MB Week 2 Readings

Hollibaugh’s main point in this paragraph is that the queer political movement has shifted from a struggle for freedom and sexual liberation to a movement for extensions of heterosexual rights to homosexuals. She complains that the current political movement is aimed towards “gay nuclear family rights and for serial monogamy” while it once aimed for sexual liberation. She concedes that there has been a great deal of progress in the current trends of the movement, with gender conforming gay people trying to fit in with the rest of society, but thinks that the gay liberation movement has lost something in it’s attempts to normalize queer people. She says that the gay liberation movement has shifted from a movement about a diverse culture’s freedom to a movement about normalizing a conforming subset of that community.

Wilchins claims that white American culture is one of the only cultures that splits sexual orientation from gender (27). On page 19, Wilchins discusses how this distinction might be questionable, giving the example of sexual orientation impacting gender expression in the form of clothing. She quotes a woman who wants the right to be a lesbian in her sexual orientation and also to look like a stereotypical lesbian in her gender expression with clothing. The first time I wore a tie around my parents, they exclaimed that it was for boys. That made me feel insecure and vulnerable. I think that the links between sexual orientation and gender expression are most obvious in people who fit into male/female, homosexual/heterosexual categories as binary oppositions, and that the connections between those aspects of identity become extraordinarily difficult to parse out for anyone who falls outside of either, or both, of those binaries.

CB Week 2 Readings

Amber Hollibaugh claims that “gay liberation was the most passionately personal movement” that she belongs to. According to her, the gay rights and liberation movement made her face a lot of hostility and ridicule because of its rebellious nature. The paragraphs on page 264 and 265 of “My Dangerous Desires” speak about a gendered world where our beliefs and systems are incongruent with a world of only binary genders. She is claiming that our society has socially constructed the two genders: men and women. Due to the nation developing this type of heterosexual society, the gay rights and liberation movements caused a dramatic confrontation of what was perceived to be “the norm”. Hollobaugh’s main point seems to be that differing from the norm is so unheard of and therefore has become a large political issue. However, she believes that the gay liberation and rights movement has become “a movement for gay nuclear family rights and for serial monogamy.” Instead, she wishes for a movement that does not assimilate with a heterosexual society but rather can coexist and be something altogether new. In fact, she uses the phrase “we are just like them” distastefully and claims that the movement is trying to normalize queer people.
Riki Wilchins writes, “White American culture tends to be one of the few that splits sexual orientation from gender.” (27) However, person’s sexual orientation and their gender often force them to face similar societal or political issues and therefore join social networks or alliances. Both being oppressed minorities, it is easy to come together and form a more “powerful movement of political recognition.” In my own experiences, these alliances are recognizable in the form of “Gay Pride” parades in which the queer community comes together in order to stand up for their beliefs and challenge society’s heterosexual views.
-CB

Sexual Orientation and Gender

Amber Hollibaugh writes that the gay liberation movement has turned into a “tame civil rights challenge.” Amber’s main point focuses on how the gay liberation movement was once a rebellion against the current systems and norms in place regarding gender and sexuality. The gay movement since then has turned into a movement who’s only visible representatives are gay men who subscribe to typical gender norms and try to show everyone that queer people are normal. This only shows one side of the story and, although successful in winning court cases such as gay marriage, it does not challenge the social norms of gender and sexuality as the movement once did. This can result in some members of the LGBTQ+ community feeling left without a voice.
Riki Wilchins writes, “white American culture tends to be one of the few that splits sexual orientation from gender.” Wilchins also argues however, that those who are transgender and cross gender lines and those who visibility and publicly display their sexual orientation often align due to the related problems problems that they face. I have encounter this in my own life as well. Those who may be more ambiguous in their gender and those who may be visibly queer often face similar issues with passing and being accepted within our societies norms.
I find the language as a real tool the most productive as it points out that language only allows for us to put people into boxes of boyish or girlish, however, gender and sexuality are so much more complex than that. We struggle with the appropriate words for what people may identify as and in a way it may make it feel less real. Wilchins argues that binaries create hierarchies, however, I’m confused where those that do not fit into the binary would fit.
PV