performative sexuality?

(Sacha Baron Cohen as Bruno 2009, retrieved 10 June 2010 from, http://images.smh.com.au/ftsmh/ffximage/2009/07/09/300bruno_review_090709095250815_wideweb__300x402.jpg)

In the chapter on sex and sexuality, the concept of heterosexuality is explored. It discusses how heterosexuality is a learned behavior. If this is so, what about homosexuality? I feel as though most of these ideas about heterosexuality can be applied to homosexuality. This subject is touched on later in the chapter. Schlunke says that "to have gay liberation one needed to 'discover' an original gay identity that could only be identified by limiting what gay could mean".

I often notice that people assume that others are gay based purely on the way the individual acts. This goes to show that we truly do have ways of behavior that are considered normal for a heterosexual. Particular activities, ways of dress, of social behaviour are associated with being gay. I have recently been involved in a theatre production and I will admit that it was automatically assumed that all the male cast members were gay. Majority were, but the few that weren't are all constantly stereotyped as gay. It is interesting to think that along with sexual preferences there are expectations of how someone should act. We are not only performative of our gender, as Judith Butler suggests, but also of our sexual orientation.