Essay on The Extent of American Unity and Identity

The Extent of American Unity and Identity Since early colonization the English colonies had always felt closer to England than to each other. In fact, it took a British newspaper less time to reach Savannah than a letter from Massachusetts. However, after the French and Indian War a sense of unity began to permeate through the colonies as a result of British acts. For every British action there was an American reaction, which fed the spirit of a new identity as Americans, not English colonists. The American identity was being established in the years before the revolution, but it was not the majority as some colonists stayed loyal to the King. Events such as the Albany Plan, Boston Tea Party and†¦show more content†¦During the first two years of the French and Indian War the colonies fought together on their own. They received little help from England and what help there was often failed because of the aging Navy and the unsuccessful attempt to recapture parts of the Ohio River by General Edward Braddock. When Ge neral William Pitt finally showed up to help, he began forcing men to enlist and taking colonists weapons and tools with no compensation. The Americans were not used to the British officers. Years of living without classes and ranks had given the Americans a unique attitude (Doc. H) This caused a lot of resentment toward the British. The war gave American colonists a common enemy and they began to resent a common government. After the war Britain had many problems. The French ceded a vast amount of land which almost doubled the British Empire. Britain was also in a recession and had a huge national debt. In order to counteract these problems Britain began a New Colonial Policy and instituted many Acts. The enforcement of these laws, which have for years been neglected, was frustrating for the colonies. The colonies began to resent the sudden revocation of their freedoms and soon would act against them in rebellion (Doc. F). The first of many acts was the Proclamation Line in 1763, prohibiting settlers from entering the land west of the Appalachian Mountains. This prevented settlersShow MoreRelatedTo What Extent Had the Colonists Developed a Sense of Their Identity and Unity as Americans by the Eve of the Revolution?1474 Words   |  6 PagesDBQ -- To what extent had the colonists developed a sense of their identity and unity as Americans by the eve of the Revolution? A single colony cannot depart from its mother country and lead a revolution; only a whole united nation, such as that of the American colonies, could successfully detach themselves from Mother England. One must take into consideration that up until the eve of revolution, much had happened in the time era of 1607-1776, where the British were still very involved in theRead MoreEssay on Development of the American Identity Between 1750 and 1776919 Words   |  4 PagesKeum Yong (Andrew) Lee DBQ – Score 8/9 (95) In what ways and to what extent did the â€Å"American identity† develop between 1750 and 1776? Though the American colonists had not achieved a true, uniform sense of identity or unity by 1776, on the eve of Revolution, the progress towards unity and the inchoate idea of an â€Å"American† between 1750 and 1776 is inevitable in both existence and significance. Previous to the French and Indian War, America as a whole had been, more or less, loyal mercantile-basedRead MoreMath Essay843 Words   |  4 Pagesfor address prompt. Identify the task. State in your own words what you are being asked to write. 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By the eve of the Revolution the patriotism has built up to such an extent, that theRead MoreThe Identity Of The American Revolution1527 Words   |  7 PagesThe identity of the American colonists prior to the American Revolution was still work in progress because there were certain events that helped shape their identity and led to the American Revolution. The American colonies were trying to break away from the British control because they wanted to become independent and be their own nation. Once the British began to realize the intentions of the colonists, they began to create laws, acts, and other forms things to keep the colonists under their controlRead MoreAnalysis Of Paul Johnson And Howard Zinn829 Words   |  4 PagesIn unit 2, unity and division is the major topic of discussion. Through the readings of Paul Johnson (A History of the American People) and Howard Zinn’s (A Peoples History of the United States), major themes were studies. In this paper, two of these themes will be applied; politics and government and inequality. An analysis of the works by these two authors has been made, in a bid to bring out the differences in the information they present. Through the identification and discussion of these differencesRead MoreFriday Night Lights, By Steven Hilliard Stern1409 Words   |  6 PagesStern, the head coach of the American Olympic Hockey Team Herb Brooks is determined to gather up an American team to beat the Russians in their own game, ice hockey. In both works, unity is an important theme that is reached through different means. In Miracle the elements of socioeconomic class and race were not a factor in unifying the team. While in Friday Night Lights those factors were extremely important throughout the context of what unity means in the story. The unity in Miracle is more constructiveRead MoreEssay about Film Report On American Me: A Therapeutic Perspective1251 Words   |  6 PagesFilm Report on American Me: A Therapeutic Perspective American Me is a fictional film having a factual basis, starring and directed by Edward James Olmos. Released to the national theater circuit in 1992, American Me depicts the life of Rodolfo Cadena, a ranking Carnal (gang member) in the prison gang La Eme, also known as the Mexican Mafia. To therapeutically approach the salience and pervasiveness of gang membership, including its allure and reinforcers, would be aRead MoreFilm Report on American Me: a Therapeutic Perspective1294 Words   |  6 PagesFilm Report on â€Å"American Me†: A Therapeutic Perspective Taj Gunter: March 2008 â€Å"American Me† is a fictional film having a factual basis, starring and directed by Edward James Olmos. Released to the national theater circuit in 1992, â€Å"American Me† depicts the life of Rodolfo Cadena, a ranking Carnal (gang member) in the prison gang La Eme, also known as the Mexican Mafia. To therapeutically approach the salience and pervasiveness ofRead MoreSocial Groups : An Essential Part Of Humanity1074 Words   |  5 Pageschurch members. Only someone who lives as a recluse in complete isolation from society can be considered ‘non-member’. The importance of social groups is clearly present when you take a look at the media. The media is capable of controlling (to some extent) the minds of readers and viewers. And one way to do that is to ‘play’ with representation. Just think about it: the media can represent teenagers (social group) as well-behaved, ordinary schoolchildren but two seconds later the media is capable of

Business Model of Twitter Social Media

Question: Describe about the Business Model of Twitter for Social Media. Answer: Introduction The continuous evolution of the software services with the advent of technology in various segments of the human life have made the survival of the older companies challenging thus making evolution the necessity of life (Smith Fischer and Yongjian 2012). In order to understand the need of the revenue and the various impacts of advertising forces upon the social media sites, this paper aims to scrutinize the various aspects of charging the individual customers of twitter. In an effort to understand the impact, the pros and the cons have been presented and finally recommendations were provided. Charging individual users of twitter Twitter is a social media site which allows user to share and post small messages of 140 words which are named tweets. As per the services provided by the website the registered users can both post and access tweets but an unregistered user can only read them(Twitter Help Center, 2016). The multi-sided users are those users who act as the mediator among two sides thus benefitting from both the sides. The micro blogging site has more than 200 million users who are active in a month and share more than double the tweets per day, thus making Twitter extremely lucrative to the advertisement of the business.But the recent trends of the market have been disappointing for the company as the market share of the organization has been trading below the IPO(Forbes.com, 2016). According to the report in Forbes (2016), the website is neither easy to use nor is user friendly but the usage of the site by the affluent class of the society has made is hold the gates of the company, which is closing f ast. So twitter can be seen more as a PR site rather than which allows people to share and be heard. According to a report in Techcrunch (2009), the company was about to charge other companies for accessing elite services that will be carved out for them, but was eventually cancelled. There are various advantages and disadvantages of charging the users who use the website which will be discussed in the later section. Advantages of charging individual users There are various advantages of charging the services of social media site which ranges from better user base to safety of the child, etc. which have been presented below (Bolton et al. 2013). Quality of services Since the user of the websites provide the necessary monetary help for the upkeep and the maintenance of the website, the quality of the services are better compared to the free websites where the users have little say in the various matters(Silverthorne, 2016). Ad Free websites The revenue of the websites are generated from the advertisements that are done on the website by a thorough understanding of the users, which is often very annoying, paying money for the websites will help eliminate such advertisements. User data will not be scrutinised As there wont be any interest of the website to generate revenue through advertisement, the data mining will not be used for understanding the user behaviour and pattern (Russell 2013). More responsible users Since the services are paid only the serious users, who are interested in website will pay, thus creating a more responsible user base for the website, thus reducing the potential misuse by people and child (Fuchs 2013). Disadvantages of charging individual users There are various disadvantages of charging the services of the social media site which will not only hamper the number of user but will also create more addicted user base for the website. Reduced amount of user Although the user base of the paid services are more stable compared to the free ones, the amount of user for the free services is always larger compared to the paid ones, thus reducing the consumer base (Stephen and Galak 2012). Information can still be traded for money Although the paid services suffice all the financial needs of the website, still the data available on the website could be traded to useful information. Paid users are more serious The paid users of the websites are more serious about the website and tend to be more possessive thus creating more addiction that might be extremely harmful (Tuten and Solomon 2014). Recommendations It is highly recommended that the social media website should charge its user for using the services of the website. This will not only reduce the dependency of the website on the advertisers and will allow the website to focus on the services that are to be provided to the consumers. Also the lesser extent of data mining will also ensure that the privacy of the user is well maintained and is not compromised to suit the need of the advertisers. The paid services will attract only the responsible user into the site discouraging the minor out of these websites thus reducing various risks like virtual identity suicide, psychological effects of the websites, online bullying, trolling. Paying for using the services of Twitter will allow in creation of a close group which is more responsible for the actions and hence will help in reduction of social media malice which is now common to the present generation. Conclusion In the previous segments the various aspects of the paid twitter services have been discussed thus creating an opportunity to evaluate the impact of charging the services of the social media site.For understanding the impact on the various aspect of the society the advantages of charging the services and disadvantages of charging the services have been presented in detail. Finally the recommendations have been given for charging the services for Twitter have been suggested to ensure the various malice related to the free social media services could be contained. References Bolton, R.N., Parasuraman, A., Hoefnagels, A., Migchels, N., Kabadayi, S., Gruber, T., Komarova Loureiro, Y. and Solnet, D., 2013. Understanding Generation Y and their use of social media: a review and research agenda.Journal of Service Management,24(3), pp.245-267. Forbes.com. (2016). Forbes Welcome. [online] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/currentaccounts/2016/07/18/twitter-should-charge-membership-fee/#641a96a262f2 [Accessed 24 Nov. 2016]. Fuchs, C., 2013.Social media: A critical introduction. Sage. Russell, M.A., 2013.Mining the Social Web: Data Mining Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, GitHub, and More. " O'Reilly Media, Inc.". Silverthorne, S. (2016). New Research Explores Multi-Sided Markets. [online] HBS Working Knowledge. Available at: https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/new-research-explores-multi-sided-markets [Accessed 24 Nov. 2016]. Smith, A.N., Fischer, E. and Yongjian, C., 2012. How does brand-related user-generated content differ across YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter?.Journal of Interactive Marketing,26(2), pp.102-113. Stephen, A.T. and Galak, J., 2012. The effects of traditional and social earned media on sales: A study of a microlending marketplace.Journal of Marketing Research,49(5), pp.624-639. Tuten, T.L. and Solomon, M.R., 2014.Social media marketing. Sage. Twitter Help Center. (2016). Getting started with Twitter. [online] Available at: https://support.twitter.com/articles/215585 [Accessed 24 Nov. 2016]. Wauters, R. (2016). Twitter To Start Charging Companies For Having AnAccount?. [online] TechCrunch. Available at: https://techcrunch.com/2009/02/10/twitter-to-start-charging-companies-for-having-an-account/ [Accessed 24 Nov. 2016].

Sandlot Essays (619 words) - Baseball Films, 20th Century Fox Films

Sandlot The Days of the Sandlot Sandlot a vacant lot especially used for unorganized sports. It was a place during my childhood years where I could go and not have a worry on my mind, except being with my best friends and playing some sandlot ball. A place where the memories of endless fun and games took place, between my friends and I. I still hear the voices of neighbors yelling at us to go home because of the tennis balls we hit against their walls and windows. The sandlot was better than Turner Field to us. Nothing could compare to all the times we had there. It was a small field in between two apartment complexes. The spray painted lines we drew, the worn out rug squares we used as bases, the home plate we made out of wood and painted white were all the things we could do to make this old field our baseball park. But during our endless games we sure felt like we were playing on a real field. The rules aren't exactly like baseball, although things were very similar. Day after day we never chose a winner. We just played to satisfy our love for the game, not for bragging rights. Our games could be played with just four people and sometimes we had games that were nine on nine, just like the pros. Every morning I knew the call to meet at the lot was coming. By the time we all met up, we were all ready to play. Making teams was always a hassle because everyone always wanted to be on Tommy's team. So, we all took turns being on his team and his team usually won. Taking slides into the run-down grass around the bases, even getting cuts from the pebbles we missed picking up were all part of the lot. And every time a foot stomped on home plate, it was a reminder that the sandlot was ours. By the time lunch time came around we would be covered in sweat and ready to jump in the pool to cool off. Then we would always have a pizza delivered to the pool, it was kind of a tradition during the summer. After a nice long rest there we were back on the lot continuing our games as if we had nowhere to go. As dusk starts to roll in we still played until one of us was nailed by a screaming line drive in the head because it was too dark to see. Usually our game-ending announcement was my friend's mom, when I could hear her screaming his name to come home. That was the cue the game was over for the day. Soon it was just Tommy and I around and we are always the last to leave. Knowing tomorrow we all would be back to play again and again. As I reminisce back on the sandlot, I think back to the days when I had the most fun. Every day was like a new adventure to be conquered by my friends and I. The lot after a couple of years was moved down the road to a new location, by a new group of children in my old neighborhood. They too, had done a nice job taking care of the field, as I go back to take another look at what my friends and I had originally started. As I see the kids play today, I am reminded of the times when we were all children and carefree. With not a single worry on our little minds except what new toys to buy, the sandlot my home away from home as a kid. Sports and Games Essays

The Benefits of a Postgraduate Year

The Benefits of a Postgraduate Year While many students have discovered the benefits of a gap year between high school and college, some students choose to take a postgraduate or PG year after graduating from high school. Students can take advantage of this year-long program at their own private school or at another school. Many students attend a boarding school just for their postgraduate year, as boarding school allows these students to experience life away from home while still having the requisite structure and guidance from teachers and advisors. While the PG year has been traditionally known to support boys, an increasing number of girls are taking advantage of this important program. Here are some reasons students can benefit from a PG year at private school: Greater maturity It’s not news that students at both public and private four-year colleges are taking longer than ever to graduate from college. In fact, according to the ACT, only about half of all students graduate from four-year colleges within five years. In addition, also according to the ACT, about one-quarter of students at four-year colleges drop out and don’t return to school. Part of the reason for this high drop-out rate is that students don’t arrive on campus ready for independent college life. A PG year allows students to develop maturity by living on their own in a structured environment. While students at boarding schools must advocate for themselves and take responsibility for their work without their parents’ constant guidance, they have advisors and teachers who help them structure their time and who help them when needed. Better chances for college acceptance. While parents are often afraid that students who defer going to college for a year are fated never to go, the colleges themselves prefer to accept students after a so-called â€Å"gap year.† Colleges find that students who travel or work before college are more committed and focused when they arrive on campus. While a PG year isn’t technically the same as a gap year, it can also help students have an additional year of experience, and it can help them be more attractive to colleges. Many private schools offer PG programs that allow students opportunities to play sports, travel, and even participate in internships, all of which can greatly increase a students chances of getting into the college of their choice. Better academic skills. Many students who go on to be great college students simply don’t come into their own until later in high school. The later developmental curve tends to be particularly true of boys. They simply need one more year to build their academic skills when their minds are better able to learn and improve. Students who have learning disabilities may derive particular benefit from a PG year, as they may need time to assimilate new skills and improve their ability to advocate for themselves before confronting the independent world of college. A PG year at a boarding school will allow these types of students the ability to advocate for themselves in the supportive world of a high school, in which there are deans and teachers looking out for them, before being expected to do most of this work completely on their own in college.   Ability to build one’s athletic profile. Some students take a PG year so that they can add luster to their athletic profile before applying to college. For example, they may attend a boarding school known for excellence in a particular sport before applying to college to play that sport. Some boarding schools not only have better teams, but they also tend to attract the attention of college sports scouts. The extra year of school and training can also help players improve their strength, agility, and overall mastery of the sport. Private schools offer qualified college counselors who can help with the college search, too.   Access to better college counseling. Students who take a PG year may also enjoy access to better college counseling, particularly if they take their gap year at a top boarding school. A student applying to college from these types of boarding schools will benefit from the school’s experience and long record of admissions to competitive colleges, and the resources at these schools may be better than what the student had at his or her previous high school. Article edited by  Stacy Jagodowski

Public & Social Housing PowerPoint Presentation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Public & Social Housing - PowerPoint Presentation Example Kemney’s views are mostly based on the integration of the market based practices into the social housing practices and how the regulatory environment can be tailored to make suitable changes. Accordingly, the respective adjustment of the supply and demand mechanism in the market and the government intervention into the market through political management of the cost control mechanism can ensure the stability of the market. An alternative mechanism presented by Kemney discusses about the unitary model wherein the suppression of the cost renting can be achieved through a comparison between the cost renting as well as the profit renting in the social housing. Thus the use of unitary model attempts to combine both the profit as well as the non-profit motives in order to stabilize the market and ensure that both aspects of the market remain within acceptable limits and help achieve the policy objectives of the social housing. The implementation of the unitary model is therefore, believed to be not creating the rent differentials which may occur in case of dualist model. His arguments also tend to focus on the influence of different pressure groups and the corporatism in the social housing market. As such different countries have different rental systems in place owing to the overall nature of their culture. For example, the system in UK is relatively different as compared to the countries like Sweden.

CRIME CONTINUES TO BE A MASCULINE PURSUIT.DISCUSS Essay

CRIME CONTINUES TO BE A MASCULINE PURSUIT.DISCUSS - Essay Example 285). Despite reports that females are committing crimes at an increased rate, males continue to commit the vast majority of crimes (Anthony 2008, p. 94). The prevailing view is therefore that crime continues to be a masculine pursuit despite modest increased in female offending. The question then is, whether or not crime is and continues to be a masculine pursuit. Theories and assumptions that attempt to explain the disproportionate rate of male offending help to answer the question of whether or not crime continues to be a masculine pursuit. The prevailing view is that, if male offending can be attributed to masculine theories rather than traditional criminology theories, then we might be able to state that crime continues to be a masculine pursuit. Some explanations include the role of gender socialization, the perceptions of police, and the independence and opportunities that men are accorded (Browne 2011, p. 249). However, with the exception of gender socialization, the other ex planations and theories are not gender specific. For instance, perceptions of police can be entirely related to education or exposure. Similarly, independence and opportunities are likewise linked to both men and women. ... This paper is therefore divided into three parts. The first part of this paper provides a factual basis for the contention that males are more predisposed to commit crimes than females are. The second part of the paper analyses the various theories, assumptions and explanations relative to the male propensity to commit crimes. The third part of the paper examines the rise in female crimes and concludes that the rise in female crimes do not change the disproportionate number of male crimes. However it does indicate that crime is not and does not continue to be a masculine pursuit. It does indicate that crime is not specific to males and therefore can not be characterized as a continuing to be a masculine pursuit. The objective is to analyse masculinity theories with a view to demonstrating how crime is perceived to be a masculine pursuit and then to look at the increase in female offending to demonstrate how crime cannot be perceived as a masculine pursuit. Although crime was perceive d to have been a masculine pursuit, developments in female offending inform that it is impractical and unreasonable to continue to view crime as a masculine pursuit. I. Males and Crime The latest statistics released by the UK Office for National Statistics reveal that as of October 2006, 4 out of every five offenders were male. Moreover, man â€Å"outnumber women† in all of the most serious crimes (Office for National Statistics 2006). For instance between 84 and 95 per cent of burglary, robbery, drugs-related offences, criminal damages and violent crimes are committed by males. 98 per cent of all sexual offences are committed by males (Office for National Statistics). In the US there is evidence that the

Bisexuality Politicised Essay Example for Free

Bisexuality Politicised Essay This paper asks the question how can bisexuality be or become a danger to the dominant sexual script which I problematise as produced racism, sexism, homophobia, and monosexism. That this brand of heterosexuality occupies 99% of our cultural space in entertainment, education, history and public expression and is considered inevitable and unchallengable for 90% of peoples relationships is, I will argue, the victory of white patriarchal science. I intend to show the nature of this victory and imagine what counter struggle and victories might emerge from the site of my bisexuality. The Historical role of Biphopia- Policing the Treaty. Underpinning this paper is the belief in that many if not all heterosexual identifying people can be bisexual and that the majority are to some extent not privately monosexual. The majority status of bisexuality does not make it normal nor ideal however I mention it because it is important to realise that the invisibility of bisexuality requires extraordinary effort to maintain and it’s repression occurs against all people not just a few â€Å"natural† bisexuals. To understand the historical role that biphobia has played and the historical position of bisexuality it is necessary to recognise homosexuality as a creation of western patriarchal and homophobic medical science. Women have always loved women and men have always loved men but the classification of these experiences as a sexuality with little or no element of choice and a biological or individual psychological basis was given currency in the 19th century by a professional class that feared same sex desire. Their construction of homosexuality shaped and informs Western cultural understanding of sexuality â€Å"not in the first place because of its meaningfulness to those whom it defines but because of its indispensableness to those who define themselves against it. † (Segal, L. p145) for it was and is needed â€Å"not only for the persecutory regulation of a nascent minority of distinctly homosexual men (and women) but also for the regulation of the male (and female) homosocial bonds that structure all culture at any rate all public or heterosexual culture. † (Eve Sedgewick in Segal, L. pp194-5) Early psychoanalytic texts were quite explicit that the project was to police all male and female relationships warning â€Å"teachers and parents not to take too lightly friendships among girls which become passionate† and society to â€Å"be more concerned with the degree of heterosexuality or homosexuality in an individual than they are with the question of whether he has ever had an experience of either sort†. â€Å"The real danger from homosexuality† was seen to lie â€Å"not in actual sex association but in homosexual attitudes towards life† such as the negative attitudes of â€Å"thousands of women toward men, marriage and family life† influenced by â€Å"latent homosexuality† for â€Å"neurotic attitudes about love and marriage can prove contagious. † (Caprio, F. pp 6 -11) Generally, prior to this the western world had relied on Christianity to dictate the terms of sexuality. Whether sexual attraction was â€Å"natural† was no defence under a regime which tended to view â€Å"natural† sexual desires as needing control from a religious authority. The medical establishment faced the dilemma of replacing religious authorities without having any utilitarian basis for the repression of same sex desire. The construction of homosexuality as a distinct condition was to define normality as exclusive heterosexuality. In fact heterosexuality was simply the condition of being human. Sexual behaviour became a product of a persons condition; the â€Å"human condition† producing normal heterosexual behaviour. There was now no need for a religious justification for preferencing the heterosexual over the homosexual because behaviour was not a matter of choice but a matter of whether or not you were ill; Well or sane people simply didn’t want to have sex with people of their own gender. This was presented as a more humane response to homosexuality than religious condemnation or incarceration. Psychiatrists often called themselves compassionate as they argued for an adoption of â€Å"scientific† curative responses to homosexuality. (Caprio, F, p. xi) The majority gay and lesbian movement accepted the shifting of sexuality into an area for science and have embraced the notion of a biological basis or early psychological basis for sexuality. Their fight has largely been for homosexuality to be treated as incurable and it follows natural and equally valid alternative to heterosexuality, jettisoning any agenda to argue that is better. Only a minority have argued that homosexuality is a political choice and an option for everyone. With both sides ceasing hostilities1, when homosexuality was delisted as a mental illness in 1973 (Altman,D. ,p5), institutionalised heterosexuality and gays and lesbians overt interests have moved to coincide. Victories to normalise homosexuality also normalise heterosexualitys dominance by depoliticising sexuality in general. In 1993 when a homosexuality gene was â€Å"discovered† a genetic basis for the majority status of heterosexuality was created though not declared. Anyone who would argue that the commonality of heterosexuality might have something to do with social programming and institutional support can now be said to be messing with nature. The proud bisexual threatens this peaceful coexistence of the heterosexual majority and homosexual minority. Recognition of our bisexuality requires a validation of our sexual relationships with people of our own gender based on choice rather than the agreed legitimate biological basis. Such choice may be personal or circumstantial but also political or moral. Normalising bisexuality with a biological cause won’t defuse it’s threat though it could contain it if it relegates us to a fixed minority status. Society still has to reckon with why we choose to validate relationships with people of our own gender by identifying as bisexual. We reopen old debates that many who have found safety in a biological basis for their monosexual identity want to keep closed. (I will revisit this fear in the last section, Bisexuality and the Future when I discuss Bi supremacy. ) A bisexual identity simply has to be defined as confused or an exception to the rule. Individuals have to be pressured to fit themselves into one or the other category. In a secular society without moral taboos people can’t be allowed to entertain the idea that their partners gender is political. Also, understandably gays and lesbians know those moral taboos still hold significant power so many still see their best option as policing the treaty based on the attribution of their sexuality to a biological or psychological cause. Bisexuality and identification Withdrawing our support for the status quo. The bisexual identifying person is not predominantly someone who feels attraction equally to both genders or without any reference to gender2 and in terms of actual sexual or emotional experience the majority could be classified as predominantly homosexual or heterosexual. â€Å"Why then, don’t you call yourself gay or straight? † is the inevitable response to this confession. And confession it feels like because to indicate a â€Å"leaning† puts at risk the validity given to a bisexual identity within contemporary discourse. Sexual expression is usually presented as representative of something innate rather than a mediation between a person and their world. Consequently the woman who says she usually finds women easier to make emotional connections with is seen to be describing her â€Å"innate† difficulty emotionally connecting with men rather than her experience of men and their culture. Asserting a bisexual identity in the face of this invalidation is about contextualising sexual responses rather than finding invisible internal reasons for them. A bisexual identity in the above circumstance keeps open the possibility that a preference for emotional relationships with women could change if men and male culture changed. Alternatively a preference for sex with men might be attributable to homophobia. (Weinberg, M. S. , p221) The reasons for choices are not always positive ones but the possibility for counter argument exists. Holding onto a bisexual identification based on potentiality, rejects the conservatism of describing reality by the status quo. However a bisexual identity is also partially an attempt to accurately relate personal history as well and this too has a radical power. Most monosexual identifications represent people only by concealing some bisexuality. By identifying as bisexual a person accepts and celebrates those aspects of their life that are inconsistent with a monosexual identity. The power of metanarratives within modernism, including descriptions of sexuality, relies on such inconsistencies being deemed insignificant. Hence a public bisexual identity is a confrontation of generalist theories with lived experience. If people promote such a solidarity with their experiences and the people who compose them that is greater than any to a proposed theory then expounders of metanarratives (including myself) will lose power. Our authority to dictate â€Å"from above† will be replaced by a decentralised authority based on being â€Å"up close† to our own reality. Bisexuality and other oppressions. Sexuality forms alliances across genders, ethnicities, and classes so any bisexual movement which fails to take gender, race or class issues into account poses a real danger of obscuring differences and concealing oppression. (This is also true for a multiplicity of issues such as disability or mental illness). My discussion of bisexuality and other basis for oppression are not intended to present bisexual identification as the panacea of the worlds ills. Social change must be inspired by a diversity of experience and informed by a range of critiques. Given the above it is presumptious for me as a half-wog male to seek to resolve ongoing debates about a bisexual political agenda among feminist women or debates among black women and men on how to connect bi pride with anti-racism. To do so would be to pretend that I can speak from only my bisexuality and abandon any white, male perspctive. As a long term unemployed person I believe I can speak on class issues from the inside to some extent but also still acknowledge the privelage of my university education. This is not to say that I think that sexism is a womens issue or that the responsibility for opposing racism is solely non-whites. Nor am I comfortable being accountable to lesbian or straight feminists on the issue of bisexual profeminism or placing beyond reproach the homophobia of some black liberationist theorists like Eldrige Cleaver. What to speak on and when in regard to a radical bisexualitys’ impact on patriarchal, white supremist and class oppresion is best defined as problematic. As a simple way out I hope to show how I see a politicised bisexuality contributes to my pro-feminism, anti-racism and support for class struggles. It is my hope that this will have relevance for a wider audience. Radical Bisexuality and Pro-feminism. Judith Butler states that â€Å"the heterosexualisation of desire requires and institutes the production of discrete and assymetrical oppositions between â€Å"feminine† and â€Å"masculine† identities. † (Segal, L. p190) Monique Wittig goes further to argue that a woman’s place in heterosexuality is a class of oppression and that the lesbian escapes her class position. (Wittig, M, p. 47) I agree that â€Å"hetero†-sexuality (literally a sexuality based on opposites) reproduces and supports womens oppression in other spheres by creating a binary gender system. Men need to realise that their love for women is problematic when it is that â€Å"love† of the â€Å"feminine identity† that belongs to this sytem. This is the attraction for the other and requires women’s difference to be exaggerated and emphasised. These exaggerations shape women as not-men while we men shape ourselves and are shaped into embodiments of the ideal. The seeming irony of male heterosexuality where women are objects of love being consistent with misoginy where women are objects of hate makes perfect sense through the operation of oppositional heterosexuality precisely because the love requires women to be less than men. A love that does not require partners to be different than ourselves is not possible within exclusive heterosexuality because it fails to provide the argument to repress same sex desire. It is necessary for heterosexual men to confront their homophobia which demands they repress or invalidate their same sex desire before they can love their female partners as their â€Å"own kind† and not another species. An additional benifit to patriarchy of discrete gender identities that is liable to be lost when men reject oppositional heterosexuality is the regulation of male social interaction. The arguments to exclude gay men from the military reveal the mindset deemed necessary to produce a war machine; â€Å"We are asking men in combat to do an essentially irrational thing put themselves in a position where they are likely to get killed One of the few ways to persuade men to do that is to appeal to their masculinity You cannot have an adrogynous military The idea that fighting is a masculine trait runs deep. As a cultural trait it predates any written history. It may even be a genitic trait Just think what it would mean to demasculinize combat. The effect on combat effectiveness might be catastrophic. † Charles Moskos, Military Socioligist quoted in Colonel R. D. Ray, Military Necessity and Homosexuality (Gays:In or Out, p63) It is regrettable that non-heterosexual men and many women are proving they too can make excellent soldiers. 3 However the above quote exaggerates a fact that male â€Å"buddy† relationships are relied on by the military and that this requires a repression of same sex desire. This is because same sex desire is preferential it is not a love of all men equally but of a few and potentially for a time. The same-sex loyalty that is demanded by patriarchy including it’s military needs the stability of exclusive heterosexuality; â€Å".. the recognition of homosexuality is a threat to that peculiar combination of male camaraderie and hierachy on which most organisations depend; sexual desire is too anarchic, too disrespectful of established boundaries to be trusted. † (Altman, D. p63) Unravelling their heterosexuality is not the most important thing men must do to support feminism however it is a legitimate part of this support for â€Å"it is the repressed recognition of this fact (that everyone can be homosexual) that does much to fuel homophobia, but equally acts so as to promote male bonding and certain crucial authority structures. † (Altman D. ,p XI) Radical Bisexuality and Racism. The construction of homosexuality as a â€Å"natural† difference from the heterosexual norm shares and competes for the same conceptual space as constructions of race as biological differences from the white norm. This is particularly true because the hetrosexual ideal is represented as white with the sexuality of non-whites traditionally seen as untamed, violent, promiscuous or otherwise deviant even if heterosexual. Non-whites are considered only ever partly heterosexual while white queers are considered not proper whites. The competition for the limited conceptual space has led to historical difficulites in linking white supremacy with heterosexism (exacerbated by white queer activists own racial interests) and in fact has unwittingly linked Gay Power with white power. â€Å"Homosexuality as a race† has developed into a gay and lesbian ethnicity. For whites under racism where their whiteness is considered the norm and thus unnamed, this ethnicity is their only ethnicity, the lesbian/gay â€Å"language† their only language, and lesbian/gay history their only history, to the point that it is not seen as a difference within whiteness but a difference from whiteness. (Blasingame, p52) While we (white queers) are unconscious of our whiteness queer cultural politics consequently becomes a way of colonising non-white cultures with a new white culture, white leaders and white history in a particularly insidious way. While not as powerful as heterosexual institutions for people wanting to be publicly non-heterosexual we have considerable power; in the framing of beauty along racist lines, in the support of white non-heterosexual bourgeoius or political leaders and in the very conceptualisation of sexuality. As one example Brenda Marie Blasingame in Bisexuality and Feminism speaks of a history of sexuality in U. S. black communities which did not include placing people in particular â€Å"boxes† and accepted the practice of bisexuality. A part of moving into the white gay and lesbian movement for her was the requirement to come out as a specific sexuality and accept the marginalisation of bisexuals. For many people who are not white taking up a gay or lesbian and to a different extent bisexual identity requires an abandonment of their own ethnic politcal identity or view. (Blasingame, pp. 51 53) The common conceptual space of non-heterosexual and non-white however can and should however produce queer anti-racism provided white queers realise that this conception of their sexuality is wrong. There is a shared interest in anti-racism and anti-heterosexism in critiqing normalcy and naturalness. As only one example the construction of beauty posits that naturally â€Å"Gentlemen prefer Blondes†. Not only is this sexist for reducing women to a hair colour (and the Blonde is meant to be read as a woman) but it is heterosexist and clearly as racist as â€Å"Gentlemen prefer whites† when Blonde is only a white persons natural hair colour. When we politicise our sexuality we can open up not only the arguments against heterosexual dominance but the arguments against the sexual sterotypes of non-whites including the framing of Asian men as â€Å"young girls† represented in this regrettable quote from the 70’s magazine Gay Power; â€Å"I dig beautiful oriental men. Asking me to shoot at them is the same thing as asking heterosexual soldiers to shoot at beautiful young girls that they would like to fuck. † (Teal, D. p99) Radical Bisexuality and Class. It is worth noting that capitalism which I understand as the continual oppression of the poor that patriarchy is for women is no longer wedded to heterosexuality in Western affluent nations as it has been in the past. This is because Western nations are primarily consumer societies of fairly easily produced goods (easily because their production is either located in the Third World or in the Quattro Monde the world of the Western underclass or because their production is automated). Western capitalism can therefore relax the â€Å"restraint and repression† which was necessary to both control factory floors and ensure a ready supply of human capital through reproduction. (Altman D, p90) Part of this is also due to unemployment and global capital mobility being sufficient to obtain cheap labour and another contributing factor has been Western women raising their education so they are more useful in employment than at home. Also marriage was the institution by which women were given the role of providing a whole range of services capitalism wouldn’t such as aged care and child raising as well as supporting adult men. Now many of these services are provided by profitable private institutions so traditional marriages are actually in competition with capitalism. Of course the worlds poor can’t afford these services and Thirld World countries remain supportive of compulsory heterosexuality (Altman, D, p90) but in the Western consumer-capitalism there is a an interest to increase consumption through the market of previous services fulfilled by women’s unpaid labour. In order to perpetuate consumption growth capitalism must also locate new disatisfactions like teenage angst, at an alarming rate while also offering at a price their answer. In this context gay, lesbian and even bisexual identities as well as transgenderism, S+M and fetish celebrations are eagerly embraced by many industries as the basis for new markets. Our anxiety for recognition, meaning, ceremony and a positive celebration of our sexuality are easily exploitable. â€Å" one of the possible negative side-effects of the popularity of lesbian chic was that it codes lesbianism as merely a kind of fashion statement, something that requires certain consumer goods to mark the individual as lesbian. † (Newitz Sandell) Bisexuals have to be mindful that while we seek recognition, capitalism is looking for new markets and while these interests coincide this will only be true for those of us who can afford it and it will be on the backs of the world’s poor involved in the production of our new consumerables and bearing the greatest brunt of the waste from our new consumption. One positive way to resist becoming merely another market is by applying the awareness of the political nature of sexual desire to the desire for consumer goods and services. Both desires are constructed to serve particular interests and not fundamentally our own. Through working to ensure that all of our desire works for liberation we will resist commodification as we achieve recognition. Bisexuality and the Future To outline what I see as the goal of Radical Bisexuality I will illustrate two scenarios depicting false victories and one which I believe genuinely opens up the greatest possibility for liberation. Scenario 1. Recognition of bisexuality as a third alternative way that people unchangably are. To some extent as I have said earlier this can’t overcome the capacity of bisexuals to fit in as straight and thus can’t conceal the choice to embrace the homosexuality within the heterosexual that they represent. However there are arguments that could be presented that bisexuals have to express their same sex desire or become depressed (â€Å"go mad†). These arguments could form the basis of depoliticising and medicalising bisexuality as has been done with homosexuality. This may make bisexual lives easier to defend and add to the options for young people but relegates bisexuals to the same minority status as is currently given to gays and lesbians. Most people who admit to loving their own gender in straight society would face the same oppression bisexuals now face as â€Å"heterosexual experimenters† and recruitment of the majority would be difficult as they would remain â€Å"true† heterosexuals as unable to change as â€Å"true† bisexuals or gays and lesbians. Further it could also trade the oppression that is invisibility for bisexuals with the oppression that is hyper-visibility for straight men and women, and increasingly gays and lesbians. Having recognised sexuality’s repression but not it’s production we will be easily exploitable by capitalism and our liberation may mean as being as marketed to and ritutalised as heterosexuality. Scenario 2. Bisexuality is considered the only natural sexuality which equates it with the only right sexuality. Heterosexuality would be patholigised along with homosexuality as both are considered to have unnatural â€Å"blocks† to loving one or the other gender. This is Bisexual Supremacy which I acknowledge as a justification for gays and lesbians to distrust bisexuals. While it is unlikely to be widely accepted it is possible that it could dominate queer spaces as a pocket of resistance to heterosexual dominance in the same way as celebrations of gay and lesbian purity have. It is certainly more likely to be targetted at lesbians and gays than straights and while this is the fault of heterosexism’s power, not my own, it must be refuted. This is not to say that politicising sexuality will not require some gay men in particular to reassess their rhetoric. Mysoginistic comments which denegrate women’s bodies deserve political criticism and can’t be assured the right to be accepted. However the wider charge of institutionalising the sexual oppression of women and supporting male social bonding can’t be levelled at male homosexuality and certainly not at lesbianism. Indeed at certain points in the struggle against institutionalised oppression different sexual identifications and choices will be appropriate. Because bisexuality is as deliberate a sexuality choice as any other and not a submission to some biological imperative (and even if it were I reject the claim that naturalness equals rightness) we can’t claim an non-contextual ideal status. Its political usefulness is only that of any tactic relative both to the circumstances and to the person, meaning that for some and at some times other sexual choices and identifications are more appropriate. Bisexual supremacy also prioritises the effort to be bisexual over other efforts to unravel heterosexist, patriarchal and racist programming. I have already stressed the need for a variety of critiques of power to inform social change which Bisexual supremacy ignores. In particular men in relationships with women need to realise that doing their share of the housework is far more meaningful than maintaining or developing their capacity to love other men. Scenario 3. The Dream. Realising our sexualities are scripted will hopefully prompt redrafts along feminist, anti-racist and anti-capitalist lines. No-one should be the sole author of this project even with their own sexuality as we all need to listen to the perspectives our privelages rob us off. Certainly a part of this will be a dialogue between political lesbians, bisexuals and straight women which already has a history and whose future I don’t want to conclude. Consequently my dream is vague. What I don’t see in this future is the fetishisation of wealth, whiteness or gendered difference. Women in relationships with men will recieve support and encouragement as full humans. Advertisers will be incapable of capturing our consumption with snake oil as we demand economic production satisfy new needs that we create, for justice and community. Pleasure including sexual pleasure will mean enjoying our values not forgetting them. Bisexuality like other sexualities will have to argue it’s political legitimacy but not it’s existance. Sexual identifications such as â€Å"Confused† may replace bisexual for many if it is recognises more of their personal truth and political terms like Anti-racist may be key elements of sexual identification. Radical bisexuality wont end all struggles but the raw energy of sexuality will be accountable to and in the employ of the great project of improving the world . Bibliography Altman, Dennis, The Homosexualisation of America, The Americanization of the Homosexual, St. Martins Press, New York, 1982 Sedgewick, E. K. , How to Bring Your Kids Up Gay, pp. 69 81, Fear of a Queer Planet : Queer Politics and Social Theory, Warner,M. (Editor), University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1993 Segal, Lynne, Straight Sex: Rethinking the Politics of Pleasure, University of California Press, U. S. A. , 1994. Foucalt, Michel, The History of Sexuality, Volume 1:An Introduction, Allen Lane, London, 1978 Newitz, A. and J. Sandell,â€Å"Bisexuality And How To Use It: Toward a Coalitional Identity Politics†, Bad Subjects, Issue # 16, October 1994 Caprio, F. S. M. D. Female Homosexuality:A Psychodynamic study of Lesbianism, The Citadel Press, New York, 1954 Weinberg,M. S. , C. J. Williams, D. W. Pryor, Dual Attraction: Understanding Bisexuality, Oxford University Press, Inc. , New York, 1994 Blasingame, B. M. , â€Å"The Roots of Biphobia: Internalised Racism and Internalised Heterosexism† in Closer to Home: Bisexuality and Feminism, Edited by E. R. Wise, Seal Press, U. S. A. , 1992 Colonel R. D. Ray, Military Necessity and Homosexuality , reprinted in Gays:In or Out: The U. S. Military Homosexuals A Source book, Brassey’s, March 1993. Teal D. , The Gay Militants, Stein and Day Publishers, New York, 1971. Wittig, M. , The Straight Mind and Other Essays, Beacon Press. Boston, 1992 Descriptors for Sexual Minorities †¢ Front Page †¢ What is h2g2? †¢ Whos Online †¢ Write an Entry †¢ Browse †¢ Announcements †¢ Feedback †¢ h2g2 Help †¢ RSS Feeds Contact Us Like this page? Send it to a friend! Descriptors for Sexual Minorities | Asexuality | Homosexuality Heterosexuality | Bisexuality | Polyamory | The Kinsey Scale | The Gender Pronoun Game | Coming Out Embarrassing Questions About Sexual Orientation | Going Back In Sexuality U-turns Modern culture has developed a number of terms and symbols to set apart its sexual minorities. Some of these originated within the different communities themselves. Others evolved from scientists, psychologists, legislators, and newspaper reporters trying to describe their gay, bisexual, transsexual, and polyamorous subjects. Many include obscure references to history that go largely unrecognized. Words Lesbian The word lesbian comes from the Greek island Lesbos, where the poet Sappho lived in 600 BC. Sappho wrote numerous poems about her female love, most of which were destroyed by religious fanatics during the Middle Ages. While the first usage of the word lesbian is unknown, it was used in several academic books as early as 1880. The word became more popular during the 20th Century, especially during the feminist era. The term lesbian separatist was commonly used to distinguish feminists who wished to avoid the company of men altogether. Fag, Faggot, Fag Hag Fag and faggot are American insults for gay men. The term faggot first started being used in this way in around 1914, but it is not clear where the word came from. A faggot is a bundle of sticks, used for firewood and tied up for carrying around. In the 16th century it was used as an insulting term for a useless old woman as something that weighs you down, in the same way that baggage is sometimes used nowadays. But its quite a jump from 1592 to 1914 with nothing recorded in between. Gay men in the latter half of the 20th Century began using the term fag hag to refer to straight women who frequently gather at gay establishments, partly as an insult and partly because of the rhyme. Dyke Contrary to popular belief, the origin of the insult dyke1, in reference to lesbians, has nothing to do with waterways or canals. The word first appeared in 1710 in British newspaper stories about presumed homosexuals Anne Bonny and Mary Reed. The two women captained a very successful pirate venture and completed several lucrative raids of the British Empire before agreeing to be interviewed. Reporters often noted their predilection for wearing mens clothing, and one editorial avoided the unpleasant connotations of cross dressing by using a French word which refers to mens clothing, dike. Over the years, this term was corrupted to the modern form dyke. Since then, general misunderstanding about the terms origins have inspired many stand-up comedy routines and bad puns. Polyamory, Polygamy, Monogamy The prefix poly- means many, while mono means one. The suffix gamy was originally from the French word for marriage, but has since been misunderstood as referring to sex. These terms refer to the number of consensual romantic partners taken by each adult in a family. Of course, the suffix amory refers to love. Polyamory is a relatively new term coined by modern practitioners, and is greatly preferred by them. Polygamy and the now defunct term bigamy were coined as early as 1800, as the practice of multiple marriages was outlawed in most Western nations. The state of Utah in the USA applied for Statehood three times before finally accepting an injunction against the polygamy practised at that time by the Mormon church. Polygamy is commonly understood as referring to heterosexual relationships where the man has multiple partners. However, with modern polyamory any combination of genders and orientations fulfills the definition. It is not necessary for all parties in a polyamorous relationship to be involved each with the other. Gay During the 1800s and early 1900s, gay was simply a state of jubilant happiness. However, during the late 1800s gay was sometimes used to describe prostitutes in much the same way that the phrase happy hookers is used today. One theory is that gay came into use to describe homosexual men because of the rise in numbers of male prostitutes during the 1900s. Another theory is that gay was