Effeminitophobia

Caity Croft

SWMS 215

Monday, October 24^th, 2011

Effeminitophobia

Sedgwick’s essay on gender identity presented issues with Gender Identity Disorder and society’s views on sexuality. It seems that there are all sorts of behaviors in young boys that could result in a diagnosis of Gender Identity Disorder and not so many for girls…. “Nominally gender-neutral, this diagnosis is actually highly differential between boys and girls: a girl gets this pathologizing label only in the rare case of asserting that she actually is anatomically male (e.g. “that she has, or will grow, a penis”); while a boy can be treated for Gender Identity Disorder of Childhood if he merely asserts “that it would be better not to have a penis”—or alternatively, if he displays a “preoccupation with female stereotypical activities as manifested by a preference for either cross-dressing or simulating female attire, or by a compelling desire to participate in the games and pastimes of girls” (Sedgwick, 20). Sedgwick speaks to the problems that arise from viewing sexuality through as objective-as-possible a lens and how it causes gender to be viewed under an increasingly subjective lens; “one serious problem with this way of distinguishing between gender and sexuality is that, while denaturalizing sexual object-choice, it radically renaturalizes gender. All ego psychology is prone, in the first place, to structuring its developmental narratives around none-too-dialectical trope of progressive consolidation of self” (Sedgwick, 20). In essence, th

Sedgwick and Lee’s essays bring up relevant/similar concepts, namely the isolation and alienation of effeminate men, because they are not often accepted by the heterosexual community or the homosexual community, because both groups do not share the views of the effeminate men mentioned in both essays. Lee talks about living as an effeminate man and how it “was not—is not—an easy way of living in a heteronormative world, with its hatred of effeminate boys” (Lee, 3). Lee personally suffered from what Sedgwick would call, “effeminitophobia,” where effeminate men are have trouble being accepted by either the heterosexual community or the homosexual community.

Lee’s Experience of “Effeminitophobia”:

“To escape the soul-snuffing hatred and abjection that hunts him in the heterosexual world, the castrated boy turns to a homosexual world but, surprisingly, finds not solave but spies from the other side of the mirror. First, gay “culture” created since the 1990s has radically evolved commercially but devolved emotionally and ethically. As homosexuality finds its place in mainstream culture, it also absorbs mainstream ethics of gender….This is why the castrated boy, even within the homosexual world, may turn to the academic province of queer theory, attracted to and trusting in its epistemophilia to provide him, finally, a sanctuary” (Lee, 3).

Sedgwick’s Description of “Effeminitophobia”:

“The official gay movement has never been quick to attend to issues concerning effeminate boys. There is a discreditable reason for this in the marginal or stigmatized position to which even adult men who are effeminate have often been relegated in the movement. A more understandable reason than effeminophoblia, however, is the conceptual need of the gay movement to interrupt a long tradition of viewing gender and sexuality as continuous and collapsible categories—a tradition of assuming that anyone, male or female, who desires a man must by definition be feminine; and that anyone, male or female, who desires a man must by the same token be masculine.

On the IML Speaker:

I really admired Susana Ruiz’ ability to not only “talk the talk” but also to “walk the walk” with her social issues-minded video games, a hybrid practice and product of creative design and social work. I had never thought about the ethics of game design besides being aware that violent video games for children neutralize childrens’ response to violence and potentially normalizes if not promotes violence. I thought the concept of “Transmedia,” the diegetic universe of a particular story that seeks to extend and expand the concepts within public, social forums (e.g. fan fiction). Technology is not ideology free, game systems can reflect the humanistic values of the society at the time.