What it means to be feminine and masculine

Gender roles is a huge aspect of our society. It shapes our thoughts, emotions, opinions, and perspectives. With that said, heteronormality is the 'norm' of our society and any opposition to this appears to influence judgement in regards to Americans thoughts, emotions, opinions, and perspectives of other individuals and their sense of worth. Our generation, however, is the most known for gender identity being more flexible and implementing action to promote this idea, such as allowing homosexuals into the army with the 'don't ask to don't tell' policy. Yet, despite our country transitioning into a more acceptable society, the GLBT community still faces discrimination and injustice. I found a blog written by a homosexual online that is a perfect example of the discrimination the GLBT is still facing from a personal point of view. This blog is directed at a newsweek writer, Ramin Setoodeh, who wrote a homophobic article targeting gay actors saying they are inadequate to play heterosexual roles and will not be taken seriously in that role, influencing the success of the movie. This article targeted actor, Sean Hayes as a primary example. Setoodeh's main point in his article was that gay people couldn't play a straight role, because they have no idea what it’s like to be straight, so how could they possibly act they way? This article really got under the skin of this homosexual blogger known as Calhoun. His response to this judgemental article is that homosexuality is not indentifiable. Calhoun says, "It’s not on my skin or in my voice. It’s part of me, but not the only part." Agreeing with Calhoun, and admiring his classy response to an article targeting his sexuality negatively, I believe that sexuality is only one aspect of an individual, not consuming them as a whole, which people commonly mistake. We have the freedom to express ourselves in whichever custom, culture, religion we are passionate about and have realized describes/makes us as an individual. Heterosexuality being the normality of our country is racist towards the homosexual population influencing many actions being prohibited by the gays such as the institution of marriage. I, being a christian, have realized many bias' I have towards this issue of allowing homosexual marriages to be legal nationwide. However, as I have gotten older and become more knowledgeable of this issue I have come to realize that the GLBT community does not begrudge us of our sexuality, so why should we prevent them from expressing their own sexuality and preventing them of obtaining equal rights? This topic is very controversal and gets under a lot of peoples skin, but we need to look at it from other's perspectives and the inequalities this community recieves. I feel that this issue is the most common modern day form of racism. Sexuality is positioned hierarchically, heterosexuality being the superior and homosexuality being inferior, I am not sure if this is an issue that will ever fully be changed nationwide, yet there is hope for the GLBT community in which slowly, yet hopefully, states are changing their laws and allowing gay marriages. This one aspect shows the transition of our societies system of sexism and the ways in which transgender oppression is being changed.

Here is the blogging site, which also gives the website links to Setoodeh's article.

http://selfproclaimedmegalomaniac.wordpress.com/2010/05/12/heteronormality/