What issues have historians raised in researching the construction of one of the following cultural identities: class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality or nation?
What issues have historians raised in researching the construction of one of the following cultural identities: class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality or nation?
Cultural identity is a fundamental aspect of the society we live in; one must carry an identity of oneself in one form or another. It can be argued that there is no one real identity; historians have raised many issues in researching the construction of cultural identities, sexuality being one of them. It was not until the 1980's that the term homosexual first began to be used in English; none of it ancestors now survive in common speech, such as 'bugger', 'ingle' or 'sodomite.' Such words survive, if at all, in legal forms or classical and theological contexts. For a century, research on the history of homosexuality has been restrained by governments and academics. For example, in Berlin, German homosexual intellectuals founded the Institute for Sex Research in 1919, only to see its research collection destroyed in 1933 in the first major book-burning organised by the Nazis. Some professional historians have been reluctant to take on the subject; this may have been due to the fear of the possible consequences for their careers. Many scholars still regard the history of homosexuality a marginal field, if not an embarrassing or distasteful subject of study.
However, there has been an outpour of scholarship in lesbian and gay history in the last decade. Much of this has been due to the lesbian and gay movement which succeeded in creating an environment in which such history can be found and in challenging particular orthodoxies and psychological theories of pathology which have hindered creative thinking concerning sexuality for decades. The history of sexuality are not only critically important in their own right, like is any other form of history, but because they are a part of the past and reflect on our understanding of the past.
Many historians have failed to explain the social significance of individual's homosexuality. For example, a recent study carried out by Blanche Wiesen Cook looked at the interplay between participants 'private' and 'public' lives. However, this fails to describe any fear of exposure the homosexuals may experience, or the experience of marginalisation or how a gay subculture influences their work, affects their career and their life. Homosexuality is not just a personal characteristic, but an influence on the lives of individuals and on the patterns of cultural organisation. Thus, many historians strive to discover many aspects of the history of homosexuality, such as repression and resistance, the work of Feminist movements, gender issues, sexology and the laws concerning sexuality. From this, historians have recovered a history suppressed almost as rigorously as homosexuals themselves.
Some gay and lesbian communities have increasingly recognised that some of the most important issues facing and sometimes dividing them today, personally and collectively, should be addressed historically. This may allow one to unearth the nature of gay or lesbian identity, if there is one, and can reveal whether gay and lesbians constitute a community of their own and to what extent. The history of homosexuals could also possibly help issues relating to homosexuality in today's society, such as the AIDS crisis or the general treatment of homosexuals. The history of homosexuality is important because it constitutes a ...
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Some gay and lesbian communities have increasingly recognised that some of the most important issues facing and sometimes dividing them today, personally and collectively, should be addressed historically. This may allow one to unearth the nature of gay or lesbian identity, if there is one, and can reveal whether gay and lesbians constitute a community of their own and to what extent. The history of homosexuals could also possibly help issues relating to homosexuality in today's society, such as the AIDS crisis or the general treatment of homosexuals. The history of homosexuality is important because it constitutes a community by giving it a tradition.
Some may argue that homosexuality opposes the heterosexual norm in our culture; it is because of this that it has often been the target of social oppression. Studying homosexuality therefore develops sexual categorisation and a range of sexual identities. There is a difference between homosexual behaviour and homosexual roles, categories and identities. Homosexual behaviour has existed in a variety of different cultures; various possibilities of same-sex behaviour are constructed in different cultures and factors of wider gender and sexual regulation are formed. Homosexuality has been condemned in our culture, and is still classified as an unfortunate minority form by a large percentage of the population. Attitudes towards homosexual behaviour can be culturally specific and vary across different cultures and through various historical periods. According to Edwin Lemert, in consideration to social labelling, there are two levels of analysis; one is more subjective to historical understanding than the other. Firstly, there lies the question of whether one is heterosexual or homosexual; it is thought that the development of heterosexual or homosexuality is due to biological means which are encoded genetic understanding. However, according to social psychology this development is historically conditioned where social influences channel the sexual possibilities that exist in a child. Thus, it can be said that the notions of childhood, the role of parents and social upbringing have reflective effects in the construction of individual heterosexuals, homosexuals or other sexual categorisations. Mary McIntosh suggested that:
'a homosexual subculture, which is the correlative of the development of a specialised role, provides both access to the socially outlawed need (sex) and contains the deviant.' (1)
This emphasises that homosexuality in terms of social categorisation, gives rise to complex cultural and sub-cultural forms which consist of assorted sexual identities such as class and gender; thus it is important that all these identities are understood in their specificities.
Homosexuals are emotionally damaged, much of it is due to social forms and pressures; hence the problems and stigma attached to homosexuality. There are Christian taboos against homosexuality, where it is regarded as a 'sin against nature.' Sir William Blackstone felt that the very mention was 'a disgrace to human nature.' The churches disagree among themselves about the morality of homosexual conduct and the possible salvation of homosexuals themselves. Hence, in every society there are likely to be deviants from the norm of deviance, such as "mannish" women who wish to take the femme's role in bed, or men who enjoy sex with boys. In 1871, concepts of homosexuality were much undeveloped both in medical and legal services and in the Metropolitan Police, implying the absence of any real homosexual category and the social awareness of what a homosexual identity might consist of.
There has been a dramatic growth of women's history; Feminist movements have brought forward the issues of gender and sexuality which has allowed gay and lesbian history to grow. In the 1870s, the movement "social purity" was formed. Although, the primary aims of the movement were to eliminate prostitution and the sexual abuse against child sexual abuse. Due to such feminist energies, the age of consent for sexual intercourse was raised to sixteen in 1885. Women's organisations also monitored the courts to protest about the low sentences given to sexual abusers, and demanded women magistrates, women police and doctors.
Traditional male historians, on the other hand, used science and liberal individualisation to fight against anti-sex prejudice. Sexologists sought to justify traditional male dominance and female-submissive sexuality. In this period, sexology surpassed religion as the regulator of correct sexual behaviour. Sexologists claimed that men's sexual urges were biologically controlled. The model of heterosexual sex which the sexologists promoted was the missionary-position, which demonstrated male dominance and to which women were expected to respond passively by finding their own subordination exciting. However, such men's sexual prerogatives were challenged from feminist campaigners who were concerned to end prostitution, sexual abuse and rape and wished to transform male sexual behaviour so that it constituted no threat to women. The sexual construction of sexuality increased men's power and privilege in response to feminism. Feminist historians have argued that during this period, a woman's love for another woman was stigmatised which started hatred and fear for same-sex love. If women were acquiring increasing possibilities of independence, sexual intercourse in which men gained ownership of women's bodies could no longer be guaranteed. According to Jackson, the sexual ideology of men's uncontrollable urges, which would be enjoyed by the assaulted female, were encouraged in marriage, therefore marriage could be maintained and divorce rates would reduce. In turn, heterosexuality as a "sexual orientation" was produced in this period alongside homosexuality which was categorised as its opposite. Rubin, a lesbian theorist, defined feminists as the 'anti-sex' tradition and sexologists as the 'pro-sex' tradition. According to Rubin, whilst feminist campaigns promoted opposition to pornography, prostitution and erotic variation, by the end of the nineteenth century sexology introduced new erotic communities; male and female homosexuals became publicly possible. The first homosexual right movement was formed and sexual oppression was expressed as injustice. Thus, many historians regarded sexology as a positive thing for society.
By the early twentieth century, spinsterhood became a problem for sexologists. Christabel Pankhurst stated that:
"spinsterhood was a deliberate political choice made in response to the conditions of sex slavery: there can be no mating between the spiritually developed women of this day and men who in thought and conduct with regard to sex matters are their inferiors." (3)
Spinsterhood was now capable of being a form of resistance for women because social and economic changes had made it more likely that women could survive without marriage. Additionally, sexologists were constructing the idea of the female invert as part of the categorisation of homosexuality that took place in the late nineteenth century. The work of sexologists has generally been viewed as being positive in forming a basis for the construction and identity in gay men. In turn, women's potential for loving one another, with passion and physical contact was damaged by the stigmatising of lesbian sex. By the 1930s, feminists who criticised male sexual behaviour were classified as "dangerous celibates, ignorant of science." Spinsters were commonly under attack and women were propagandised into choosing one of two categories:
'the wife who was really enthusiastic about sexual intercourse; or the lesbian who was sexually active in the form of butch/femme role-playing.' (4)
Both models constructed woman's identity around an ideal of eroticised masculine dominance and feminine subordination.
Personal sexual behaviour is never simply a private matter, but is always shaped by and shapes the wider social and political milieu. The role of homosexual communities in shaping urban culture and social geography needs to be recognised. In turn, the interactions between such communities and other ethnic occupational groups should also be encountered.
Bibliography
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The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader
(London: Routledge, 1993)
> Bland, L. & Doan L
Sexology in culture: labelling bodies and desires
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> Bray, A.
Homosexuality in Renaissance England
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> Duberman, M. Vicinus, M. & Chauncey, G
Hidden form History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past
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> Foldy, M.S.
The Trials of Oscar Wilde: deviance, morality and late-Victorian society
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The Cambridge Companion to Oscar Wilde
(Cambridge: CUP, 1997)
Constructing Cultural Identities: Pat Ayres: Assignment 1 03.12.2003
Jaishree Kalia 1