heterosexual/homosexual binary

Examples of heterosexual/homosexual binary in the following topics:

• Sexual Orientation

  • Some individuals have tried to trouble these categories of sexual orientation by not describing themselves as hetero-, homo-, bi-, or asexual and preferring the umbrella term "queer. " Part of the opposition to the gender binary is that it creates heteronormative assumptions that mark heterosexuality as normal and homosexuality deviant merely because it is the opposite of heterosexuality.
  • These organizations tend to pathologize non-heterosexual orientations, or conceive of them as an illness that must be corrected through medical or therapeutic means.
  • Though they obviously disagree with the conceit that homosexuality needs to be treated, many major gay rights advocacy groups mirror the underlying assumption that homosexuality is a static sexual orientation.
  • Androphilia and gynephilia are preferred terms for some populations, because homosexual and heterosexual assign a sex to the person being described.
  • Explain the development of sexual orientation (heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual or asexual) in terms of both static and fluid sexuality

• Sexual Behavior: Kinsey's Study

  • However, Kinsey disapproved of using terms like homosexual or heterosexual, as he firmly believed that sexuality is prone to change over time and that sexual behavior must be understood both as physical contact as well as purely psychological phenomena, such as desire, attraction, and fantasy.
  • Instead of using the homosexual/heterosexual categorization, Kinsey developed the Kinsey Scale system.
  • The scale ranked sexual behavior from zero to six, with zero being completely heterosexual and six being completely homosexual.
  • Nevertheless, Kinsey's Scale is effectively a segmented version of the hetero/homosexual binary, not allowing for other interpretations of sexuality.
  • According to Kinsey, 11.6% of white males aged 20 to 35 were given a rating of three for this period in their lives, meaning that they were equally heterosexual and homosexual.

• Homophobia

  • Homophobia is the range of negative attitudes and feelings towards homosexuality or people who are perceived to be homosexual.
  • Homophobia is a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards homosexuality or people perceived as homosexual .
  • If homophobic discrimination is institutional, it means either that non-heterosexual sex acts are criminalized or that LGBTQ individuals are denied the same legal rights as heterosexuals.
  • Uganda, for example, criminalizes non-heterosexual sex acts and most Ugandans consider non-heterosexuality to be taboo.
  • Although non-heterosexual sex acts are legal in the United States, LGTBQ people still face institutional discrimination because they are not afforded the same rights as heterosexual couples.

• Gender Identity in Everyday Life

  • However, some individuals believe that this binary model is illegitimate and identify as a third, or mixed, gender.
  • Gender identities, and the malleability of the gender binary, vary across cultures.
  • Fa'afafine also reinforce their femininity by claiming to be only attracted to and receiving sexual attention from heterosexual men.
  • The xanith form an accepted third gender in Oman, a society that also holds a gender binary as a social norm.
  • The xanith are male, homosexual prostitutes whose dressing is male, featuring pastel colors rather than the white clothes traditionally worn by men, but their mannerisms are coded as female.

• Socialization and Human Sexuality

  • In regards to sexuality, socialization in the U.S. and Western countries most notably adheres to heteronormativity, or the marking of heterosexual unions as normal and homosexual unions as socially abnormal and deviant.
  • While homosexual unions are the types of unions most commonly marked in opposition to normative heterosexual unions, heteronormativity marks any type of non-heterosexual sexual activity as deviant, as heterosexual sexual acts are considered the norm.
  • At the current moment in Western societies, sexuality is evaluated along a continuum of heterosexuality and homosexuality, with heterosexuality as the privileged mode of sexual expression.
  • In contrast, the Ancient Greeks categorized sexuality not in terms of homosexuality and heterosexuality, but in terms of active and passive sexual subjects.
  • The Catholic Church asserts that homosexuality is unholy.

• The Functionalist Perspective on Deviance

  • Take, for example, homosexuality.
  • On the one hand, this fractured society into those marked as homosexuals and those unmarked as normative heterosexuals.
  • As time went on, homosexuality came to be accepted as more mainstream.
  • Take, again, the example of homosexuality.
  • On the one hand, this fractured society into those marked as homosexuals and those unmarked as normative heterosexuals.

• The Functions of Deviance

  • In urban America 50 years ago, homosexual behavior was considered deviant.
  • On the one hand, society was divided into those marked as homosexuals and those unmarked (normative heterosexuals).
  • As time went on, homosexuality came to be accepted as more mainstream.
  • Take, for example, homosexuality.
  • On the one hand, this fractured society into those marked as homosexuals and those unmarked (normative heterosexuals).

• The Movement for Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights

  • Prior to the 1970s, most states in the United States had laws against sodomy, generally defined as any sexual contact other than heterosexual intercourse.
  • Thus, homosexuality was essentially illegal.
  • Nonetheless, by the mid-1980s many states still outlawed homosexuality.
  • Indeed, many protestors participated in a mass wedding in front of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to highlight the ways in which U.S. tax code benefits married heterosexual couples.
  • This map depicts when anti-sodomy laws that criminalized non-heterosexual sex were overturned by state in the United States.

• Sexual Behavior Since Kinsey

  • Alfred Kinsey, in the early 1950s contributed to the sparking of the sexual revolution, or the loosening of sexual mores demanding sex between heterosexual married partners that occurred in the 1960s.
  • Kinsey's report reachd the conclusion that few Americans are completely heterosexual in desire or practice as indicated by the Kinsey Scale, or a numeric scaling of individuals along a continuum from complete heterosexuality to complete homosexuality.
  • The Kinsey Report was one step towards non-heterosexual orientations and behaviors becoming accepted by society as normal.
  • Kinsey's publication initiated a national environment more tolerant to conversations about sexuality, which in and of itself loosened the grip of normalized, marital heterosexual relations.

• New Developments in Families

  • Andersson et al. found several ways in which lesbian/gay unions differ from heterosexual unions in these countries:
  • the average same-sex couple is older than the average heterosexual couple
  • the average same-sex couple is more educated than the average heterosexual couple
  • Children raised in same-sex parented households (or mixed-orientation households - households composed of two or more people of varied sexual identities) are no more or less likely to be homosexual than children raised in heterosexual households.
  • This figure shows that roughly 5% of households in the U.S. are made up of cohabiting couples of various types: heterosexual, gay, or lesbian.