Responses to ?'s in 100 Soc

Responses to ?'s in 100 Soc

Exercise 1:   Social Construction and Social Identity
The article “The Social Construction of Social Identity” by Ruth Hubbard begins with the simple statement “There is no ‘natural human sexuality.”   This is the basis for the entire article which outlines how society has constructed a “right”   sexual orientation, and a wrong one.   To understand how this is done, we must first understand the concept of sexuality and sexual identity.   Sexuality can be defined as one’s sexual preferences, or, the manner in which people experience sexual arousal and sexual pleasure.   This is clearly different from what we refer to as sexual identity, which is one’s sexual object of choice and is bound up in a web of cultural attitudes and rules.   Sexual identity, according to the social   construction theory, was simply a feeling that one had for another person.   Western Christian values then shaped this into something else, by imposing upon society that sex is only acceptable for procreation and thus heterosexuality is the only acceptable way.   Although sex is not considered to be only for procreation in modern times, the concept that heterosexuality is the only acceptable sexual orientation has been objectified over the years into its own reality.   Now, the idea has been internalized that heterosexuality is the “right” way, and therefore homosexuality is bad.   Over generations, prejudice against homosexuality perpetuates itself as parents teach their children that it is   wrong to explore their sexuality until they “are old enough to make babies,” (Hubbard 52).   Even then, exploration of the opposite sex is taught to be dirty and wrong.   Homosexuals who violate these social rules experience much discrimination, and it is in this way that the situations we define as real become real in their consequences.
As discussed in many of the readings, being homosexual is associated with various stigmas.   We saw in “Personal Politics : A Lesson in Straight Talk” by Lindsay Van Gelder, that...