Self-Identity: Gender Expressions and Sexuality

1321 Words6 Pages
Melyssa Sibal Harris-Moore MW 1pm Feb. 6, 2012 Self-Identity: Gender Expressions and Sexuality One of the most incredible things about human beings is our ability to create ourselves through self-expression. From the way we dress to how we talk, the ways in which we live are products of self-expression. With this freedom, individuals have chosen to expand the normalcy of society through gender bending and sexuality. This diversity is celebrated by scholars like Layli Phillips and M.R. Stewart, who analyze gender bending and sexuality in their article “’I Am Just So Glad You Are Alive:’ New Perspectives on Non-Traditional, Non-Conforming, and Transgressive Expressions of Gender, Sexuality, and Race Among African Americans” published in the Journal of African American Studies. The rhetoric of this article sharply contrasts that of the article “BORN GAY?” Written by Michael Abrams and published in Discover, “BORN GAY?” focuses on biological sources of homosexuality. The authors of both articles use rhetoric strategies such as structure, argument to ignorance and hypophora to fully communicate their purposes in writing these articles. The scholarly article “’I Am Just So Glad You Are Alive:’” was written by Layli Phillips and Marla Renee Stewart. Both are professors of the graduate program of Women’s Studies Institute at Georgia State University. Phillips, now Maparyan, teaches several feminist classes and also has written multiple articles and books about woman studies. Their backgrounds show a bias towards the acceptance of individuals who self-identify outside the norms of gender expression and sexuality in mainstream society. The diction of the article also supports this bias. The authors glorify individuals of non-normative gender expression and sexuality and vilify society by calling normative identities “oppressions that marginalize people through the

More about Self-Identity: Gender Expressions and Sexuality

Open Document