Blog Post One – Week Two

“It is learning how to take our differences and make them strengths.”

Senthorun raj’s ‘Are you gay enough to be a refugee?’ and Audre Lorde’s ‘A masters tools will never dismantle the master’s house’, highlight some important questions about the way society categorises and stereotypes anyone who diverges from the “norm”.

Not only are the stereotypes which portray homosexuals as “excessively promiscuous” (Raj, S, 2011) ridiculous, but by suggesting that persecution could be avoided if an asylum seeker remains “discreet” (Raj, S, 2011) about his or her sexuality, we are Inadvertently suggesting that homosexuality is wrong. And in a broader context that difference is wrong, (an idea which Lord dedicates her whole speech to disproving), that it’s something one should remain quiet about, and thus demonizing anyone who differs from the hegemonic ideals of society. Lorde elaborates on this issue stating that those “who stand outside the circle of this society’s definition of acceptable women” (Lorde, 1984, Pg.2) have been “taught either to ignore [their] differences, or to view them as causes for separation and suspicion rather than as forces for change.” (Lorde, 1984, Pg.2))

Furthermore, by suggesting that someone must be involved in a “scene” or homosexual community in order to prove their sexuality we are forcing our own ideas about what homosexuality looks and acts like. There is no one set of guide lines, just as there is none for heterosexuals. The suggestion that there is, is ridiculous. Sexuality cannot be confined to a set of guidelines; it may manifest itself differently depending on an array of considerations at any given time.

These issues raise some really important questions about our society, we need to ask ourselves what is an “acceptable woman” or man?  Who decides the criteria? How are we conditioned into accepting a particular image as normal? And why don’t we celebrate difference?, Questions which could take a lot longer than I have on here to answer, but which should make us all think greatly about how and why we accept one thing as positive and another as negative.