"Lesbians and gay men have always existed in every historical period and across all cultures."Discuss, with particular reference to the relationship between category labels

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“Lesbians and gay men have always existed in every historical period and across all cultures.”
Discuss, with particular reference to the relationship between category labels (or ‘identities’) and behaviours.


Nowadays, when you look up in most of the dictionaries, you can find that the definition for “heterosexuality” is sexual orientation to and sexual activity with someone of the opposite sex, which means that heterosexual person are feeling sexually attracted to people of a different sex. And the meaning for “homosexuality” is sexual orientation to and sexual activity with someone of the same sex, which means that homosexual person are sexually attracted only to people of the same sex. “[A]lthough sex was the root of the matter… it was as likely to be expressed in drinking together, in flirting and gossip and in a circle of friends as in actual liaisons” (Bray, 1988: 84), do these terms simply direct to the behaviours of sexual orientation (love-making) or merely close relationships (consummate love with intimacy, commitment and passion) between couples? Or may be both? And for what we understand now, lesbians and gay men are homosexuals. But do lesbians and gay men have always existed? Probably yes by the definitions written above. However, the behaviour of love-making was not identified as neither heterosexual nor homosexual in the past. These terms was not given until 1869 (Katz, Jonathan Ned. 1997). The word “heterosexual” did not have the same meaning as it does now, it was meant to be the sexual intercourse with men and women which was not necessarily reproductive (Katz, Jonathan Ned. 1997). Thurs it was a pretty negative word from then on till about twentieth century. And the word “homosexual” was described as “unnatural fornication” (Katz, Jonathan Ned. 1997).

It is believed that lesbians and gay men have always existed in every historical period when you mean the behaviour of sexual intercourse with people of the same sex and/or consummate love between two people. Of course we all know it is existing right now. But how about in the past? During the period of Nazi Germany (1933-1945), there had been a gay rights movements. However, the gay communities were removed soon because of the Nazi party. “After solidifying his power, Hitler would include gay men among those sent to
 during the .” (Wikipedia, 2005) Homosexuals were suppressed during that period of time, and were believed that these behaviours had to be eliminated. “Hitler believed that homosexuality was ‘degenerate behavior’ which posed a threat to the capacity of the state and the ‘masculine character’ of the nation. Gay men were denounced as ‘enemies of the state’ and charged with ‘corrupting’  and posing a threat to the German birthrate.”(Wikipedia, 2005). The prohibition of gay mem might suggested that homosexuals were existed.

However on the other hand, there were not much articles that clearly wrote about the lesbians and gay men. For a long period of time until 1975, being homosexual was seemed as having mental disorder according to the DSIM from the American Psychology Association and seemed as people who is deviated from the norm. Because of this, lesbians and gay men were afraid to stand out and speak for themselves. And most of them were just like the “normal” people who got married and had children while might still having a homosexual relationship outside the marriage secretly. For example Vivien Ng had searched for lesbians in Chinese history and she found

[o]ne noteworthy example is Qiu Jin’s relationship with Wu Zheying, who was a poet, renowned calligrapher, and reformer in her own right. The two met in 1903 shortly after Qiu Jin’s arrival in Beijing with her husband, and quickly became inseparable. Both lamented the fact that they had met too late and their time together was too short … on the seventh day of the Chinese New Year, Qiu Jin and Wu Zheying exchanged a formal pledge of eternal friendship, and occasion that Qiu Jin marked with a poem called “Orchid Verse.” The next day, Qiu Jin appeared before Wu Zheying in a man’s suit and presented her with a pair of shoes and a skirt, explaining to her dear friend that “These items were part of my trousseau. Now that I have decided to wear men’s clothes, I have no need for them. Please keep them in remembrance of me after we part.” … June Chan, a Chinese American lesbian activist in New York City, includes pictures of Qiu Jin in her famous slide show on Asian lesbians. However, historian Mary Rankin, who has written the most extensive biography for Qiu Jin in the English language, does not explore the nature of the Qiu-Wu friendship. … No other historian of modern China has dared to address the possibility of a lesbian relationship between Qiu Jin and Wu Zheying.
(Ng Vivien, in Duberman Martin, 1997: 201)
 

This article is rather ambiguous and leaves a question mark for the relationship between Qiu Jin and Wu Zheying. As what Vivien found was secondary information, a lots of them could not be proved and had past already, we just never know. In the past, many homosexual couples kept their relationships secretly might be because of people always wanted to stay in the majority group and did not want to look odd with the others so they keep their sexuality under. Especially in a country like China in the past which was rather not open, everything was quite absolute where people were not allowed to even talk about sex (“normal” sex) in public. It is like in Freud’s period, people repressed about sex and had to deny if they were homosexuals to avoid being odd or diagnosed as mentally disordered.

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In my opinion, I believe that the bebaviour of love-making with people of the same sex have always existed. The words “lesbians”, “gay men”, “homosexuals”, “heterosexuals”, “bisexuals”, etc are really labels given to distinguish between different behaviours and make the minority groups of behavours look weird or a part from the “norm”. However, why do we need these labeling? McInhtosh Mary (1968) had suggested two reasons for this. Firstly, to have a fixed identity so that it would not be easy to drift from one behaviour to another. Secondly, “the labeling serves to segregate the deviants from others, and this ...

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