Sexuality

          Fitting into the mosaic of socially constructed ideas, sexuality is a concept that varies according to both time and space. Sexuality ideals in the United States arose as a means to restrain sexual deviation among both men and women. Gender and specifically the socially accepted gender roles of each sex set the parameters for sexuality. Both masculinity and femininity are constantly redefined as the middle ground between the fluid borders of gender. The definition of sexuality therefore is as unstable as the social constructs of race and gender since it depicts society’s desire to encapsulate complex human interactions and identities into restrictive labels.
          Since sexuality is more or less defined by the definition of gender, it is not surprising that sexual constraints be placed on women while it granted and grants more freedom to men. During the time of the Depression, male sexuality was addressed only when it came to homosexuality as a form of male inadequacy. This “male deviation” stigmatized homosexuals in society since they strayed away from male gender roles. The Freedman article illustrates how women became more accepted as sexual creatures while at the same time contributing to their own victimization. While female purity and chastity lost the idealized values they had during the Victorian age, women became more exposed to the same dangers that only prostitutes had faced in the past.
          Even while sexual norms had been changing during the Depression, WWII highlighted the disparities between male and female treatment in the military. Creating GI Jane illustrates how women’s contributions in the war were undermined by their defamatory portrayal as prostitutes to male soldiers. The fact that women were not granted combat experience was to further distance them from a predominant male entitlement as soldiers. At this point in time and even until today, many people believe that serving in the military is the highest expression of manliness and therefore could not be attained by a woman. Perhaps recognizing a woman as a soldier was the ultimate threat to masculinity since women had already proved to be intellectually equal to men and accepting their valor and courage could potentially blur the constructed hierarchy that kept women subordinate to men. Many women where therefore discouraged to join the military and many feminist along with mainstream society believed that the military was only a temporary outlet for women’s improvements in society. The mother and wife image began to gain weight in society to discourage women from entering the armed forces but not only were women excluded from any recognition as soldiers or heroes but also from any benefits under the GI Bill.
          The “Looking like a Lesbian” article is also a direct representation of how feminine ideals restricted women in their physical expressions. The same stigma that was put upon homosexuals was placed upon lesbian and even women who did not embody feminine characteristics. There were various stereotypes that plagued women and discriminated against them on the basis of class, sexual preference or race. Lesbians were considered sexual deviants in the same way that homosexuals were since they also strayed away from their socially accepted gender roles. It seems as though there is always a cyclical pattern in which every time women challenge male hegemony, the few advances that women had gain in their social standing before that challenge, society reverts and idolizes the most retrograde of female gender roles. The importance of domesticity and feminine attributes to women and their behavior always seems to be the factor between male and female tranquility at least from a male perspective.

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