Question

Margaret Mead and the Tchambuli: Part Two, pp.271 - 289

Mead believed that cultures selectively emphasize certain human traits and disallow other traits, such as “socially-defined sex differences” (p.277). She adopted the term “deviant” to refer to the individual who could also be considered “cultural misfit” based on their traits and behaviors. How does social categorization by sex (i.e. male/female/non-binary) or sexuality (i.e. gay/straight/bisexual) affect individuals among the Tchambuli and here in the U.S.? What happens when an individual is seen as “deviant” by the culture or society in which they belong?

Answer 1

Society has created certain norms and stereotyped certain actions of males and females who are considered as the pillars of society. Other than those individuals having well-defined male and female traits, few individuals who do not possess such well-defined traits are considered as "deviants" from the normal. These have sexual orientations not very common and usually, the sexual orientation they possess is not freely accepted by society. These fall under three categories- homosexual men, lesbians and transgenders.

Homosexual men are males which have their sexual orientation towards other males, Lesbians are females showing sexual orientation towards other females and transgender have underdeveloped male or female sex organs so these cannot be placed under any one of the well-defined categories of either male or female. All these individuals belonging to any of the three categories are not freely accepted by societies in the Tchambuli and here in the U.S. Usually they are seen as aliens who are a misfit to live a normal life. They are discarded of many normal facilities given to other individuals and they go through a lot of mental trauma which develops eventually by the non-denial and non-acceptance by the society members. Though many organizations and movements have been taking place to strengthen their position in society, still the situation is not very encouraging. One such example of the positive efforts made towards these categories is LGBT pride which is the positive stance against discrimination and violence toward lesbian, homosexual, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people to promote their self-affirmation, dignity, equality rights, increase their visibility as a social group, build community, and celebrate sexual diversity and gender variance. Many more such steps should be taken for the fact that these people also have all the rights to live normally in society without facing any kind of biases.