User:MelanieACain/sandbox

Article Evaluation
I have chosen to evaluate the article Red Velvet (group). The article is about a South Korean group and is considered a C-class article in Wikipedia. The first thing I noticed is that much of the article lacks sources in many places, and when provided the sources seem only tangentially related. For example, when discussing the dual concept of the group, two sources are cited for the outfits worn by members in music videos, but the sources say little about these outfits in reference to a dual concept, and there are no sources provided for the "velvet" side of the concept.

There also appears to be bias in the article, with multiple instances of phrases such as "most notably" with no sourcing as to why they would be more notable than another example. There is also a paragraph discussing how Red Velvet is an example of breaking typical behavior in the genre, but there are no sources and is overall written as though a fan inserted their own opinions in. This also does not explain how the "red" songs are not "cute or pure" and the "velvet" songs are not "sexy" when they were described this way earlier in the article. This gives an overall less academic tone, and the addition sources such as a reddit poll do not help the matter.

The talk page seems to be mostly concerned with merging other pages into the main page and with removing controversies from the group page and onto pages for specific members. Few seem concerned about the overall tone of the article.

Potential Topics
The first specific article I would consider editing is LGBT symbols. Although this is a list, it has a lot of missing citations, one-sentence descriptions with no origin of the symbol, very little research into usage, and outdated information on symbols such as flags while also having flags in the gallery that are not at all common and have no section in the article and no citations. I would like to expand the descriptions that are there, add more symbols that are not currently in the article, and add citations. This is relevant to our course because symbols and political activism are inherently linked, and most LGBT symbols come out of political history.

The second topic I would consider is lesbian organizations. I have not chosen a specific organization yet, but many of these pages have little information and could use expanding. For example, Lavender Menace only has three citations and is fairly short. This is relevant to the course because many of these organizations are political organizations, and I would like to study specific activists in LGBT history and current politics.

The third article I would consider is Compulsory Heterosexuality. This article is fairly short, and I would like to do research into more studies about this topic to expand it. I would like to add more history and effects and add more citations to the existing material. It is relevant to the course because the concept of heterosexuality is often talked about in lesbian political activist circles and is a core concept in modern lesbian activism.

Opening section
Compulsory heterosexuality is the idea that heterosexuality is assumed and enforced by a patriarchal and heteronormative society. In this theory, heterosexuality is seen as able to be adopted by people regardless of their personal sexual preferences, and heterosexuality is viewed as the natural state of both sexes and deviation is seen as unfavorable. The term was popularized by Adrienne Rich in her 1980 essay titled "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence."

Concept and terminology - rename?
Adrienne Rich argued that heterosexuality is a political institution that supports the patriarchal domination of men over women in society, and feminist literature still functions under a heterosexual paradigm. She believes that feminist authors do not adequately acknowledge that institutions such as marriage are merely socializations that have been internalized and reproduced in society. This institution defines the standards for sexual and romantic relationships and alienates those outside of the standards.

Compulsory heterosexuality is viewed as an institution ingrained in individuals from birth, and thus individuals are assumed to be heterosexual until proven otherwise. Due to this, Sandra Lipsitz Bem argues that sexual minorities have a greater "global identity development" from individuals investigating their experiences and senses of self in contrast to society. Individuals with minority sexual orientations are found to consider their sexual orientation as integral to their relationships with other people and as a foundation for their overall identity.[konik etc]

Manifestations of male power [subheading 1]
Male dominance in a patriarchal society is a major factor in enforcing compulsory female heterosexuality. In order to serve men's needs, heterosexuality requires men to force women into heterosexual relationships and marriage under a patriarchal society. Kathleen Gough argues that there are eight characteristics of "male power in archaic and contemporary societies," which are:


 * 1) Rejecting women's sexuality
 * 2) Forcing male sexuality upon women
 * 3) Exploiting women's labor
 * 4) Controlling or robbing women of their children
 * 5) Confining women physically
 * 6) Using women as objects for male transactions
 * 7) Denying women their creativity
 * 8) Denying women from knowledge and cultural attainments

These characteristics combined create a culture in which women are convinced that heterosexuality and heterosexual relationships are inevitable by "control of consciousness," particularly when used in conjunction with lesbian erasure.

Heterosexuality is used to make women dependent on men for their wants and needs. The Radicalesbians argued that homosexual orientations can only exist under a society in which male domination exists, and that for self-realization women must uplift each other rather than being complacent in oppression by men. Female heterosexuality may also exist under a guise of seeking access to power through men rather than sexual attraction, as male socialization conflates power and dominance with sexual attraction.

Lesbian Erasure [subheading 2]
Rich argues that compulsory heterosexuality keeps women subjugated under the patriarchy by not allowing for non-heterosexual, deviant sexuality to be explored, such as lesbian identities.She believes that there is a "lesbian continuum" of relationships, regardless of sexual desire within them, and that sexual choice is a necessity for female empowerment under male domination.

There is also an exclusion of lesbian identities as a viable and natural option for women in feminist literature in Rich's time. She believes that feminist literature assumes that women are "innately sexually oriented" for heterosexuality and that lesbian identities are formed out of backlash towards men rather than a valid identity in itself, as well as feminist literature not adequately examining compulsory heterosexuality and whether or not women would choose heterosexuality if the society were not patriarchal.

Lesbian erasure can also be considered a health care issue. As doctors assume that all patients are heterosexual, the answer to the question 'Are you sexually active?' is followed by questions about birth control methods and heterosexual-oriented questions without considering the sexual orientation of the female patient may not be heterosexual. A health care provider who is unaware of a patient's sexual orientation can lead to missing or improperly treating medical problems in non-heterosexual patients.

It is suggested that women outside of the standard relationships, such as lesbian and bisexual women, are best able to see the confines that heterosexuality imposes because they are not as adjusted to the inequality within heterosexual relationships, and heterosexual women are confined to believing that heterosexuality is the only option.

Criticisms
Friction developed between members of the gay liberation and lesbian feminist movement due to the emphasis on sexual orientation politics through the lens of gender politics alone. Gay liberationists argued that the complexity of sexual orientation politics cannot be easily reduced to gender politics, and that women are denied rights while gay and lesbian individuals are denied existence.

The theory of compulsory heterosexuality is criticized for upholding the existence of a binary gendered system and strict roles under this binary system. This criticism states that compulsory heterosexuality ignores individuals who act outside of their prescribed gender roles as well as ignoring individual agency in life.

Institutions such as Human Rights Campaign and Lambda Legal believe that compulsory heterosexuality is upheld by individuals and organizations, not society-wide beliefs. Therefore, as lesbian and gay visibility increase, compulsory heterosexuality decreases. As individual freedoms for sexual minorities increase, the institution of heterosexuality disappears.

Influence
Rich believes that a woman is able to overcome compulsory heterosexuality by separating herself from men and entering a lesbian relationship to determine if heterosexuality is right for her. She argued that all women can be lesbians, regardless of sexual orientation, by identifying as a "woman-identified woman," meaning that the woman's focuses are on the needs and emotions of other women. The concept of compulsory heterosexuality and being able to reject this notion became a core component of the lesbian seperatist movement that began in the 1970s.

Compulsory heterosexuality is also seen as a precursor to the development of the theory of heteronormativity, with the difference being that compulsory heterosexuality emphasizes the regulation of sexual expression in individuals.