Social Construction: Gender Roles & Homosexuality
Our sex refers to the biological chemistry of our bodies; it’s what “parts” we have and the chromosomes that make up our DNA. Gender is a learned social identity.
My Uncle Jay was once Aunt Julie. He was gay and identified himself as a man. He went through a big transformation over a long period of time to show on the outside how he felt on the inside. He began taking testosterone, got a hysterectomy and a double mastectomy. If you saw him today, you would never know he was once a woman. His sex is female because of his chromosomes, but his gender is male.
Jay’s situation sort of reminded me about the section of Chapter 5 in 'Cultural Anthropology' referring to the Two Spirits, a social status native to Indigenous North American societies, (Capo, 2013). Like Jay, these individuals function as a different gender role other than the typical role that their sex would generally hold. Also like Jay, Two Spirits become this way “not to avoid unpleasant aspects of their assigned gender roles but to resolve their gender dysphoria, or profound sense of mismatch between their birth sex and their gender identity” (Crapo, 2013).
Here in the U.S., homosexuals are sometimes shunned or looked down upon by certain groups in society or even their own families. I believe it is getting better in the U.S. but to say that homosexuals are not discriminated against is pure refutation. According to the textbook, Two Spirits held a sacred status and move up in wealth and prosperity. Oh what I would give to get the same respect for those that are gay in our society here in the U.S.! It would solve a lot of moral and political issues and lower the suicide rate among the gay community.
Unfortunately, I find this subject hard to bear. I have many gay friends and family. Just 2 years ago, I lost a good friend as a result from suicide. As a very handsome, fun-loving, young man with a bright future ahead, he came out of the closet shortly after high school and his family basically disowned him. They are a highly religious family and he hid in denial for a long time. When he came out, his parents did not accept it and basically excluded him out of their lives, completely ashamed of him. His friends quickly became his family and support. Roughly 8 years later, when he hung himself, his parents essentially blamed it on his friends because he had been drinking when it happened. The people that were closest to him were not even welcome at his funeral. But if he had more support from his family (and society as a whole), his smile and quirkiness would still be warming hearts today.
I have read up on this issue and the results are horrifying. Unfortunately, it is hard to document specific statistics because it is very difficult to label someone to be gay if they are no longer living to declare it, especially if his/her family is in denial.
But what we do know is that “many studies have found that (lesbian, gay and bisexual) youth attempt suicide more frequently than straight peers” (suicideology.org).
If people were more accepting, like the Two Spirits, many people would have a lot better lives, or live at all.
Wake up People it’s 2014. All I have to say is get use to it!
Crapo, R.H. (2013) Cultural Anthropology. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
http://www.suicidology.org/c/document_library/get_file?folderId=232&name=DLFE-334.pdf
snowghoul
tangentwithtanner
romaincrisis
jacobvanloon
2087
origamiaround