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Final Paper

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☆。*。☆。 Marriage and Law: LGBTQ and Interracial Marital Disparities in America (1579) Racially and sexually, the white, cishet hegemon has rarely tolerated mixing in either category. By mixing between races or exploring sexuality, it destroys the foundations of power on which the dominant group stands. The citizenship of individual LGBTQ+ people have been in the hands of conservative lawmakers for many decades. Just now, we are seeing breakthroughs in the legislation that has kept many sexual and racial minorities on the sidelines. This paper explores how the notions of white “purity” and heteronormative ideals have plagued the sphere of marriage law for the past century, in turn justifying the anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric of today.  Previous anti-miscegenation laws and anti-miscegenation rhetoric in the Supreme Court reveal the ways in which white power is preserved and maintained both legally and socially. Courts often utilized “[g]enealogy, appearance, claims to identity, or that mystic...
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The Misses Become Medames: The Secret Marriage of Former Miss Argentina and Former Miss Puerto Rico

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     Amidst the sea of appalling anti-LGBTQ laws enacted throughout these years, there has been one positive story that has stuck with me. The marriage of the former beauty queens, Fabiola Valentín and Mariana Varela show that coming out and expressing love should be on the couple's own terms.   According to CNN, the couple “...met at the 2020 Miss Grand International competition in Thailand. After making it to the pageant top 10, the two beauty queens appeared to remain close friends on social media. What fans didn’t know is they were secretly dating the whole time.” They got married in Puerto Rico, who accepted same-sex marriage because of Obergefell v. Hodges. Although it is sad that they had to keep quiet, it allowed them to make the executive decision to marry for themselves instead of the press or fans to force it.     In a joint Instagram reel from both women, the caption reads, " Después de decidir mantener en privacidad nuestra rela...
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2000s Significant Event

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  Judge Walker: Opposition to Proposition 8      As part of the 2008 case Perry v. Schwarzenegger , two homosexual couples filed a lawsuit against the California government officials and supporters of Proposition 8, the ban on same-sex marriage. Surprisingly, on August 4, 2010 Judge Walker of San Francisco ruled that, “voter approved Proposition 8 was unconstitutional, violating the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.” His ruling was a stepping stone in the fight against same-sex marriage discrimination amidst an economic recession and the war in Iraq. Laws were recognizing same sex couples, and with that came seething backlash from homophobes and the right leaning politicians.      Therefore, Walker's political label as an “independent-minded conservative,” made his stance on gay marriage that more surprising. This resulted in speculation of his sexuality by supporters of Proposition 8. Walker...
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FYS6-LEWIS-WRITING2

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─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───   How to Not “Ace” Asexual Representation in Media The sparse asexual representation in film and entertainment correlates with society’s pressure for people to perform sexually; thus, if someone doesn’t wish to perform their sexuality through sexual acts, they are deemed “unnatural.” In turn, the tv shows and movies often depict asexuals as people who are “nonhuman,” “unfeeling and robotic,” and “late-bloomers.” Examining the characters of Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory , Spock from Star Trek , and Jughead Jones from the CW’s Riverdale , the negative depictions of asexuality either persist or are stripped away from the character for the sake of marketability.  _____ ____________________________________________________________________________ Sheldon Cooper is a character that the ace community has dubbed “ace-coded” from his lack of interest in sex or women compared to his other male leads: Howard, Raj, and Leonard, leading to many negative ...
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Writing Assignment #1 - Quin Lewis

The "G" Word: Perspectives on Gender from a Queer Woman of Color (784)           My gender has been shaped by my education, my family, and being surrounded by Southern culture: my schooling taught me to be “modest” and “soft spoken”, my family insisted that I be interested only in boys, and living in the South caused me to view my gender as a way of serving men and to not be a threat.  The strict dress code and the casual bullying through my K-8 education made me hate the “feminine” side of myself. I was raised by white parents and went to a predominantly white K-8 private school where the dress code was enforced more heavily on the girls than the boys. The rules for girls were to not show anything past the collar bone, if one wore skirts, they had to be two inches above the knee, and lastly, do not wear any makeup. On the other end, boys must not grow hair beyond their ears and must wear polo or dress shirts. It was assumed by the school officials th...
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Thoughts on Ethnic Notions - Quin Lewis

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  Ethnic Notions, Race: The Power of an Illusion      I watched this piece with a group on Monday in the common room of Braun, which made watching more communal. From my personal experience and growing up in the South, the oppression and media surround the Black community has been taught to me in a distant way. Not to say that the impact of the history is lessened or any less valid, just that my knowledge about this subject needs to be examined and broadened.      The style of the cartoons of exaggerated black caricatures made me realize how easily these stereotypes are passed down onto children as well as adults. Though it didn't shock me when the iconic Bugs Bunny wore blackface and sang in a stereotypical "Black" voice because it made me reconsider what media I was given and consumed as a child. Bugs was a character I had seen every Saturday morning on the family computer and while he made us laugh, Bugs was also normalizing these grotesque depictio...
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