Topic > Gender Roles in Contemporary American Culture - 2622

Rules about sexuality have been upheld in American culture for decades. For example, if a man had sexual feelings towards another man, he was considered to have mental problems and deserved to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital. In addition to viewing these individuals as mental patients, they were also viewed as sinners. The Bible states, "If even a man have intercourse with a man, as he have intercourse with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them" (Leviticus 20:13 KJV ). These words are against homosexuality and give consequences for what would happen if you disobeyed them. It is this scripture that gave people the idea that any form of sexuality other than heterosexuality was a sin and that those who engage in that lifestyle are unnatural. Foucault believed that homosexuality was nothing more than natural, he explains: "Nothing that formed part of his total composition was not influenced by his sexuality... It was consubstantial with him, more as a singular nature than as a habitual sin" (Foucault