Reading Response

When I first began reading this article I was really interested to see how Somerville would be able to tie race with homosexuality. To me, the only gaping connection I could make is the discrimination that’s generally associated with the two. Somerville starts out by saying that sex is the problem. Crazy, right? But, not sex exactly but the racial questions that revolve around sex. Reading on I still couldn’t make the connection a to where race played a role, except for the fact that the question of homosexuality was arising around the same time as racial segregation. What I found extremely interesting though, and what kind of helped put the pieces together, was the fact that a medical opinion was valued over religion, etc. Which was really surprising, since the church has always been a thriving force in social issues. But, since a medical opinion was valued so much, and physicians tended to be white, upper class etc. the physicians themselves developed this sense of ethnocentrism, where they began using anatomy as a means of associating gender with the “invert” or homosexual anatomy. The physicians used their own keys and legends to define what was considered normal, and then dubbed the homosexuals as abnormal, and linking their qualities to specific races.

It’s so crazy to see how easily we can define what is “correct” and what’s not. How any person with the slightest bit of credibility or reputation can just overturn a status quo. Recently, I was having this discussion with a friend of mine, where today people who do “homosexual” things are only considered that way, because as a society we decided that it’s “feminine” for males to dance, and get manicures, and wear flamboyant clothing… Again, we as a society have also decided that those are traits that are generally “feminine,” and that any girl who acts otherwise, is considered homsexual. It’s incredible to see how much power society holds, and how any single class, race, etc. with a little bit of importance can define an entire structure.

Comparing this to Butler’s “Imitation and Gender Insubordination,” I see the same theme. Society has very high expectations that they associate with labels. Whether you’re straight, a feminist, or a lesbian there are always words, images characters that automatically pop into your head when you hear those terms. These words are representations of what we have been conditioned to believe and to expect of the people rocking these labels. In reference to a speech Butler was going to give at a conference in Yale, Butler says she’s going to Yale “to be” a lesbian now. Which is completely true. She was going to Yale to present her experiences, the lesbian experiences that everyone expected from her. Butler talks about how “coming out” is supposed to be liberating, it’s supposed to equate to being yourself, not hiding who you are in fear of rejection, but coming out comes with its own “closet.” Once you are “out” you have been cast for a different role, you have to fit the character that comes with being a homosexual and if you don’t, well… you’re essentially back where you started. So since our measurement, the bar each one of us is striving to reach is the bar that society has made for us. Well, where does society get these ideas? Who decides what is acceptable and what is not? Where is the clean slate that’s completely clear of society’s footprints–Clear of any standards or expectations?