The Absent Connection of Gender and Sexuality
It’s no secret that those who choose to express themselves through androgyny and gender are not yet accepted. Just see our recent post named Gender Is Not Over.
However the comments that really have made me think more and more at the moment, are those which connect gender and sexuality, as if both are never mutually exclusive. The shoutings of “Faggot” or chants of “There’s the gay man”, purely based on aesthetic, dress sense, or look.
In 2011, people still connect gender and sexuality together. But why? It makes no reasonable sense. To these people a masculine woman is a lesbian, a trans boy; gay. This is a very common, assuming viewpoint which is completely wrong. But to me the question is, when did humanity connect gender and sexuality together?
If we look at the classical civilizations such as the Ancient Greeks, it all is a very different story…
The Greeks did not distinguish sexual desire or behavior by the gender of the participants, but rather by the role that each participant played, for example “the giver” and “the receiver”. It wasn’t until Christianity came along encompassed in Western civilization that the whole idea of sexuality being connected to gender was conceived.
In the same way, fashions adapt and change, but it seems fashions are forgotten within societies workings. If we go back only 150-200 years and look at the 1800s, the Georgians for instance. If a male was not in makeup, tights and colossal hair, he would be out of the “ordinary” within that particular era. Something that would judgmentally show a male or female as a “certain sexuality” in society 200 years ago, has been forgotten, and replaced with reaction not thought.
Feeling a certain way about your own gender, however far on the scale from masculine to feminine, can be as much removed from sexuality as anything. Perhaps society will eventually come to terms with this, but for now it is quite obvious that the fear of not knowing, not understanding, creates assumptions and conclusions that are never well thought out.
2 thoughts on “The Absent Connection of Gender and Sexuality”
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LOVE Andrej! Hes from my country and I’m so proud to see him be so supported by the whole industry! Sure its not yet total acception (does that even make sense in english!?).. I doubt it ever will be.. but he has been remarkably lucky. I know Daily Mail is the devil’s newspaper but what I love is if you read the comments they are almost all positive for him. So nice to see.
[...] individuality of gender, one entitled “Gender Is Not Over” and another based on “The Absent Connection of Gender and Sexuality“. On the 8th of November this week, Channel 4 have begun a series entitled “My [...]
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