I'm writing my first REALLY good academic paper. I've managed to avoid them up until now by doing a degree that is highly mathematical, and therefore involves few written papers that are anything more than a report or summary.
It's a paper that has really inspired me, and I think the key to it being good is how passionate I am about what I am talking about it. It's on gay rights and issues essentially, but my argument is that same-sex marriage (recently made legal here in Canada) is not really that important of an issue for both the average gay Canadian or the overall gay rights movement. Rather, I believe that the overlooked topid of gay education is fundamental. Or, rather, the lack of homosexual literature and exposure to it in the educational institution. Luckily, there is a whole bucket-load of literature on the topic, all of it supporting my point more or less.
I then go on to argue that homosexual and heterosexual worlds will never be equal as long as both words are in existance as ideas and social confines. Education is the perfect way to pursue equality in this regard, for if we can educate children and they grow up accepting of different peoples, then we have successfully ensured society will evolve to be likewise. Great strides have been acheived in this area with regards to race and sex, but not sexuality, and it makes me furious, thereby fuelling the fire with which I write this paper.
Western society is so far behind in these contexts too. I found a reference to Samoan society, which did not (and still doesn't) categorize sexual acts as homosexual or heterosexual. Boys playing 'homosexual' games and casual lesbian relationships were ignored by the locals when Westerners first recorded it in the 1920's. Sadly, the Westerners noticed.
Anyways, I'm going to try and find a way to post the essay on here when I'm done it. I'm actually almost done at this point right now, although I have a max number of pages that is limiting me, and I feel like I can't get all my ideas across. Oh well, I'll just try and focus it on a couple main points !
Sunday, September 24, 2006
I'm a freaking genius !
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2 comments:
I'm glad you abandoned the topic of comparing the women's rights movement to the same sex marriage fight. Don't think that would have gone over well with a women's studies prof, or many women for that matter.
Do you think if homosexuality was widely accept in Western Society our culture would behave any differently? I mean, yeah, maybe our self-respect and confidence will be more positive (it's not my issue, but many guys are affected by societies norms), but the long and short of it is: we are still men.
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