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Nancy Davis Office: 331 Asbury Hall
Fall 2010Phones: 658-4518 (office)
email: ndavis 653-2278 (home)
SOC 225A: SEXUALITIES, CULTURE AND POWER
Course Description:
In this course, we will explore the diverse ways in which human sexualities have been conceptualized, categorized, shaped, policed, and transformed. We will investigate how the seemingly personal and natural world of sexual desire and sexual behavior are shaped by larger social structures, systems of meaning, and social hierarchies. We will consider how sexual selves and sexual behavior, like other human identities and actions, are situated and enacted in a particular historical time, cultural landscape, moral climate, and political economy. We will examine how conflicts that have primacy in a culture--for example, those of gender, race, class, and religion--are expressed in sexual ideas, sexual taboos, sexual law, and sexual politics. The course will begin with a consideration of the problematic nature of studying sex in the social sciences. We will next explore a variety of discourses about sex (e.g., Jehovanist, Gnostic, naturalist, and feminist) and their implications for the lives of those in various social groups. Theories about the connections between knowledge and power will be examined and used to help frame discussions of such topics as: acquiring a sexual self; sex education and the sex experts; gender policing and sexuality; using sexual norms and law to maintain racial and ethnic boundaries; constructing homosexual and queer identities; struggles within gay/queer communities; bisexual challenges to binary sexual categories; transgendering in pre-Columbian America, India, and the US today; medicalizing the transgendered as disordered and resistance to this; political mobilization by sexual minorities; struggles over contraception and abortion; sterilization abuse in Puerto Rico and the US; constructing teenage motherhood as a social problem; surrogate mothers and high-tech reproduction; body-less sex in cyberspace; prostitution and other forms of sex work; globalized sextourism; sexual epidemics and moral panics; poverty and gender as risk factors for HIV; challenges in negotiating safer sex; AIDS policy in Cuba, Africa, and the US; and ethical considerations in the framing of sex law.
Meeting Times: 9:20 – 10:20am MWF, 303 Asbury
Course Objectives:
1. To appreciate the diversity of ways in which human sexuality has been conceptualized and categorized across cultures and historical periods.
2. To understand what Gayle Rubin means when she says that all sex is political and that even seemingly small sexual transgressions can assume considerable significance--reflected in the harshness of sex law.
3. To grasp why political elites, religious authorities, school officials, and mental health practitioners have been so invested in molding and policing sexuality--privileging some sexualities and stigmatizing others.
4. To recognize the ways in which sexual ideas, norms, and regulations reflect larger cultural conflicts, ideologies and hierarchies, including those of race, class, and gender.
5. To appreciate the diversity of human sexual expression, including the experiences of sexual minorities, e.g., gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and the transgendered.
6. To understand how sociologists study sexuality and the promise and problems associated with different methodologies.
7. To discern how a sexual self is acquired and the ways in which it can be subject to expectations of gender, race, class, and culture.
8. To understand how and why the state and the human sciences have regulated who can or should parent--reflected in battles over eugenics, contraception, abortion, teenage childbearing, and assisted reproduction.
9. To recognize the social causes and consequences of epidemics of sexually-transmitted diseasesin the past and today.
10. To understand the national and international economies of sex work and the larger, global dislocations and conflicts reflected in the lives of sex workers and their clients.
11. To appreciate the important impact of political activism on how “normal sex” is conceived, sexual law developed, and sex negotiated in everyday life.
Readings for the Course(available at the University bookstore in the Student Union):
Kathleen Bogle, Hooking Up: Sex, Dating and Relationships on Campus. NY: New YorkUniversity Press, 2008. 978-08147-9969-7
Kim Howard and Annie Stevens, eds. Out and About on Campus: Personal Accounts by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and TransgenderCollege Students. Alyson Books. 2000. 9781555834807 (only used copies are available; try )
Kristin Luker, Dubious Conceptions: The Politics of Teenage Pregnancy. CambridgeMA: HarvardUniversity Press, 1996. ISBN: 978-0674217034s
Jeremy Seabrook, Travels in the Skin Trade: Tourism and the Sex Industry. 2nd ed. Chicago: Pluto Press, 2001. ISBN: 978-0745327564
Mindy Stombler et al., eds.,Sex Matters: The Sexuality and Society Reader, 3rd ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2010. ISBN: 9780205485444.
Naomi Wolf, Promiscuities: The Secret Struggle for Womanhood. New York: Ballantine, 1998. ISBN: 978-0499907641
Other readingson e-reserves on Moodle
Office Hours:
My office is on the third floor of Asbury Hall, room 331. If the listed office hours are inconvenient, we can set up another time to meet. You don’t need a crisis or low grade to be welcome. I don’t mind being called at home.
Mondays1:45 - 3:45pm
Wednesdays1:45 - 3:45pm
Fridays1:45 - 2:45pm
Course Expectations:
I expect regular class attendance and reading/thinking about the assigned articles and books before we discuss them and related material in class. Unless we all make this basic commitment to the class, discussions will be flat and dominated by a few voices or their quality limited by reliance on personal experience alone. Class participation is something I value and an important component of the course grade. So too is writing, one form of which will be reaction papers; you will be given 6 dates and should turn in, at the beginning of class, a reaction essay on the assigned readings for 4 of these 6 dates; these essays involve reflection, analysis, and application; late reaction essays will not be accepted.Another form of writing, this one done in groups of 4 or 5, is a research paper on a sexuality issue around which there is activism today; each group will discuss the highlights of their activism paper with the rest of the class in a 20-minute presentation. There will also be two essay exams--a midterm and a final--that draw on the course readings, videos, and issues raised in class. Exams are 1-1/2 hours in length.
4 Reaction Papers (due in class on the dates assignedfor your group) 20%
Group Research Paper & Presentation on Activism 20%
(dates will be given for each group)
Class Participation 20%
Midterm Exam (Weds. Oct. 13, 8:45-10:20am in 303 Asbury) 20%
Final Examination(Tuesday Dec. 14, 8:30-10:00am in 303 Asbury) 20%
100%
A Note about Course Content:
Sexual identities and feelings about sex run deep and are often unexplored. This can lead to assuming that othersthink or feel the same way and to feeling surprise, annoyance, and/or discomfort in discovering otherwise. This course is a chance to explore the multiple ways in which humans in different times and (sub)cultures, including our own, have constructed sexual ideas, sexual desire, and sexual lives. You may find that some of the ideas, language, and practices related to sexuality that are raised in the readings, lectures, or discussions are personally distasteful, strange, or unethical to you. That's fine; you have the right to those views and to engaging others in discussion. What I ask is that all of us respect the rights of others to hold different positions. In short, the course is not about imposing one's own sexual morality, ethics, or practices on others, but rather, trying to understand how culture, social context, and power relations have helped to shape sexual ideas, sexual lives, and sexual politics.
Ensuring a Safe Classroom:
Relating personal experiences that support, challenge, expand on, or illustrate issues raised in the readings can strengthen our class by giving immediacy and relevance to ideas that may otherwise seem distant or abstract. I encourage you to draw connections to your own life. However, there is no obligation to disclose information that seems too personal, too private, or too uncomfortable to reveal. I would also ask that we protect confidences that are shared in class by not repeating them outside of class, unless stripped of all identifying information. Periodically, I like to give a flavor of the reaction essays by reading selected passages (without names or identifying information); if there are passages of yours that you don’t want read in class, please note this. Finally, the memory projects in our class that ask you to remember early messages or experiences (e.g., the first time you realized that sex was something important) are typed, turned in without names, and not graded--in order to provide anonymity, a chance for freer expression, and the opportunity to hear a variety of voices and experiences.
Course Outline:
This outline will give you an idea of how the course will unfold. Please make every effort to complete readings for a particular day by class time. This will allow us as a class to discuss the ideas raised in the readings and will also provide a context for the material I present.
W1 INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE: WHY STUDY SEX AND WHAT DOES IT INCLUDE? (Weds. Aug. 25)
STUDYING SEX: METHODOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES (Friday
Aug. 27)
Greta Christina, “Are We Having Sex Now or What?” in Mindy Stombler et al., Sex Matters: The Sexuality and Society Reader,3rd ed.,Pp 4-7.
Stephanie Sanders & June Reinisch, “Would You Say You ‘Had Sex’ If . . .?” in Mindy Stombler et al., Sex Matters: The Sexuality and Society Reader,Pp7-8.
Vern Bullough, “Alfred Kinsey and the Kinsey Report” in Mindy Stombler et al., eds., Sex Matters: The Sexuality and Society Reader, Pp. 50-56.
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W2 JEHOVANIST COSMOLOGIES: SEX AS DANGEROUS TO THE INDIVIDUAL AND TO THE SOCIAL ORDER (Mon. Aug. 30)
Individual meetings this week with each group on your activism project
MurrayDavis, “Normal Sex: The Destruction of the Individual” from ch 3 (Pp 96-124) of Smut: Erotic Reality and Obscene Ideology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,e-reserves on Moodle.
GNOSTIC VS. NATURALIST COSMOLOGIES: SEX AS SUBVERTING REPRESSIVE SOCIAL ORDERS VS. SEX AS NATURAL, BIOLOGICAL PHENOMENON (Weds. Sept. 1)
Murray Davis, “Sexuality and Ideology,“ Pp 165-172 and ch 5 (Pp 173-200) of Smut: Erotic Reality and Obscene Ideology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, e-reserves on Moodle.
THEORIZING ABOUT SEXUAL TABOOS (Fri.Sept. 3)
Christie Davies,” Sexual Taboos and Social Boundaries” American Journal ofSociology, 87(5) 1982: 1032-63,e-reserves on Moodle.
W3 ACQUIRING A SEXUAL SELF (Mon. Sept.6)
Naomi Wolf, Promiscuities, , “Introduction: First-Person Sexual” through “Girlfriends.”
BECOMING A WOMAN, BUT NOT A SLUT: SEXUAL DOUBLE STANDARDS & THEIR COSTS (Weds. Sept. 8)
Naomi Wolf, Promiscuities, “Sluts” to “Third Base: Identity”
LESSONS ABOUT MALE BODIES (Fri. Sept. 10)
Michael Messner, “When Bodies are Weapons” in Maxine Zinn et al., eds., Gender Through the Prism of Difference, 2nd ed., Allyn & Bacon, 2000: 148-52 e-reserves on Moodle.
Melka Loe, “Fixing the Broken Male Machine” in Mindy Stombler et al., Sex Matters: The Sexuality and Society Reader, Pp 235-50.
Scott Poulson-Bryant, “Hung: A Meditation on the Measure of Black Men in America” in Sex Matters: The Sexuality and Society Reader, Pp. 223-226.
W4 SCHOOLS AND THE PRODUCTION OF FAGGOTS (Mon. Sept. 13)
E.J. Pascoe, “Dude, You’re a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School” in Sex Matters: The Sexuality and Society Reader,Pp.430-443.
Melinda Miceli, “In the Trenches: LGBT Students Struggle with School and Sexual Identity” in Sex Matters: The Sexuality and Society Reader Pp 185-193.
THE DEATH OF DATING & RISE OF THE HOOK-UP CULTURE ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES (Weds. Sept. 15)
Kathleen Bogle,Hooking Up: Sex, Dating and Relationships on Campus, 2008, chapters 1-5.
DEFINING RAPE: PARTY RAPE ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES & OTHER FORMS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT (Fri. Sept. 17)
Topic Statement & Literature Review for the Activism Project due in class
Nicola Gavey, “I Wasn’t Raped, but . . .: Revisiting Definitional Problems in Sexual Victimization” in Mindy Stombler et al., eds., Sex Matters: The Sexuality and Society Reader, Pp. 469-477.
Elizabeth R. Armstrong, Laura Hamilton and Brian Sweeney, “Sexual Assault on Campus: A Multilevel Integrative Approach to Party Rape” in Mindy Stombler et al., eds., Sex Matters: The Sexuality and Society Reader, Pp. 480-493.
W5 GENDERED STANDARDS FOR HOOKING-UP & WHAT HAPPENS AFTER COLLEGE? (Mon. Sept. 20)
Kathleen Bogle, Hooking Up: Sex, Dating and Relationships on Campus, 2008, chapters 6-8.
RESISTING THE HOOKING-UP CULTURE: CHASTITY MOVEMENTS, SEX EDUCATION PROGRAMSAND PUBLIC POLICY (Weds. Sept 22)
Stephanie Rosenbloom, “A Ring that Says No, Not Yet” The New York Times. December 8, 2005:G1, e-reserves on Moodle.
Susan Rose, “Going Too Far? Sex, Sin and Social Policy” in Mindy Stombler et al., Sex Matters: The Sexuality and Society Reader, Pp 202-214.
CONTROLLING & CURING HOMOSEXUALITY: LAW & PSYCHOTHERAPY IN THE 1950s; EXODUS INTERNATIONAL TODAY (Fri. Sept. 24)
Martin Duberman, “Gay in the Fifties,” Salmagundi 18, 1982: 142-175, on Moodle.
W6 CHANGING IDENTITIES AND POLITICS: THE RISE OF GAY LIBERATION (Mon. Sept. 27)
Video: “The Times of Harvey Milk”(8:45-10:20am in the library media classroom)
Chet Meeks, “LGBTQ Politics: An Abbreviated History” in Mindy Stombler et al., Sex Matters: The Sexuality and Society Reader, Pp . 457-459.
Steven Seidman, “In the Closet” in Mindy Stombler et al., Sex Matters: The Sexuality and Society Reader, Pp . 444-457.
NEGOTIATING RACIAL, GENDER & SEXUAL IDENTITIES AMONG MEN OF COLOR WHO HAVE SEX WITH OTHER MEN (Weds. Sept. 29)
Benoit Denizet-Lewis, “Double Lives on the Down Low” The New York Times, August 3, 2003, e-reserves on Moodle.
Keith Boykin, “Ten Things You Should Know about the DL” in Mindy Stombler et al., Sex Matters: The Sexuality and Society Reader, Pp 336-337.
Jason Chang, “The Truth about Gay Asian Men: A Gay Asian American Ruminates on his Conversion from Potato Queen to Sticky Rice” A Magazine, March 30, 2001: 52+e-reserves on Moodle.
Keith Boykin, “Black and Postgay” The Advocate, February 27, 2001, e-reserves on Moodle.
BEING GAY, LESBIAN OR QUEER ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES TODAY (Fri. Oct. 1)
Kim Howard and Annie Stevens, eds., Out and About Campus, 2000, Narratives byCarlos Manuel (“A Deep, Sad Sorrow”), Daniel Sloane (“Out and Proud”), Sapphrodykie (“The Iconoclast”), Jared Scherer (“In the Closet with the Door Wide Open”) and Suman Chakraborty (“Out and About” ), Pp. 41-53, 125-130, 131-141, 257-265, and 276-285.
W7 NUANCES OF SEXUAL IDENTITY (Mon. Oct. 4)
Jane Ward, “Straight Dude Seeks Same: Mapping the Relationship Between Sexual Identities, Practices and Cultures” in Mindy Stombler et al., Sex Matters: The Sexuality and Society Reader,Pp 27-32.
Gary Greenberg, “Gay by Choice? The Science of Sexual Identity” in Mindy Stombler et al., Sex Matters: The Sexuality and Society Reader, Pp. 33-37.
Laura Sessions Stepp, “Partway Gay? For Some Teen Girls, Sexual Preference is a Shifting Concept” The Washington Post, January 4, 2004:D01, e-reserves on Moodle.
BISEXUALITY: A CRITIQUE OF BINARY SEXUAL CLASSIFICATIONS? (Weds.
Oct. 6)
Kristen McLean, “Hiding in the Closet? Bisexuality, Coming Out and the Disclosure Imperative” in Mindy Stombler et al., Sex Matters: The Sexuality and Society Reader, Pp. 38-45.
J. M. Carrier, “Mexican Male Bisexuality” Journal of Homosexuality 11 (1-2) Spring 1985: 75-85, e-reserves on Moodle.
CHALLENGES BY THE INTERSEX TO THE MEDICAL ASSIGNMENT OF SEX AND GENDER IN SEXUALLY-AMBIGUOUS INFANTS (Fri. Oct. 8)
Video: “Toby” in 112 Asbury
Suzanne Kessler, “The Medical Construction of Gender: Case Management of Intersexed Infants,” Signs 16 (1) 1990: 1-26, e-reserves on Moodle.
Kate Haas, “Who Will Make Room for the Intersexed?” ” in Mindy Stombler et al., Sex Matters: The Sexuality and Society Reader,Pp.9-23.
W8: CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER-CROSSING AND THIRD SEXES (Mon. Oct. 11)
Serena Nanda, “Hijra Roles in Indian Society” and “The Hijra as Neither Man Nor Woman” Pp 1-23 in Neither Man Nor Woman.Wadsworth, 1998, e-reserves on Moodle.
Evelyn Blackwood, “Sexuality and Gender in Certain Native American Tribes: The Case of Cross-Gender Females” Signs 10 (1) 1984: 27-42,e-reserves on Moodle.
MIDTERM EXAM: Wednesday October 13,8:45–10:20am, inour classroom
CREATING GENDER DYSPHORIA DISORDER: SURGICAL ATTMEPTS TO ALIGN BODIES AND GENDER IDENTITIES (Fri. Oct. 15)
Dwight Billings and Thomas Urban, “The Socio-Medical Construction of Transsexualism,” Social Problems 29 (3) 1982: 266-81, e-reserves on Moodle.
Leslie Feinberg, “Trans Health Crisis: For Us, It’s Life or Death” American Journal of Public Health 91(6) June 2001: 897-900, e-reserves on Moodle.
FALL BREAK: October 16 - October 24)
W9 NEGOTIATING A TRANS-IDENTITY (Mon. Oct. 25)
Video: “You Don’t Know Dick” in the library media classroom
Jamison Green, “Sex and the Trans Man” ” in Mindy Stombler et al., Sex Matters: The Sexuality and Society Reader, Pp 24-26.
Joyce Nishioka, “Transgender: A Walk of Life” Asian Week, 21(31) March 28, 2001: 21+ (6 pg), e-reserves on Moodle.
RACIAL POLITICS: CONTROLLING NATIVE AMERICAN & AFRICAN AMERICAN SEXUALITIES (Weds. Oct. 27)
John D’Emilio and Estelle Freedman, “Race and Sexuality”Pp. 85-111 in Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988, e-reserves on Moodle.
Patricia Hill Collins, “The Sexual Politics of Black Womanhood” in Mindy Stombler et al., Sex Matters: The Sexuality and Society Reader, 2nd ed., 2006, Pp 405-418.
REGULATING SEXUALITY: HISTORICAL STRUGGLES OVER CONTRACEPTION (Fri. Oct. 29)
Video: “The Ultimate Test Animal” (in the library media classroom; film starts at9:10am)
Kristin Luker, “Poverty, Fertility, and the State”ch 3 in Dubious Conceptions: The Politics of Teenage Pregnancy, 1996.
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W10 CONTEMPORARY BATTLESOVERBIRTH CONTROL: PHARMACISTS REFUSING TO FILL BIRTH CONTROL PRESCRIPTIONS, RESISTANCE TO EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION, ETC. (Mon. Nov. 1)
Editor, “Moralists at the Pharmacy.” The New York Times. April 3, 2005. 4:12, e-reserves on Moodle.
Russell Shorto, “Contra-Contraception: Is this the Beginning of the Next Culture War?” New York Times Magazine, May 7, 2006: 48-55, 68, 83, e-reserves on Moodle.
“The Jane Guide to Birth Control” Jane. November 2006: 82-89,e-reserves on Moodle.
TEENAGE PREGNANCY: IS THERE AN EPIDEMIC & ARE UNWED TEEN MOTHERS RESPONSI BLE FOR POVERTY & TROUBLED CHILDREN? (Weds.
Nov. 3)
Kristin Luker, “The Problem and Its Human Face” and “Constructing an Epidemic” ch 1, 4 & 5 in Dubious Conceptions: The Politics of Teenage Pregnancy, 1996.