StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Gay perspectives in Arab communities - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
Self-confidence affects human beings in their acts toward other people and how their personality is built. A person might lack confidence in whom they really are, such as a man who wants to be a woman. This type of lack of confidence and trust could lead him to believe that he is a man from outside; however, he is somebody else from the inside. …
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER92.3% of users find it useful
Gay perspectives in Arab communities
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Gay perspectives in Arab communities"

Abdulla Alkathiri Lydia Shatkin ENG 107 10/17 Gay perspectives Self-confidence affects human beings in their acts toward other people and how their personality is built. A person might lack confidence in whom they really are, such as a man who wants to be a woman. This type of lack of confidence and trust could lead him to believe that he is a man from outside; however, he is somebody else from the inside. Furthermore, this type of belief could lead a man to be uncomfortable with other men, because he is sexually attracted to men, which it is weird in Arab communities. Arab communities see gay people as if they are sick and should be treated as soon as possible. However, the personality of a gay can be changed if he intends to do so. Furthermore, it is a choice rather than a must. This type of behavior is called homosexuality. The narrator Rickel in the story “pass” didn’t show directly that he is gay. He is unwilling to express it openly. A person has to think deeply to understand that the narrator is gay. A person can realize that the narrator is gay through phallic symbols and the situation in which he is trying to pass. The text reveals how the narrator was structured as a gay from his childhood; however he wants the audience to experience the difficulties he was trying to pass through the town he lived in, people that was the main affects, and challenging of hiding his homosexuality. The narrator is unwilling to discuss openly that he is gay in the story. He tries to hide his identity between the lines to try to make the reader think deeply about what Rickel’s personality of Rickel is, and to cause the reader to read the story a few more times. For example, when he talked about the shape of other boy’s bodies, a reader might think that he is just discussing it as a curious teenager; in fact, he was attracted to the shapes of the other boy’s body as a gay. In short, he hides his personality to deliver his identity to the people who are interested in the story and would read it to discover its meanings, such as the audience of the Arab. There is an Arabic saying that from the black duck comes a white duck. This means that whatever was the color or the culture that a man is from, he can be just the opposite. For example, the narrator lives in a town called Tempe; it is a small town and all the people know each other. There is only one barbershop and one drug store. From their description, it is likely that the people in the city are close-minded, and they have their own culture and traditions. They don’t have tourists. The small community is like the black duck the somehow produces the strange, white duck, the narrator, he lived in a community where it was believed that no man would think of being gay, however, he did. Moreover, being gay in that community is unusual. People would look down on the gay person. Furthermore, if a person were gay in that community he wouldn’t admit it, because he might get into serious problems. In the 1950’s, people judged gay people as if something were wrong with them. Moreover, they would fire them from federal jobs, and they would put them into mental hospitals and treat them. “In 1955, in Sioux City, Iowa, 29 men suspected of homosexuality were committed to mental asylums as a preventative measure authorized by the State” (coming out). Homosexuality is an illness that a person can be cured from. In short, these are some influences that affected the narrator. The specific men in narrator city had influenced him. In the mid-60s in Tempe men usually went to a place called Q as a place of entertainment. As a man you had to go the Q to entertain with friends. Despite its reputation it was also of an aggressive place where young men would try to prove their strength. For example, a man would go to prove that he is something in the society. In all likelihood, gay people hated these places because it is just not the way they entertain as normal men. However, the narrator went there just to watch the other men fight, it was to him like a dramatic show. He would sit alone at a table with his drink and observe them doing their business. In my opinion, he was just impressed with their acts as if a man was fascinated with a woman’s body. Because, he liked the way that they stand to hit the ball. These elements affected and made him start to think about the body of other boys. For example, when he and his friends took a shower after a long tennis game, he was avoiding looking at their bodies so that they wouldn’t say he was gay. However, he was impressed with the structure of their bodies. The narrator is challenged by his own feelings as gay. In a society like Tempe in the mid-1960s most gay people would just say that they were not gay because gayness was considered a disease and something of an embarrassment to the family. These affects would make the narrator hide his real identity and try to live as someone else. Moreover, he didn’t try to say something foolish that would reveal his true self. He was living and not living. He lived as a normal person, but from the inside he feels different. In his story you can see that the town is filled with men but not women. In fact, he didn’t mention any women in the story but once. And it only says that if a woman brought her son to the barbershop, she would just leave him there until she finished some other business of her own (2). He was living in a world of men. He wasn’t comfortable with that he might have been more comfortable with girls if he had been around them maybe. Furthermore, the narrator wants to convey to the readers the feelings that he used to have when he was young through the difficulties that he faced as a gay. Many factors affected Rickel’s development as gay in his youth. These affects were sometimes direct and sometimes not. The direct affects were from the way he was treated and the figures he thought about since he was a child such as the symbol of the barber pole (phallic symbol). He was sexually attracted to these figures, but as a kid he didn’t know what they meant. These figures affected him as a young child and helped to grab his attraction and structure his personality as a gay when he grew. In fact, an Arab audience must have the opinion that is the most important elements that helped structure his personality. Moreover, he didn’t consult an expert or discuss his problems with any of his relatives to prevent reaching this point and be cured from it. However, he might have been ashamed of this serious issue that he had, and didn’t want anyone to know about it. This was a wrong decision that he made because he lived in a world of untruth and no confidence. He always tried to hide his real identity to not grab attention from the people that surrounded by him such as when he avoided to speak when he sit with his brother friends. The indirect effects were the way he sees his father changes whenever he goes to the barber shop. Rickel might have realized that if he was a man, he needed to change his identity every time he went to a new place. Direct and indirect elements structured his perspective towards boys. To sum up, gayness in the mid 60 s was something to be ashamed of. Most people would hate to see their own son as gay. The narrator used to live in a small city called Tempe. It would be hard for a person to be gay in such an environment. However, there are elements that affect a young boy to become gay. The surroundings that he lives in might affect him in indirect ways. The people that he used to be with, such as a father, would teach him lack of confidence. An audience from the Arab culture wouldn’t find this phenomenon plausible. Although the narrator had his own perspective of the way he thought that he was structured in that community, it’s hard to make Arab people see how a man can be attracted to other men, because it is unusual problem to them and their religion prohibits this kind of behavior. They would strongly disagree with the evidence and the explanation Rickel made. However, some would say it is okay; though it is a mental disease that needs curing. It is a disease that is structured in the mind and needs an expert mentalist to free him from his inside thoughts. Moreover, the audiences who are the Arab readers not be happy with Rickles story. In short, they might agree that a person with lack confidence is like a drugged person who doesn’t really understand what he is doing. Work Cited "Coming OutIn America An Historical Perspective." http://cowboyfrank.net/archive/ComingOut/02.htm. N.p., 12 May 2005. Web. 16 Oct. 2010. Boyer, Rickel. “Pass” Writing as Revision. Third ed. Boston: pearson learning solutionss, 2010. 145-47. Print. Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Gay perspectives in Arab communities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/gender-sexual-studies/1574290-gay-perspectives-in-arab-communities
(Gay Perspectives in Arab Communities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words)
https://studentshare.org/gender-sexual-studies/1574290-gay-perspectives-in-arab-communities.
“Gay Perspectives in Arab Communities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/gender-sexual-studies/1574290-gay-perspectives-in-arab-communities.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Gay perspectives in Arab communities

Issue Of The Conflict Between Israel And The Palestinians

His first argument that Jews and Arabs lived in harmony for centuries, and that “For nearly 2,000 years Palestine has been almost 100 percent arab” is faulty.... Jews even then were persecuted by local arab officials.... The paper "Issue Of The Conflict Between Israel And The Palestinians" discusses presents some facts, that explain the conflict in a way that removes much of the onus of responsibility from the Palestinians and places it firmly on the Israeli, American and British governments....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Dispute

The conflict on both sides started when… One of the main factors involved in the arab-Israeli dispute is the religious conflict.... arab side is quite strong in their perspective and makes it clear to the Israeli's what they want of them.... Talking about the particular situation it is becoming critical day by day as all the Arabian countries are on one side supporting the arab community living in Palestine.... If we focus on the solution then Israeli's should give an ear to the arab community and fulfill their promises....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

Role of Diversity and Multiculturalism in the Health Center

For example, it can be assumed that hostilities towards arab-Americans after 9/11 was obvious, thus a psychologist should find ways of treating arab-American clients to live above such contemporary discriminatory issues.... This paper is about the presentation of an in-service training to a hypothetical health sector that offers a range of medical and mental health service in a diverse cultural and ethnic setting....
6 Pages (1500 words) Term Paper

The origins of the Arab- Israeli wars

Nonetheless, the Jews in Palestine continued to increase and this affected even parts of land that were under the rule of Ottoman, where the Jewish communities settled and started agricultural projects.... Moreover, some of the Jewish communities also acquired land from individual prominent Arabs with the number of Christians and Jews increasing by day.... The agreement encouraged collaboration between the Arabs and the Jews especially on the aspect that both communities would live together in Palestinian Land....
11 Pages (2750 words) Term Paper

Was Muhammad Influenced by the Jewish Communities of Arabia

From the paper "Was Muhammad Influenced by the Jewish communities of Arabia?... Jewish early settlers had previously instituted themselves in the sanctuary communities of northern Arabia through the later part of the Second Temple era.... Akin to their pagan fellow citizens, the Jews spoke Arabic, were structured into small units of clans and tribes, and had taken on board several of the values of desert communities.... arab lyricists and poets of the pre-Islamic period seldom refer to Jewish religious traditions, and the Koran oftentimes cites such classic Jewish institutions as the “Sabbath, kashrut, and the Torah” (Stillman, 1979, 4)....
9 Pages (2250 words) Coursework

Representation of the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict in Western and Middle Eastern Media

This paper ''Representation of the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict in Western and Middle Eastern Media'' tells about The media play a vital role, even in political matters....  This paper will examine media culture in the US and the Middle East.... t has become effortless to access a piece of news....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

Sociological Imagination

In other words, the discipline of sociology discusses human life in groups and communities.... It was a Chinese restaurant, where the people belonging to various ethno-racial groups and communities had arrived.... Moreover, the presence of an arab woman in a veil represents the Islamic civilization had been in vogue for the last fourteen centuries....
10 Pages (2500 words) Report

The Summary of Seven Articles on Culture

arab American is a group that has gained a lot of attention in the wake of the arab Muslim attacks in the US and the turmoil in the Middle East.... The paper looks at gender relations and religion among arab American youth as their discourse and markers in establishing their collective identity and their position as immigrants.... The article analysis the meaning of boater, whites and arab American based on adolescence identities....
9 Pages (2250 words) Essay
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us