Woms quiz 5 - Quiz 5 for Professor Bueno-Hansen PDF

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Quiz 5 for Professor Bueno-Hansen ...

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What are the essentialist and constructionist views on homosexuality? Give an example for each. Essentialist views on homosexuality fit with the biological arguments. Essentialist approach has the term essence inside of it, showing the idea that every person is basically the metaphor of an apple. When you peel an apple, you find its core. There is a core in each apple just that there is a core to each person. We are all the same in this way and have this that defines each person and is natural, stable, fixed, innate, and universal across a time and place. We are all made this way. An example of the essentialist views on homosexuality is Lady Gaga’s song/music video to “Born This Way.” This shows that we are born the way we are proving the essentialist view that this is all biological. The social constructionist view is about choice. The gay liberation movement really praises choice, and being able to make an active decision as empowerment. This view claims that there is fluidity around gender and sexuality, an effect of social conditioning and depends on social context. Identity is a process of identification and is not the same across time and space. A metaphor here is the example of an onion, that you continue to find different layers as you peel further. An example of this is Ruby Rose’s commentary regarding gender fluidity.

According to Liz Highleyman, what was the main debate within ACT-UP? According to Liz Highleyman, the main debate within ACT-UP was whether or not it should be focused solely on HIV/AIDS or if the organization should also include the social and economic factors influencing the epidemic. The issue came about because ACT-UP brought together long-term queer activists and white gay men who were primarily focused on the current issues at hand. Although existing queer activists obviously knew the AIDS epidemic was bad, they also saw the epidemic as an opportunity to connect their liberation with the bigger picture. Thus, ACT-UP eventually split into two groups: one that focused solely on treatment for AIDS and advocacy for the LGBT community, and one that attempted to branch out to include other socials issues. The latter understood the severity of what was happening, but also understood it was an opportunity to include themselves in bigger groups that could lead to accomplishing more things. In addition, white gay men realized they couldn’t just sit back and be comfortable anymore, but rather they had to start fighting for their lives. What is Audre Lorde’s argument regarding silence? Audre Lorde’s argument regarding silence in the end is to basically say that being silenced, or choosing to silence yourself, will not accomplish anything in the end. She discusses that within the black liberation community she focuses on all different parts of herself rather than just one. In many parts of Audre Lorde’s text throughout The Transformation of Silence Into Language and Action she said how breaking silence allows you to relate to others and communicate. This idea of breaking silences opens a door to separating differences. Not being silenced is important within finding similarities between people. She also discusses how there is a difference between being silenced by others and silencing yourself. You must come to a decision within yourself to be able to break the silence and have a self-revelation. She talks about how she had to find within her an act of self- revelation since she was silent for a long time during her life and needed to find courage to show herself and break out from that. Through breaking silence and speaking is the first step to one knowing oneself or coming into

ones self. Silence didn’t really protect or help her at all and she was able to realize that there is nothing to be afraid of and that we should always speak out. Use specific examples from the celeconference documented in "The Edge of Each Others' Battles" to demonstrate Lorde's idea of "the creative power of difference" (p. 204) and " no separate survival" (p. 204)? Lorde explains that everyone is different from one another, and we need to embrace that. When Lorde talks about “the creative power of difference” she is saying how we all have our own meanings of our differences and if we use that to our advantage instead of being discouraged, we in the end will be more powerful as a whole. Lorde believes that holding back your differences would in the end, be detrimental to yourself rather than embracing these. An example from the film was when one woman didn’t want to go to the celeconference if there were going to be men there. She thought if Audre Lorde was a feminist, the event’s audience should only be women. However, once she saw Blackberri (a black gay man) on stage singing and dancing with other women, she realized that everyone is after the same goal. The woman then understands that people need to use their differences as grounds for coming together rather than means of separation. Lorde says that “there is no separate survival” to explain how people cannot ignore parts of their identities. Although we all may be different, in the end we are all fighting for the same thing which essentially is to survive. We all need the same basic necessities in order to survive no matter how different we may be. She explains how everything you define yourself as is important to your identity. Lorde also believes that the more parts you have to yourself, the more you are able to speak about and accomplish in your life. For example, all of Lorde’s different parts of her identity came together and made her a poet who is able to write about being black, being a woman, and being a lesbian. She cannot choose to ignore any of those identities, in addition to all the ones I didn’t name. Lorde wants people to embrace their differences, and use them to their full potential. An example from the film was when the group of Asian women felt as if their voices weren’t being heard, and the schedule was completely re-arranged for the last day. Because Lorde believed that if one group is in trouble, everyone is in trouble, she made sure that the group of women were heard to make sure their needs were being met....