https://padlet.com/madalynebeavers/rsquvv9elj69 Chapter 1-12 of Finding Out en-us 2019-02-03 22:16:36 UTC 2024-10-02 02:30:13 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/Hotsun.png madalynebeavers https://padlet.com/madalynebeavers/rsquvv9elj69/wish/327149189 Although Homosexuality has just recently been identified universally as an innate part of ones identity, homosexuality has been around for centuries (Finding Out, 2). The picture from the article "The Victorian view of same-sex desire", depicts a same sex couple of the 19th century highlighting the point. Same sex couple have been around well before people believed it was an innate part of someones identity. "The groom may be turning away from same-sex love in favor of a respectable, heterosexual marriage, but the men’s fingers intertwine intimately in front of a naked crotch… As an image of forbidden, thwarted love and lust, today it seems pretty explicit (BBC, 2017). This specific artifact connects to the textbook because it proves the statements made in the book. It shows historical evidence of lesbian desires and the idea that LGBTQ individuals have always been present. ]]> 2019-02-04 02:54:56 UTC https://padlet.com/madalynebeavers/rsquvv9elj69/wish/327149189 madalynebeavers https://padlet.com/madalynebeavers/rsquvv9elj69/wish/330097924 Chapter ten is centered around LGBTQ film and television. LGBTQ film has come a long way. Specifically within the past couple years, we have seen the first LGBT film to ever win an Oscar. This was a huge step in the community, "Moonlight winning Best picture was a huge step for LGBT representation in Hollywood. First and foremost, it was a huge step for the LGBTQ community when Moonlight won the Best Picture award at The Oscars just weeks ago. It was the first LGBTQ film to ever win the award. Over the past two decades, Americans have experienced a significant evolution process in their acceptance for lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and transgender people" (Penn State). The textbook talks about the Scientific Humanitarian Committee which aimed to help, "eliminate false prejudices against homosexuals" (finding out, 292). I believe this principle can be applied to most queer films and television shows. All forms of representation are a push to aid in normalization. Today many individuals are already advocating fro LGBTQ rights, but there will always be the minority who do not. Showing LGBTQ persons in media and film not only brings attention to LGBTQ issues, but also helps portray them as everyday people. By nominating these pictures for awards and shedding light on the films, the film and television community is expanding their view to those who have not been included in the past. ]]> 2019-02-11 20:57:03 UTC https://padlet.com/madalynebeavers/rsquvv9elj69/wish/330097924 madalynebeavers https://padlet.com/madalynebeavers/rsquvv9elj69/wish/330098729 Chapter twelve is centered around alternative media. Alternative media is a way for LGBTQ individuals to find a sense of home. Home has been a difficult place to find for LGBTQ individuals, “We tell each other to come out because we wish to be visible as queer; we wish to embody a real identity. Simultaneously, we are sometimes disembodied by our cultures. We are ordered to disappear to inhabit a closet where we can’t be seen by the straights, the young, and the innocent” (Finding Out, 348). Alternative media such as music, documentaries, music festivals, and journalism are all places that these individuals could find solace in. A recent study centered around the impact of representation of LGBTQ youth in media states, "Results indicate that while traditional media (particularly television) creates a common dialogue and validates identity, it continues to represent LGBTQ people as one-dimensional and stereotypical, ignores many LGBTQ sub-groups, limits LGBTQ young people’s perceptions of their future trajectories, and offers no opportunities for critique. In contrast, emerging new media offers new, important, and valued spaces for discussion and creativity" (Journal of Youth Studies). The further acceptance of the media of LGBTQ individuals is essential to queer normalization. Representation is a way for people to identity with others and make the community feel a sense of home. When LGBTQ individuals are represented, they are often given a struggle narrative resulting most commonly in death. While this type of representation is better than no representation, growth is still needed in the portrayal for all individuals in the LGBTQ community. Showing LGBTQ individuals leading normal lives is the next step. ]]> 2019-02-11 20:59:25 UTC https://padlet.com/madalynebeavers/rsquvv9elj69/wish/330098729 madalynebeavers https://padlet.com/madalynebeavers/rsquvv9elj69/wish/330098879 Chapter eleven is centered around queers and the internet. The internet was a revolutionary concept for LGBTQ individuals who felt they were alone. There were near limitless opportunities to connect with other LGBTQ individual's and feel connected through the internet (Finding Out, 324). People were creating websites, discussion boards, groups, and safe places for queer individuals through the internet. Youtuber Tyler Oakley said, "I'd never had such a positive response from people sharing my ideas and videos. The commenters and subscribers began talking about their experiences and different perspectives; not holding back. That was something I really didn't expect" (The Telegraph). The internet has truly changed the way people interact forever as well as how gay and lesbian individuals express themselves. The internet gave minorities the opportunity to find others like them and create a real community. Having this community for these individuals is fundamental to their lives due to the support they can receive from others who are going through exactly the same issues. ]]> 2019-02-11 20:59:50 UTC https://padlet.com/madalynebeavers/rsquvv9elj69/wish/330098879 madalynebeavers https://padlet.com/madalynebeavers/rsquvv9elj69/wish/354799300 Chapter five is a chapter about identity. It aims to talk about and inspect many different sexualities and how they came to be. The graphic, "Gender Unicorn", is a great way to visually show some of the different variations of identity. The graphic only goes to show a small piece of all the sexualities, genders, and identities, but it highlights some of the most commonly talked about  orientations. The graphic can be connected the Kinsey scale created by Alfred Kinsey (Finding Out, 129). While the Kinsey scale measures the affinity towards one sex over the other and the middle ground, the "Gender Unicorn"  is a type of visual representation of the scale. ]]> 2019-04-28 18:12:25 UTC https://padlet.com/madalynebeavers/rsquvv9elj69/wish/354799300 madalynebeavers https://padlet.com/madalynebeavers/rsquvv9elj69/wish/354799800 Chapter two entails a section on the ideas of the Victorian era regarding sexuality and sex. The authors state, "Victorian doctors considered sexual desire in women to be pathological and warned that female sexual excitement and indulgence could damage their reproductive organs and urinary systems... similarly masturbation was linked to criminality and described as women who exhibited excessive sexual desire" (Finding Out, 29). When I read this section I made the connection to the victorian era views to the current issue of female genital mutilation. Female genital mutilation is used in some areas as as a way to prevent women from experiencing pleasure, "It reflects deep-rooted inequality between the sexes, and constitutes an extreme form of discrimination against women. It is nearly always carried out on minors and is a violation of the rights of children. The practice also violates a person's rights to health, security and physical integrity, the right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and the right to life when the procedure results in death" (WHO) . Both views of the article and the text are based on the mistrust of women and the idea that women are not meant to be sexual beings. ]]> 2019-04-28 18:17:00 UTC https://padlet.com/madalynebeavers/rsquvv9elj69/wish/354799800 madalynebeavers https://padlet.com/madalynebeavers/rsquvv9elj69/wish/354801767 Chapter three of the text entails a common issue of normalizing LGBTQ individuals. There has always been a desire from evolutionary psychologists to find a specific "gay gene" or genes (Finding Out, 58). Finding the specific gene will prove to homophobic individuals that being gay or lesbian is innate and not a learned trait. It is not a choice it is how they were born. The new research suggests that a gay gene has possibly been identified, "One of the genes, which sits on chromosome 13, is active in a part of the brain called the diencephalon. Interestingly, this brain region contains the hypothalamus, which was identified in 1991 as differing in size between gay and straight men. Other research has found that this gene, called SLITRK6, is active in the hypothalamus of male mice fetuses a few days before they are born. “This is thought to be a crucial time for sexual differentiation in this part of the brain,” says LeVay. “So this particular finding is a potential link between the neuroanatomy and molecular genetics of sexual orientation" (New Scientist). The possible "gay gene" would be a revolutionary step in LGBTQ research. ]]> 2019-04-28 18:35:43 UTC https://padlet.com/madalynebeavers/rsquvv9elj69/wish/354801767 madalynebeavers https://padlet.com/madalynebeavers/rsquvv9elj69/wish/354802940 Although this article is older than needed, the information and rhetoric was good and explained the problems of the time well. Most new articles are centered around Africa's aids epidemic which I feel is a much different issue than the New York epidemic in the 80's. The issues are different because Africa is receiving help from our government while New York did not until it was evident it was not just a "gay disease".

Chapter four is heavily centered around the AIDS crisis in 1980's New York among the gay community. AIDS was first suspected to be just a gay issue being labeled as "gay cancer". The gay community received little support from government officials and were swept under the rug, "Some politicians argued for quarantining gay men, or at least those with AIDS" (Finding Out 94). Due to lack of government help, the community was forced to be there own activists for help, "In 1982, Michael Callen and Richard Berkowitz, two gay men living with AIDS in New York City, published How to Have Sex in an Epidemic, which helped spread the idea that safe sex could be used as protection against spreading the epidemic--an idea that hadn't yet become prevalent in the medical community" (Smithsonian). After much fighting, AIDS was finally addressed by the federal government and actually treated as the medical epidemic that is was. This was not achieved until famous stars who were perceived as straight, came forward and announced they had the disease.]]> 2019-04-28 18:46:21 UTC https://padlet.com/madalynebeavers/rsquvv9elj69/wish/354802940 madalynebeavers https://padlet.com/madalynebeavers/rsquvv9elj69/wish/354805513 Chapter six dedicates a whole section of the chapter to "Bisexual Erasure in the LGBTQ Community" which is still a very relevant issue today. Bisexual representation in all forms of media is heavily lacking. Bisexual's have often been pushed aside in the LGBTQ community, "Many gays and lesbians have believed that bisexuals are just "going through a phase" on their way to "true" gayness or lesbianism, or that they are trying to hold on to straight privilege while fooling around with people of their own sex" (Finding out, 162-163). Bisexuals are not only being denied by their own community, but by the media as a whole. Who many bisexual characters can you think of? Not many. Representation is a way for people to identity with others and make the community feel a sense of home. When bisexual individuals are represented, they are often given a struggle narrative resulting most commonly in death. While this type of representation is better than no representation, growth is still needed in the portrayal for all individuals in the LGBTQ community. Showing bisexual individuals leading normal lives is the next step, "It can be argued that this (media) representation is normalizing bi identities by taking away the dramatic coming out, and by showing them living their lives authentically. It is a nice idea, but only works if enough good representation has already been shown in the media" (Film School Rejects). ]]> 2019-04-28 19:07:51 UTC https://padlet.com/madalynebeavers/rsquvv9elj69/wish/354805513 madalynebeavers https://padlet.com/madalynebeavers/rsquvv9elj69/wish/354805985 Chapter seven of the textbook is about the topic of intersectionality. Intersectionality is a way "to desire our complex awareness that we inhabit- and a re inhabited by- multiple categories of identity and that our experience of several identities taken together may be emotionally, culturally, and materially different than the experience of any one particular identity category by itself" (Finding Out, 187).  Intersectionality is an important aspect to take into account when thinking about feminism. People's intersectionalities should be taken into account to further understand their privilege and their oppression. The TED talk, "The Urgency of Intersectionality", highlights the need for intersectionality as it does in the textbook. The speaker uses different visuals and interacts with the audience to make the audience further understand the topic and how it applies to them. Showing each attendee how their intersections are different than others highlights how they are privileged and possibly oppressed. This is different for everyone as a white male who is heterosexual and wealthy has far less things that oppress him than a women of color who is working class and is ]]> 2019-04-28 19:12:25 UTC https://padlet.com/madalynebeavers/rsquvv9elj69/wish/354805985 madalynebeavers https://padlet.com/madalynebeavers/rsquvv9elj69/wish/354806396 Chapter nine of the textbook outlines many of the different visual and performing arts. One of the sections that is outlined is Queer Theater. Such as lesbian pulp novels many consumers of queer theater were not queer, "We should note that all of these artistic endeavors, from Wilde's plays to Diaghilev's ballet, were generally part of a privileged "high art" cultural scene that was somewhat tolerant of homoerotic gestures- provided they could be passed of as artistic or laughable" (Finding Out, 280). Queer theatre was another way for heterosexual individuals to view LGBTQ life. The article, "LGBTQ Theatre, Emphasis on the Q“ is an article centered around the trials and tribulations of queer theatre. Queer theatre toady is more open and accepts its heterosexual viewers, but recognizes that they are not who the shows are for, "My queer aesthetic is relentlessly and effervescently fabulous,” declares Berry. “It does not include heterosexuality under the umbrella of normality, nor does it shun straight people who want to explore queerness for themselves” (American Theatre). Queer theatre is a way for heterosexual individuals to show interest in gay and lesbian arts without openly supporting the communities they are about. ]]> 2019-04-28 19:15:46 UTC https://padlet.com/madalynebeavers/rsquvv9elj69/wish/354806396 madalynebeavers https://padlet.com/madalynebeavers/rsquvv9elj69/wish/354806928 Chapter eight is centered around the different styles of literature that involve queer individuals. One type of these literatures are gay pulp novels. Gay pulp novels, "represent, beneath a veneer of enticing exploitation, a compendium of not-so-hidden preoccupations and fears of the tempestuous and socially unstable postwar years" (Finding Out, 234). Gay pulp novels were similar to their counterparts, lesbian pulp novels. The main difference between the pulp novels was audience. The lesbian pulp novels were originally published for the use of soldiers at war to read tantalizing material due to the mainly male writers. The women in the novels were the "lesbians of heterosexual fantasies" (Finding Out 231). Gay pulp novels did not attract a heterosexual following probably due to the fetishization of lesbianism and the rejection of gay tendencies. The pulp novel attached, "To Want a Boy", is an example of how the covers of the novels were designed. ]]> 2019-04-28 19:20:31 UTC https://padlet.com/madalynebeavers/rsquvv9elj69/wish/354806928