I found Rupp's article to be incredibly interesting. First of all it gave me a more worldwide view of sexual preference and sexuality. I had no idea that intersexuality was so prevelant in other cultures and in the worlds past. I had known that ancient Greek men used to have intercourse with young boys and it was not considered "gay" or weird in their society; but in fact was "normal". What surprised me was that places like New Guinea required boys to incorporate semen into their bodies somehow in order to be considered a man. In America, it is the exact opposite. People judge boys or men who have sexual interactions with other boys or men. It is not seen as a factor of maturity, but instead something that scares people because it is different from the "normal" sexual realtionships in society.

I was also fascinated by the hijras in Indian society. The fact that they are important for ceremonial and regilious functions, yet are despised by their society, interested me because of the hyphrocracy. It reminded me of Thailand. When I visited Thailand, I learned a lot about "ladyboys", who are men who had sex changes into women. There is a high prostitution rate in Thailand, and especially with ladyboys. But what surprised me about this ladyboy factor, was that in Bangkok, ladyboys held positions of political power; however, public displays of affection (with both herterosexual and homosexual relationships) are not allowed in society. The most PDA anyone ever did was hold hands, and even that was considered to be somewhat inappropriate. This fascinated me because like the hirajs, ladyboys were accepted in society, but displaying acts of sexuality or sexual relations with another person was not allowed in their society. Thailand accepted something so revolutionary for sexuality in our modern world, but rejected some of the smallest signs of love and relations.

It still amazes me how cultures can look at sexuality and sex in such different ways and incorporate it into their lives. In some ways I think that cultures like New Guinea and Ancient Greece are more revolutionary because they seem to have less prejudices against intersex people and homosexual relations. I think that Americans can learn to be more accepting of other sexual preferences through studying these other cultures.