Ever since I could grasp the idea of politics of being liberal/conservative, pro-life/pro-choice, for gay marriage/against gay marriage, I have identified my habitus to be more "left-leaning". I believe this is partially from the mirroring relations my mom provided to me and how well she was able to adapt to the American culture after having to immigrate here. Without government aid, my family would not be where we are today and that, along with many other events, have had a huge impact on where I stand on the political spectrum.
The subject position I'd like to identify is my dad's. He is very conservative and very, very against homosexuality (we won't discuss what this could possibly mean about him......) which, before cultural studies 101, I found very hard to understand.
I just had questions that I could answer, but the answers weren't consistent with his position on homosexuality. Hadn't he fallen in love before? Why couldn't he try to understand how these people felt?
The only way I could really come to terms with why he rejected homosexuality was to look at his situation through a cultural standpoint.
Culturally, my parents came from a very conservative, patriarchal society where change was/still is very hard to come by (in Thailand and Laos).Through the society that the Hmong people had created around him, he grew up with the idea that "I'm the boss because I am a man. Men marry women to start families in order to pass the family name on, as well as to have cook and clean for me." This is where my dad created his structure of feeling of what the "norm" was. To him, not only was the thought of a man being with another man out of this world, but how would you start a family being homosexual? I know these feelings he had were not influenced by religious scriptures because my dad has probably chased off every missionary that has tried to convert him. Rather, he was influenced by how culture viewed the role of family and its members.
When we got cable for the first time, I remember being in my bedroom and hearing Fox News from the living room. As weird yet straightforward as the situation can get, I believe that the reason why he listens to Fox News is because it embodies language toward sex and sexuality that my dad could understood... rhetoric that his habitus grew up believing, specifically that "marriage should be between a man and a woman." Fox News was able to pick up on viewers like my dad and create that idealizing relationship with them and because Fox News was able to make that connection with my dad, they were also able to push other agendas as well.
In no way does this legitimize or reject his views on homosexuality. I just think it helps us understand why he and others have such strong feelings against it.
You definitely make some good points here. In a patriarchal society, where tradition is king, there isn't a whole lot of room for being non-traditional. If they allow those guys to be with each other, they might have to be okay with other social norms breaking. That could potentially have the power to break down their society as it is today. It's not that they want to discriminate, it's that they were made to feel that way by their upbringing. Society is the supreme teacher, and their society isn't ready to make that change yet, so they'll continue to teach that it is bad.
ReplyDeleteThis subject of homosexuality and conservative people is very interesting to me because it is something i can easily relate to with my family. My mother, father and both sets of grandparents are very conservative and none of them are open to homosexuality. When the subject comes up on tv or we run into a homosexual couple in public it is very awkward for me because in my opinion people should be able to marry whom ever they want, as long as they love one another and plan to make it last. As for my family members, they do not believe this, and we run into these situations they make very close minded comments.
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