Sexual Orientation – Symbolic Interaction
Sexual orientation plays a huge role in society and individuality, as people try to find a place for them in society where they feel comfortable with their sexual attraction. Symbolic interactions of sexuality can be observed throughout societies throughout a multitude of different cultures. For example, in ancient societies such as ancient Greece, homosexuality was seen as the highest form of relationships among upper class males. This was due to the view of women as intellectually inferior and thus degraded. The only need for heterosexual relations was to produce children with the notion that “real” men preferred homosexual interactions relating to a man’s feelings of masculinity. In contrast to ancient Greece, modern day …show more content…
In the highlands of New Guinea, the Sambia there is a ritual where young boys will perform oral sex upon older men. They perform this ritual in the belief that ingesting the semen, their masculinity will be enhanced. This action relates to the concept of sexuality as a product of society as these boys are performing sexual behaviour towards someone of the same sex. As another product of society are the roles of gender assigned in same sex relationships. In Siberia, the Chukchee culture experiences homosexual relations in the form of swapped gender roles. One of the men in the relationship dresses as a female and performs women’s work while the other dresses as a man and performs man’s work. This relates to a couple expressing gender roles within a relationship, showing a dynamic of what is expected for the couple to do in that society. This also relates to the key idea of others in North American society explaining that sexuality is a choice that others can express. In stark contrast, there’s the concept of sexual orientation in relation to biology. While some argue the point of choosing sexuality or society forming sexuality, others