normal andneeding medical care" (Woodhouse p. 136). And in the classification of homosexuality,"the struggle for legitimization therefore entailed a challenge to psychiatry's authority andpower to classify homosexuality as a disorder" (Bayer, p. 189). All of this makes veryclear the role particular institutions in society have in classifying, constructing, andreinforcing what is deviant in society. An examination of categories of sexuality and gender also reveal close ties withimportant power configurations in American society. Deviance is constructed as a formof social control - to control the way people think, feel, and behave. And what qualitybest possesses the ability to exert this control? Power. "[W]e engage everyday inextraordinarily powerful, consequential, and often painful interpersonal negotiationsabout what is or is not acceptable and about what our respective places are in a world thatprovides us with less guidance and certainty about such matters…" (Millman, p. 98). This notion of what is or is not acceptable is an essential tool in defining what is deviant.In terms of sexuality and gender in our studies of deviance, feminist theory gives the mostthorough discussion of the dichotomy of power between male and female sexes. Theassignation of gender "establishes a hierarchy whereby a sexual division of labor ensuresan imbalance of power and control weighted heavily in favour of male supremacy"(Woodhouse, 118). Media is a primary medium where the "powerful perpetuation of dominant powerstructures" (Hantzis & Lehr, p. 181) is portrayed on a regular basis. In the case of thepopular culture media, they are careful not to show healthy, fully developed, and fullyexpressed homosexual characters so as not to give the idea that homosexuality is"normal." The sitcom Ellen is a perfect example of this. Here we have a character whocomes out as lesbian on national television only to be censored into behaving t...
