í Assignments

In her essay Adrienne Rich explains that there is an assumption of most of women are born heterosexual and that the existence of lesbian has been omitted in the writings and history texts. She also explains that through the time men have imposed their sexuality forcing women to give up their own. Women have been submitted to many humiliations, mistreatments, sexual abuse, prostitution, among other things and all of it is allowed by a society that prefers a cruel heterosexuality rather than sexuality between women.

In one hand, men power was manifested in the control that they had over women consciousness, which they used to convince them that the best life option was heterosexual marriage, even if this is not what women really wanted or even when they felt repressive and unhappy. In another hand, society has contributed in this disproportionate relation between men and women. Even though they perform the same job, women have lower paying than men. Men have the economic power forcing women to depend on them or give in to their pressures and sexual harassment to get a job. There is not place for lesbians in the market place, to keep their jobs they are forced to play the role of heterosexual women.

Heterosexuality empowers men over women. For society, homosexuality is not a natural instincts in humans, but for Rich, heterosexuality is an institution imposed by society to subordinate women. Rich also sees lesbianism as part of feminism. Lesbian existence breaks the men’s right of access to women and the rule of a obligatory heterosexuality. Many women have married because they need men to survive economically or because society expects that women have children or because they are afraid of a society that punishes those who dare to feel different or because heterosexual marriages have been imposed as a rule to fulfill women’s role. The truth is that lack of choice causes women to remain in relationships where they are inhibited from expressing their own sexuality.

At the base of a compulsively heterosexual society is the absence of female choice, not to say that it doesn’t exist, but that the act of choosing is entirely dismissed as a choice when made by a woman. The dismissal of female choice, Rich explains, is the model of control and exploitation of women. Many generations of women have been raised to be economically dependent on men through marriage or work place sexualization. Still today, when in the work place women are often held to higher standards of service than men, male colleagues are have expectations of physical and emotional access to female colleagues, or women risk perpetually passed up for higher levels of employment. These ideas begin early in adolescence, teenage girls are told that the penis has a mind of it’s own and cannot be controlled the same way that female impulses can be, perhaps because female impulses aren’t considered real without an equally magnetic male impulse. Similarity many women have been raised to associate love with control of male behavior, incessantly consciously or unconsciously self-sexualizing themselves for the male gaze. If a ‘sexualized’ woman is sexually assaulted or raped the man cannot be held responsible, due to the uncontrollable penis and her physical display of availability.
Not mentioned in Rich’s work is how this conditioning of female sexuality also attempts to demoralize female friendships, but I do think it ties into the persistent idea of women only depending on each other to spite men. If women are in constant competition to control men for economic stability and not fighting for our own interests and education then we continue to support the invalidation of our own ability to make choices. Additionally, with the erasure of lesbian history from feminist theory we have no point of reference. Female camaraderie is rarely separated from the erotic and due to the deviant associations many women don’t know the empowerment found in these relationships. Further, to dismiss the lesbian existence from female history is to disregard the continuing lack of privilege in relation to men, culturally and economically, which is specific to women because homosexual men can retain a respectable bachelor status at any age without social repercussions. Rich makes a clear argument that to really analyze gender equality is to also normalize all female relationships and their varying levels of intimacy.

Hello Professor,

When you say that we can use the work of Angela Davis from Race and Class, does that mean we can use all the chapters we read for class, 2, 3, 4, and 5? Or are we only allowed to use one of those chapters?

Thank you!

Hi everyone,

This is just a quick note to let you know that the midterm will take place this Friday, March 17th, as scheduled. If you have questions, please post them to our website so that your colleagues can benefit from reading your question and my response.

Elizabeth

Hi professor.

Can I include the definition of the terms in my handwriting notes?

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3094897/Readings_S17/Student_Work_12_16.pdf

Please Note: This writing assignment has been cancelled to give you extra time to study for the midterm exam this weekend.

Due Monday, March 13th, by midnight. Word count: 300 words. Please make sure everything is in your own words. Absolutely no quotes should be used. If you paraphrase from the text (from Rich’s work or anywhere else), you must be sure to include the proper citation (either MLA or APA).

In her chapter titled “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence,” Adrienne Rich argues that heterosexuality is institutionalized. Drawing on the examples she introduces in her work, explain her characterization of this institutionality in relationship to the potential of feminist thought.

In Thinking Sex: Notes For a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality, Gayle Rubin explains that in The United States many people see sexuality as immorality, corrupted and as a negative behavior. People were afraid of sex, which contributed to create many taboos and negative attitudes against sex. The sexual behavior is defined within the religious framework and social, all behavior out of it is considered as immoral or sinful. It is normal that at a young age we feel curiosity about our body and begin to know and explore it, but government categorized sex as dangerous and damaging, especially for youth, creating in the parents the idea that this measure would protect their children.

Another assumption is based on the Christian traditions. Sex is pardoned only between married couples and as long as it is done with love and with the intention of procreating. Enjoy this act is prohibited and it is considered a sin. Obviously homosexuality, fornication and premarital sex were prohibited. Having sexual attraction, masturbate or explore their body or sexuality was considered as a sinful behavior. There was a “radical theory of sex” where government created several laws in order to control people’s sexuality in every way.

Rubin used diagrams to illustrate some of her arguments. These diagrams explain the concrete divisions between what is allowed and what is condemned within sexual practice. As a result of this continuing sex negativity, groups that fall outside “the normal group” of sexuality are the most persecuted in society. I agree with Rubin when she points out that sex between two consenting individuals should be no concern of the government. There are many things that should be changed and it is important do not confuse the concepts of sex, gender, and sexuality. We have to be confortable with our sexuality and change some standards of what is good or wrong.