Write a short critical response paper (500-800 words) in which you explain the problems inherent in defining and identifying sexual identity (as it relates to the category "homosexual,") OR sex/gender identity ("intersex"), particularly in light of the essentialism/social construction debate.
Whose position do you find the most compelling, and what are the political implications of these theories?
Possible Questions/Topics to Address:
• The "birth of the homosexual" - when? What defines a homosexual?
• Medical discourse and the pathologization of non-heterosexual (queer) sexual practices/identities
• Gender Performance and Performativity
• Gender normalization and the notion of "The Closet"
• Gender in film and "The Celluloid Closet"
• Sexuality, gender, and social construction - are "homosexuals" born or made?