Gender and Homosexuality

Abstract

Homophobic discourse, influenced by medical theories, has shaped the representations of homosexuality around the notion of gender since the middle of the 20th century by spreading the stereotypes of the effeminate homosexual and the masculine lesbian. Set up as countertypes to the virile or feminine ideal, homosexuals see themselves rejected from national community, treated like foreigners, and held in suspicion during crises and in cases of corruption and treason. The homosexual identity is thus constructed in reaction to the homophobic discourse and practices. The strategies worked out by homosexuals therefore range from claiming an acknowledged difference to the rejection of constraining stereotypes and the subversion of language categories through gender confusion and the camp aesthetics.

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