Queer Family Constructionism: Redefining the Postmodern Non-hetero Family
Richard Birch
Introduction to Sociology SOCI 1016
Prof. Steve McDonald
November 22, 2004
This work Copyright (C) 2004 Richard Birch
Is there evidence of stories of lesbian and gay men who are engaged in healthy, happy, and fulfilling family lives? In society the conventional idea that has been portrayed of people who don’t identify as straight is that they are lonely, sad, pathologically diseased individuals. Thinking sociologically about the subordination of the gay and lesbian community allows one to challenge this conventional idea. It is “especially significant because it acknowledges the power of the new narratives about intimate life in not only shaping individual choices but also on potentially changing the cultural circumstances in which these choices are made” (Weeks, Heaphy & Donovan, 2001). Though these people must interact in the social worlds in which they live, go to work, and go to school, they must acquire specialized methods of understanding their relationships with each other. They must form new skills necessary to establish a validity of different ways of life, whether this is through social education, politics, or through the utilization of the media.
The gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community is grappling with what seems to be a pivotal phase in history. This is a defining time where extreme cultural and political division on the distribution of human rights of non-hetero community members has never been more profound in social institutions. It is here in the institutional continuum where groundbreaking changes in public opinion of the role of the non-hetero family in society happen. Where arguably non-heteros were never seen to have an actual legitimate role institutionally, this view arguably is changing. It is through mass media advertising that non-heterosexual family appropriation and socialization is being achieved.
Hetero Family Social Constructionism
Roles of individuals in society are defined as they are because they are expected as such. What this means is that any role definition and controlled paradigm that enlists the doctrine of morals, ethics, and order is the product of social constructionist thought. There is an expectation that certain roles, that are backed up by economic means are also backed up by a system of sanctions (Weeks, Heaphy & Donovan, 2001). Men and women are socialized in terms of what relationships are, or more importantly as to what relationships are socially constructed to be. To advance this thinking further, men and women are socialized in different ways for this purpose. The purpose however is the same, to affirm heteronormal constructs into social order. Structural-Functionalism, arguably the basis for societies’ historical values, systematically has permeated a notion that non-hetero ideology is counter-productive, thus counter-functional in society. The dogma that there is no valid basis for non-hetero activity in culture is a paradigm that regulates capitalist production order in a state-capitalist society. The family is to be a place where the reproduction, nurturance, and socialization of children should be emphasized. “Homosexual relations…are defined as “deviant” because they do not fulfill the family institutions’ main function of producing and rearing children” (Mooney, Knox, Schacht & Nelson, 2004).
In the postmodern world the family that is viewed as the most important social institution is a socially regulated entity from a functionalist perspective. Conservative moralists would argue the functionalist view that the traditional nuclear family is essential for a capitalist society to maintain itself for it gives a means of distributing human resources to the economy. A family, defined heteronormally is the primary way in which a labour force can replenish itself, thus ensuring the survival of a production based economy.
Conflict theorists particularly accentuate a purely economic perspective on defining non-hetero subordination. They relate tensions between heterosexual and non-heterosexuals as pertinent to the social division of those who possess power and those who do not. Arguably the basis for non-heterosexual subordination lies in the intention of one group to dominate over another group, thus minoritizing its interests for the achievement of economic gain. When one group has control over social institutions where the purpose is to socialize traditional familial ideology to incoming generations, this one group will assume dominant authority over other groups who do not serve the interests of the status quo productive order (Mooney, Knox, Schacht & Nelson, 2004).
Non-heterosexuals have had to employ new and adaptive ways of gaining acceptance in a heteronormal world because so few guidelines have existed for those who live outside the conventional heterosexual patterns of postmodernism. However a new discourse focussed on wider aspects of homosexual life than simply of sexuality and identity is becoming associated with a new wide set of “preoccupations in contemporary cultures as a whole: a recognition of the opening up of all social identities, and patterns of relationships” (Weeks, Heaphy & Donovan, 2001).
Queer Family Social Constructionism
Canadian and International debate on the redefinition of the family as an institution of socialization has never been more prolific than in recent years. Forces for equal rights of gays, lesbians and transgendered individuals sustain the argument that cultural continuance of banning same-sex couples from forming legal marriage arrangements will maintain the social hegemonic thought of non-hetero families as illegitimate. Yet, non-heterosexuals are already components of Canadian heterosexual families. They serve roles as “sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, even mothers and fathers, of heterosexuals. The distinction between “families” and “homosexuals” is…empirically false; and the stability of existing families is closely linked to how homosexuals are treated within them” (Mooney, Knox, Schacht & Nelson, 2004). One could argue the non-heterosexual’s familial background be present in a potential non-hetero family unit that he or she chooses to create in life. The patterns of socialization could feasibly be reproduced to his or her family by all potential.
To recognize the history of the family in society is to recognize its relationship with its same-sex other. The traditional and nuclear are bound (Weeks, Heaphy & Donovan, 2001). One cannot understand one without the queered other (See Note 1). The importance of the traditional would be negated if the dual antithesis movement were absent. There has always been a twofold sexual nonconformist movement paralleling conventional morals and norms of family life: “A story of difference, and a story of convergence” (Weeks, Heaphy & Donovan, 2001). The sexually outcast is forced to exist and cohabitate in both worlds of orthodoxy and contravention. In a production based economic order one who is perceived to live in extension of social normative values of family and sexual behaviour is outcast, or in Conflict perspective, outclassed as he or she does not contribute to supplying additional workers for capitalism to maintain itself.
Today this convergence of two definitions of the family is present in mass media. The advertising of consumer goods always been used as a means of expressing guidelines for the social construction of the family. For example, historical archetypical narratives on television advertising depict family as an institution of happy homemaking productivity, procreating future generational elements of human resource that harbour the capitalist paradigm entwined into their characterization. Alternatively as another example of social construction through mass media enculturation, music in popular culture through most of the 20th century cultivated “teen culture” as defined in the 1950s. A newly fashioned hypersexualized category of society that represent a dream market for producers of commodities. Radio media knew the impact that playing music that fit heteronormal narratives and lyrical content would have on attracting young listeners to a media market generated not by artistic merit but by the promotion of the advertised message. Television advertising in particular became the new podium for exhibiting traditional family dogma to culture - traditional family dogma in accordance to capitalist productive order directives.
Today the concept of stories or narratives is an important element when considering changes to social problems of subordination, changes that are currently taking place in niche market print media (Weeks, Heaphy & Donovan, 2001). The emergence of “families of choice” is a key narrative element in postmodern magazine print advertising. Family is a powerful word in society. Yet it is powerful not merely for its traditional nuance as being a foundation of society, but for its social, cultural, economic, and symbolic meanings. The term family is ambiguous, polemic, and politically associated with anxiety and crisis. Historically the gay and lesbian community have been socialized to view their relationships as transient, immoral and unnatural. Social influences on commitment undermine a non-hetero’s ability to maintain long-term relationships. Many struggle viewing their relationships as genuine and lasting in light of socially constructed notions on gay interaction (Stiers, 1999).
However, several socially influential advertisers are beginning to challenge this through the employment of traditional marketing methods in what is called the new market – the gay and lesbian family. It has only been a matter of time for a commodity-generative society to discover the beneficial aspects of marketing consumerist ideology to a historically outclassed sector of society.
Corporate culture is becoming extremely enlightened to the fact that one third of gay and lesbian households have children. The 2000 American census, which was the first census to collect data on gay and lesbian families, discovered 600,000 same-sex couple households. This value is also considered to be somewhat under representative according to Commercial Closet, which is the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered media advocacy organization that directs its attention to non-heterosexual representation in advertising. The 2000 census also found 33% of female households and 22% of male couples with children. "It is a myth that gay and lesbian households don't have children in their lives," according to Dennis Giglio, Director of Emerging Market Acquisition Programs for Bank One (Wilke, 2003). In 2002, Bank One addressed the non-hetero marketplace by launching a newspaper advertisement showing a man with an earring, posed with a young boy and girl, with ad copy stating, "It may be a son or daughter, niece or nephew, even a partner, but someone you love may want to go to college”. (Wilke, 2003)(See Appendix 1). This is simply a highly suitable market for corporations to market their services and products to. Through the development of non-hetero friendly consumer markets a shift from a sanction-based order which incorporates measures of subordination as a way to maintain social tension and to maintain fundamental production based ideology in society, we are now seeing evidence of corporate ideology taking precedence in recognizing a way to assimilate non-hetero social groups into a postmodern productive order.
One of the most profoundly groundbreaking advertising campaigns that signified a change in viewing the family as a traditional institution in the media was Volvo's 2003 print campaign for the XC90 automobile. The advertisement shows images of two men and a baby, a woman embracing her pregnant partner, and two men affectionately holding their dog with the headline, "Whether you're starting a family or creating one as you go” (Wilke, 2003)(See Appendix 2). This marked the first time for a large multi-national corporation to show recognition of the family as being outside traditional social norms and definitions.
The trend does not show any signs of slowing. Since these advertisements, further corporate cross-proportionality of multinational commodity campaigns have recently been seen in numerous other gay and lesbian publications, newspapers and even more prominently in recent corporate sponsorship of several gay and lesbian pride week festivities in North America. This is evidence of corporate production ownership recognizing the usefulness of socially constructing legitimate recognition of the non-hetero family unit.
It is through mass media advertising that non-heterosexual family appropriation and socialization is being achieved. It should not be said however that this period of media appropriation necessarily would immediately translate into a more concrete social acceptance in the Western world. The gay and lesbian community still faces several challenges in the political and mass media arenas concerning issues of equal marriage. Whether legislation is maintained to ensure the rights of all individuals who wish to form legal marriage contracts regardless of sexual orientation occurs in our society, the primary focus of attention will relate to the more fundamental issue of the family. Marriage is an institution, however it is merely one component of the family. The family, however redefined will primarily be the area of focus in which multinational corporations will cultivate consumer market ideology and maintain a basis for postmodern economic productive order. The introduction of non-hetero advertising, even though still in a developmental niche market phase, signifies a change in how the oppressive pyramidal social models already present are being utilized by state corporate capitalism. It is through this shift in hierarchal thinking that the social redefinition of the family, which incorporates non-hetero synergies, will occur.
Appendix 1:
Photo credit: Bank One
Appendix 2:
Photo Credit: Volvo / Ford Motor Company
Notes:
Queer Theory: the terms “Queer” or “Queered” once used as slang for describing those who do not identify as heterosexual. The usage historically was predominantly in a derogatory fashion. In recent years the term “Queer” has come to signify an appropriated sense of anything outside the realm of normal sexual and social discourse. To be Queer relates to a combination of self-proclaimed socialized marginalized sexual identities. The rapid increase of the development of university undergraduate and postgraduate studies in the Western world has led to the rise of the appropriated use of the word. Queer now signifies a transition of sexual institutional studies from conventional
References:
Mooney, L.A., Knox, D., Schacht, C., & Nelson, A. (2004). Understanding Social Problems, Second Canadian Edition. Scarborough, ON: Thomson Canada Limited.
Stiers, G.A. (1999). From This Day Forward: Commitment, Marriage, and Family in Lesbian and Gay Relationships. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.
Weeks, J., Heaphy, B., & Donovan, C. (2001). Same Sex Intimacies: Families of choice and other life experiments. New York, NY: Routledge.
Wilke, M. (May 6, 2003). Volvo Bids for Gay Families. New York, NY: Commercial Closet Association. Retrieved November 5, 2004, from http://www.commercialcloset.org/cgi-bin/iowa/?page=column&record=73
Introduction to Sociology SOCI 1016
Prof. Steve McDonald
November 22, 2004
This work Copyright (C) 2004 Richard Birch
Is there evidence of stories of lesbian and gay men who are engaged in healthy, happy, and fulfilling family lives? In society the conventional idea that has been portrayed of people who don’t identify as straight is that they are lonely, sad, pathologically diseased individuals. Thinking sociologically about the subordination of the gay and lesbian community allows one to challenge this conventional idea. It is “especially significant because it acknowledges the power of the new narratives about intimate life in not only shaping individual choices but also on potentially changing the cultural circumstances in which these choices are made” (Weeks, Heaphy & Donovan, 2001). Though these people must interact in the social worlds in which they live, go to work, and go to school, they must acquire specialized methods of understanding their relationships with each other. They must form new skills necessary to establish a validity of different ways of life, whether this is through social education, politics, or through the utilization of the media.
The gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community is grappling with what seems to be a pivotal phase in history. This is a defining time where extreme cultural and political division on the distribution of human rights of non-hetero community members has never been more profound in social institutions. It is here in the institutional continuum where groundbreaking changes in public opinion of the role of the non-hetero family in society happen. Where arguably non-heteros were never seen to have an actual legitimate role institutionally, this view arguably is changing. It is through mass media advertising that non-heterosexual family appropriation and socialization is being achieved.
Hetero Family Social Constructionism
Roles of individuals in society are defined as they are because they are expected as such. What this means is that any role definition and controlled paradigm that enlists the doctrine of morals, ethics, and order is the product of social constructionist thought. There is an expectation that certain roles, that are backed up by economic means are also backed up by a system of sanctions (Weeks, Heaphy & Donovan, 2001). Men and women are socialized in terms of what relationships are, or more importantly as to what relationships are socially constructed to be. To advance this thinking further, men and women are socialized in different ways for this purpose. The purpose however is the same, to affirm heteronormal constructs into social order. Structural-Functionalism, arguably the basis for societies’ historical values, systematically has permeated a notion that non-hetero ideology is counter-productive, thus counter-functional in society. The dogma that there is no valid basis for non-hetero activity in culture is a paradigm that regulates capitalist production order in a state-capitalist society. The family is to be a place where the reproduction, nurturance, and socialization of children should be emphasized. “Homosexual relations…are defined as “deviant” because they do not fulfill the family institutions’ main function of producing and rearing children” (Mooney, Knox, Schacht & Nelson, 2004).
In the postmodern world the family that is viewed as the most important social institution is a socially regulated entity from a functionalist perspective. Conservative moralists would argue the functionalist view that the traditional nuclear family is essential for a capitalist society to maintain itself for it gives a means of distributing human resources to the economy. A family, defined heteronormally is the primary way in which a labour force can replenish itself, thus ensuring the survival of a production based economy.
Conflict theorists particularly accentuate a purely economic perspective on defining non-hetero subordination. They relate tensions between heterosexual and non-heterosexuals as pertinent to the social division of those who possess power and those who do not. Arguably the basis for non-heterosexual subordination lies in the intention of one group to dominate over another group, thus minoritizing its interests for the achievement of economic gain. When one group has control over social institutions where the purpose is to socialize traditional familial ideology to incoming generations, this one group will assume dominant authority over other groups who do not serve the interests of the status quo productive order (Mooney, Knox, Schacht & Nelson, 2004).
Non-heterosexuals have had to employ new and adaptive ways of gaining acceptance in a heteronormal world because so few guidelines have existed for those who live outside the conventional heterosexual patterns of postmodernism. However a new discourse focussed on wider aspects of homosexual life than simply of sexuality and identity is becoming associated with a new wide set of “preoccupations in contemporary cultures as a whole: a recognition of the opening up of all social identities, and patterns of relationships” (Weeks, Heaphy & Donovan, 2001).
Queer Family Social Constructionism
Canadian and International debate on the redefinition of the family as an institution of socialization has never been more prolific than in recent years. Forces for equal rights of gays, lesbians and transgendered individuals sustain the argument that cultural continuance of banning same-sex couples from forming legal marriage arrangements will maintain the social hegemonic thought of non-hetero families as illegitimate. Yet, non-heterosexuals are already components of Canadian heterosexual families. They serve roles as “sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, even mothers and fathers, of heterosexuals. The distinction between “families” and “homosexuals” is…empirically false; and the stability of existing families is closely linked to how homosexuals are treated within them” (Mooney, Knox, Schacht & Nelson, 2004). One could argue the non-heterosexual’s familial background be present in a potential non-hetero family unit that he or she chooses to create in life. The patterns of socialization could feasibly be reproduced to his or her family by all potential.
To recognize the history of the family in society is to recognize its relationship with its same-sex other. The traditional and nuclear are bound (Weeks, Heaphy & Donovan, 2001). One cannot understand one without the queered other (See Note 1). The importance of the traditional would be negated if the dual antithesis movement were absent. There has always been a twofold sexual nonconformist movement paralleling conventional morals and norms of family life: “A story of difference, and a story of convergence” (Weeks, Heaphy & Donovan, 2001). The sexually outcast is forced to exist and cohabitate in both worlds of orthodoxy and contravention. In a production based economic order one who is perceived to live in extension of social normative values of family and sexual behaviour is outcast, or in Conflict perspective, outclassed as he or she does not contribute to supplying additional workers for capitalism to maintain itself.
Today this convergence of two definitions of the family is present in mass media. The advertising of consumer goods always been used as a means of expressing guidelines for the social construction of the family. For example, historical archetypical narratives on television advertising depict family as an institution of happy homemaking productivity, procreating future generational elements of human resource that harbour the capitalist paradigm entwined into their characterization. Alternatively as another example of social construction through mass media enculturation, music in popular culture through most of the 20th century cultivated “teen culture” as defined in the 1950s. A newly fashioned hypersexualized category of society that represent a dream market for producers of commodities. Radio media knew the impact that playing music that fit heteronormal narratives and lyrical content would have on attracting young listeners to a media market generated not by artistic merit but by the promotion of the advertised message. Television advertising in particular became the new podium for exhibiting traditional family dogma to culture - traditional family dogma in accordance to capitalist productive order directives.
Today the concept of stories or narratives is an important element when considering changes to social problems of subordination, changes that are currently taking place in niche market print media (Weeks, Heaphy & Donovan, 2001). The emergence of “families of choice” is a key narrative element in postmodern magazine print advertising. Family is a powerful word in society. Yet it is powerful not merely for its traditional nuance as being a foundation of society, but for its social, cultural, economic, and symbolic meanings. The term family is ambiguous, polemic, and politically associated with anxiety and crisis. Historically the gay and lesbian community have been socialized to view their relationships as transient, immoral and unnatural. Social influences on commitment undermine a non-hetero’s ability to maintain long-term relationships. Many struggle viewing their relationships as genuine and lasting in light of socially constructed notions on gay interaction (Stiers, 1999).
However, several socially influential advertisers are beginning to challenge this through the employment of traditional marketing methods in what is called the new market – the gay and lesbian family. It has only been a matter of time for a commodity-generative society to discover the beneficial aspects of marketing consumerist ideology to a historically outclassed sector of society.
Corporate culture is becoming extremely enlightened to the fact that one third of gay and lesbian households have children. The 2000 American census, which was the first census to collect data on gay and lesbian families, discovered 600,000 same-sex couple households. This value is also considered to be somewhat under representative according to Commercial Closet, which is the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered media advocacy organization that directs its attention to non-heterosexual representation in advertising. The 2000 census also found 33% of female households and 22% of male couples with children. "It is a myth that gay and lesbian households don't have children in their lives," according to Dennis Giglio, Director of Emerging Market Acquisition Programs for Bank One (Wilke, 2003). In 2002, Bank One addressed the non-hetero marketplace by launching a newspaper advertisement showing a man with an earring, posed with a young boy and girl, with ad copy stating, "It may be a son or daughter, niece or nephew, even a partner, but someone you love may want to go to college”. (Wilke, 2003)(See Appendix 1). This is simply a highly suitable market for corporations to market their services and products to. Through the development of non-hetero friendly consumer markets a shift from a sanction-based order which incorporates measures of subordination as a way to maintain social tension and to maintain fundamental production based ideology in society, we are now seeing evidence of corporate ideology taking precedence in recognizing a way to assimilate non-hetero social groups into a postmodern productive order.
One of the most profoundly groundbreaking advertising campaigns that signified a change in viewing the family as a traditional institution in the media was Volvo's 2003 print campaign for the XC90 automobile. The advertisement shows images of two men and a baby, a woman embracing her pregnant partner, and two men affectionately holding their dog with the headline, "Whether you're starting a family or creating one as you go” (Wilke, 2003)(See Appendix 2). This marked the first time for a large multi-national corporation to show recognition of the family as being outside traditional social norms and definitions.
The trend does not show any signs of slowing. Since these advertisements, further corporate cross-proportionality of multinational commodity campaigns have recently been seen in numerous other gay and lesbian publications, newspapers and even more prominently in recent corporate sponsorship of several gay and lesbian pride week festivities in North America. This is evidence of corporate production ownership recognizing the usefulness of socially constructing legitimate recognition of the non-hetero family unit.
It is through mass media advertising that non-heterosexual family appropriation and socialization is being achieved. It should not be said however that this period of media appropriation necessarily would immediately translate into a more concrete social acceptance in the Western world. The gay and lesbian community still faces several challenges in the political and mass media arenas concerning issues of equal marriage. Whether legislation is maintained to ensure the rights of all individuals who wish to form legal marriage contracts regardless of sexual orientation occurs in our society, the primary focus of attention will relate to the more fundamental issue of the family. Marriage is an institution, however it is merely one component of the family. The family, however redefined will primarily be the area of focus in which multinational corporations will cultivate consumer market ideology and maintain a basis for postmodern economic productive order. The introduction of non-hetero advertising, even though still in a developmental niche market phase, signifies a change in how the oppressive pyramidal social models already present are being utilized by state corporate capitalism. It is through this shift in hierarchal thinking that the social redefinition of the family, which incorporates non-hetero synergies, will occur.
Appendix 1:
Photo credit: Bank One
Appendix 2:
Photo Credit: Volvo / Ford Motor Company
Notes:
Queer Theory: the terms “Queer” or “Queered” once used as slang for describing those who do not identify as heterosexual. The usage historically was predominantly in a derogatory fashion. In recent years the term “Queer” has come to signify an appropriated sense of anything outside the realm of normal sexual and social discourse. To be Queer relates to a combination of self-proclaimed socialized marginalized sexual identities. The rapid increase of the development of university undergraduate and postgraduate studies in the Western world has led to the rise of the appropriated use of the word. Queer now signifies a transition of sexual institutional studies from conventional
References:
Mooney, L.A., Knox, D., Schacht, C., & Nelson, A. (2004). Understanding Social Problems, Second Canadian Edition. Scarborough, ON: Thomson Canada Limited.
Stiers, G.A. (1999). From This Day Forward: Commitment, Marriage, and Family in Lesbian and Gay Relationships. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.
Weeks, J., Heaphy, B., & Donovan, C. (2001). Same Sex Intimacies: Families of choice and other life experiments. New York, NY: Routledge.
Wilke, M. (May 6, 2003). Volvo Bids for Gay Families. New York, NY: Commercial Closet Association. Retrieved November 5, 2004, from http://www.commercialcloset.org/cgi-bin/iowa/?page=column&record=73
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