Media used to upkeep patriarchy

Lol!!
60's female group song

Theorizing same sex desires

"This has not only prevented members of an American lesbian motorcycle club from making donations to a blood bank (on the grounds that their blood is unsuitable) but has also resulted in a political leader nominating 'gays, lesbians and prostitutes as the source of AIDS" (Jagose 21)

I put that quote there so I can express my frustration as to how people are easily manipulated and controlled by fear. It's been seen many times in human history whereby individuals have been demonized or propaganda about a certain issue has been used to divide and rule.

The article was a good read, Jagose expands on the views of essentialists vs constructionists. I think it is interestingly ironic that the group that takes on the word essence believes that homosexuality is not genetic/natural while those that  take up construct believe the opposite. 

It was also interesting to read about the different interpretations of gays throughout history once again. There was a particular concept that was peculiar to learn. Homosexuals viewed as a species...."After 1870 same sex acts began to be read as evidence of a type of person about whom explanatory narratives began to be formed. 'The sodomite had been a temporary aberration; the homosexual was now a species' "(Jagose 11) The fear aspect here comes through when the homosexual is posed as a temptation to everyone. "Foucault argues that although same sex acts were condemned in both religious and civil law before 1870, they were regarded as temptations to which anyone might succumb"

It was an interesting read to discover about Molly houses, but I don't think that any kind of social space where men embrace eachother could lead to conditioning homosexuality. 

The invention of Heterosexuality

Jonathan Ned Katz reiterates an article that we read earlier Transgender Liberation by Leslie Feinberg. Feinberg argues the importance and glorification of transgendered people in history and how the script was progressively shifted. The natural became unnatural. Katz brings up the same issue,"By not studying the heterosexual idea in history, analysts of sex, gay and straight have continued to privilege the 'normal' and 'natural' at the expense of the 'abnormal' and 'unnatural'."(Katz 231) In the article he raises questions about the assumptions we have of the naming and organizing of bodies, lusts and intercourse of the sexes. Similar to Feinberg's article, Katz moves through history pinpointing different timeframes that shifted the general view of sexuality. "The human body was thought of as a means towards procreation and reproduction, not of pleasure."(Katz 233) From the Late Victorian Sex-Love (1860s to 90s) There was a transformation of the family unit from producers to consumers. Instead of being viewed as instruments of work, they became integrated into the economy thus becoming units of consumption and pleasure. Katz also delves into the medical field. He mentions the effect that Doctors had on the perception of sexuality. "Doctors who had earlier named and judged the sex-enjoying woman a 'nymphomaniac,' now began to label women's lack of sexual pleasure a mental disturbance, speaking critically, for example, of female 'frigidity' and 'anesthesia'."(Katz 233)
Despite the fact that the article has been well researched and published, I found it hard to believe. It felt very far fetched, almost like a conspiracy theory. I thought it was interesting that i felt that way because I didn't feel that way about Feinberg's article.
The part of the article that I mostly believed and related with was the Heterosexual Hegemony, Post WW2. "The 'cult of domesticity' following WW2- the reassociation of women with the home, motherhood, and child-care; men with fatherhood and wage work outside the home-was a period in which the predominance of heteronym went almost unchallenged.."(Katz 236)
Maybe it's because I've read about that period of time and I'm slightly familiar with it, or know enough about it to point out that there was a very propagated message of the family as a unit with fixed and established gender roles. All the same Katz brings up interesting points to think about and research.

I'm working on my charm

The story I'm working on my charm is a good one to relate class performance to gender performance. Alma, as a child is taught how to handle certain customers i.e how to behave or act in front of them in order to get a tip. It is interesting that when she is experiencing this party as an adult, teachings from her mother come up and she immediately knows how to go about her performance. Yankees for example are classified in a certain way."…nobody bet on Yankee tips, they might leave anything" They are a type of person/customer. This separation of how people are treated and stereotyped is a reflection of how class and gender roles are reinforced in our society today. The fact that we have to learn how to interact with different people in different ways is interesting. We practice our personalities everyday, we are constantly working on our charm.

Power Struggle for powerlessness

"He walks a certain way, talks a certain way, acts a certain way."(Kimmel 105)
In the article Masculinity as Homophobia, Michael S. Kimmel describes homophobia as the fear that other men will unmask us, emasculate us, reveal to us a world that we do not measure up, that we are not real men.

                  Men become depressed because of loss of status and power in the society
                  of men. It is not the loss of money, or material advantages that money could
                  buy, which produces the despair that leads to self destruction. It is the
                  "shame,"the "humiliation," the sense of personal,"failure" A man
                  despairs when he has seized to be a man among other men.

The recognition of fear in ourselves is proof that we are not as manly as we pretend that we are. We are ashamed to be afraid.
The community of men is full of competition, and power struggle. The very aggression that got men to the top of the food chain is what's tearing them apart. Karma is a bitch. "As adolescents we learn that our peers are a kind of gender police, constantly threatening  to unmask us as feminine, as sissies."(Kimmel 104).
I have personally experienced this a couple of times. Since I was a child I liked wine and crossing my legs, none of which were viewed as manly traits. I had to catch myself every time I did either of the two and rectify my mannerisms."Every mannerism, every movement contains a coded gender message."(Kimmel 105)
        I enjoyed the metaphor of the chauffeur, as men, we compete to be at the top, and be the most manly only to realize that we are then encapsulated by the expectations of our beaten competition. We are indeed at the driving seat but we're not in control of the bigger picture. "American men feel powerless because of the way we've constructed the rules of manhood so that only the tiniest fraction of men com to believe that they are the biggest of wheels, the sturdiest of oaks and the most virulent repudiators of femininity, the most daring and aggressive."(Kimmel 108).
Another interesting idea brought up in this essay is the idea of exclusion. It is basically how men attempt to secure their manliness by not speaking up for equality and justice.
Overall Kimmel's repeated reference to fear is interesting, fear is one of the emotions that make adrenaline kick in and we perform better. In this case, fear has made us improve our performance as men.

Their laughter cut me to the bone.

Its very interesting to read through the experiences of a person who "doesn't belong"
In the novel Stone Butch Blues, Feinberg uses the character Jesse Goldberg to depict different events that highlight the challenges of a transgendered individual in todays world.
When we discussed the issue of bathrooms in class it was a bit different for me because it wasn't in first person and I couldn't relate. After reading through his/her experience, I couldn't help but compare it to my growing up as an artist in a third world country. I can't remember the number of times when I would have to deny my interest in art. It simply wasn't taken seriously. The more people ridiculed and bashed the idea of taking art seriously, the more I would have to fit in to some other career interest to make sure people viewed me as normal. There was no bathroom allotted to me, and after all the psychological abuse I had taken, I had to fit into a space that I wasn't comfortable in and even started to ridicule my fellow artists.
"It changes you, what they do to you in here, the shit you take everyday in the street, it changes you" What carrie says after her attack from the police relates to the bathroom incident as well.
When Jesse Goldberg walks into the bathroom and the two women are laughing at her, asking what she is, there is a sense of fear and uncertainty. "Their laughter cut me to the bone." It is something that she had experienced when she was young and now as an adult. Knowing what kind of brutal acts are directed towards people like hir, it must have been very psychologically damaging for the women to laugh and taunt hir in an area where s/he was cornered and didn't feel safe to begin with. But since they don't have to deal with it, they dont put it into consideration. Just like white privilege, I guess we can call this gender privilege. The transgender community is going through unthinkable mental and physical abuse. Its time to be aware and act.

Gender Outlaws (Leslie Feinberg)

'The men shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment; for all that do so are abomination to the Lord thy God'(Deutronomy, 22:5)
History has depicted transgendered individuals in high and esteemed positions in society. "Perhaps the most noteable of all berdache Native woman was Bercheampe, the Crow 'Woman Chief' the most famous war leader in the history of the Missouri nations. She married several wives and her bravery as a hunter and warrior was honored in songs"(Feinberg 209).
In the article 'A movement whose time has come' Feinberg explores the different perceptions that society has had on transgenders. From respectable and honored to shameful and almost intolerable. "This raises the question: Who decided what norm should be? Why are some people punished for their self expression?" (Feinberg 207). Its interesting that Feinberg poses that question because there is a lot that the majority of the society today does not know about the transgender community. In the article she argues that it must have taken a bloody campaign by the emerging ruling class to declare what had been natural to be its opposite. She states the nature of nature is continuation, yet the words that are used to describe their community are "words that cut and sear"(Feinberg 207). They did not choose those terms, they were labels that have backed them into a corner. She states "It is hard to fight an oppression without a name connoting pride, a language that honors us"(Feinberg 207).
As stated before little is known about these 'gender outlaws' Some assume that all masculine women are lesbians and all feminine men are gay. There is always a confusion in how they express their gender and their sexual preference.
I think her understanding of solidarity being found in knowing how and why oppression exists and who profits from it is a great way to look out for the solution to the destination of this movement and many others.