Axiomatic...is this really a self evident truth?

Axiom: a self-evident or universally recognized truth

In this introduction of Epistemology of the closet, titled “Axiomatic,” there lies an extensive/detailed description of all the key points the author, Eve Sedgwick, will be making in regards to the terms homosexual, gay, lesbian, gender and sex (and how these feed into the modern gay and antihomophobic theory. She starts her intro by laying out some contradictions between the homosexual and heterosexual definition:

·         In the first contradiction, we find the belief that homosexuality only has an “active” importance within the community (at a smaller scale, so to speak); therefore, this is the homosexual minority. The contradiction is that this issue is of utter importance to humanity, meaning it is continually growing and is a part of all sexuality (homo and hetero).

·         In the second contradiction, “same sex object choice” is seen as an issue pertaining to a transitional period (between) both genders; therefore, the argument against this is seeing this choice as a separation within each gender.

Now, this second contradiction didn’t seem as straight forward as the first contradiction and I’m still not sure if I understand it. However, what can be established is that these contradictions serve as precursors to Sedgwick’s hypothesis about the importance of understanding these definitions/contradictions in the 20^th century.

So with the turn of the century, from the 19^th to the 20^th, the term homosexual caused a shift in sexuality where sex (as in sexual orientation) now has to have an identification: homosexual or heterosexual and everyone is expected to fall under one of these two margins. From this, we go to a synopsis of two best friends, a man and a woman, where the man is gay. The point of this synopsis is to understand how this term “being gay” came about in this friendship. Here, “coming out” was more important than saying “I am gay” because they both knew this without needing to communicate it. So when he actually says “I’m coming out”, he embraces his sexuality and launches it into society.

Since this is the text on which I will be presenting tomorrow, I will leave it at this since there is much more to decipher.