Gay Society and Capitalism

            I will try to do the best I can at answering the question, but it was a little confusing to me. John D’Emilio wrote an essay about how capitalism has “constructed” the gay/lesbian identity. There are many questions that we must ask ourselves before we can determine whether or not this is true. Has gay/lesbian identity been around forever, or has it emerged with the beginning of capitalism? Has this change in identity affected our families, identities, and economic status? Just because men and women have found comfort in the same sex, does that mean that our entire future has changed? D’Emilio has answered these questions in his essay.

            According to D’Emilio, gay/lesbian identity hasn’t been around forever. Instead it emerged as capitalism emerged. So, are the two things tied together? D’Emilio believes so (D’Emilio 227). The way he explains this is that capitalism expanded with the expansion of wage labor. In the early 1700’s, women depended on men for money. Men owned land, and their wives worked with crops for food that came off that land. During this time, it was almost impossible for a woman to live on her own because she had no way of getting money or essentials. As wage labor became popular, more women were able to support themselves. Still, men were more likely to get jobs and also made more than women, but this was still an improvement. Because of this, women were able to explore without having to be in a marriage, and the same with men. More men and women were expressing themselves sexually with others of the same sex, and they were able too. By then sex wasn’t just to procreate, it started to become a thing that helped bring people closer together and it became a form of expression (D’Emilio 228-231).

            Because women no longer relied on men, due to capitalism, D’Emilio believes that capitalism is what started homosexuality. More men and women were getting paid to work, allowing them to live on their own. Also, women were now able to survive without being dependant on males, and the need for children diminished. Many of these things have changed our economic structure. Just think, if capitalism had never been established, us women would still be on farms owned by our husbands, taking care of our seven children. We would be farming, sewing, cooking, and not getting paid to do any of the hard work we put in. When capitalism finally emerged, it allowed women to get paying jobs and, therefore, didn’t need men. This gave women the chance to experiment with other women and men were able to experiment with other men. So I agree with D’Emilio when he says that capitalism may have been the start of homosexual societies, but I don’t agree with the fact that homosexuals weren’t around before the 1700’s.