Culture Acceptance of Homosexuality in the African-American Culture Essay Example for Free

Culture Acceptance of Homo innerity in the Afri weed-Ameri tummy Culture EssayDifferent factions of sociologists depict workforce. Functionalists suggest that a instal handst of labor origin e real(prenominal)y arose between man and wo men because of the womans role in reproduction. By virtue of their larger size and greater muscular strength, men were assigned hunting and defense tasks. Conflict theorists reject functionalist arguments as app arntly offering a rationale for male dominance. They contend that a sexual naval division of labor is a social vehicle devised by men to assure themselves of privilege, prestige, and power in their relationships with women. By relegating women to the home, men perk up been able to pass over women those resources they need to succeed in the larger world. Others say that the fundamental motive is mens desire to have women readily available for sexual gratification. And understood separatewises emphasize that the appropriation of wom en is not for copulation but for procreation, especially to produce male heirs and daughters who can be used as exchanges in cementing political economic alliances with other families (Hinkle, 1994).Indeed, this gender stratification promotes the survival of the species and fulfilling their label to be strong, men even use violence to assert their so-called masculinity, which in both sequel is portrayed by the sociologists as the more(prenominal) superior specie. But when maven takes a closer look into Kinseys reports, he or she wont help but notice an honest existence of a third kind or the second-class citizens as the popular belief says in the persons of the homosexuals (Betancourt Lopez, 1993). For the shell learning on sexual characteristics, we atomic number 18 indebted to the Kinsey reports.Kinseys greatest contribution was the discovery that several(prenominal) differences in sexual behavior be unfeignedly amazing. The reports were designed to entertain a scien tific gloss to the normalization of promiscuity and deviancy. Kinseys initial report, released in 1948 stunned the nation by saying that American men were so sexually wild that 95% of them could be accused of some kind of sexual offense under 1940s laws (Kinsey et al. , 1948). The report include reports of sexual activity by sons, even babies, and said, 37% of adult males had had at least one homosexual experience (Kinsey et al., 1948). homophileity is a preference for an individual of the same sex as a sexual characterner. The Alfred C. Kinsey Institute for Sex Research estimates that five to six percent of the adult population is pre prevailingly homosexual. However, since there be so many gradations in sexual behavior and preferences, many sociologists and psychologists take the view that there heterosexual or homosexual practices but not homosexual individuals (Halgin, 2006). In brief, homosexuality and heterosexuality are monetary value that describe behavior, not the iden tity of a person.But gender identity confusion can happen to fear of homosexuality. But behavior is not grossly disorganized, nor is functioning impaired if the delusions are not acted out. A gay man or a lesbian whitethorn or whitethorn not elect to engage in homosexual behavior (Bell and Weinberg, 1998). Fathers Presence A boy prefers the company of boys his favorite toys are cars and trucks and wants to be a fireman or policeman. The parents treated both the children differently, even though they are technically the same. This shows how parents do render to socialize children into their gender roles, even if they are doing it unconsciously.Parents provide distinctive environments for boys and girls. They give them different toys and clothes and decorate their rooms differently (Fagot, 1995). They respond negatively to more obvious machinates of cross-sex behavior. A very young boy who tries on his mother high-heeled shoes or puts on a dress or lipstick may be regarded with amu sed tolerance, but such(prenominal) behavior in older children is regarded as outrageous rather than funny. Father reacts especially strongly to any such signs of feminine tendencies in their sons (Nicolosi, 1991).The men may interpret certain kinds of feminine interests or actions as signs of developing homosexual tendencies in their sons and react to their tendencies in the strongest terms (Nicolosi, 1991). Psychologists described the uniformity of reports from literature that gay males had poorer relations with their amazes and concludes, Every study reported findings that their relationships with their fathers were unsatisfying with the father variously described as cold, rejecting, indifferent, hostile, or simply distant (Moberly, 1983).Likewise it was concluded that the homosexuals hurtful relationship with the father results in defensive detachment, which is carried over to relationships with other men. Homosexuality bring forths a form of a reparative postulate (Nicolosi , 1991) in which the boy seeks a nurturing male relationship to undo the repression and regain the lost father. Significant environmental issues such as the impact of the father-son relationship are indicated as important in the development of adult male homosexual orientation. As scholars suggested, the father-child relationship is one of many crucial elements in the development of any child.Deficits in this area may result in adverse effects to the childs (and later adult childs) identification with self as an adult, and this identification is generally considered to be crucial in determining the focal point in which children and adults form relationships with others (Blankenhorn, 1995). Conversely, boys seemed to align to the sex-role standards of their goal when their relationships with their fathers were warm, regardless of how masculine the fathers were, even though warmth and intimacy have handed-d witnessly been seen as feminine characteristics (Blankenhorn, 1995).Sons p ubertal development was a significant predictor of both intercommunicateation sharing and, to a lesser extent, values sharing, with fathers more likely to talk with sons who had attained more physical development. The fathers recognition of his sons physical development appears to be an important factor in talking about sexuality. When fathers see their sons maturing physically, they may become aware of the increased possibility of sexual initiation, and this possibility spurs them to discussion of sexual topics (Moberly, 1983).In the movie Billy Elliot, the simple rights of gay people are also advanced. In terms of personality traits, boys are generally aggressive, independent, dominant, competitive, logical, direct, adventurous, self-confident, and ambitious. Boys are described as closemouthed, rough, and sloppy in their habits. Boys do not unremarkably enjoy art and literature, and cannot easily express and find it diffused to express their feelings. This is what it means to b e masculine in the eyes of biased familiarity.But Billy, more than the fondness for boxing his father wants for him, his natural flair move for dancing, an art predominantly associated with girls. Most families, like that of Billy, urge boys to be little men even before they have any idea what it means to be a man. As a matter of fact, there is even more pressure on boys to be masculine than on girls to be feminine. They are unendingly warned not to act like girls, not cry, not to be sissies.Most people have always considered it worse for a boy to be a sissy than for a girl to be a tomboy. Boys may have to prove themselves by being athletic or by being tough, men by making a lot of money or by being a mans man in whatever way this is defined by their associates. But the burden of proof is always present. And the burden is heavier than most people think. When cooing to a baby in a crib, they use one tone of voice toward a girl, a different one toward a boy. Mothers look at baby gi rl more much and talk to her more a great deal.By and large, children have been brought up to cerebrate that women should be pretty and preferably slim, while men should be tall and strong (Sheinberg, 2004). This familial stereotyping is even carried on to the bigger world of the boys known as school. In the world that children enter at 6 there is a new adult, the teacher, whose discipline boys must conform to and whose acceptance they must court. Ordinarily the teacher is a woman, like the mother, and childrens behavior toward their mother can be generalized toward her.But boys who are identifying with their father and rebelling against their mother often have trouble in the advance(prenominal) grades. They may be less fearful of rejection by the teacher and therefore more unwilling to accept her influence (Sheinberg, 2004). It was also found that fathers age at first intercourse would predict father-son sex-based communication. The rationale was that fathers who were sexually active at an earlier age would remember their experiences and would see their sons as needing information (Moberly, 1983).On the other hand, fathers who had sexual intercourse at a later age may believe it is best to wait, and they may talk with sons to instill this same value, while fathers who had sex at an early age might believe it best to inform their sons about sex in order to prepare them for it (Moberly, 1983). Without a doubt, among African Americans, a father is the most important thing a boy can have in his life. They relate to one another on a level that cannot be achieved through a mother-son relationship. It is important to have communication in the relationship because talking brings the two closer.A father, though, ask to know when to play an active role in his sons life, and when to be more of an observer. If he mixes the two up, serious repercussions may occur. A father can be the best thing in his sons life, but he needs to care for the right (Sheinberg, 2004). Masculinity Another expert to have studied sexuality is Margaret Mead. Margaret Mead (1949) edified a good number of Americans about the significance of examining sensitively and plainly at other cultures to better comprehend the intricacies of humanness.She contends that it seems quite probable that nature creates some in born(p) tendencies. But there is ample proof that heredity alone does not necessarily push men toward being independent and aggressive, nor women toward being passive and submissive (Mead, 1949). In one tribe that Mead studied, both men and women were what we would call highly feminine. Both sexes shunned aggression. Both took care of and nurtured the children. In modern measure, girls and women are considered feminine unless they display overwhelming evidence to the contrary, but boys and men have to win the right to be called masculine.They have to prove their masculinity they have to face and succeed in all kinds of financial, intellectual, sexual, and physic al tests. The testing process starts early and continues throughout life (Mead, 1949). In the other tribe, the members of one sex spent all their time applying cosmetics, gossiping, putting, engaging in emotional outbursts, and taking care of the children. Members of the other sex had clean-shaven heads, scorned any makeup or ornamentation, were active and domineering, and provided most of the tribes food and other necessities.But the last fourth dimension describes how the women behaved. The preceding sentence, about a fondness for cosmetics and emotional outbursts, describes the men (Mead, 1949). The motives for affiliation and dependency are universal. So are the emotions that accompany them. Societys expect to suppress them is in effect a demand to transcend humanity. And efforts to do so can never completely succeed. Since it is impossible to program out all emotions, even the most extreme he-man can only approximate the masculine ideal.Thus every man, aware of the stirrings of the softer and weaker emotion he tries so dutifully to hide, is bound to worry about his own masculinity. Otherwise, he is prejudged as gay, a sissy, or a homosexual (Duberman, et al. , 1989). The Religions Take The church usually operates with a bureaucratic structure and claims to include most of the members of a society. The difficulties the society has experienced in recent years are reflective of that of the ancient times and have contributed to the resurgence of conservative Christianity (Fisher, et al. , 1994).We have seen in Christie Davies Sexual Taboos and Social Boundaries that religion may be a conservative force, impeding modernization and reaffirming traditional authority (Davies, 1982). The bold article tackles Christianitys bias against such so-called sexual taboos as homosexuality, bestiality, and transvestism in North America and Europe. That is, Christianity is associable with such concepts as hypocrisy, racism, narrow-mindedness and conservativism (Fisher, et al. , 1994). Davies is referring to the passages in the Bible, which state that homosexuality is wrong.These occur most prominently in Deuteronomy. Is it not entirely possible for instance to believe that the Bible is entirely true except those passages which condemn homosexuality which were inserted later by corrupt scribes (Fisher, et al. , 1994). Second, because homosexuals are considered deviants, the religious, military, and political principals find a way to give them a reprehensible image by consolidating their boundaries. The symbolic interactionist perspective has been a useful tool for examining the complexities of this heterosexual-homosexual relationship.Thus, should the roles of certain members of the society depart from the normal conventions bordering on the taboo, as homosexuals have been automatically deemed doing, invariably there are spiteful consequences for their behavior and actions (Fisher, et al. , 1994). And third, Davies argues that the societys mainstream institutions dictate and shape the homosexuals experiences. In large part, they unconsciously signifier up their sense of reality by the way the society orders its social agendas and structures social alternatives.To the extent that they are locked within the social environment provided by the heterosexual culture, the homosexual segment inhabits a somewhat restricted world outside and is thus considered an external threat to any open social frontier (Fisher, et al. , 1994). Homosexual acts were punishable by death among the ancient Hebrews, but accepted and even admired by the Greeks. Later, the early Christians held that abstinence was the noblest form of sexual behavior, but at about the same time, the Romans were indulging in their famous orgies in the Colosseum (Fisher, et al., 1994). In England, at the time of Queen Elizabeth, sex was treated with a frankness and frequently with a ribaldry that has no parallel in Western history. A little later, under Queen Victoria, it was r egarded with such great circumspection that among some groups of these very same Englishmen, one would hardly have known that coitus ever took place and any falls from propriety were the cause of great scandal and enter (Lenski and Lenski, 1999). Moreover, Davies also touches on dehumanization or slavery by way of Christian association.In the Western society, significant segments of the population reject coexistence with minorities in equalise terms. Women and homosexuals are subsumed in the list of minorities in the large group of African Americans (Davies, 1982). The current debate suggests that Christianity or any religion for that matter, remains a flop moving force in Western life. People are not close to resolving how to relate peoples religious lives to their religious lives. separately generation must tackle its own church-state question as Christie Davies does with homosexuality in her article (Davies, 1982).Furthermore, broadly considered, long-term relationship, heter osexual or homosexual, should be considered as families. The social definition of the family as a group of people related by blood, marriage, or adoption has come to its revolutionary point of reshaping into such as a group of people who love and care or each other regardless of spiritual background or sexual preference (Fisher, et al. , 1994). almost gays and lesbians are married, have children, and lead lives that in most respects are indistinguishable from those of the larger population.However, homosexual adults who have come to terms with their homosexuality, who do not regret their sexual orientation, and who can function effectively sexually and socially, are no more distressed psychologically than are heterosexual men and women (Klonoff Landrine, 2000). Homophobia hardly a(prenominal) people in the history of Western society have been more scorned, feared, and stigmatized than homosexuals. To put in a more appropriate context, these people who fear, hate, and persecute th e homosexuals are homophobic (Kagay, 1999).Gays and lesbians often hold values and beliefs that are different from those of the dominant culture. Because of the controversial nature of being gay or lesbian, and the heavy social proscriptions against it, many individuals are reluctant to come out of the closet or to reveal their membership in this co-culture. As more gays and lesbians identify themselves publicly, they find that their attitudes and communication patterns often clash with people who do not understand the gay and lesbian co-cultures (Vander Zanden, 1995).When the collision involves the arbitrary denial of privilege, prestige, and power to members of the homosexual co-culture whose qualifications are equal to those of members of the dominant group as the heterosexuals, then generally, sociologists can easily label this as discrimination. And when the attitudes of aversion and hostility toward the homosexual co-culture abound because they simply belong to it and hence a re presumed to have the objectionable qualities ascribed to it, then the label becomes prejudice (Vander Zanden, 1993).Whereas prejudice is an attitude or a state of mind, discrimination is action. Therefore, phobia as an irrational part of a persons mentality makes homophobia basically a prejudice that may lead to discrimination but cannot grow to be a form of racism (Klonoff Landrine, 2000). Racism or racialism is a belief in the superiority of some races over others. It also involves prejudice against or hatred of other races. Discriminating behavior is also defining element in racism.Be that as it may, racism is based on none other than racial membership and in this papers case, on sexual preference or orientation too. Stereotypically, it is based on the color of the skin, the texture of the hair, the facial features, the stature, and the shape of the heads. Biologists typically view races as populations that differ in the incidence of various hereditary traits. More narrowly, they conceive of a race or subspecies as an inbreeding, geographically isolated population that differs in hereditary traits from other members of the species (Bullough Bullough 1996).Hereditary is the key term. Although there are some floating nature-nurture debate on the tendency to be homosexual, being gay or lesbian is more broadly accepted as a behavior than a heritable peculiarity (Klonoff Landrine, 2000). Homosexuality knows no color or physical feature. Although gays whiten the color of their skin, stretch their hair length, effeminize their facial features, glamorize their stature, or cosmetically alter the shape of their heads, they cannot be classified a race but a co-culture instead (Bell and Weinberg, 1998).Although racial stratification is similar to other systems of stratification in which African Americans are a part of, including gender stratification, in its essential features, there tends to be one major difference. Racial and ethnic groups often have the potent ial for carving their own independent nation from the existing state (Klonoff Landrine, 2000). Political separatism may offer racial groups a solution that is not available to gender groups. sexual activity groups typically lack the potential for becoming self-sufficient political states because they do not function as self-sufficient social or economic groups (Vander Zanden, 1995).Homosexuals are a varied group. They are found in all occupational fields, political persuasions, religious faiths, and racial and ethnic groups. Some are married, have children, and lead lives that in most respects are indistinguishable from those of the larger population. Others enter homosexual unions that are relatively durable (Kagay, 1999). In fact, if homosexuality could be considered a part of the gender stratification, then homophobia could even be more appropriately subsumed by the realms of sexism than racism.But the homosexual population cannot be undervalued that a gay pleasantry can testi fy to their numbers I wonder why gay people multiply. They dont have any vagina but they seem born twice a straight baby girls chance. In many modern nations, the members of some groups participate in the main culture of the society while simultaneously sharing with one another a number of unique values, norms, traditions, and lifestyles. These cultural patterns are termed a co-culture (Vander Zanden, 1993).African American co-cultures that have become prominent in the United States partly because of their numbers and partly because of their lack of subscription to many of the mainstream beliefs, attitudes, and values. Although there are many co-cultures in the United States, the homosexual culture has become increasingly prominent because of their demands for equality.