(My contribution towards Blogathon India 2008. To know more, head here.)
What are the challenges that society faces in accepting the concept of alternate sexuality? How can we address them?
First off, it’s the homosexual who’s facing the real challenge.
Society lays down norms and expects the community to follow them. The term norm-al is thus a heavily loaded one.
Heterosexuality isn’t normal, it’s normative. Homosexuality isn’t abnormal, it’s a challenge to the normative.
Second, the term alternate presumes:
a) an existent (more valid) way of being
b) the presence of choice
And frankly, I am not comfortable with either of the two.
The very fact that we refer to homosexuality as alternate shows we’ve still got a long way to go. We might have made this a topic of our blogathon, and Bollywood might have brought in more effeminate men (mostly for serious comic relief), but it’s still ‘alternate’ to the normative in our perceptions. That viewpoint needs to be sent to the bin.
What we need is to understand that Homosexuality, like heterosexuality, is not a choice. In fact, it’s probably genetic (link). And, can you ever choose who you fall in love with?
So let’s just do everyone a favour (including ourselves) and get our thoughts and words in order.
Hindustan Times carried two very interesting pieces on homosexuality finding more acceptance on campus on April 22, but all the guys and girls quoted, had their names changed on request. And if hypocrisy is the first word that comes to your mind, then you’re a long way off boss. Those kids can’t be blamed for want of trying. All felt that outing themselves to accepting friends made them feel ‘normal’. But not many have told their parents. And the very fact that they don’t want their names published points to an unaccepting society.
Not many can stay on the fringe and revel in their imposed abnormalities. Indeed, it shouldn’t even be expected of them.
So if we’re talking about society and the challenge posed before it, here’s what it is.
Normative needs to include all forms of sexualities. Difference shouldn’t be accompanied with prejudice. Religions and laws that call homosexuality an "abomination" and a crime need serious rethinking and overhauling. And science and medicine – hotspots of hegemonic ideologies that are so easily overlooked – need to be subjected to as much of a critical combing as the others. (The DSM manual of psychiatry actually refers to homosexuality as a sexual deviation!)
And finally society has to learn to live and let be.
That’s the challenge – does society have the strength to face it?







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