...Evolution of Sexuality, Gender and Feminism in Cyber Culture Within the ever-evolving cyber world, in which many people find themselves living, there are traditional aspects of a previous culture which are re-emerging with technological advances. There are changing expectations of almost all themes and ideas in life, including gender and sexuality that are emerging with different notions and concepts which accompany them. In Neuromancer, by William Gibson, gender and sexuality of cyber culture are themes which are redefined and addressed throughout the novel. Through these new definitions of sex and gender, which are modified by technological advances, feminism, sexuality and the male-female binary are altered and take on entirely new meanings, which represent the decline of some aspects of humanity. Beginning with sexuality, there were very strict definitions of sexuality in our culture before it was exposed to an internet and cyber infested world. There were expectations and notions which existed prior to the emergence of cyber culture. These concepts are discussed and depicted in Gibson’s Nueromancer. There are many scenes which show this evolving and changing notion of sexuality of the future; the most memorable would most likely be the scene where Riviera performs a sexual scene to an audience including Armitage, Molly and Case. He uses his hands and mind to paint a picture of a woman, which he is having sex with; the woman is Molly. Riviera is able to paint a vivid...
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...essex | SC291-5-FY | How are Gender and Sexuality Significant to the Study of Visual Culture? | | Word Count: 2,312 | 1004894 | How are Gender and Sexuality Significant to the Study of Visual Culture? In this essay I plan to explore the meanings that are found within the concepts of gender and sexuality and the presentation to which they are given in all types of visual culture. I wish to look into the reasons behind the current stereotypes of gender and sexuality which are used in day to day life. The origins of such clichés and the reason why stereotypes are so heavily used in visual culture, to try and understand the disadvantages and advantages they bring to the media. I will begin by trying to give an explanation of the definition of the terms, gender, sexuality and visual culture. Gender is often depicted to a simple non-complex term which is based upon an individual’s biological sex. Thus presenting the theory that the sex of an individual will biologically predetermine their mannerisms and actions; behaviours that are associated with being male or female. Although it is necessary to understand that there are differences between men and women, to assume that all behaviour can be categorised as male or female could be considered to be ignorant. In more recent times gender has become less fixated upon the biological sex of the person and is more determined by the individual themselves (Kirsch, 2000). Sexuality is the term used to demonstrate the type of person...
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...Copyright © eContent Management Pty Ltd. Health Sociology Review (2010) 19(4): 437–450. Embodying the gay self: Body image, reflexivity and embodied identity DUANE DUNCAN Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia ABSTRACT The emphasis on a sexualised muscular body ideal in gay social and cultural settings has been described as facilitating body image dissatisfaction among gay men. Drawing on a concept of reflexive embodiment, this paper uses qualitative interviews to analyse gay men’s embodiment practices in relation to discourses and norms that can be found across and beyond any coherent notion of ‘gay subculture’. The findings reveal body image to be more complex than a limited focus on subculture or dissatisfaction can account for. In particular, gay men negotiate a gay pride discourse in which the muscular male body generates both social status and self-esteem, and deploy notions of everyday masculinity that imply rationality and control to resist gendered assumptions about gay men’s body image relationships. KEYWORDS: body image; gay men; reflexive embodiment; sociology INTRODUCTION Body image dissatisfaction and gay men Following the shift from individual pathol-ogy to cognitive-behavioural and feminist perspectives in psychology (McKinely 2002; Pruzinsky and Cash 2002), a significant volume of psychological and health research has identi-fied a greater incidence of body...
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...Gay Lingo Introduction Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the Philippines have a distinctive culture but limited legal rights. Gays and lesbians are generally tolerated, if not accepted, within Filipino society, but there is still widespread discrimination. The most visible members of the Filipino LGBT culture, the Bakla, are a distinct group in the Philippines. According to the 2002 Young Adult fertility and Sexuality Survey, 11% of sexually active Filipinos between the ages of 15 and 24 have had sex with someone of the same sex. Filipino poet and critic Lilia Quindoza Santiago has speculated that Filipino culture may have a more flexible concept of gender because kasarian, the Tagalog word for "gender", is defined in less binary terms than the English word gender. Kasarian means "kind, species, or genus”. The English word gender originally also meant "kind". In the Philippines, the term gay is used in reference to any LGBT person. For Filipino gays, the Tagalog phrase paglaladlad ng kapa ("unfurling the cape"), or more commonly just paglaladlad ("unfurling" or "unveiling") refers to the coming-out process. Tibo, T-Bird and tomboy are derogatory terms for butch lesbians just as bakla is for effeminate gay men. Some lesbians, both butch and femme, use the terms magic or shunggril to refer to themselves. Neutral slang terms for gay men include billy boy, badette, bading, and paminta (straight-acting gay man). ...
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...COLLEGE OF ARTS AND LETTERS Department of English, Foreign Languages and Linguistics Sta. Mesa, Manila Adaptation of Swardspeak to the Language of Bachelor of Arts in English Second-Year Students of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines Joanna Marie N. Cabanatan Maricon A. Alisuag Jenny L. Carlos Fatima B. Dela Cruz Prof. Evangelina S. Seril CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION I. Introduction Today’s modern generation, many youth are engaged in different languages. Some of us have experienced being near to a group of gays who were talking in quite a different language and you were surprised that you could understand some of the words they were saying. That language is what we called gay lingo but in 1970s, it is Swardspeak. Here in the Philippines, they called the term, "Swardspeak" or "Gay Lingo". Nowadays it is one of the most prominent kinds of language that most of the youth rather people engaged to. It consists of mainly Filipino language, but also uses elements of English, Spanish and other Asian or foreign words (especially Japanese), gays make uses of words that are derived from other words and try to make the words colorful and enticingly comical. It is also their way of speaking and their own mannerisms that make it different to those of the females. Because of the spread of Swardspeak, many Filipino try to engange themselves and makes use of it. . Like any other languages, Swardspeak is...
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...right to marry in society. Ultimately, conflict from the opposing position of ‘against’ gay marriage may arise that gay marriage can complete destroy the concept of marriage and mock the importance of procreation. In reference to this statement; everyone in society has the right to marry regardless of gender, thus it should be socially acceptable. However, this is why it is so significant to discuss both sides of the argument, regardless if a person is ‘for’ or ‘against’ gay marriage in society. In relation to gays, contradiction constantly arises that gay marriage should not be legalized. However, gays don’t necessarily want to get married but may just want the justification of having equal rights. In 1995, Andrew Sullivan felt like culture was becoming divided over gay marriage, so he decided to release Virtually Normal: An Argument about Homosexuality. The book explains why a gay marriage is normal, and why it should be available to any two citizens. In Writing and Reading across the Curriculum, Sullivan had an article...
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...Gay A: “Hoy Bakla, me Anda ka ba today?” Gay B: “Naku, Washington Sycip, Purita ang lolah mo ngayon.” Gay A: “Rampa sana aketch. Go Bingo ka mare?” Gay B: “Ay, Wishing!, Pagoda Cold Wave Lotion aketch!” Everyone who understood what these gays are saying, raise your hands! It is true. Gay lingo has really gone a long way since the start of the 21 st century. Thepropagation of this language and form of communication is unstoppable. A once not- so- secretlanguage used solely by gays is now infiltrating both worlds of the media and the academe. Itsexclusivity to gays, much to our diva’s dismay, is now broken and gay lingo is being used by every girl, closet gays, young and old, and even straight guys in town. Almost everyone could speak and use this once hard to break “code of communication”. Admitit that everyone could not escape the alluring and colorful language used by gays. Funny, witty,creative yet irreverent all at the same time was how people describe this language (Cayabyab). But before we continue discussing this language, let us first identify who and what are gays in thePhilippine society: Filipino gays are mostly stereotyped as effeminate, cross dressers, hair dressers, campand ridiculed. “Bakla”, a derogatory Filipino word for gay, is commonly used… A more benignslang word for gay men is billy boy. For Filipino gays, the Tagalog phrase “paglaladlad ng kapa”(literally means “unfurling the cape”) refers to the coming out process. Although...
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...John Brown’s Speech to the Court John Brown’s short raid of Harper’s Ferry had a large impact on the relations between the North and the South. On October 16, 1859, John Brown randomly raided Harper’s Ferry and attempted to arm and free slaves. Brown’s raid did not last more than 36 hours and ended up being unsuccessful. Unfortunately, in the end, Brown was hanged for his crimes. This caused problems between the North and the South and separated the North and South even more than before. People who lived in the North viewed Brown as a martyr for abolition. While the North saw the nonconformist as a hero, the South was outraged that people saw his destruction as heroism. This proved to the South that the North would use violence if necessary to end slavery and gave the South another excuse to want to secede from the United States. After the Harpers Ferry Raid, sectionalism in the United States became even more prevalent. In the 1950s and 1960s, homophobia was much more common and harsh than it in in modern America. In Greenwich Village in New York City, a series of riots broke out at the Stonewall Inn between members of the LGBT community and police. Members of the LGBT community were upset with the mistreatment and oppression they faced. This is considered to be one of the first events to start the gay liberations and sparked the fight for equal rights in the LGBT community. These riots took place at a police raid at the Stonewall Inn. The Stonewall Inn, a well known safe haven...
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...Reynaldo Holguin PSYC3019 Dr. Christopher Jones February 19, 2015 Response Paper Milk For this response paper, we learned about the movie "Milk". He was the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in the state of California. Going forward with these questions: I feel that people should not be arrested for being gay, everyone has a right in this country to be an outspoken. It's one thing for our laws and another for God's Laws. With that we are not to judge of what is happening on earth when it comes to God's Law. Harvey and Scott shows their affection in front of the store, because another business man had warned them about being openly gay people will be arrested and maybe placed out of business. Not just people were carrying whistles, but Gay people were carrying whistles to warn other gays of police or any type of mob that came into the streets. There were a few things why Harvey got elected after his few failures, he used Anita Bryant's crusade that provided to gays to group together in other parts of the country, used the expertise of Ann Kronenberg to spread in newspapers of his vision and to bring hope in the state. When gays were coming out her reaction was to start a crusade in Dade County to protect homosexuals from getting jobs and housing. Harvey had said after the election what Bryant had said "There is a draught in California". After so many failures, Harvey decided to run again, and Scott could not deal with more humiliation...
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...The lesbian, gay, bisxual and transgender (LGBT) community has been the hot topic of conversation for years. Being a part of the community or even supporting the community opens you to discrimination and ridicule. Being outcasted can cause someone to be affected physically or mentally for the rest of their lives. Hate crimes have led to a growth of suicide rates within the group. Many gay rights organizations have formed in retaliation to discriminations and hate, they work to gain rights for the LGBT community. It is no secret being gay is not always welcomed and there is discrimination all over the world. People discriminate based on religious beliefs, not being open minded to something new, or because they are different from them. Some areas of the world are trying to pass laws allowing discrimination if premised on a religious belief, such as, “in Indonesia, which has a predominantly Muslim population, recently came to be regarded as a place in which members of the LGBT community faced persecution” (orange). Some people believe being gay is an illness and one ran tests to find out the reasoning behind it all. “Until 1973 the American Psychiatric Association concluded that being gay or lesbian meant you had a “sociopathic personality disturbance”” (orange). Not only are they looked down on in the streets, but also in their workplace and the buildings in which they live. “In twenty eight states you can be evicted from your home by your landlords and in thirty one states...
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...In today’s time, gays and what media calls or interpreted as queers are closer to everyday people’s life. One of the most popular shows in media streams today such as Modern Family tries to portray how a gay white couple raises an adopted baby girl from Vietnam. Should we say that media has improved interpreting what gay’s families looks like, or should we say that it has failed? In this essay I would like to analyses how media is still failing to portray how real gay couples behave, and how media is still failing to show other side of homosexuality that is not just the typical funny, overemotional one, media is still facing some difficulties portraying a real definition of homosexuality, if we can say that there is an actual “real definition” of what it means to be homosexual and to be gay parents. What is so different in Modern Family that has not been shown in early shows such as lets say Will and Grace? Is it the fact that in the new and better version of gay couples Mitchell and Cameron adopted a girl, or is it the fact that in Modern Family Mitchel and Cameron are in a serious relationship? In contrast to Will and Grace, Will is gay as well, but is never shown in a serious relationship, and then Jack, Will’s gay friend is also single and never appeared with anybody else. Yes, it is true that these shows are somehow different because the characters are not the same and the ones in Modern Family have families, and the Will and Jack are just alone. We can say that they are...
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...New York City was considered to be for a long time the safe haven for the gay community. The violence against the LGBT community has been on the rise for the past three years. These crimes have been becoming more and more violent. What are the issues and conclusions? The issue in this case is pretty obvious, the safety of the LGBT (Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) communities. The article Shady Corners, just focuses on New York City. Throughout the United States there is a lot of hatred for the LGBT communities. With it being 2013, there still is too much discrimination for the LGBT. Not just in New York, but in all of the United States. When someone of the LGBT community get hurt or is killed by someone because of their choice of sexuality: is called a hate crime. In New York City there has been a “disturbing rise in deadly anti-LGBT hate crimes, both in New York City and nationally.” (Shady Corners, Eliza Shapiro) In 2011, the FBI had found that antigay hate crimes were the second-most prevalent type of hate crime, after crimes based on race. When it comes to discrimination against people of other race and ethnicities, for people with a different sexual orientation other than what we are used to, the rates are increasing drastically. 87 percent of the victims of the anti-LGBT homicides were people of color and 40...
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...In the reading Forest (1995) the article suggests that the making of a place often involves identity and that the role of place is important in creating identity specially when we examine the making of a sexual orientation identity such as gay people. This article shows how the elements of identity or I should say the characteristics of identity define the gay community of West Hollywood. West Hollywood in California has become one of the largest gay communities in the world. The people living in this outlined community are defined as gay people because they have been or identify themselves with the seven elements that identify gay people. These characteristics are defined in creativity, aesthetic sensibility, orientation towards entertainment or consumption, progressiveness, responsibility, maturity, and centrality. West Hollywood reinforces and welcomes individuals with these characteristics in lifestyle. I am not saying every gay person possesses these seven elements, however West Hollywood has become the one place where persons who have some or all of these characteristics seem to roam or go to this particular area because it has defined itself as a gay community. Many gay men have moved here specifically as it has been defined as a place where they can actually, "come out" without being ridiculed. They can be accepted here for who they are and what they have been defined as because they were born with these elements. They can use this place because it has been defined by...
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...Nursing Homes for the Out and Proud As the years go on, the United States is seeing a growing elderly population. By the year 2030, it is projected that the elderly population will nearly double. This outlook is constant on the aspect of the gay and lesbian community. At this point in time there is an estimated 3 million gay and lesbians in the United States. By the year 2030, there will be approximately 6 million gay and lesbians in the United States. By the year 2030, there will be approximately 6 million gay and lesbians in the United States. http://www.wmitchell.edu/elderlaw/topics/biblios/davidson.pdf. The challenge will come to the United States in 2030. The baby boomers have higher expectations. The baby boomers have attitudes that exceed the norm. This is the generation that fought for rights for women. This is the generation that fought for rights of all. The baby boomers had children later in life, putting their career first. It is essential that the United States begins to prepare the nursing homes for the diverse part of the elderly. The baby boomers, in general, are a diverse group of individuals. The nursing homes will have to make room for this generation of elderly. The nursing home community is not prepared for the large number of gay and lesbians that will be aging and needing long term care. As the gay and lesbians age, this particular population of elderly will have many obstacles to overcome. First off the realization that there is a severe...
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...The Strength to Stand: A Basis of Faith and Equality Being raised, as many are, in a traditional, American, conservative Christian environment and being gay are not what I would call the easy life. Having internal struggles with what was flowing naturally, yet being bombarded with rhetoric from the pulpit, the pew, family and friends makes it difficult to hear a clear voice from inside. Sometimes you just have to stop, and let it all go and listen to one still small voice that will make it all clear. Too many voices can make a man go crazy! I've walked a journey of self-discovery and enlightenment that many probably walk, but few take the time to articulate. Everyone needs something to believe in. There should be something that brings an element of hope and security. Some choose to meditate through various activities and exercises. Some immerse themselves in family activities, but when your heart is connected in faith to God, you draw your solace and strength from the word of God. So what was I to do when, seemingly, the very thing that I gained strength from is what is being used to tear me down and destroy me? Is there a way to balance this? Is it possible that “the voices” that had become so loud in condemnation had taken this thing that was so loved and precious to you and misused it? Had they taken this Holy writ out of context and instead of allowing it to be the loving comfort that it was designed and intended to be; made it into a weapon of warfare that it was never...
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