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Fluid Sexuality

The rigid forming of our sexual identity, that is, the supposed characteristics of masculinity and femininity, has been a part of the structural basis for Western society since the beginning of the eighteenth century. Previously, the roles subscribed to men and women were blurred. Dress codes, work ethics and homosexuality were not major issues. As the eighteenth century progressed, society’s idea of sexual identity developed and as such, created a set of dogmatic morals and unyielding beliefs that have made the achievement of sexual equality problematic. These labels and characteristics created by society, in order to understand sexual identity and mainly that of same-sex relations, are the major causes for the inequality of today. Although an essentialist may consider identity as ‘natural, fixed and innate’ I am inclined to take the constructionist view and assume that identity is flexible, the effect of social indoctrination and am more disposed to believe that identity is formed through the ‘available cultural models for understanding ones-self.’ In relation to the argument for this principle are the influences of my own up bringing, education and that of others opinions and experiences.

As we trace our way through the history of homosexuality, we can gain an improved understanding of the forming of sexual identity in same-sex relations. With the modernisation of society, it was inevitable that homosexuality, as an identity, would be formed. Even though there were same-sex sex acts prior to the nineteenth century there had been no corresponding label subscribed to identify them. The French historian Michel Foucault, who has been widely credited as the key influence of the constructionist position taken up in modern gay and lesbian studies, goes so far as to provide an approximate date of this identification process.   He claims that it wasn’t until around 1870, mainly in the medical profession, that the concept of the homosexual as an identity was fashioned....