Gendered sexuality

Gendered sexuality is the way in which gender and sexuality are often viewed as likened constructs, whereby the role of gender in an individual's life is informed by and impacts others' perceptions of their sexuality. For example, both the male and female genders are subject to assumptions of heterosexuality. If a man were to behave in feminine ways, his heterosexuality would be doubted, and individuals may assume that he is gay. Gendered sexuality is the way in which gender and sexuality are often viewed as likened constructs, whereby the role of gender in an individual's life is informed by and impacts others' perceptions of their sexuality. For example, both the male and female genders are subject to assumptions of heterosexuality. If a man were to behave in feminine ways, his heterosexuality would be doubted, and individuals may assume that he is gay. Two main theoretical perspectives dominate discussions of gendered sexuality: that of an evolutionary perspective, and that of a sociocultural perspective. Although these two are typically separate, Eagly & Wood believe that these two theories could potentially be reconcilable. Both the terms gender and sex have been historically interchangeable, but it was not until the late 1960s and early 70s that the term gender began to be more thoroughly defined and spread throughout the literature within the field of psychology. Although the term has undergone some changes since then, today it represents how an individual feels and expresses their gender, typically through masculinity or femininity. Through this definition, gender has often been used as a variable to study how particular parts of people, (i.e. one's sexuality), can ultimately be informed by gender. Psychological research in this area has tended to follow these three modes of looking at gender: Human sexuality, unlike gender, has kept a relatively stable definition by which it refers to all sexual attitudes and behaviours in an erotic, or lack of erotic, nature. The relationship between gender and sexuality is not static, it is fluid and changing. In light of this, gendered sexuality does not necessarily follow predictable patterns. Typically, however, gendered sexuality has often followed a heteronormative path, whereby heterosexuality is seen as what Vanwesenbeeck calls a 'key-site' for the intersection between gender and sexuality. Historically, however, these interpretations of sexuality have been riddled with gendered stereotypes, such as men holding more permissive attitudes towards frequent sex and multiple sexual partners, whereas women are more conservative. A study by McCabe, Tanner & Heiman illustrates that gender, at least in the Western world, informs how we understand and conceive of the construct of sexuality. Their study was aimed to discover how men and women gender their meanings of sex and sexuality, if at all, and their results suggest that men and women do talk about sex and sexuality in gendered terms. The most frequent categories of gendering sex/sexuality conversations were: The researchers also commented that these four areas of gendering sexuality occurred among the participants without any suggestions or hints towards these particular subject areas. The researchers conclusions stated that gender, in some way, dictates how we learn and what we know about sex and sexuality. Although gendered sexuality is often viewed through the constructs of male, female and heterosexuality, it can also be used in regard to other gender and sexual variant individuals such as gender dysphoria or those who identify as transgender, transsexual, intersex, homosexual or bisexual. Gendered sexuality and sexual orientation are complementary to each other. Sexual orientation refers to an individuals sexual identity in relation to the gender which they are attracted to. Gendered sexuality refers to male and female genders’ assumptions of heteronormativity. In past years sexual orientation was based on heteronormativity in the sense that only a male and female where to be attracted to each other. However over the years homosexuality, bisexuals, intersex, transsexual, and transgender have been acknowledge and have shown us that what heteronormativity, which was once believed to be the driving force between gender sexuality, is not. With research done it has been proven that it is gender roles, what one things as a normal female and male, is the driving force behind gender sexuality. “Contrary to the hypothesis that females are more sexually fluid than males, we found that female youths were less likely to change identities than males. The finding that youths who transitioned to a gay/lesbian identity differed from consistently gay/lesbian youths suggests that sexual identity development continues after the adoption of a gay/lesbian sexual identity.” (Braun, 46) Even when adopting different sexual orientations gendered sexuality the belief that men and women should act a certain way about their sexuality is still a prominent conflict. The sociocultural perspective of gendered sexuality holds emphasis on the idea that men and women are social beings informed by the social group of which they are a part, and that the social and cultural aspects of these groups influence the traits prescribed to males and females. The sociocultural perspective deems these traits as performative, in opposition to an evolutionary perspective that describes them through notions of essentialism and innateness.