This weeks two author's, D'Emilio and Meyerowitz, have very similar arguments on capitalisms effect on individual's sexuality. Their discourses are based on how capitalism in the early twentieth century disrupted a family oriented community by driving individuals into larger cities where they could work for a wage. This resulted in allowing people to leave behind the expected sexual orientations held upon them by smaller towns.
D"Emilio and Meyerowitz give a good account on how these individuals were able to identify with others like themselves. In these larger cities a person could find similar oriented people by traveling to certain districts known for housing a specific type of population (gay, lesbian, African American, white, lower-class, middle-class, etc.). Here capitalism was a two edged sword, because it allowed an individual to be themselves without holding back. However, by living without any parents, it created a need to earn a wage. The latter is a topic of the early 1900's that D'Emilio and Meyerowitz recognize as being very rarely talked about.
This struggle for wages forced individuals into situations they would not have originally chosen. D'Emilio argues this well and states, "lesbian and gay identity [are] communities historically created [by] the result of a process of capitalist development." This statement describes the oppression against the gay and lesbian population because they are forced to rely upon each other for survival. In Meyerowitz's article, she further expands this statement by describing the irregular jobs an individual needed to perform. For example, she says that a female would flirt with men/women to make extra cash and in some cases use prostitution.
The discussion question I wish to leave is based on the conclusions in both articles. Their belief is that the road is still very long for these communities' to lift their stigmas and earn equal rights with the rest of America. An open-ended thought to analyze is that the growing consensus continues to be equality for all, but the gay and lesbian movement has been around since the early 1960's. How can we create change while the baby boomer generation is still running the country, or why must we wait for a younger generation to take over?
