The Homosexual Role

Homosexualities, Muslim Cultures and Modernity

“…Gender equality is therefore a relatively recent addition to our self-image as Western, modern and democratic, with the subordination of women in the gender hierarchy being a consistent feature of modernity in the West, in common with non-Western cultures. Moreover, the apex of this hierarchy -masculinity -was constructed in opposition to both femininity and homosexuality, confirming the wealth of research on the ways in which the identity of the stigmatized homosexual is a product of modernity and its gendered processes (Connell, 1987, McIntosh, 1996[1968, Seidman, 1996). Nonetheless, the framing of Islam outside the West and its modernity is the discourse that conditions our understanding of gender equality and sexual diversity as integral to Western exceptionalism.…”

“…Murray argues that the common practice in Islamic cultures is not to acknowledge publicly any issues of deviance from the norm but of course, the 'deviance' is from a heterosexual gendered order (Murray 1997f). The dominance of hetero-gender was, of course, the departure point for academic analysis of the 'deviance' of homosexuality in Western contexts (McIntosh, 1996[1968; Rahman and Jackson, 2010;Seidman, 1996) and has remained a consistent focus of sexuality studies. In common with the West, gender is a dominant framework of both understanding and regulation of sexual diversity in Eastern cultures and the historical evidence from Muslim cultures continues to be manifested in the survey and qualitative evidence of Muslim attitudes discussed in Chapter 3, broadly supporting one dimension in the modernization thesis; that traditionalist cultures tend to be patriarchal, and this consequently limits tolerance of both gender equality and sexual diversity.…”

The Palgrave Handbook of the Psychology of Sexuality and Gender

“…In 'the West', the gender order (male and female) rigidified as a consequence of Enlightenment thought and with the rise of industrialisation -from the mid-eighteenth century onwards (McIntosh, 1968). In more recent years, ambiguous categories have emerged to challenge this rigid, heteronormative binary ; see also Barker & Richards, Further Genders and Roen, Intersex, this volume).…”

The Birth of Modern Criminology and Gendered Constructions of Homosexual Criminal Identity

“…the unthinking assumption that people in the past behaved as and thought as we do." For this reason, it would be misleading, and perhaps deceptive, to criticize decadesold criminological theories for making assumptions about LGBTQ people that are considered outdated or misguided today, without recognizing how those assumptions were rooted in dominant conceptions of sexual orientation and gender identity that have changed over time (McIntosh, 1968;Weeks, 1979;Greenberg, 1988). Taking this warning seriously, the analysis should not be interpreted as criticizing criminological discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity at different historical moments on the simple basis that those discussions fail to conform to current conceptions of LGBTQ concepts.…”