Quote:
Originally Posted by Lukie
It basically comes down to the fact that men have a "manly" image to uphold, as expected by society. Turning to homosexuality isn't widely accepted as part of that image.
Women, however, don't have any real image to conform to and in that regard are more free to live out the lifestyle they want.
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Women don't have an image to conform to? We're not so very far removed from the days of the Suffragettes, you know.
If anything the social expectation on women has been even stronger than men - stay at home, cook, clean, raise the kids, look after the husband: all very heterosexual, and in accordance with gender roles. Until relatively recently there was less choice for women as to their pursuit of a lifestyle as the options simply weren't open to them and they were pushed into roles by their families. If men are burdened with the expected roles of breadwinners and leaders, women are equally burdened with expectations of nurture and motherhood - two sides of the same coin of a traditional, nuclear and very much straight family.
The expectation on both sexes isn't as clearly defined as it once was and things, mercifully, aren't quite as rigid as that anymore but I don't think there has ever been a larger pressure on men than there has on women to be 'normal'. Certainly not to the extent that it has defined their sexuality to a greater extent.