Heteronormativity

could relate to. I was an avid reader, reading two or three books a day at times before moving on to the next thing. Yet these stories always kept to familiar archetypes when it came to romance--most plainly, amongst the stereotypes, being the heteronormativity of the texts. It was disheartening as someone who lacked the resources to understand myself, yet I now understand why my evenings spent scouring the library for a relatable character left me empty handed. People write what they know. It…

Intersectionality is an outline that recognizes the interlocked nature of social identities and systems of oppression. It recognizes that individuals hold multiple identities and that these identities intersect to shape their experiences of privilege and oppression within society. Intersectionality highlights someone's experience of discrimination or privilege that isn't solely determined by one aspect of their identity but is influenced by the combination of various social factors such as race,…

The law, as constructed by the state, creates a system of rules that we recognise instinctively as regulating our behaviour and defining what is right and what is wrong. The law is not necessarily linked with equity, yet in general society tends to view what is legal as that which is moral, decent and legitimate. Law regulates individual behaviours and identities by encouraging us to manage ourselves and to live our lives in particular ways (Stychin 2003, 4). That which is not supported or…

Throughout the history of activism within the LGBT+ community, there has been a common goal to promote openness and acceptance. By employing a strategy modeled after the civil rights movement, which mainly focused on assimilation into the dominant institutions as a means of acceptance, activist groups have received their fair share of criticism. In 1997, Cathy J Cohen, a Black lesbian author and social activist, published the groundbreaking article “Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens: The…

World For my creative fan reflection, I have decided to make a Twine text-based dating simulator that critiques both the inferior treatment of consumers who falls outside the accepted straight-white male demographic as well as the structures of heteronormativity that have become so pervasive and normalized within the framework of the current videogames industry. To address this message, I have attempted to design a medium that possesses the ability to highlight the concerning existence of this…

Praxis Report Introduction The Journal of Homosexuality is devoted to scholarly research on homosexuality, including sexual practices and gender roles in their cultural, historical, interpersonal, and modern social contexts. In addition to research on human sexuality, articles in the journal also explore the political, social, and moral implications of research on human sexuality. A few of the following goals the Journal of Homosexuality has it to serve as a scholarly source of materials for…

Identity is a person 's sense of self-awareness. The terms “gender” and “sex” are often used interchangeably, however, the two words have significantly different definitions. Sex can be argued to refer to the biological essentialism and the idea that we are who we are because of our genetics. On the other hand, gender is associated with the social constructionist theory, presented by Jeffrey Weeks, arguing that the way we are depends on our race, class, and sexuality. Every individual is…

Gender roles and performance are often the first visual cues many people have when meeting another person. This seems to have been a primary concern for many young gay men in Lawrence and Ames. Members of society discovering they are queer based on their appearance and mannerisms. In Lawrence a young gay man wrote a coming-out story in the Vortex that discussed his struggle not only with homosexuality but with his effeminacy. He said for many people it was his rejection of masculinity that…

The disunion of a people in public places isn’t new, as a matter a fact it’s over two hundred years old, and has always been justified as a solution to separating ‘superiors’ white cisgender men from the people deemed ‘inferior’ by them. In the Jim Crow era, African Americans had to use separate water fountains, lunch counters, and bathrooms than whites in Southern states. The reason for this was, according to journalist Katy Steinmetz, because many white southerners believed that African…

status debunks systematic oppression resulting in varying forms of oppression. Wall Street is meticulous when it comes to its image of investment bankers who must exemplify qualities of “global capitalism” which is synonymous with one’s pedigree, heteronormativity and race. This unstated standard based on uncontrollable idiosyncrasies is seen as the mark of globalization which Wall Street uses to recruit future investment bankers. There is an underlying sense of nepotism that dominates Wall…