Lecture 10 - Sexual Identity

Question 1

Define Sexual ID

Answer 1

a sense of self as relates to sexual attractions, fantasies & behaviours, fitting in culturally negotiated categories

Question 2

Define Sexual orientation

Answer 2

who we are sexually attracted to

Question 3

Define sexual behaviour

Answer 3

outward manifestations of sexual activity

Question 4

Define Sex (biological)

Answer 4

male, female or intersex

• Determined by genes, hormones, anatomy
• Can change sexual organs/ hormones

Question 5

Define Gender ID

Answer 5

• mental self-concept of attitudes, beliefs and behaviours
• Man, women, trasgender, agender etc
• cisgender = you assume the gender that people assign to you

Question 6

Define transexual

Answer 6

Transexual involves surgery to change it

- transgender is just changing gender

Question 7

Define Transgender

Answer 7

Transsexual and Transgender

• Evolving definitions
• Transgender = Experience gender as different from apparent sex

Question 8

Who found it was common to conflate (combine) gender & Sexual ID

Answer 8

Peel (2005)

Question 9

What did Peel (2005) find?

Answer 9

That even after sex ed seminars, people still conflated gender and sexual ID

Question 10

What does Butler (1990) suggest about gender?

Answer 10

suggests that being a man or a women is not an internal fact about us, but something we perform constantly
All of our behaviours consolidate an impression of ourselves as a gender
Not necessarily intentional
Gender specific instance of goffman

Question 11

Who was the first to systematically study sexual ID? and why?

Answer 11

Kinsey - because hw was shocked at the lack of empircal evidence on sexual behaviour/ ID

Question 12

Outline what Kiinsey did

Answer 12

• interviewed about 20,000 americans
• Found huge discrepancy between beliefs (no sex before marriage etc)about sexual behaviour & actual sexual behaviour
• At the time, it was very hard for his research as sex was a taboo topic

Question 13

Outline Kinsey’s findings

Answer 13

Sexual behaviour in the Human Male (1948) … female (1953)
Found that homosexual experiences were common
- 50% men (who stayed unmarried longer), 28% women had had same sex experiences
- 38% men, 13% women had orgasm duing these experiences
Sexual orientation changed over life time
Sexual ID both fluid and complex - not just straight or gay
Argued that humans made up 2 categories and now force people into those “pigeon holes”
- concluded the kinsey scale

Question 14

Outline some sexual ID categories

Answer 14

Heterosexual – opposite gender
Homosexual – same gender
Bisexual – opposite and same gender – tends to be 50/50
Pansexual – not limited to gender, just who you find attractive – pan is not 50/50, but anything along the scale
Asexual – no sexual attration, but romantic attraction is possible

Question 15

Outline Cass (1979)’s model

Answer 15

Stage 1: Identity confusion

• Realise heterosexuality isnt fitting (doesn’t explain feelings)
• choose if you want to explore it

Stage 2: ID comparison

• Considering being LGB, tenative comment – start to tell people
• alienation (feel differnet to everyone)
• Behaviours done to reduce alienation, either by:
  
  • trying to suppress it and stick with heterosexual
  • radically accept it

Stage 3: ID tolerance

• Seeking out other LGB people
• Testing ID with other LGB - if its good experience, carry on, if bad – give up
• Key stage for continuing development

Stage 4: ID acceptance

• Increasing contact with LGB subculture
• sense of fitting in and belonging (alienation disappears)

Stage 5: ID pride

• Devaluing heterosexual values
• Engaging in activism – parades
• less time spent with straight people
• Us vs them mentality – trust

Stage 6: ID synthesis

• Increasing contact with allied heterosexual people
• Activism reduces
• Reduceing or removing divisions between sexual IDs – we’re al one and share sexual ID

Question 16

Outline Weinberg (1994) Model

Answer 16

Stage 1: initial confusion – hetero and don’t fit

Stage 2: Finding and applying label – involves searching

Stage 3: Settling into ID- start to feel that you fit

Stage 4: Continued uncertainty – Contuned to experience personal debates over ID and unclear feedback from others

Question 17

Who was weinbergs model for

Answer 17

bisexuality

Question 18

how is bisexuality invisible>

Answer 18

Rarely acknowledges in media or homosexual communities, psychological resarch – seen as waverin/ temporay

Bisexuality overlooked as potential ID (Barker & Langdride, 2008)

Delegtimised:

• treated as temporary – not committed/ part of the group
• As indecision - just a phase, just testing this out
• As greediness
• As promisciousness

Question 19

Define the Sexual ID norms in society

Answer 19

Monosexuality – attraction to only one gender

Mononormativity – assumed attraction to only one gender, dismissing dual (or more) attractinos

Heteronormativity – expected sexuality, all others in oppositino to it, assumed until counter-indicated

Mongamy – that open or flexible relationships are impossible

Question 20

What are the problems with the stage models?

Answer 20

Assumes

• sexuality is innate (you’re going to find it)
• Involves discovering true ID (linear, staged path, cant reverse)
• Assumes linear development
• Assumes uniderectional development
• Negatively framed – it’s a fight/ challenge to acquire your sexual ID
• Self-reflection = means to development
• Requirement of experiences – don’t need to experience something to know you like someone/ a gender

Question 21

How did Kitzinger (1987) criticise the stage models?

Answer 21

Stage models created ‘well-adjusted homosexual’ stereotype (once youre gay you should be okay with it) – this is not much better

Homosexual people who don’t fit model are just not developed enough?

• Problem still seen as arising from LGB people, not model
• LGB people have to be mature to be in final stage, and act like heterosexual people
• those who don’t accept heterosexual people arent finished

Liberal humanistic account
- liberal Humanism = encourage acceptance of individual variation as part of rich variety of humanity

Question 22

What are sexual IDs based on?

Answer 22

They CAN Change over time, are NOT FIXED
Sexual ID is constructed, not fixed
- constructions are cultural, performative, normative
- based on cultural understandings + performing we conclude what we should behave
- relys on the group we generally interact with

Question 23

How is sexual ID seen in everday life?

Answer 23

Construction of ’normal’

• What laws support ID expression? – e.g. equal rights, service…
• Uk only legalised same sex marriage in 2014

What options are available on standardised forms

• census, research surveys, accounts, signing up for things, social media – ’other’ is not very nice
• facebook only added extra gender options in 2014

Assumptions in public

• Assume you are heteroexual until told otherwise
• assume 1 male, 1 female parent until told otherwise

Question 24

How are non-mainstream sexual IDs accountable?

Answer 24

Accountability of Sexual ID
- accountabile for LGB vs heterosexual – have to explain it
- Accounting for mainting fixed ID – if you change, you have to explain why
LGB may account for heterosexual behaviour – I was in denial, its just sex
Heterosexual may account for homosexual behaviour
- experiment/ just a phase

Construction of choice

• Sexual ID is often not treated as innate, just a choice/ lifestyle choie
• If people can choose, accountability is different than if forced

Question 25

Who did the Bud sex example?

Answer 25

Silva (2015)

Question 26

Outline Silva (2015)

Answer 26

• interviewees constructed traditional masculinity
  
  • I wear jeans and boots, I like to drive trucks and shoot stuff – to them, homosexuals don’t do that
• They realise their ID was in question and they try to construct a masculine as possible ID

Prefered other masculine men when engaging in homosexual behaviour

• if I wanted a feminine one, id go to my wife at home
• Presumed they wouldn’t have negative feminine characteristcs

No romance

• p’s claimed it was a no strings atteched thing
• Just friendliness – coffee then sex

Maintaing primary heterosexual relationship

• most were married
• sex with other women would be cheating

Question 27

What are becoming more vague in terms of sexual ID? and give an example

Answer 27

Labels

• Many people today reject the requirement for stable categories (Savin-Williams, 2005)
• many new labeles are puporsively flexible/ vague – e.g. pansexual

Decreasing use of labels at all
- theres more resitance to labells now, especially in young people

Move to ‘subject script’ (Hammoack et al., 2013)
- instead of seeing LGB as pathological/ biological requirement – see LGB as just a spectrum of individuals, variable

Question 28

Which 2 did studies into sexual fluidity?

Answer 28

Diamond (2008)

Katz-Wise (2015)

Question 29

Outline Diamond (2008)

Answer 29

• 10 year longitduinal study – 79 women, 18-25
• Non- heterosexual women
  Results:
• 67% chagned their IDs at least once (not voluntarily)
• Bisexual was a poor lable for their behaviour and experience

Question 30

Outline Katz-wise (2015)

Answer 30

• survey of sexual behaviours and beliefs (199 p’s all sexual minority)
• 64% women reported sexual fluidity – 52% men
• Of those, women were more likely to use variety of sexual IDs
• Men more liley to ID as purely gay