Thesis and support to the argument
Penetrated men represent masculinity that lacks power. Contrary to expectations, this is a threat to the social and psychic chaos. As far as gender among the adolescent boys in America is concerned, penetrated masculinity acts as the regulatory mechanism. The repeated denial of the fag identity among the American adolescent boys results in their masculinity. It is worth pointing out that the fag insult does not only have multiple meanings but is also raced and sexualized.
Symbolic interaction theory in racialized and gendered homophobia
The fact that a majority of the participants found the words gay or fag appropriate for girls as opposed to boys is not stringently homophobia. On the contrary, this is gendered homophobia since it is only connected to the male and female gender. This is a part of the adolescent masculinity and has nothing to do with adolescent femininity.
The male consider female lesbians to be good, which is attributable to the place they hold in the heterosexual male fantasy. At River High, girls were only recorded three timesusing the term fag. It is used eight times more compared to the term slut. Although the words fag and gay shared similar sexual origins, gay was commonly used at River High, meaning mean stupid (Teegen, Doh and Vachani 2004).
The difference between the African-Americans’ and white boys’ dancing and clothing brings about the racialized homophobia perspective. The dress code used by the African-American boys is a reflection of the hip-hop culture. According to Richard Majors, this is a cool pose that comprises of exceptional, noticeable, and sensitive styles.
All these were created by the African-American men as a symbol that reacted to institutionalized racism. White boys who possess characteristics of the African-Americans such as giving keen care and attention to clothing are identified as fags. The argument given is that only fags are attentive to their appearance and clothes and white boys should not care too much (Schaefer, 2011).
How the fag epithet is situational
Fags are associated with a lot of resentment. For a person to be a guy, the homophobia aspect has to be present. One of the participants asserts that he supports the fact that guys have to be homophobic. However, he goes on to explain that it is not only the homophobic aspect but gendered homophobia. A number of students argued that the homophobic insults were only applicable to boys as opposed to girls.
This is brought out by the fact that Jake admits that he hates gay people but is okay with lesbians. In addition, Cathy admits that lesbians are acceptable since guys think they are cool. After confessing that boys are advised not to be faggots, another participant confirms that there is no problem if girls are lesbians.
How different groups use the word fag differently
A majority of the boys and girls who were interviewed asserted that the fag epithet was the worst when directed to someone. In some situations, boys used the fag epithet in reference to gay people who were never accepted in the society. The term gay or fag was also used as an insult to mean that a person was useless.
Lies my teacher told me
The Constitution sets forth a balance of power where each branch is granted some power. In addition, some of the power is reserved for states and individuals. It is worth pointing out that the federal government is no longer the citizens’ servant. Furthermore, it is unmanageable and intractable. There is a need for textbooks to recognize the obligations private citizens and nongovernmental bodies play in matters concerning social issues, education, race relations, and the environment (Agranoff and McGuire, 2004).
Role of the federal government in improving significant social matters
The US federal government abandoned its revolutionary ideology and is presently viewed as the most powerful nation globally. The nation tries to retain its hegemony through self-determination attempts to other people and countries. The federal government is not concerned about important social matters that affect other countries. On the contrary, its concern is to ensure that other nations look up to it for protection of human rights, democratization, and upgraded living standards.
The federal government might appear to be the moral and responsible peacekeeper. However, it does not take other nations’ concerns with keen interest. Some textbooks claim that the US plays a great role in offering foreign aid to other countries. However, this is untrue since the Arab and European countries contribute a greater portion of their entire governmental expenditures or GDP as opposed to the United States.
Irrespective of the fact that the federal government made commitment offer humane and financial assistance as well as military leadership, there has been no dedication to achieve this goal. The focus has only been on ensuring the intellectual growth of their volunteers.
Collaboration between the non-governmental agencies and the government
The role of multinational corporations cannot be underrated. For instance, the ITT (International Telephone Telegraph) played a significant role in persuading the government and overseeing the destabilization of the Salvador Allende’s socialist government. This resulted in exceptional impacts compared to the efforts made by the Peace Corps workers.
Other exemplary multinational corporations that are renowned include Guatemala’s United Fruit and India’s Union Carbide (O’Connell,2012). It is worth emphasizing that the multinational corporations and nongovernmental agencies play a unique role in influencing the government policies in the United States. Consequently, multinationals that were based in America achieved greater impacts in assisting other countries.
At one time, President Gerald Ford tried convincing the Congress to support the United States military intervention as far as the UNITA rebels in Angola were concerned. GulfOil was against this intervention. This is a perfect example of lack of cooperation between nongovernmental agencies and the government.
During this period, the Marxist government in Angola had a partnership with Gulf where they were producing oil. It is worth noting that some nongovernmental agencies and multinational corporations seek the government’s intervention so as to guard their corporate as opposed to the nation’s interests (Loewen, 2007).
The main concern of the United States government should be protection of its citizens. This will prevent cases where the government is lured by multinational corporations and nongovernmental corporations to send citizens to fight in other countries.
Another concern is that these corporations and agencies may decide to move their factories to developing countries, which would create unemployment in the US. Therefore, there is a need for the government to be fully equipped to manage the country without depending on multinational corporations and nongovernmental agencies.
References
Agranoff, R., & McGuire, M. (2004). Collaborative public management: New strategies for local governments. New York: Georgetown University Press.
Loewen, J. W. (2007).Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. New York: Touchstone.
O’Connell, C.(2012).Reader for Introduction to Sociology. New York: Pearson Learning Solutions.
Schaefer, R. T. (2011). Sociology Matters. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Teegen, H., Doh, J., & Vachani, S. (2004). The importance of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in global governance and value creation: An international business research agenda. Journal of International Business Studies, 35(6): 463-483.