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Gender
A common misconception people have
is that gender equals sex. That all men are of the male sex and al women of the female Gender.. Genetics and
a combination of chromosomes is what makes a female (XX) or a male (XY).
Gender on the other hand is more complex and controversial. There are
nature/nurture issues connected to gender. Some say Gender is based on
biological differences, others say it is a learned behavior, learned from our
families and the societies in which one lives. Yet there are others who say
it’s a combination of both.
Gender is a way of being, it is
the way we act in society. The way in which we dress, speak, walk, sit, and
relate to others. Do we act out a more feminine role, or a more masculine role? How do these
differences in behavior contribute to a women’s oppression in society and in
their relationships with men? How do these differences contribute to the
oppression of those playing a feminine role in other less traditional
settings, communities and relationships, such as those of the gay and lesbian
community?
If we were to accept the belief
that Gender is due to biology, then the treatment of men and women would have
to be different. For example, men are testosterone driven, and more likely to
cheat, if this is due to biology, then there should be more understanding
towards men. On the other hand women who cheat should then have more sever
consequences, since it is not what is natural for them. Obviously this
perception of Gender is problematic in that it aids in the suppression of
women.
On the
other hand, if we accept the argument that Gender is learned, that it is
acted, and that is a result of socialization, we can then work on making it
less oppressive for those who fit the female Gender.
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Sexuality
Pat Breen
(Tony's Restaurant)
Houston, Texas
Janet Aiello
(Police Officer)
Hoboken, New
Jersey
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Sexuality
The lesbian identity is on a continuum, there is a
wide range of ways for one to identify as a lesbian. Not all lesbians feel comfortable with
the present vocabulary for identification. Here are some of the labels that are currently being used
in the lesbian community.
Lesbian:
A
woman who loves other women, emotionally, spiritually, and physically; a
woman identified woman.
Butch:
A butch is a woman who favors
masculine style in, clothing, hair, mannerisms and interests. It is the gendered aspect of the
lesbian identity. They are the
“visible” lesbians.
Femme:
A lesbian, who fits the normal
feminine role, embraces the “femme” identity and sometimes views it as
separate from lesbian identity.
Femme’s are sometimes accused of trying to “pass” in the straight
world because they are “invisible” lesbians.
These are all labels that
have been placed for women to find a way to identify. These however do not correlate to who
they will date. It is a myth that
butch women only like femme women.
It is very individual as to what type of person each is attracted
to. Many butch women identify as
women but for lack of better words are masculine. They are expressing a different way to
be women. These labels are being
used so that the “heterosexual norm” can have a way to identify people
who are different. The
butch-femme roles that society has placed on lesbian relationships are
assuming that homosexuals have to emulate heterosexual
relationships. Heterosexual roles
are based on oppression, hierarchy and polarization. Basing butch-femme roles on lesbians
reinforces the inequality of a binary idea. Portraying lesbians as the masculine/feminine dichotomy
continues to emphasize the differences and hierarchy in a relationship
that is not equal. Why do all
people have to fit into one of two rigid categories? Society will continue to label and
group people until we realize that each person is unique and has a
particular identity all to his or her self.
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1950's Bar Culture
Elen
DeGeneres
(Comedian)
Kauai,
Hawaii
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Jennifer
Miller
(Performance Artist)
New York NYC
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Rosie O'Donnell
and Parker O'Donnell
(Comedian
and Her son)
New York
city
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The
1950’s Bar Culture
The 1950’s was a time which redefined lesbianism
and which brought to light the butch identity. In A Restricted
Country by Joan Nestle she states that “butch-femme couples
embarrassed other lesbians (and still do) because they made lesbians
culturally visible, a terrifying act for the 1950’s” (Nestle, 93). At
the time, the idea of butch-femme relationships was difficult for
society to handle because it made visible their sexuality. The women
who participated in butch-fem relationships were looked down upon
because people often thought that they were just trying to imitate
heterosexual relationships in which there is a feminine and a
masculine. They also thought that their sexual relationship mirrored
the male-powered heterosexual relationships of the time but “the
commitment to please each other was totally different from that in
heterosexual relationships in which the woman existed to please the
man” (Nestle, 96).
In articles from the 1950’s, butch women were
depicted to hunt down feminine women and forcefully make them
participate in lesbian relationships, “In accordance with sexist
ideology, masculinity is equated with aggression, and femininity is
linked to passivity, ignorance and spinelessness. Any woman who does
not display ‘ideal’ feminine characteristics is defined as mannish or a
‘third sex’ and not a woman at all, and any feminine-looking woman who
has sex with other women is assumed to have been seduced or tricked,
rather than having acted out of free will” (Campbell, 131). She also
states that “a clear distinction in made between ‘active’ lesbians, who
are aggressive, and ‘mannish’ in appearance, and ‘passive’ lesbians,
who are more traditionally feminine in appearance” (<<Campbell>>,
130). The article then goes on to explain that “journalists did not
accept that feminine-looking women could be lesbians at all. These
femme or ‘passive’ lesbians were said to be more easily ‘cured’ or
restored heterosexuality than ‘mannish’ lesbians” (<<Campbell>>,
131).
Women
who participated in butch/fem relationships were never viewed with
respect because “femme women were not seen as ‘real’ lesbians, butch
women were not seen as ‘real’ women” (<<Campbell>>,
131). Why would their gender have such a large affect on the way that
their sex and sexuality is identified by others? It is not acceptable
that a femme woman’s sexuality is discredited because she is feminine
while a butch woman’s sex is discredited simply because she is
masculine. “This explains why femme lesbians were not considered ‘real’
lesbians; lesbianism was seen to be primarily about gender, rather than
about sexuality” (<<Campbell>>,
131).
The 1950’s was a very difficult time
for gay men and lesbians. Often, men and women would seek support and a
sense of community at bars and other secluded group situations because
their lifestyle was incredibly taboo. There were certain ways of enforcing
this homophobia as well as sexism and patriarchy such as the 3 garment
rule which the police used to harass butch women “as butch-femme
communities proliferated in the 1940’s and 1950’samidst a social
climate of State-sanctioned homosexual intolerance, butch/femme bars
and clubs were subject to police raids and butches were routinely
stripped and raped by cops under the pretense of enforcing a state law
requiring a female to wear at least three items of women’s clothing
(Maltz, 10).
Often,
gender is substituted for sexuality. This is problematic for two
reasons: the first being that they are not one in the same, they are
actually two different entities within individuals. Gender is socially
constructed and defined depending on the period in which one lives, the
individual as well as the society. On the other hand sexuality is
defined by the people that one prefers to have sexual and/or emotional
relationships with. “A more
understandable reason than effeminophobia, however, is the conceptual
need of the gay movement to interrupt a long tradition of viewing
gender and sexuality as continuous and collapsible categories- a
tradition of assuming that anyone, male or female, who desires a man
must by definition be feminine, and that anyone, male or female, who
desires a woman must by the same token be masculine” (Warner, 72). This
explains the second reason why this idea is problematic. This leaves no
room for femme lesbians and masculine gay men to have any space in
society.
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