The politics of gender and sexuality are identity politics, which are socially constructed and are a cultural representation. Social constructivism results when a particular group in society accepts the values and meanings associated with them. More so, the internal policing could influence the social constructivism process, in which the members of the minority group decide what constitutes membership in that particular team (Castro, 2019). Identities in society are also culturally represented. For example, homosexuality in the US is constructed as a sign of mental illness, sexually deviant, natural biological development, and a chosen lifestyle depending on the power structure and historical context.
The societal power structures help in understanding their impact on politics. In modern American culture, biphobia, homophobia, transphobia, and heteronormativity are power systems structuring conventional sexuality and gender representation in society. The US and many western countries are not politically and socially homogeneous. Therefore, in these countries gender, and sexually diverse people have been a discrimination target over the years. Therefore, through education and considerable activism over the past 40 years, sexually diverse communities and gender have become socially acceptable (Castro, 2019). In the US, the differences between straight and gay individuals have narrowed. Currently, the parity of the gay and the heterosexuals is a new reality, whereby the young people view sexual subjectivity as less defining of their identity.
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The developments of gender and sexuality diversity are not unidirectional. According to Ferfolja and Ullman (2020), the changes at the social and individual levels are uneven as they often experience political and social-cultural resistance. For example, Australia always seems contradictory and conflicted on the matters concerning sexuality diversity and gender subjectivities. Discrimination and prejudice legacies exist in the Australian broader population under the veneer of public celebration and social acceptance (Ferlfolja & Ullman, 2020). Therefore, the gender and sexuality diverse people are convenient instruments of loathing for various movements, organizations, and groups, who use them to pass particular agendas, self-aggrandizement, and for wedge politicking. These gender and sexuality diverse groups are favored at times as they seem productive in certain quarters, while they possess inherently conflicting positions.
Individual countries have their unique ways of demonstrating their resistance to equity on gender and sexuality diversity. For example, in Australia, there exists a brand of masculinity, which was historically cultivated by the nation's origin, the settler-colonial structure, and heteropatriarchal (Ferlfolja & Ullman, 2020). This structure of masculinity is associated with enabling entitlement, misogyny as well as the fear of operating differently, thus remaining unquestioned and accepted by the broad population as something important to the uniqueness of the Australian culture.
The US and other western countries have developed a culture of limitation that hinders the achievement of gender and sexuality diversity. According to Felfolja and Ullman (2020), a culture of limitation is a combination of attitudes, beliefs, and perspectives, that when combined at various contexts and points hinders a country's progression towards becoming an equitable society. Additionally, media commentators, politicians, and other individuals in authority declare inaccurate and irresponsible information concerning gender and sexuality diversity. On other occasions, important facts are omitted, or silence is employed as a tactic of maintaining the existing heteronormative power and as an approach to destroy the efforts for the empathetic, equitable, cohesive and supportive social fabric of diversity.
The US and other western countries adopt approaches to dismiss any inequities as well as their consequences, even when there is evidence suggesting the importance of a policy or political action. Therefore, living in a society that believes that certain actions are directly affected by people's physical make-up, such as gender and sexuality, the changes that have occurred in these fields become less meaningful.
References
Castro, B. (2019). Gender, Sexuality, and International Politics in Troubled Times: A Conversation with Laura Sjoberg in Brazil. 41 (1) pp 1-12.Retrieved 20 November 2020 from https://www.scielo.br/pdf/cint/v41n1/0102-8529-cint-201941010141.pdf.
Ferfolja, T. & Ullman, J. (2020). Gender and Sexuality in a Culture of Limitation: Student and Teacher Experiences in Schools. Retrieved 20 November 2020 from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341295592_Gender_and_Sexuality_Diversity_in_a_Culture_of_Limitation_Student_and_Teacher_Experiences_in_Schools
