. According to Siobhan Somerville, many people did not even define what homosexuality was before the late 1800s (243). As Halperin writes, the Greeks did not label or identify people by their object choice and many people assumed most men were capable of being sexually aroused by men and boys. They did not yet define themselves by their sexual preferences and did not consider discrete categories of people who only liked certain qualities. It seemed like “sexuality” was not even a consideration in …show more content…
As Somerville says, “women’s genitalia and reproductive anatomy held a valuable and presumably visual key to ranking bodies according to norms of sexuality” (253). Therefore, just as black women were inverts, so were lesbians. A consistent myth in the characterization of the bodies of African-American women and lesbians was the myth about an unusually large clitoris. These descriptions fueled sexual and racial ideologies of the 19th century “Cult of True Womanhood” and promoted ideas that white women were sexually pure and had “imprisoned” clitorises, while African women’s large clitorises demonstrated their “sexual accessibility”