Mount Royal University: MRU Journal System
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Sodomitical Butterflies: Male Homosexual Desire in Colonial Latin America
Get PDFDespite the vast research done by contemporary historians concerning the history of sexuality, relatively little is known about gender and sexual identities in what is now Latin America. Much of what is known has been altered by the experiences and backgrounds of historians in this field, leading to interpretations which are either dismayingly negative or wholly positive. Some publications focus more on inference than fact, or ignore much of the context for why homosexuality and non-binary gender identity were treated as they were by Spanish colonists and conquistadors. This paper aims to construct a more complete analysis of sodomy throughout the history of colonial Latin America by comparing existing discourses regarding sodomy in colonial Latin America, as well as a few select colonial documents and court cases. An evaluation of this documentation reveals that the nature of sodomy in Spanish America is too complicated to describe in a binary manner. Authority did not always condemn homosexuality outright, and though most criollos were not for same-sex relations, some had more neutral feelings towards homosexual desires. This anaylsis adds to the growing body of research regarding American sexuality before and after European ideology altered continental perspectives. In using publications with varying perspectives, the role of male homosexuality, the perception of sodomy, the culture of honour in regards to sodomy, and the consequences of same-sex desire in Spain\u27s American colonies can be better understood
Communism and Toronto Schools: Contention and Politics in the Toronto School Board, 1941-1962.
Get PDFIn the decades following World War II, the Toronto School Board was subjected to the Cold War anti-communist fear that permeated political, religious, and educational concerns in Toronto. Despite this continuous anxiety, communists were able to hold positions on the board and enact influence upon schools. Communists on the Board exercised a certain degree of influence in the Board’s decision making and continued to be a voice of opposition among increasingly anti-communist members until 1951. The politics of the Toronto School Board occurred within a larger context of communist anxiety related to education. Throughout the Board’s changing membership and elections during the 1940s and into the early 1950s, The Globe and Mail covered its policies and campaigns through an often anti-communist lens, reflecting the increasingly hostile public opinion towards communists in Toronto’s government and public life
Chimneys in the Night: A Comparative Analysis of Elie Wiesel’s Night and Olga Lengyel’s Five Chimneys
Get PDFThis essay aims to evaluate some of the similarities and differences in the experiences of two Holocaust survivors, Olga Lengyel and Ellie Wiesel. The essay will explore the experiences of these two survivors in Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Buchenwald and examine why some of their experiences may have been different. The purpose of the essay is not to belittle the experiences of one gender or the other, but to identify how gender and sexuality made their experiences different. Wiesel’s and Lengyel\u27s haunting memories of their experiences in these concentration camps offers a lense through which to examine the potential role that gender had on the experiences of the camp inmates. Both authors provide a graphic depiction of life in the concentration camp and the reader is taken into the depths of the hell in which these human beings were forced to live. Lengyel and Wiesel in a sense represent larger groups of people; women in the concentration camp and men in the concentration camp. Their memoirs exemplify the experiences of the millions of men and women who lived in the concentration camps, many of whom’s voices were silenced as a result of their presence in the camps. Therefore one can use the two accounts and the wealth of information within them to draw general conclusions about the experiences of each gender within the camp
