Class 11 Identity and Sexual Orientation

Question 1

What percentage of American women report having a sexual orientation identity?

Answer 1

99.9% of american women!

Question 2

What percentage of American men report having a sexual orientation identity?

Answer 2

99.7% of american men!

Question 3

Do Westerners draw upon sexual orientation to construct their identities?

Answer 3

YES! Heterosexual, bisexual, homosexual.

Question 4

What is the term for “a subjective understanding of one’s desire in the context of a specific cultural model of human sexuality leads to behavioral practice and identity assumption.

Answer 4

Life Course Theory of Sexual Orientation Identity Development

Question 5

The members of a culture ________________ share beliefs about what
sexuality means

Answer 5

inter-subjectively
(Fafafine for example!)

Question 6

These inter-subjective beliefs within a culture impact……..

Answer 6

how individuals subjectively interpret what their sexual feelings, fantasies, attractions and desires mean

Question 7

Based on this process of subjective interpretation, individuals then
adopt……

Answer 7

sexual orientation identities from the pool that are culturally
(inter-subjectively) available!

Question 8

Once a sexual orientation identity is adopted, it influences what?

Answer 8

it influences the type of behavior an individual expresses!
WHY? -> Why? Because the individual believes that such behavior is consistent with the identity that they have adopted.

The expression of this behavior can, in turn, reinforce the identity
because the individual believes the two are consistent with each
other!

Question 9

What is DL identity?

Answer 9

Males who regualry sleep and have sex with other men but DO NOT consider themselves gay!
-I think this mostly refers to black men.

J.L King’a book on the down low: “A journey into the lives of straight black men who have sex with men”

Question 10

To understand DL identiities, we first have to…

Answer 10

understand what “gay” means to DL men! Doesn it mean something different?

Question 11

DL men actually describe “gays” as what?

Answer 11

They refer to them using very NEGATIVE terms!
-fearful
-sad
-lonely
-clingly
-effeminate (Effeminacy is the embodiment of feminine traits)
-not fathers
-white

Question 12

“Doing and Being Gay” are two different entities for DL men.

Answer 12

They “do” gay but are “not” gay!

Question 13

DL men DO NOT perceive homosexual behavior as indicative of “being gay”

Answer 13

According to them, these two phenomena are entirely different from each other.

Question 14

What do DL men believe?

Answer 14

same sex behavior is something one DOES wheras being gay is something one IS!

Question 14

Who believes that a conceptual distinction exists between behavior (doing) and identitiy (being)?

Answer 14

DL men!

Question 15

Dl men do not perceive homosexual behavior as a indicative (indexical particular) of a gay identity, provided they behave in certain ways.

Answer 15

REMEMBER!

Question 16

Homosexual behavior might be defined as “not gay” IF:

Answer 16

1. If it is defined as work and the individual is paid to do homosexual acts.
2. Some specific act is not engaged (ex: kissing, bottoming - which means recieving).
3. If the individual acts in a hyper masculine manner.
4. If the individual does not have same-sex relations or fall in love with same sex partners.

Question 17

If individuals hold certain indexical particualrs for being gay, BUT do NOT see these particulars as characterizing themselves, then…

Answer 17

They will NOT identifiy as gay!

Question 18

Since DL individuals have different persepctives on being and doing gay, they have to maintain a positive and consistent sense of self by doing….

Answer 18

Two things!
1. they develop a new identity (DL) characterized by indexical particulars that are different from the identity they seek to distance themselves from (so in this aspect - gay).
2. They reinterpret the meaning of any aspects of their identity that they share with the identity in which they are seeking distance. (gay)

Question 19

Once a “DL” identity is adopted, this, in turn, influences their…

Answer 19

behavior!

Question 20

Examples of DL identity behavior:

Answer 20

• No coming out process
• No verbalization of same-sex attractions
• Sex occurs in secret
• Dating and marrying women
• No kissing
• No condoms
  Engaging in these identity-specific behaviors, in turn, reinforces the identity

Question 21

What have we learned in this lecture? (4 things)

Answer 21

1. Intersubjective (cultural) ways of thinking about sexualitty exist.
2. These ways of thinking channels how individuals subjectively interpret their sexual desires.
3. This results in individuals adopting culturally specific identities. (Fafafine for example).
4. This in turn prompts individuals to behave in certain ways which in turn reinforces their identity.

Question 22

Can there be an absence of sexual identities?

Answer 22

YES! In some cultures, sexual orientation is not a basis for identity formation.

Question 23

In cultures where sexual orientation identity is absent:

Answer 23

cisgender same sex attracted individuals do NOT construct identities based on orientation. They simply refer to themselves as men or women with NO additional qualifiers.

Question 24

In cultures where sexual orientation identity is absent, these individuals are not….

Answer 24

marked as different from oppisite sex attracted men and women.

Question 25

An intimate glimpse into the lives of those who formed the first visible group of transgender men in the Pacific Islands - The Rogers of Samoa - as they build an outside oven, seek romance, and prepare to perform a traditional men’s dance in public

Answer 25

The Rogers Documentary! The Rogers of Samoa.
Not as accepted as Fafafine.
They are known as “fa’afatama”

Question 26

What are the four genders of Samoa?

Answer 26

male
female
fafafine: male into a woman
faafatama: female into a male.