"Understanding Sexual Orientation" And " Tough Guise"

The article "Understanding Sexual Orientation" basically explains the assumptions our society have made about the homosexual population. As the article discuss even many psychiatrists agree with the concept that there is a patter of characteristics which compose "the homosexual personality". As a common belief, many people assume that those who define themselves as homosexual usually have feminine gestures, prefer any profession that is categories for women and also they have an unsettles personality. If we read between the lines it is clear that all this ideas are created by the dominant group, with the purpose of connecting homosexual tendencies with weakness. As its explained on the article "Tough Guise", men are raise to believe through the process of socialization that the are certain characteristics they should have in order to be consider a "real man". Some of the characteristics are being tough, independent, strong and respected, but for those who doesn't have those traits are just simply categorize as "weak" or assumed they are homosexual. The media that we are expose to related violence with masculinity, which seem to represent a positive and acceptable behavior for men. Perhaps, this attitude not only harm women but also men themselves because they are always in a constant fight between them to protect their pride and their image.      

"A Way Outa No Way" by Becky Wangsgaard Thompson

Eating problems such as anorexia, bulimia, extensive dieting, or binging, have always been a phenomenon that affects many people, especially women, physically and emotionally. Not until recently according to Becky Wangsgaard there was not research done that included African American, Latina, Asian and working class Native Americans as groups affected by this issue because just white upper and middle class Americans were consider for the previous researches. Also previously the only known cause for this problem was "culture of thinness", concept that was also challenge by Becky Wangsgaard after proposing that those eating problems are also ways women nowadays use in order to cope with their traumas. In other words, the ideal figure that our society sells to women as beauty is not the only cause of eating problems, because race, class, and sexuality are really the key terms in other to understand the real reason behind this issue. 

Eating problems were mainly connected with sexual abuse, poverty, heterosexuals, racism and class injuries. Perhaps all this traumas show that the reason for this phenomenon is clearly affected by the socialization process they were expose of. Perhaps, even the relationship and image they had of their body also changed which lead to an intense feeling of discomfort with who they actually view themselves as. The fact that most of the participants of the research developed their conditions at an early age, reported that it lasted more than half of the life, should made us question on how power this issue really is. In other words, most of our girls may be experiencing the same struggles that the participants pass through, but many of us may not even recognized until later on or when its too late.