Intimacy In Same Sex Relationships

Never be afraid to open up because building walls around who you really are will prohibit you from being free and intimate with the ones you love. Intimacy is imperative to the growth of every human being. Not only is intimacy needed within ourselves as individuals but also in the growth and success of every bond you create with a partner or anyone in your life. Intimacy is the connection and bond between two people in which constant emotions, and psychological behaviors are exchange. Intimacy strengthens a sense of companionship, trust, and support with those we love and also those we are slowly getting to know. The purpose of this paper is to explore intimacy within same sex relationships, and identify any similarities or differences that …show more content…
Based on most of the studies, there more similarities than differences in the way same sex and heterosexual couples disclose intimacy. According to the article, “Intimacy and emotion work in lesbian, gay, and heterosexual relationships”, a major difference between the two types of relationships is that, “Same sex relationships are characterized by more equality in house hold work. They are more likely to view intimacy, boundaries between partners, and work to achieve intimacy in similar way” (Umberson). Since these types of relationships are made up of two people with the same gender, there are less or none feminine or masculine gender roles, which allows them to have equal partake in the chores of the household. The author of that same article also emphasized that, “Men in same sex relationships devoted more work to and experienced more stress from the balancing act of providing emotional space to each other and being self-sufficient while also being keenly aware of each other’s needs and timing the provision of providing emotional support in response to those needs” (Umberson). That is an example of how same sex relationships can be similar to heterosexual relationships because males tend to value a sense of autonomy, control, and independence which makes it stressful and time consuming when dealing with an intimate experience with their …show more content…
Relational dialectics highlights on the tensions that occur in every intimate bond and how through communication those tensions can be solved. In every interpersonal relationship, whether homosexual or heterosexual, there is are times were the relationship is going to go through hard times, so using proper communication is going to be essential in the solving of tensions and will eventually create a stronger intimate between the two people. Hard moments will either break a relationship apart or it will make the bond stronger than it was before. The theory also talks about internal and external dialectics and how those dialectics affect the bond within the two individuals and the couple versus the outside world. The theory also explains how internal and external dialectics affect factors of integration and separation, stability and change, and expressions and non-expression. Intimacy within same sex relationships are affected by all of these factors and the theory helps understand the process of disclosing intimacy partner to partner, but also couple to the community. The last part the theory talks about are the benefits dialogue has in the improvement and development of intimate relationships. Once again this is something that is needed in every relationship no matter how different they might all be to one another. Communication is