Understanding Homosexuality and Its Representation

The assignment explores the complexities of homosexuality, its representation in literature, and the social implications of its acceptance or rejection. It delves into the historical and contemporary attitudes toward homosexuality, the importance of a kiss as a social indicator, and the psychological impact of attempting to change one's sexual orientation. The document also examines the role of literature in shaping societal views on homosexuality and provides an overview of the key concepts related to sexual orientation.

Critical Essay- Assessment 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS
CRITICAL ESSAY.........................................................................................................................1
3 "How are the gender and sexual identities of young people shown to intersect with other
aspects of their lives, including where they live, their position within a social hierarchy,
cultural practices and traditions, ethnic background and nationality, their bodies, religion...?"
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CRITICAL ESSAY
3 "How are the gender and sexual identities of young people shown to intersect with other
aspects of their lives, including where they live, their position within a social hierarchy,
cultural practices and traditions, ethnic background and nationality, their bodies,
religion...?"
Homosexuality is a romantic as well as a sexual attraction and behaviour among people of
same gender or sex. It depends on the sexual orientation of the individuals in the society. It is
however considered as a taboo in many societies all over the world and is restricted in majority
of the countries. It has been constrained in several nations and is still not widely or openly
accepted by various orthodox people in the societies in large numbers (Boswell, 2015). The
question statement, “How are the gender and sexual identities of young people shown to intersect
with other aspects of their lives, including where they live, their position within a social
hierarchy, cultural practices and traditions, ethnic background and nationality, their bodies,
religion...?” depicts a flawed sexual identity of young individuals.
It together demonstrates a major question raised on the community. This has been
answered using various illustrative texts namely ‘The Good Daughter’ written by Honey Brown
and the film text references of ‘I don't want to go back alone/The Way He Looks’ (McWhirter,
2016). All of these texts have thrown a strong light on the physical, mental, emotional and
psychological conditions of young individuals who are surrounded by this question by the
community, showing people doubting on their sexual identities. It hereby urges to pay a
significant attention on their wellbeing to the society where a large group of religious and
cultural communities are mostly against the practice of homosexuality and mutual attraction
towards the other member of same gender and sexual orientation.
The people who are identified as homosexual are often considered to have certain
psychological issues and are ultimately reflected to be the unwanted part of the society where the
community people refrain them from staying a usual part of their accepted social hierarchy. Such
non- acceptance in turn restricts the individuals from taking part in any societal activity. As a
result, to which, they are forced to become self-indulged and less social as stated by Lipkin
(2018). This makes them to go into the state of solitude and loneliness by together impacting
their mental and psychological wellbeing in a negative manner. The hatred and dislike that they
receive from others in the society force them to opt inappropriate measures, that are often
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invasive in nature. This increases the hatred sense of the society people towards them by together
creating a disturbance in the social hierarchal structure.
They are not only excluded or detained from any sort of social rights in the society but
are also mistaken for their real sexual identities as specified by Matos (2016). People avoid
contacting them and maintaining any sort of relationship with them, as in the text of “I Don’t
Want to Go Back Alone/ The way he looks”. In which, there exists a depiction of 3 similar aged
friends, studying together in the same high school. Out of all those 3, there is a girl who develops
some loving sentiment for a guy who in turn has some romantic feelings for another guy. After
knowing this fact, the girl ultimately falls in a dilemmatic situation and doesn’t seems to support
this fact by leaving the room where the guy, whom she started adoring, confesses this to her.
Another reference book titled as, “The Good Daughter”, indicates the criminal actions
and the horrific past of two sisters. The novel scripts the discovery of homosexual relationship
between two young sisters, Charlotte and Samantha Quinn's, followed by the death of their
mother and their father being devastated from this fact. They kept their relationship as a secret to
avoid any sort of social and psychological trauma or disturbances. This novel showcases that the
depression of such urges and hiding such kind of relationship lays a very deep and negative
impact on their social existence as well as wellbeing. This novel showcases the way in which the
fear and sense of guilt overpowers human’s emotion and senses by leading to devastating
consequences at the end. Other than this, Meyers (2016) states the trauma of discovering such
sort of relationship by the family members or society also puts a pressure on the mind-set of
people involved in it.
The “Night swimming” is a music video that has showcased people's attitude towards the
present sexual orientation of young people in today’s society and the way they tend to react
against such openness of youngsters in an absurd and daunting way. The singer's and songwriters
of this song, who are also young have showcased their own feelings as well as their past
experiences (Filip-Crawford and Neuberg, 2016). This showed the way in which they denied the
orthodox mind-set of many retrospective people in the society who are opposing the fact of
homosexuality in the most rebellious manner to evade all encountering opinions. The phrases of
song showcased the effect of displaying sexuality in public and its effect on people as well as the
society. While on the other hand, the film text of, “I Don't want to go back alone/ The Way he
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looks” has displayed the sexual orientation and showcasing of sexuality between the teen or
young people of same gender and age.
This short film has showcased the mutual attraction of one of the character, Leo towards
another character Gabriel, both being males displayed homosexuality. Despite of being visually
impaired, Leonard got attracted towards Gabriel without having an idea of his looks. Their
common friend, Giovana who was the only girl among them, on discovering their homosexual
relationship reciprocated and didn't give a positive response to it. On the other hand, Gabriel,
knowing about Leo's Physical attraction towards him, accepted him in a very affirmative way.
The short movie has showcased the dependency of Leo on the people around him and his desire
to get free from such dependency and perform something on his own and follow his heart.
Carlson and Linville (2016) hereby enlightened the realism of such people who want to live free,
without considering to follow the bounded norms and views of other people opposing a factual
existence of homosexuality.
On comparing all of these 3 instances, that has been discussed above, many things have
been found to be in common. First of all, there exists a foremost need of understanding that
homosexuality where people of similar gender have sexual attraction towards one another which
is mutual as well as proven to be a normal biological fact. However, people opposing such type
of relationship, despite of knowing this to be a fact believes that these kind of relationships
should be avoided or kept hidden from various cultural and religious institutes. Also, it should
not take place naturally, in the society or else they have a right to exclude individuals indulged in
homosexuality with no prior considerations. Dynes (2016) states that the society is reluctant to
accept it as a natural biological and psychological process or a stage through which, any
individual can pass on. Whereas, the societal elements opposing this fact are adamant to
eradicate such type of kinship in the cruellest and insensible way.
Apart from this, on comparing the 2 texts namely “Two Boys Kissing” and “I Don’t
Want to Go Back Alone/ The way he looks” slightly differs from one other. It is on considering
the fact where the detailing of one text differs from another. It is with reference to the first text of
“Two Boys Kissing”, it has shown a contemporary America with 7 confident teenagers who have
powerfully accepted their homosexuality with one confused for not having any partner (Bennett,
2014). However, none of them have given attention of the social perspectives and the conflicting
views of community people. They simply overlooked any such contradicting opinion of others
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towards their same sex relationship. This ultimately showed an acceptance towards such type of
kinship where in another text called “I Don’t Want to Go Back/ The way he looks” directly
showed the denial of the girl who entirely went against such type of relationship among 2 of her
male friends.
This proves that the sexual identity of youngsters relates with the other aspects of their
lives where they are being judged on the basis of their position in the society, their accepted
cultural norms and beliefs, etc. This clearly shows society's attitude towards it as a major issue
that lay a very deep and significant impact on homosexual people Brubaker (2017). The
prohibition of maintaining or having homosexual relationship and showcasing one's distinct
sexual identity is often considered to be awkward and an impure deed. Thus, it is being
prohibited in many religions and cultures, in many regions of the globe where people are having
a non-supportive response towards the revelation of homosexual relationships.
The chances of getting a social acceptance with equal rights of people involved in
homosexuality seems to be meagre. The people from various cultural background having distinct
cultural beliefs and religious norms and ethnicity, opposing homosexuality judge others on the
basis of aforesaid aspects (Parker, 2014). A major difference between all referred cases is the
condition and responses that are being received by people on revealing their sexual identity that
differed from the normal perspective of others. In the first case, both the sisters were separated
on the revelation of their uncommon relationship that ultimately led to the occurrence of crimes
and landed their family in a devastated state of affair.
Another case of the song writer as well as the singers depicted their unconcerned nature
where they were unaffected by society’s judgement and freely exposed their sexual identity.
Lastly, in another referred text that landed in a happy note also consisted of a miserable fact of
unacceptance by the female friend towards the homosexual relationship of her 2 male friends.
This is due to the fact where many societies are composed of orthodox people with a strict
outlook towards the revelation of one's sexual orientation. Although, raising a social awareness is
apparent to make them liberal and adaptable towards a vital change that is required to live in
today’s modern world. This will also assist people involved in homosexual identities to get
acceptance of the mainstream community by together simplifying their life’s and safeguarding
them with common rights. It will in turn provide them a respectable position in the social
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hierarchy where the fact of homosexuality is not based on a specific culture, religion or ethnicity,
etc., and can be found anywhere, in any country, as stated by Kite and Bryant-Lees (2016).
Yet, their outlook towards LGBT community is quite varied where many countries have
accepted this fact and have started giving equal rights to such people. There existed several
movements to defend the LGBT community to improve their condition in the society and
provide them a proper recognition (Bennett, 2014). This also involved giving them equal rights
of marriage and child adoption with equal access to health and medical care services, without
any discrimination and for which, a proper legislation with suitable legislative norms have been
set up as a way to avoid their exploitation or bullying in any form. Beside this, homosexuality is
deeply dependent on the biological, i.e., genetic and environmental factors. The biological
factors can lay a significant impact on the teenagers in the society.
Filip-Crawford and Neuberg (2016) specified that the presence of homosexuality is the
result of nature as well as the nurturing of the people in a particular social condition. Some
psychologists believe that most people's sexual orientation is being determined in the early age
while in others, it depends on the extent of their sex hormones like oestrogen, progesterone and
testosterone, etc. Any hormonal imbalance caused due to biological or environmental factors also
contributes in the occurrence of different traits producing a distinct sexual orientation of certain
individuals in the society. Although, some experts still believe that the sexual orientation is a
matter of choice and depends upon the individual.
The social factors include parent’s, friends or peer’s behaviour where one’s non
appreciating physical appearance leading to a harassed feeling also impact upon the mentality
and psychology of an individual having a distinct sexual orientation that differ from others. Fejes
(2016) have emphasised on the fact where there is exists no such gay hormone or chromosomes
and thus homosexuality cannot be identified on a prenatal stage. But many religious groups
contradicting this fact attempts to guarantee the wellbeing of the homosexuals in the society by
provisioning an affirmative psychotherapy to change the sexual orientation of people belonging
to LGBT community. Such forceful attempt to convert or alter the sexual orientation of these
person leads to a state of distress by rising conflicts among the people and they go into a
traumatic situation, afraid of accepting the fact and let others know about it. This proves a
distinct revelation of young people’s sexual identity that is often interconnected with that to their
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accepted cultural practice and background, etc., where people in opposition to homosexuality
judge them on the basis of these parameters.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Bennett, S., 2014. Two Boys Kissing. The School Librarian. 62(3). pp.189.
Boswell, J., 2015. Christianity, social tolerance, and homosexuality: Gay people in Western
Europe from the beginning of the Christian era to the fourteenth century. University of
Chicago Press.
Brubaker, C., 2017. A Practitioner’s Attempt at Quantifying the Actor’s Experience. Canadian
Theatre Review. 172. pp.58-62.
Carlson, D.L. and Linville, D., 2016. The social importance of a kiss: A Honnethian reading of
David Levithan's young adult novel, Two Boys Kissing. Discourse: Studies in the
Cultural Politics of Education. 37(6). pp.887-901.
Dynes, W.R. ed., 2016. Encyclopedia of homosexuality (Vol. 2). Routledge.
Fejes, F., 2016. Gay rights and moral panic: The origins of America's debate on homosexuality.
Springer.
Filip-Crawford, G. and Neuberg, S.L., 2016. Homosexuality and pro-gay ideology as pathogens?
Implications of a disease-spread lay model for understanding anti-gay
behaviors. Personality and social psychology review. 20(4). pp.332-364.
Kite, M.E. and Bryant-Lees, K.B., 2016. Historical and contemporary attitudes toward
homosexuality. Teaching of Psychology. 43(2). pp.164-170.
Lipkin, A., 2018. Understanding homosexuality, changing schools. Routledge.
Matos, A.D., 2016. 5 Queer Consciousness/Community in David Levithan’s Two Boys
Kissing. Gender (ed) Identities: Critical Rereadings of Gender in Children's and Young
Adult Literature. pp.59.
McWhirter, J.M.R., 2016. Homosexuality/heterosexuality: Concepts of sexual orientation
(Kinsey Institute Series). SAGE. 2900. p.146.
Meyers, J., 2016. Homosexuality and literature: 1890-1930. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Parker, R., 2014. Beneath the equator: Cultures of desire, male homosexuality, and emerging
gay communities in Brazil. Routledge.
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