Topic > Being different: sexual orientation and gender

Everything you know and are used to is considered normal. Anything that you are not used to and that is new to you is considered the other. The Oxford English Dictionary defines otherness as “The quality or fact of being different.” Zygmunt Bauman defines otherness as the central way in which societies establish categories of identity. He says that the other is necessary to have order. The types of otherness are ethnicity, race, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, national identity, and cultural identity. Two of them are race and gender. Society is structured around these two types of otherness, sexual orientation and gender. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Sexual orientation is defined as a person's sexual identity in relation to the gender they are attracted to; being heterosexual, homosexual, asexual or bisexual. Normal people in this case would be heterosexual people. Homosexual or bisexual people would be considered the others in society. In the article “Homosexuality: A Call to Otherness,” author Elizabeth Scalia states that some people have spent their entire lives being normal, but in the eyes of others, homosexuals have become the others. Asexual people would be the others because they have no feelings towards anything or anyone. In the eyes of a straight person, the asexual person would be the other. In the article the author states that "...some of us have spent our entire lives emphasizing our identity, and now you are calling out our 'otherness'..." In the eyes of homosexuals, they are the norm and everyone else around them would make it the other. There was an article in the Lexington Herald Leader about a t-shirt company that refused to print t-shirts for a gay/lesbian group. This would be an example of otherness because the t-shirt company is the norm and the gay/lesbian group is the other. The other is discriminated against because religious people think it is against their religion or some people think that a couple is just a man and a woman, nothing more, nothing less. But, as Scalia said, the gay couple may have spent their entire lives being gay and may consider it the norm. But suddenly, people come up to them and tell them that they are the other. According to Bauman, the other is necessary for the normal to have power. Heterosexuals who have lived their entire lives as heterosexuals may judge the person to be homosexual or bisexual. They would be more powerful than homosexuals. But if everyone in the world was heterosexual, then there would be no others and heterosexuals would have no power. Something closely related to sexual orientation is gender. Gender has become an important part of society because of the way people think about certain genders. Gender is defined as behaviors and attitudes that a group of people consider appropriate for its males and females. In chapter 7 of the book, Ender's Game, Petra would be considered the other because she is a girl. Petra says the boys put her in the bunk near the door so she wouldn't start a rebellion. This shows Petra as the other one because she could be part of the outside group that wants to take control of everyone else. In real life, the common thought that men are more superior is another example of otherness. In an article titled “Female Discrimination in the Workplace,” one example is that women are not chosen for jobs that require a lot of physical labor because their employers don't think they can handle it. In the workplace, men think women are.