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Originally Posted by Deusdrum
I just finished a course on the 'Sociology of Deviance'. From what the "experts" had to say, homosexuality is defined as deviant; (though the author of the textbook predicts that if current trends continue, it will not be considered deviant in a generation or so, i can't say for sure if i agree, but it seems reasonable)
I think its important to make the distinction obviously between 'deviant' and 'wrong' or 'bad'. To have a tattoo is deviant. To smoke a cigarrette is starting to become more deviant (though in the past, it was a 'norm' though hardly much more healthy etc. etc.)
Bout all i have to say, just wanted to flex my post-secondary educational muscles there for everyone *Gaaaarrr!!*
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The institutions are reinforcing of the dominant ideology. Just because you learned it in school does not mean it's correct, or that other schools wouldn't teach something different. At the same time, I can understand the ACADEMIC level meaning of the word "deviant", but you have to understand that even academia is not free from social biases. Even the terms "homosexual", "heterosexual", "bisexual", etc. are all rather absolute terms to apply to human sexuality, even though humans tend to fall on different points of the spectrum. Kinsey, for all of his flawed research methods, did effectively demonstrate that the majority of the population fall somewhere between absolute heterosexual and absolute homosexual.
Given that, how can we say what is "deviant"? Even the academic level meaning presumes a norm, i.e. heterosexual dominance... but it has been demonstrated that even though not many people self-label as GAY, many, many more people than the self-labelled gays partake or have partaken in homosexual acts. Numbers as large as 50-60% of the population have had a sexual experience with the same sex. Again I ask, how do you define "deviant" from the social norm, given that the social norms are fake in the first place?
All I'm saying is, that the dominant ideology about this is at LEAST debatable. The vast majority of sexology research goes into heterosexuality. Something like 5-10% goes into homosexuality. There are still enormous grey areas that we know nothing about, so any conclusions at this time are likely inaccurate at best.