Third Sex: Heteronormativity - Term Paper Example

Gender and Sexual Issues Gender and Sexual Issues Question 3 Heteronormativity is referred to as a belief that people belong to different gender in life. The gender roles are believed to have developed naturally. It defines that the only orientation of sex is by heterogeneity, and thus people should be attracted to the opposite sex only. This has been criticized by many people arguing that its expression does not offer self-satisfaction. Heteronormativity is thought to create the hierarchy of sex in the society. It is also thought to be the reason for the different roles played by different genders in the society. The bridesmaid film that was released in 2011 by an American comedian contains some useful incidences on how gender roles have been selected and conserved. From the film, it is evident that Annie who is the main character in the film suffered oppression. It is also clear that her oppression began when she was requested to serve as a maid of honor in her best friend’s wedding. The film shows how women are expected to perform by men in which if they failed they would face rejection (Herdt, 2012). This is evident from Annie’s story when she lost her bakery she faces rejection from his boyfriend. According to the film, it is true t that the norm of the society expects women to be very hard working in certain aspects which is referred to as female masculinity by Halberstam. Additionally, she faces rejection from her friends, and her life turns to be more miserable. However, she does not give up on this but she still finds more ways of survival. Besides, heteronormativity is evident in this scene since only the women have been used in the wedding preparation. It strictly shows that these are gender roles that have been assigned to females by the society. Lilian had only assigned her females friends to plan the order of the events during her wedding ceremony. She also portrays some form of conservative where she tries to reunite her two friends who rarely get well along with each other. Besides that, Conservative which is a belief in the existing of the roles and practices mostly in the traditional societies is also displayed in the film (Connell, 2014). Annie does not give up on anything, and she consistently shows hope in everything she does. Even after they part ways with her best friend, she believes that her relationship with Ted will work out well with her. The aspects of gender roles in the film forced Lillian to choose one of her best female friends to be the maids of honor. She plays a role in bringing the two ladies together Annie and Helen, who are jealous of each other. The bride of the honor plays the role but to some extent she tries to keep Helen away. The life events of Annie’s show a strict control of their occurrences. The order of events follows each other in a way that seemed to be planned. However, the rejection by her boyfriend turned to be beginning of her miserable life because she had to do anything for her and the family. Question 4 Feminist in the United States (US) has been identified to dominate the stereotype of gender among the US women. In many societies in the past women used to face oppression and sexual abuse. However, this was brought to an end by the movement of the pioneer women who used the term “woman” to refer to the general gender of females (Herdt, 2012). There were differences between the middle-class women who were educated and had more aware of the social life. It is argued that these women were treated different from others, and they rarely faced oppression and sexual harassments. It was noted that women faced frustrations in their efforts to be to meet their promises of marriage, motherhood, and domesticity. The less fortunate women who lacked social awareness were usually forced to leave their children and end up in homes of the rich white women to take care of their premises. The society believed that white women were the representatives of the lives of other black women in the society. The third wave in the US is thought to be associated with issues of gender, race, discrimination and sexual orientation. However among the whites in the US an approach that interrelates gender and the racial discrimination among women were developed. This was entirely meant to serve as a protection against sexual abuse among women. Therefore, it is clear that the social control of the whites in the US was not properly governed and concentrated more on the rich and white women. Africans Americans way of social and rape among women operated in a different perspective as compared to the whites. The rape among the black’s women began as a form of slavery which was began by the dark men. It was a form of humiliation and shame to the affected. The most affected victims of rape were the domestic workers, agricultural workers and women who did not have families by then. There were painful experiences as the white men went around the village hunting for the black girls (Connell, 2014). It was noted that the overseers of the time were thought to have more interest in the light skinned girls. In most cases, their mothers used to exchange them for extra cash or food to help move on with life. In the African American societies immorality was more widespread due to the harsh economic times they usually experienced. In this particular society, gender had a racial face that separated people in the structure of a social organization. In cases where African men were found to harass white women sexually they used to face harsh treatment and in sometimes they were castrated. The harassed women were threatened and, therefore, were forced to remain silent without expressing themselves. Additionally it was found that the rape victims among the African Americans had very tough experiences, and this was attributed to lack of policies governing the lives of women. Women oppression of this group took place for quite a long period compared to the whites in the US. Therefore, they lived in a society of fear and frustrations, and this continued to weaken the dreams of the young girls to becoming great people in the society. According to Angela, in recent years black women have raised their voice. They have developed a defined standpoint of the black womanhood. These are approached that have been used to eliminate racial discrimination and oppression among women. Question 5 Rape- prone culture refers to a society in which sexual harassment is prevalent. It entails norms and practice that reduce the rape cases, and they sometimes propagate sexual abuse. In this type of culture, the most common types of sexual abuse are sexual assault, stalking and sexual violence (Herdt, 2012). The culture also possesses a lot of myths and misconceptions about sex that are distributed everywhere in the media. The sex perpetrators in most of the time go unpunished neither are they held accountable. More so, the rape victim possesses a lot of fear, and they fail to report such incidences. However, even in the cases where the victims report no action is taken, but they face criticism and isolation. The culture has elements that show that rape cases just do not occur separately but influenced by other factors. The rate of sexual assaults in women is relatively higher compared to men. It is argued that in such a society one out of ten men and one out four women are likely to experience sexual assaults in their lifetime. Some of the myths associated with this type of culture include; rape occurs on bad women only, most women enjoy the act of rape, men are usually incited by women to rape them, rape should only be in the young and attractive girls. According to Sanday, the rape prone culture is prevalent in the US this due to the scholarly articles that have been released from many campuses at the US. This has been attributed to the control of socialization pertaining male sexual dominance. A study conducted showed that 55.7% of the males at the university received sexual satisfaction through verbal means. This was made through either by; falling in love falsely, threatening to break up the relationships if the sexual needs are not met and telling lies to the victims so that they can develop more urge for sex. Another report showed that almost 40% of men used drugs and alcohol so as to be able to obtain sex easily. A high percentage was also reported having been forced to have sex while on drugs. Sanday argued that according to the case studies conducted sexual aggression is not only based on fraternities but also the sexist attitude had a long history in societies of the west. She added that there were pieces of evidence of males who reject women for failure to offer them sex and, therefore, it was not right to blame the fraternities solely (Herdt, 2012). There were also some cases of women being raped by a gang in the case study. She blamed the university fraternity for the symbolic use of women as sex objects. Sandays study also revealed how rape is perpetuated in different societies. The media was found to play a great role in promoting the growth of the rape –prone culture. This was mainly through discussing of the stories about the sexual assaults committed by criminals. Many of the media sources were found to positively support the offenders and thus encouraging more into the act. Additionally, most men possessed a very negative attitude that they found themselves to be very superior and, therefore, behaved in hostile forms against women. She strongly criticized this behavior on the basis that rape culture is harmful to everyone member of the society. It is an act that violates human rights and, therefore, should be researched carefully to eliminate the ideologies of the affected societies. References Connell, R. W. (2014). Gender and power: Society, the person and sexual politics. John Wiley & Sons. Herdt, G. (2012). Third sex, Third gender–Beyond Sexual Dimorphism in Culture and History. Read More