Culture determines gender and sexuality

There are no fixed biological genders. They are determined by prevailing social norms and cultural conceptions. That is why all critical gender research about sexuality is, to some extent, queer theory research.

Sexual orientation is not biologically determined. It is the prevalent social and cultural norms that are the determining factors.

pia-laskar

This is the claim of Pia Laskar, a senior lecturer at the Division of Gender Studies whose research addresses this topic.

“What defines a man or a woman is a dilemma that has been explained in different ways throughout history and across different regions of the world. Previously men and women were not seen as two biological opposites; they were placed on a scale and could change position on different occasions.”

Because, and this is her second point: The definition of sexuality is explained and negotiated in different ways too. Queer theory sees a fixed sexual orientation as an idea that is connected to our present times. Our sexual behaviour is instead seen as just that – behaviour, and not identity.

A critical sexologist does not talk about homosexual people, but about people who perform homosexual acts. Both gender and sexual orientation are fluid concepts and can vary over time, and should not be confused with culturally determined identities.

The classic feminist researchers separated biological sex and social gender. Queer theory takes this division one step further and says that biological sex is determined by culture. It’s not biology that controls it but rather our conceptions. Laskar elaborates,

“Transsexuals are interesting precisely because they don’t accept that biology determines gender. They break that norm.”

Transsexuals were the subject of a 2011 thesis from the Division of Gender Studies and are also the topic of a current doctoral project about trans films and of a conference planned for Autumn 2012.

Another doctoral student is studying queer representations in photographic art; another researcher is focusing on queer theory in the theatre. Other projects that use critical sexual theory are about men who have sex with men without defining themselves as homosexuals, and the relationships of HIV-positive people, respectively.

Pia Laskar is conducting research on sexual rights from a post-colonial perspective. She explains,

“In the West we apply our culturally determined sexual categories to other cultures and people. For example, we can demand that homophobic countries recognise homosexual rights in order to be eligible to receive aid. But in many regions, in Africa for example, this has been a non-issue; sexuality isn’t filled with the same content as in Europe.”

She names Lesotho as an example, where there was a shortage of men in the 1950s. They left, looking for work in South Africa’s mines. The women moved in with each other and formed different kinds of families, with both social and sexual companionship.

“They were called mummy-baby relationships and were based on an old practice. There are similar traditions in other countries too, such as Uganda, where women can marry each other. So homosexual acts have been accepted, but Western identities run into problems.”

Laskar’s research also traces the history of sexual rights. When did sexual practice become a right, if indeed it is one? This is one of her research topics.