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Some ideas about gender and sexuality categorization

shin1068111's picture

The discussion about categorization between groups with different sexual orientations was very interesting. After discussing Haraway's reading, everyone seemed to agree with her idea that categorization causes lots of problems and it is better to break the barrier between groups that are categorized differently. However, it was little surprising that almost every group came up with the same conclusion that we need the categorization for practical purposes. Personally, as a person who was born and raised in an extremely homophobic society, Korea, I find the discussions about gender and sexual categorizations extremly interesting. In Korea, categorization does not even exist because they are not acknowledged as a part of society. In that way, I guess categorization could be considered as a way of an acknowledgment and distinguishing people for social purposes not necessarily to isolate them. I wonder what Haraway's point of view on this topic would be.
Another idea raised in the class, comparing racial categorization and sexual categorization, brings an interesting point to the discussion. The nation is moving toward acheiving racial equality and some people believe it has been acheived in some degree. If we apply the same analogy, is it ideal to have gender and sexual orientation equality society where everyone look at each other without thinking of his/her gender and sexuality? I personally do not think it is possible because gender and sexuality are directly related to producing offsprings, which lots of scholars believe to be an innate desire of humans. Therefore, humans will always try to find their partners without even consciously thinking about it, meaning its impossible to have such society.

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