What is Sexuality?
A persons sexual orientation or preference
What was sexuality traditionally seen as in the UK?
In the UK, heterosexuality has become traditionally defined as the dominant ideal form of sexuality.
Homosexuality was seen as deviant or abnormal, therefore making it difficult for many to publicly declare there sexuality.
Weeks (1987)
States that not many would say “I am heterosexual” in a relation to their identity, but to say “I am gay”, or “I am lesbian” makes a statement about belonging and your relationship to dominant sexual codes.
Plummer (1996)
Sees homosexuality as a process and discusses the “homosexual career”, where a male who has accepted the label of “homosexual” will seek out others and join a subculture in which stereotypical homosexual characteristics become the norm. Demonstrates how peers can support the acceptance of a homosexual identity.
Rich (1984)
Argues that a woman’s sexuality is oppressed by men in patriarchal society, through institutions such as marriage, through sexual violence and rape through the sexual objectification of women. Using a feminist term “compulsory heterosexuality” to describe a way women are socialised into a subordinate roe, ensuring their availability to men.
Changing sexual identities
- Homosexuality is no longer classified as a “condition”
- Age of consent for sexual intercourse was equalised in 2000
- The Equality Act 2010 makes it unlawful to discriminate against any individual on the grounds of sexuality
- Civil Partnerships introduced in 2004
- 2014/15 - homosexuals allowed to marry in a church.
