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.