Heteronormativity

Secondary Characters no more In their performances my classmates brought secondary characters to life in three different ways. The first way was to have multiple speakers, such as in Pear and Sheridan’s performance, therefore dividing the number of characters that each had to portray. The second was to have a stand-in character bring a role to life that might have otherwise been dismissed; this was evident in Stacy’s performance. The third was to change the point of view of the story, thereby…

The pervasiveness of media in the recent years has brought about serious discussion regarding media representations of various groups. There is no question that media affects the way its audience view a particular reality that is presented. As Molloy said, “the media has a huge opportunity and responsibility to shape culture” (1). This is evident in media’s queer representation, which has evolved over time. Gone are the days when queer characters on television and films were a rarity. Queer…

While many today agree that gender can be expressed in a variety of ways which need not conform to particular physiologies, sex is still often conceived as some sort of natural, essential truth about a person's body. However, just as “gender” is defined by sociologists as a socially constructed set of meanings given to the identities and behaviours that individuals perform, the concept of “sex” cannot be divorced from cultural context. Sociologists reject that biology and science are not…

Microaggressions are verbal or behavioral indignities that communicate hostile, negative insults towards a marginalized group of people, and these indignities can be either intentional or unintentional (Sue 271). Microaggressions can either be demonstrated verbally through insults or non-verbally through behaviors and actions, and the person committing them often fails to notice that they are enforcing a stigma. Although these microaggressions seem to be harmless, minor comments or actions, they…

almost impossible for the viewer, despite knowing Brandon’s original sex, to regard Brandon as anything but male. Artfully shot, Peirce always maintains Brandon’s “maleness”. The film therefore challenges assumptions of heteronormativity: “The most basic assumption of heteronormativity is that gender is naturally ascribed, natural, and immutable” (Cooper, B.…

“Patriarchy is a social system in which males hold primary power, predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege, and control of property.” From the depths of a patriarchal society, feminist jurisprudence emerged in an attempt to rectify the harms that resulted from such a system. However, such an overt sense of patriarchy no longer exists in 21st Century America; in order to accommodate to current knowledge regarding gender, classical feminist jurisprudence…

are only fitting between people of opposite sexes. Therefore, a "heteronormative" interpretation is one that involves configuration of biological gender identity and gender roles, sex and sexuality (Lovaas, Karen, and Mercilee, 2008). Thus, heteronormativity leads towards a kind of society that assuming people as what society wish to be, rather than letting people being whoever they want to be, as unique being in this world (Wygant, 2015). The Social conception is paralyzing people from their…

women inferior to men; they are underrepresented, there are stereotypical representations of women (women being overly dependent and submissive to men), and stereotypical relationships between men and women (women are there to enforce the mans heteronormativity). According to Wood, most of the media portrays the women in the relationship as serving the man and only being there to help him and cater to his needs. It paints the picture that the main goal in a women’s life is to get married, and…

The inclusion of queer identities into mainstream cultural productions involve the cultural subordination of homosexuality to heterosexuality through the reconstitution of queerness in a hetero image. The Kids Are All Right and The Fosters contribute to this subordination by projecting heterosexual gender roles onto an otherwise queer relationship. Their relationships replicate heterosexual patterns in normative structural terms and masculine and feminine roles (Hammock 2009). The gender…

Growing up, when children had to go to the doctor, they may have felt anxiety and fear –perhaps due to vaccinations—as they grow older those emotions tend to fade away. However, for some groups of patients, those emotions still thrive; for completely different reasons. The patients that are being specifically referred to are transgendered. In the United States it’s observed to have become more accepting towards the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Community through marriage laws…