INTRODUCTION AND COURSE OVERVIEW

1. INTRODUCTION AND COURSE OVERVIEW Welcome ! Psychology 309-1 Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Identity Development

2. INTRODUCTION AND COURSE OVERVIEW • This course is about bigotry and prejudice. Bigotry-The attitude, state of mind, or behavior characteristic of an individual with strong conviction or prejudice, who is intolerant of those who differ with him/her.

3. Prejudice Prejudice-An adverse judgment or opinion formed beforehand or without knowledge or examination for the facts. A preconceived preference or idea: bias. The act or state of holding unreasonable preconceived judgments or convictions. Irrational suspicion or hatred of a particular group, race, or religion. Detriment or injury caused to a person by the preconceived and unfavorable conviction of another or others.

4. Back Sleepers versus Side Sleepers Subjecting a behavior to the gaze of a regime of disciplinary power.

5. How does this regime of disciplinary power operate? • Comparison-Normal Side Sleepers are compared to Back Sleepers. • Differentiate- How do we differentiate Side Sleepers from Back Sleepers. Hierarchies of the natural order. • Prescription of rules to follow- group rules—Side Sleepers = “good.” Back Sleepers = “bad.” • Exclusion- some are more valuable than others. • Constraint-impose a system of conformity. • Normalize- create a system that informs others which behaviors or individuals are “normal” or “abnormal.” • Surveillance- create a system that watches and keeps track of these problematic “others.”

6. LGBT Studies "Justice Through Science" Scientific & Scholarly Work + Advocacy = LGBT Studies

7. The key questions needing attention are "ones that probe the construction of compulsory heterosexuality and describe all available sexual identities in relation to whatever the culturally dominate sexuality, if any, was and in relation to the gender system at hand in the cultures and periods under study" (Wishik, 1995, p. 200).

8. What Is LGBT Studies? Weeks (2000) LGBT Studies is a diverse field with several unifying themes: • The lives of LGBT People • Identity • Experience of Oppression • Struggles for Recognition (in History and Literature) • Dealing with Legal Codes • Cultural Representations of Heterosexuality and Homosexuality

9. What Is LGBT Studies? • Weeks (2000) LGBT Studies is a field with no single theoretical orientation. • Essentialism/Constructionism-A theoretical controversy that was dominant in the 1980's. Essentialism-Theory that views homosexuality as a minority with a core identity that is consistent across historical time and geographical space. Constructionism-Theory that views homosexuality as a historical and cultural invention.

10. What Is LGBT Studies? • Weeks (2000) LGBT Studies is a field that compliments and incorporates feminist controversies. • Are lesbians and gay men similar entities that can be studied together? • What about male privilege and power?

11. What Is LGBT Studies? • Weeks (2000) LGBT Studies do not endorse one single methodology. • Quantitative Research Methods • Qualitative Research Methods

12. What Is LGBT Studies? Weeks (2000) What L & G Studies is – or could be. • Recognition of the need to learn to live with difference. • Rooted in a political and cultural stance claiming sexual justice. • Questioning the sexual orthodoxy and a fundamental critique of the heterosexual norm. • Contesting existing knowledge by redefining who has the right/expertise to speak about homosexuality.

13. What Is LGBT Studies? Kitzinger and Coyle (2002) Lesbian and gay psychology is: • Psychology that is explicit about its relevance to Lesbians and gay men. • Does not assume pathology. • Aims to counter prejudice and discrimination. • Seeks to create a better world for LGBT people. • A scholarly and scientific enterprise. • Policy oriented, practical, real world. • Starts with the assumptions that homosexuality falls within the normal range of human behavior. • Studies the full range of issues and concerns of LGBT people.

14. What is a Homosexual? Historical Views of Homosexuality (Wishik, 1995) • Essentialism versus Constructionism • Essentialism--categories and identities, possessing universal characteristics, (homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual) have existed and persisted through time and across cultures. • Constructionism-makes a distinction between behavior (a verb, i.e. sodomy) and categories and identities (a noun, i.e. sodomite--a condition, consciousness, orientation, personality, roles, subculture). From this viewpoint, we can not say that Socrates was "gay". We do know, however, that he took pleasure from engaging in homosexual acts.

15. What is a Homosexual? Historical Views of Homosexuality (Wishik, 1995) • Boswell defines "gay persons" as: those whose erotic interest is predominantly directed toward their own gender. • Boswell finds evidence for the essentialist viewpoint. • Homosexuality existed in history as both behavior and a category of identity at least since Greco-Roman times.

16. What is a Homosexual? • Throughout Middle Eastern and Western History, three major theories of sexuality, or sexual taxonomies, have existed (Boswell): • Type A Theories- People are polymorphously sexual. • Type B Theories -People are Heterosexual, Homosexual, or Bisexual. • Type C Theories - Only one type of sexual behavior is normal, natural, and moral. All other types of sexual behavior are abnormal, unnatural, and immoral.

17. What is a Homosexual? Historical Views of Homosexuality (Wishik, 1995) Can we separate Homosexuality from a gender system? Fernbach- Anthropological evidence of same-sex behavior: • Berdache • Adult males having sex with young males • Adult males engaging in mutual masturbation Fernbach interprets these systems as being consistent with a gender system of male dominance. This is very different from the modern view of "gay" involving individuals of equal status.

18. What is a Homosexual? Historical Views of Homosexuality (Wishik, 1995) • Can we separate Homosexuality from a class and gender system? • Foucault-Pre-20th century conceptualizations divided people by class or gender. Class--In Greece, male citizens were allowed to take pleasure by engaging in sexual relations with all political subordinates (women, foreigners, slaves, and younger males). Gender--By the 19th Century, homosexual behavior was viewed as a form of gender inversion.

19. What is a Homosexual? Psychological Views of Homosexuality (Wishik, 1995) Modern, Western viewpoint (Medicine and Psychiatry) viewed homosexuality as a marker of a distinct personality type. Freud Libido and sexual desire is influential in personality development. Innate Bisexuality as a starting point for sexuality. Moving to binary. Homosexuality = Arrested Development.

20. What is a Homosexual? Psychological Views of Homosexuality (Wishik, 1995) Klein Sexual Orientation Grid • Sexual identity is multivariate and dynamic. • Individual report on past, present, and ideal life. • Seven Variables. 1. Sexual Attraction 2. Sexual Behavior 3. Sexual Fantasy 4. Emotional Preference 5. Social Preference 6. Self-Identification 7. Lifestyle

21. What is a Homosexual? Category 0 Exclusively heterosexual 1 Only incidental homo. 2 More than incidental homo. 3 Equal Homo. & Hetero. 4 More than incidental Hetero. 5 Only incidental hetero. 6 Exclusively Homosexual % males 63 12 7 5 3 6 4 % females 72 9 5 3 2 3 2 • Psychological Views of Homosexuality • Kinsey’s continuum 1 2 3 4 5 6

22. What is a Homosexual? • Today, Homosexuality is viewed as more than just sexual acts and attractions. • Modern view focus on romantic and emotional bonds, identities, communities, shared culture. • Five Components: 1. Sexual Attrraction and Desire 2. Sexual Behavior 3. Identity 4. Relationship and families 5. Communities

23. The Incidence of Homosexuality • Incidence--The extent or frequency of the occurrence of something. • Key variable is the "something". • Attraction • Fantasy • One-time sex to orgasm • Long-term same-sex

24. The Incidence of Homosexuality • Kinsey (1948; 1953) 10% exclusively homosexual. • Hite Report (1976) 10% Identify as lesbian. • Kinsey Institute (1970's and 1980's) 13% of males exclusively or primarily homoerotic behaviors. 7% of females exclusively or primarily homoerotic behaviors. • Guttmacher Institute (1993) 2.5% of males report exclusive homoerotic behavior. 1.0% of males identify as "gay".

25. The Incidence of Homosexuality • Incidence numbers depend upon the definition of homosexuality. Females Males Attraction 17.8% 20.8% (Wells, 1995) Fantasy 10-20% 25-40% (Kinsey) One time sex to orgasm 1-3% 5-10% (Kinsey)