The reading, "Family Life and the Regulation of Deviance," was based on the history on how sexual deviance played a role in society. In the article it talked about what traditional views deemed sexually correct and what wasn't. To sum it up, sex was only an act that was to be done when married. Outside of marriage it was a sin. The government and the church instilled these values in the people through public humiliation or criminal punishment. Homosexual relationships were not publicized, they were seen just as "lewd" acts. People were even executed for adultery and also for having sexual relations with farm animals. Birth rates were high, around 7 children for an average. This was also because high numbers of children died shortly after birth. Illegitimacy levels were not as high as expected. But women were seen as deviants if the father was not known.
In "Capitalism and Gay Identity," the writer D'Emilio argues that homosexuality came to be with the rise of capitalism. Before capitalism became the main economic system of the world, families were the main production and consumption unit. There was no need for massive corporations or businesses because the family was like a company. They were the employees, the produces, and the consumers. Families produced what they needed to survive and nothing more. When capitalism was on the rise, the nuclear family failed because jobs were being found outside the home. Our nation was in a consumerism state. Because there was no economic need for families, they began to decline. When they were no longer needed for financial support, it changed for emotional support. This made it possible for new types of relationships to arise. Before capitalism, they were no homosexual relationships, there were only homosexual acts. With no economic dependence they were able to branch out and find different types of relationships. This is when homosexuality became broad casted, especially in the 1970's. Today there is a homosexual lifestyle accepted in our society. There are different clubs, bars, and other clubs for homosexuals. It is becoming an accepted way of life.
The Puritan approach to sexuality was that sex was a holy sanction for marriage. In marriage, sex was for pleasure but much more for procreation. One was allowed to have a very passionate marriage but the passion in your marriage was not supposed to surpass your passion for Christ. In Colonial America, it followed the puritan idea when dealing with sexuality. Any sex or sexual acts outside the marriage were seen as laws being broken. It was punishable by fines and lashings. The ideal was a marriage between a man and a woman, both fertile, who would produce a large brood of children. They dealt with sexual deviance by making suspected individuals feel like outsiders. Neighbors would turn each other in, there was no privacy. The society supported it as well. By regulating the sexual acts of its people, the government had another way of controlling them, creating a more perfect society. They wanted all their people to live by the word of the Lord. They wanted "healthier" relationships between couples and their society. They really just wanted a pure society.
His idea of homosexual relationships developed as capitalism developed. Capitalism took the emphasis away from the family as a productive unit and the new idea of the family was to support the others emotionally. Therefore, there was no need for a specific type of family, like the nuclear family. Then people could branch out and go through with their desires outside of a family setting. That is how homosexual relationships came to be, instead of just homosexual acts. I'm not really sure if I agree with D'Emilio's argument. Even though he makes some very good points, I don't think he really thought about the whole scenario. Yes, as societies became more modern and ideas were more commonly shared through capitalism, I don't think homosexual love just started because of the rise of capitalism. I think that homosexual relationships have been around since the beginning of time. My opinion is that societies have just modernized and new traditions have started. How do we know if relationships of the same sex just weren't written about? The only information we have is written information by white upper class males. Would they release information on other high-to-do men, or on themselves? I think this is another issue that could never be proven. Once again this is a debatable issue that is solely based on opinions and unreliable sources. I am just happy I live in a society today that is open enough for men and women to come out of the closet and love who they truly want to be with, instead of being forced into heterosexual relations by the church and government.