I have a question about culture influencing masculinity and feminism. Does culture affect gay and lesbian people? Or does culture have any influence in shaping them? Or does having gay or lesbian parents change the way culture would influence the child?
We can think of a culture as a group of people making lifestyle choice based on their life situation (geography, climate, history, and family structure, etc.) These groups of people can choose to emphasize masculinity or femininity or the delicate balance of the two. We Chinese culture has a major philosophical book called I Ching (易经pronounced as Yi Jing) dealing with how to balance ying (feminine factor) and yang (masculine factor).
As to gay and lesbian, first I believe it is a natural thing. It is not a lifestyle choice. From ancient time to modern day and across all cultures, we have some percentage of gay/lesbian people in every group of people due to the odds of balance of ying and yang in human body. It is a very natural thing for a give people to grow up to be a gay or lesbian. Some culture take it as a shame or taboo, some culture treat it as natural thing. In some part of the world people even exploit the commercial value of bi-sexuality.
So, being a gay or lesbian is not a lifestyle choice of gay people. Gay/lesbian becomes a subculture in any society due to the fact that mainstream sexual orientation is heterosexual. Mainstream (or dominant) culture and subculture should co-exist with each other peacefully and respectfully.
That being said, a given culture may provide some environment to celebrate being a gay or lesbian. Modern media saturation may mysteriously influence the balance of ying and yang in human body so we can have more or less gay/lesbian. I read an article by McLuhan a couple of year ago. He said the high level of media (music, video, film, picture, etc) saturation may result in people fantasizing to be androgynous. Cross-dressing is an example of it. Somebody want to include both masculine and feminine factor into their lifestyle which may result in more deviation from the mainstream choice. But this is not necessarily a negative thing.
That's my observation of the gay/lesbian culture. Thank you for the great question.
I have a question about culture influencing masculinity and feminism. Does culture affect gay and lesbian people? Or does culture have any influence in shaping them? Or does having gay or lesbian parents change the way culture would influence the child?
ReplyDeleteWe can think of a culture as a group of people making lifestyle choice based on their life situation (geography, climate, history, and family structure, etc.) These groups of people can choose to emphasize masculinity or femininity or the delicate balance of the two. We Chinese culture has a major philosophical book called I Ching (易经pronounced as Yi Jing) dealing with how to balance ying (feminine factor) and yang (masculine factor).
ReplyDeleteAs to gay and lesbian, first I believe it is a natural thing. It is not a lifestyle choice. From ancient time to modern day and across all cultures, we have some percentage of gay/lesbian people in every group of people due to the odds of balance of ying and yang in human body. It is a very natural thing for a give people to grow up to be a gay or lesbian. Some culture take it as a shame or taboo, some culture treat it as natural thing. In some part of the world people even exploit the commercial value of bi-sexuality.
So, being a gay or lesbian is not a lifestyle choice of gay people. Gay/lesbian becomes a subculture in any society due to the fact that mainstream sexual orientation is heterosexual. Mainstream (or dominant) culture and subculture should co-exist with each other peacefully and respectfully.
That being said, a given culture may provide some environment to celebrate being a gay or lesbian. Modern media saturation may mysteriously influence the balance of ying and yang in human body so we can have more or less gay/lesbian. I read an article by McLuhan a couple of year ago. He said the high level of media (music, video, film, picture, etc) saturation may result in people fantasizing to be androgynous. Cross-dressing is an example of it. Somebody want to include both masculine and feminine factor into their lifestyle which may result in more deviation from the mainstream choice. But this is not necessarily a negative thing.
That's my observation of the gay/lesbian culture. Thank you for the great question.