Comparing Homosexuality in the Middle East and America

On Tuesday we viewed a film that took a look at homosexuality in Middle Eastern men.  It was interesting to see the ways that homosexuality is viewed by people of this different culture and how it can be compared to views of homosexuality as perceived here in America.  Through the course of the film I was able to see many similarities between the perceptions of homosexuality from Middle Eastern viewpoints and the view of Americans.  I think that it was interesting to see that the modern day Middle Eastern men we met in the film were very much like men from our own country in the way that they perceive homosexuality.  They view it as something that is kept in the shadows, only revealing their secret after they have come to terms with it for themselves.  The feeling of needing to keep this way of life underground and the hesitancy to come to terms with it are all tendencies that American men might show when "coming out."  The way that the film represented the emotions that these men go through was very artfully done, and I was able to make many cultural connections between the Middle East and America.  The film also pointed out a lot of social patterns that we find here in the US concerning the gay community that is apparently a worldwide standard.  For example, the comment about the more powerful sexual partner being the one who gets the most credit in the relationship while the more passive partner is thought of more as the weak and less credible person in the relationship.  This is a pattern that I have noticed in the perception of the homosexual community in America, where the one who is more open about their sexual orientation is thought to be stringer and more credible as a human.  From my knowledge of Japanese culture I know that these patterns have also been observed there, something they refer to as seme and uke, where the seme is the more competent sexual partner and gains the most respect in the relationship.  It's interesting to realize that these patterns emerge in many cultures and also interesting to think that they designate some sort of important role to what is normally considered a taboo topic.

I enjoyed the fact that this film presented a little evidence of the history of homosexuality in the Middle East.  I came to understand that it was not always considered such an unacceptable topic and in some places was considered a norm for Middle Eastern men.  I liked that the film put this information in there because it helped to clarify that the presence of homosexuality is just as old in the Middle East as it is anywhere else.

Over all I liked the ideas that were presented in the film and felt that it was a real eye-opener to just how human the people of the middle east are, and how they share many of the same concerns as  people here in our own country.  I was very appreciative of this sort of topic being brought to our attention in a class where we might normally not have focused in such delicate subject matter.  It was a bold move and really helped me to visualize the bigger picture of who Middle Eastern people are.