The Beginnings of Race, Culture, and Sexuality in Colonialism - Essay Example

?The Beginnings of Race, Culture, and Sexuality in Colonialism As we slowly progress into the 21st century, most members of our society tend to view themselves as racially, culturally, and sexually progressive in more ways than one. There is a slowly emerging openness about one's sexuality and how it relates to his race and culture in the modern era. While the evolution of discussions pertaining to race, culture, and sexuality seem to be progressing quite rapidly in the 21st century, Our readings in class tend to disprove that theory. Mainly because the discussions of such experts as Foucault remind us that for most people, we still live in the Victorian era which meant that anything taboo, such as sex between partners and other relevant discussions, our society still refuses to open up seriously about the discussion. Opting instead to continue with the ancient beliefs of man which traces its roots back to the beginning of race, culture, and sexuality. In terms of Foucaults argument, we can see that as a modern society, we still consider certain topics such as discussions about sex, a taboo topic and therefore, should not be discussed in public. Pretty much like it was for most couples during the Victorian era. We still live by the mindset that children should not be allowed to hear sexual discussions simply because the children are not having sex. But these days, the children are exposed early on to the topic of sexuality and gender. Yet we refuse to let them partcipate in the discussion because we have managed to carry over the Victorian mindset throughout the generations, culminating in the taboo discussion of our modern era. It is however nice to see that just like in the Victorian era, there are quite a number of 21st century experts who are opting to help open the minds of people pertaining to the matters or gender, race, and sexuality as it applies to the 21st century generation. The link between the Victorian era beliefs pertaining to the morality and virtue of the society still exists in our era. However, we are slowly coming out of this recessive argument in order to create a deeper understanding of sexuality in terms of the sexual act and its relation to gender role acceptance. With over three centuries of social transformation, I will have to say that we have move quite slowly and as such, have a society whose beliefs about race, culture, and sexuality during colonial times can still find itself going strong. We are still held back by the Victorian era beliefs that any discussion pertaining to sexuality, race, and gender must be addressed within the relationship of the couple rather than openly discussing it in order to achieve an acceptable end result. The Victorian era represented a time of going back to the privacy and elegance of previous eras. Prior to this era, our society was openly crude and under educated, characteristics which, at the time proved to be beneficial to creating a more mature society where no topic was taboo and cultural sensitivity began to find its footing. By bringing the sense of privacy into the discussion and requiring society to become more respectable by setting ground rules for certain discussions, we unwittingly set the standards by which our modern day society works. In fact, the experiences of Victorian era society could be considered to be a throwback to the time of Christopher Colombus when women were seen as the mother of the planet. A cosmic breath from whom the infant males yearn to feed on her warmth and love. This era fed the imagination of the people with open images of men and women cavorting in sexual pleasure pretty much similar to the era before the Victorian dawn. This was the era of the porno - tropic traditions that lay the basis and foundation for the pornographic minds and stories that now exist. With women of the era being portrayed as more sexually active and needy than men, we can see that very little has changed in our modern times when considering the story basis for most female sexual fantasies as worked out in various forms of modern sexual and gender based literature. However, this particular time in the history of men and women was about more than just the acceptble form of social structure for everyone, it was also about women slowly coming to realize that they have more to offer their male partners than just sex. The seeds of female empowerment found itself being planted in this era. However, the conquest of the race and gender still depended upon how society depicted the sexes. The seeds of female empowerment that were being planted then found itself coming to an abrupt halt as artistic depictions showed that men viewed conquests as an extension of themslves. Which is why men have the right to rule society and women, the land, her body, and the results of the rule over her land. Such depictions of the female and her contirbutions to society have fed the debate pertaining to the roles of men and women in our society. Should only one gender rule over society or should both genders be allowed to lead at a given point in time? The answers to that question will amaze you. Due to the influence of early schools of thought pertaining to gender roles and capacities, it turns out that we are feeding upon the traditional depictions of gender and society in a controlled environment. What amazes me about the historical discussions of race, gender, and sexuality, is that the issues that had to be dealt with back then have either not changed or changed very little in the 21st century when looked at from the perspective of a modern person. Apparently, the discussions about sexuality and gender are still quite explosive topics in our modern era while the issue of race was best dealt with due to the continuing changes in the platform and guidelines by which the issue of race can be politically, economically, and socially discussed amongst the participants. The discussions pertaining to the relevance of sexuality and art are topics that find themselves heavily present in the race to discuss the rate of change and development in the understanding of our development as a society. As such, it would seem that historically, all matters pertaining to the gender, sexuality, and race of people has been a topic for debate and cultural reform for far longer than our memories would actually permit us to remember. It is a topic that finds itself at the center of societal discourse from the time of the early Europeans and their sexual experimentation, all the way to our 20th century discourses which allowed for the presentation of new schools if thought in terms of race, gender, and sexuality. Colonies such as America served as the experimental platforms where various theories were presented to society for either acceptance or rejection. Women and the African American race found themselves at the beginning of a radical racial change from which there would be no turning back for them. Time allowed the conquerors to develop their social boundaries that would either be acceptable or taboo for their society. It is important to note that because of these continuously changing beliefs about society, colonial conventions found itself constantly challenged and evolving in an era or platform that prided itself in being a “laboratory of modernity”. Racism is one of the cornerstones of the discussion of the nineteenth century. As European conquerors crossed hemispheres and claimed land in the name of their queen, the White Europeans came to become the masters of race. Turning the natives of the land they conquered into slaves based upon their race and gender, it became apparent that the history of sexuality for man relies on a racist and gender based undertone. . Each country that was conquered was viewed as a woman to be possessed. Lands were feminized in order to make it easier to overcome the land and empower the men who, by tradition tended to view the women and riches of the land lustfully and with a sense of paranoia as they begin to realize that not everything that they sought to possess could become theirs. Quite similar in fashion to the way that our modern society finds that there are still men who view women as possessions rather than equals in society. As such, these types of opposition to the growth of gender, race, and sexual discussions within the social boundaries tend to hamper the intellectual evolution of man based upon a deeper understanding of the sexuality, gender, and racial requirements of women stemming from the early 17th century. Studying the history of gender, racial, and sexual evolution from the Victorian era onwards serves to give us an insight into the development of an empowered society. It is interesting to see how much our society has changed for the betterment of the discussion pertaining to gender, race, and sexuality while still managing to retain some significant amount of bias tracing all the way back to the 17th century societal beliefs and customs. At the end of these readings I came to the conclusion that the problems pertaining to gender, race, and sexuality are not topics that find themselves embedded solely in our recent history as a people. Rather, it is a discussion that served to create the basis for the modern society that we have because of the evolution of information stemming from the intellectual, psychological, and social development of man throughout the centuries. Various experts will have their own opinions as to the discussion of the historical relevance of discussions on gender, race, and sexuality over time. These points of view will slowly find itself merging with the traditional discussions relating to the issue and slowly find itself emerging as a new school of thought with a deeper understanding of the relevance of such sexual discussions. Historically, these modern ideologies will combine in order to create a new continuation relevant to the historical arguments presented by professionals before them. Read More