SOCI 119:Sexuality & Sexual Identities
UC SAN DIEGO
W I NT E R 2022
P ROFE S SOR: D R . JE N N RO S E N
Week 1
Please don’t hesitate to reach out for any reason!
jlrosen@ucsd.edu
SOCI 119:
Sexuality & Sexual Identities
UC S A N D I E G O
W I NT E R 2022
P ROFE S SOR: JE N N RO S E N
Week 2
Sex and Gender
Sex and Gender: what’s the difference?
▪ Sex refers to the anatomical and physiological
characteristics of “maleness” or “femaleness”.
▪Sex is determined by a combination of genetics and the presence
or absence of hormones testosterone and estrogen.
▪Gender can be divided into a number of different
components relating to ideas of masculinity and
femininity:
▪gender identity, gender presentation and gender role.
Gender
▪Gender Identity: the sense of ourselves as men, women or other
gendered beings.
▪Gender Presentation: The behaviors associated with masculinity and
femininity: speech, dress, movement…etc.
▪Gender Roles: the social roles expected of men and women in a
particular society.
▪ Gender socialization: the process of learning and internalizing the
norms of our gender.
▪ Gender is determined by a large variety of factors, both biological and cultural.
“Third” Genders
▪ Transgender is a broad term used to describe individuals
that identify with a gender that is not associated with their
assigned birth sex.
▪ Some societies recognize there being more than two
gender and/or sex categories…something other than
“man” and “woman”. The stigma associated with these
genders/sexes varies.
◦ See “sworn virgins” in Albania, “hijras” in India and Pakistan, “muxe” in
southern Mexico, “two-spirits” in several Native American cultures, and
others
Sexuality, Sexual Identity, and Sexual
Orientation
Sexuality can be broadly defined as how people experience and express
themselves as sexual beings.
◦ A marker of identity and set of beliefs and behaviors that relate to sexual
relationships and attitudes
Sexual orientation refers to who we are physically and spiritually
attracted to based on their sex and/or gender in relationship to our
own.
◦ Thinking about sexuality in the form of sexual orientation: (i.e. heterosexual,
homosexual, bisexual) is fairly recent concept (late 19th century)
Normative is a term used to describe behaviors and actions considered
to fit the “norm.”
◦ Heteronormativity is the idea that being heterosexual is natural and normal -and that other sexualities are Abnormal and Unnatural.
Four intertwining strands of sexuality
– Sexual desire or attraction
• To whom someone is attracted (physically and emotionally)
– Sexual activity or behaviour
• What a person does or likes to do sexually (acts and behaviours)
– Sexual identity
• How someone describes their sense of self as a sexual being (e.g., heterosexual, bisexual, lesbian,
gay, homosexual)
– Sexual experience
• Observations of others’ sexualities; education or training related to sexuality; experiences that may
not have been consensual
No clear boundaries!
The sexuality matrix
Desire
Behavior
Identity
Experience
7
Key Ideas
Social Construction: A phenomenon that may appear to be natural, normal,
obvious to those that accept it, but it’s actually an invention or an artifact of a
particular culture, society, and/or historical period.
◦ Something has meaning because society/culture says it has meaning. For
example, “women are emotional” and “boys will be boys.”
Social Control: Social mechanisms that regulate individual and group behavior
using rewards (i.e., positive reinforcement) and punishments (i.e., arrest, loss
of social ties).
▪
▪
▪
▪
Informal/individual
Formal/institutional
Rewards
Punishments
Important Sociological Questions
▪ What is defined as sex?
▪ What is considered appropriate sexually?
▪Who regulates appropriate sex?
▪How do a society’s members learn sexual behavior and
rules?
Answers depend on social context!
Sexual Variability
▪ It is problematic to focus only on sex as “acts” and behaviors
▪ When we focus on acts we create distinctions (i.e.,
heterosexual, homosexual) and that creates hierarchies.
▪ Focusing on Acts also converts acts into roles and subcultures
that do not reflect reality and lose meaning over space and
time.
▪ Cross-cultural continuum of attitudes towards sex highlights its
socially constructed nature
▪ Ranging from sex is dirty (even between marital partners) to sex
is pleasurable and fun (and not solely for procreation)
Social Context and Relations
Impact of early Colonial American culture in shaping sexuality
▪ Settlement patterns
▪ Rural farms versus small towns
▪ Building materials
Impact of Industrialization
▪ Move away from agrarian society reframed how sexuality was seen –
separate and distinct from other areas of life.
▪ Private versus public spheres.
Industrialization and Urbanization
Social Structures Regulating Sexuality:
Marriage
• Until about 150 years ago, marriage was not about two people in
love.
• The purpose of marriage: meet the needs of the group by forming
alliances with other groups.
• Through the ages, marriage was an economic and political alliance:
dowry, land, mutual defense and enough people to produce wealth,
work the land, exchange goods.
• Husband and wife depended on each other to run the family
enterprise, neither could do it alone.
Social Structures Regulating Sexuality:
Marriage (Cont’d)
•Most important source of social security, medical care and economic
support and survival.
•Being so important for so many people, marriages were not decided
by the man and woman alone based on attraction.
•Love and lust were abundant, but unrelated to marriage.
Social Structures Regulating Sexuality:
Marriage (Cont’d)
Factors that helped usher the love marriage:
◦ industrialization: individual has more value
◦ affluence: less dependence on family
◦ literacy: romantic novels
◦ later, movies
◦ increased longevity
◦ secularization
◦ women financially independent
◦ Lower birth rate
Social Construction of Sexual Identities
Dominant ideas about sexuality:
◦ Sexual behaviour “naturally” follows sexual difference (male and
female)
◦ Sexuality is “natural,” innate – biological instinct to reproduce; a
psychological drive
◦ Deviations from the “natural” or “normal” indicate “immorality,”
“depravity” or “disorder”
◦ Identity is not fixed and unchanging, it is a product of (dominant)
social meanings
◦ Sexual identities do not simply name sexual practices
Week 2 Readings
• Box 1: How Do Heterosexual Undergraduate Students Define Having
Sex?
• 2: “Bringing Intersexy Back”? Intersexuals and Sexual Satisfaction
• 3: The Perils and Pleasures of Sex for Trans People
• 4: I am Gay – But I Wasn’t Born This Way
• Box: Queer: Identity and Praxis
• 5: Bud-Sex: Constructing Normative Masculinity among Rural Straight
Men That have Sex with Men
• 6: “Straight Girls Kissing”? Understanding Same-Gender Sexuality
beyond the Elite College Campus
SOCI 119:
Sexuality & Sexual Identities
UC S A N D I E G O
W I NT E R 2022
P ROFE S SOR: JE N N RO S E N
Week 3
Last Week…
▪ Sex & Gender
▪ Gender identity, Gender presentation, Gender roles, Gender
socialization
▪ Sexuality
▪ Sexual orientation, sexual identities
▪ Social construction of sexuality (and gender)
▪ Mechanisms of social control
▪ History
▪ Impact of industrialization and urbanization on sexuality and sexual
identities
Investigating Sex
Sigmund Freud
Freud believed sexuality begins at birth and described five stages in psychosexual
development.
Oral stage: autoerotic focus on the mouth from birth to age 1.
Anal stage: between ages 1 and 3.
Phallic stage: ages 3 to 5, interest in the genitals.
Boy develops sexual desire for his mother (Oedipal complex) and fear of his
father, which leads to castration anxiety.
Girl develops desire for her father and fears her mother (Electra complex) and
develops penis envy.
Latency stage: sexual impulses not active.
Genital stage: at puberty, interest in sexual intercourse.
Investigating Sex
Alfred Kinsey (1894-1956)
◦ The Kinsey Reports: Statistical documentation of American sexual
behavior. Discovered extraordinary diversity in sexual behaviors.
Methods/Approach
◦ Sampling
◦ Representativeness & generalizations
◦ 18,000 sexual histories, 200 major subgroups
◦ Representative???
◦ POC, older, lower SES, Catholics & Jewish, conservatives
Kinsey’s Key Findings
◦ Showed a significant discrepancy between public standards and actual standards of sexual
behavior
◦ Advocated for the importance of masturbation, especially for women.
◦ Showed that labels of “heterosexual” and “homosexual” were inadequate ways of
understanding sexual behavior — Devised the “Kinsey Scale”
◦ Rejected idea of normal/abnormal dichotomy when it came to sexual differences
The Kinsey Heterosexual-Homosexual Rating Scale
Kinsey wanted to eliminate the concept of heterosexual and homosexual identities. He
argued there were only sexual behaviors, which exist on a continuum of sexual expression.
In his Heterosexual-Homosexual Rating Scale, individuals are rated based on other-sex
and/or same-sex sexual behaviors and psychosexual reactions such as sex dreams and
fantasies in the person’s sexual history.
William Masters (1915-2001) and
Virginia Johnson (1925-2013)
▪ Human Sexual Response (1966): Detailed the sexual response cycles of 382 male
and 312 female research subjects (non-random sample)
▪ Combined clinical observation with direct measurement of genital arousal using
electronic devices.
Key FINDINGS
▪ Similarity of male and female sexual responses
▪ Women achieve orgasms via clitoral stimulation
▪ Legitimized female masturbation
Human Sexual Inadequacy (1970)
◦ Argued that sexual problems were not the result of neuroses or personality disorders
◦ Rather, lack of information, poor communication, or relationship conflict contributed
◦ Used behavioral therapy to treat sexual problems with great success
Contemporary Research Studies
Five national surveys were conducted to illustrate research on the
general population of men and women, adolescents, and college
students.
◦ The National Health and Social Life Survey
◦ The National Survey of Family Growth (periodic)
◦ The Youth Risk Behavior Survey (biannual)
◦ National College Health Assessment
◦ The National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior
Week 3 Readings
• 7: Alfred Kinsey and the Kinsey Report
• 8: Large Scale Sex: Methods, Challenges, and Findings of Nationally
Representative Sex Research
• Box 8: Doing It Differently: Women’s and Men’s Estimates of Their
Number of Lifetime Sexual Partners
• 9: Racism and Research: The Case of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study
• 10: Sexing Up the Subject: Methodological Nuances in Researching
the Female Sex Industry
SOCI 119:
Sexuality & Sexual Identities
UC S A N D I E G O
W I NT E R 2022
P ROFE S SOR: JE N N RO S E N
Week 4
Last Week…
▪ Early research on sex:
➢ 1800s and early 1900s:
➢ Sex viewed negatively, for procreation only.
➢ “Sexual deviants” are pathologized.
➢ Some progressive reformers in early 1900s, but minority
▪ Psychoanalysts in the 1900s (i.e. Freud) emphasized stages of
sexual development
▪ Contributions of Kinsey and Masters and Johnson
Sexual Script Theory
▪ Culture influences thoughts and behaviors about sex.
▪ We are taught interpersonal scripts that guide our feelings about
ourselves and our relationships.
▪ Metaphor: Actor in a play – a script helps individuals know what
role to play, how it should be played, and how the overall scene
should progress.
Sexual Script as a Metaphor
▪ Actor in a play – a script helps individuals know what role to play,
how it should be played, and how the overall scene should
progress.
▪ There are different scripts for different social contexts (different
places, people, and situations)
▪ Our culture is the director
▪ Scripts can be adapted by the social actor to fit the particular
context (inter-personal scripts) AND internal “wishes” and fantasies.
Sexual Scripts
▪Social guidelines for sexual behavior, values, and attitudes that
are socially constructed and rooted in culture
Example
•Desire
• Desire is not simply a “drive” or “instinct” (i.e., biological)
• It doesn’t create “the self” but is part of the process of the creation of self
• The meanings of our desires, even “physical” feelings we have, are rooted
in our culture.
➢They are significant or important only if society says they are).
Sexual scripts are
learned early and
are influenced by
many factors,
including family,
religion, media,
peers, past
experiences,
broader culture, etc)
Types of Sexual Scripts
▪Traditional scripts are highly gendered
Types of Sexual Scripts
Challenges to traditional (binary) gendered scripts
➢ Sex positive scripts
➢ Disrupting the binary
▪ Traditional sexual scripts for trans and non-binary individuals pathologize
their bodies and sexual desires.
▪ However,
➢ Queering sexual scripts
These changes are further evidence that the scripts (i.e. cultural
norms) are socially constructed!
Week 4 Readings
• 11: Sexy Like a Girl and Horny Like a Boy: Contemporary Gay
“Western” Narratives about Gay “Asian” Men
• 12: What Teenagers Are Learning from Online Porn
• 13: Race and Masculinity in Gay Porn
• 14: Out of Line: The Sexy Femmegimp Politics of Flaunting It!
• 15: Constructing Victims: The Erasure of Women’s Resistance to
Sexual Assault
Ableism, Sexuality, and Sexual Scripts
Ableism refers to prejudice and discrimination against people with
disabilities
➢ This includes practices and dominant attitudes that devalue and
limit the potential of persons with disabilities
➢ This discrimination is often institutionalized
➢ i.e. benefit systems designed to keep people with disabilities in poverty
Intersections of Disability and Sexuality
Who Gets to Tell Their Stories?
SOCI 119:
Sexuality & Sexual Identities
UC S A N D I E G O
W I NT E R 2022
P ROFE S SOR: JE N N RO S E N
Week 6
SOCI 119 Midterm
Due Friday February 11 by 11:59 pm
Please reach out to Haley or myself ASAP with any
questions.
(don’t wait until the last minute!)
Identity and Social Construction
▪ Identities are not ‘natural’, trans-historical, universal, fixed, or
unchanging.
▪ Identities are dependent on social meaning
▪ Some meanings are more authoritative than others – power and
privilege.
▪ Sexual identities do not simply name sexual behaviors, they also
capture cultural traits associated with behaviors
Dominant (Western) Ideas about
Sexuality
▪ Sexual behavior naturally follows sexual difference (i.e., if you are
male your sexual behavior is naturally with female and vice versa)
▪ Sexuality is innate and natural – human’s biological drive to
reproduce is seen as a psychological drive
▪ Deviations form the natural or normal indicate immorality,
depravity, or disorder
Social Construction of Sexuality
Social Construction of Sexuality
Western Discourse: Binary Thinking
Dominant Sexuality Discourses
▪Prior to 1960’s – Heterosexual / Homosexual
▪1960’s Onwards:
▪ From “homosexual” to emergence of gay, lesbian, and bisexual social
and political identities
▪ Organized to challenge the dominant (institutionalized) discourse that
had been created for and applied to the category homosexual
▪ Identity can be a source of power
▪ New possibilities for defining sexual identities emerged even in conditions of
regulation and repression (which continues as sexual identities are expanded
today)
Dominant Sexuality Discourses
Week 6 Readings
•
•
•
•
•
22: The G-Spot and Other Mysteries
27: Human Nature: On Fat Sexual Identity and Agency
28: The Pursuit of Sexual Pleasure
29: God’s Case for Sex
30: A Qualitative Exploration of the “Coming Out” Process for Asexual
Individuals
• 31: Adventures with the “Plastic Man”: Sex Toys, Compulsory
Heterosexuality, and the Politics of Women’s Sexual Pleasure
• 32: A Sexual Culture for Disabled People
The Social Construction of Sexual
Bodies
▪ The treatment for “hysteria” was often sexual stimulation by a
doctor
▪ Burgess and Palder: The G-spot is a social construct rather than a
biological construct
▪ Description of location and significance changes across cultures and
over time
▪ Focus on only biological or physiological aspects of female orgasm, the
narrative ignores other aspects of sexual satisfaction
▪ The female body contains many potential erogenous zones – not all
related to penetration
▪ Patriarchy – reflects heterosexual male-centered model of sexual
pleasure
The Social Construction of Sexual
Bodies
Week 6 Readings
•
•
•
•
•
22: The G-Spot and Other Mysteries
27: Human Nature: On Fat Sexual Identity and Agency
28: The Pursuit of Sexual Pleasure
29: God’s Case for Sex
30: A Qualitative Exploration of the “Coming Out” Process for Asexual
Individuals
• 31: Adventures with the “Plastic Man”: Sex Toys, Compulsory
Heterosexuality, and the Politics of Women’s Sexual Pleasure
• 32: A Sexual Culture for Disabled People
What are Sexual Bodies Allowed to Look Like?
• Fat Sexuality
• Fatness is associated with sexual dysfunction or is
fetishized
• Pausé: research on fat admirers (FA) and on straight men
who pursue fat women as sexual partners for conquest
(hogging)
• What is the discourse? Who creates it?
A Symbolic Interactionist Account of Asexuality
• Social identities are:
• Imagined,
• Relational
• Shared – defined and negotiated through interactions
• Identities are diverse and fluid
Meanings
• All individuals are unique
• Individuals have free will
• Individuals have different constellations of
experiences, relationships, and interactional contexts
Example
— “anti-sex” asexual
A Symbolic Interactionist Account of Asexuality
• Identity is:
•
•
•
•
Constantly unfolding
Always unfinished
Subject to continuous reflection and revision
Identity is a process of “becoming”
• How do asexual people experience & practice intimacy?
How do people come out as asexual?
• Meaning, negotiation, selfhood
Week 6 Readings
•
•
•
•
•
22: The G-Spot and Other Mysteries
27: Human Nature: On Fat Sexual Identity and Agency
28: The Pursuit of Sexual Pleasure
29: God’s Case for Sex
30: A Qualitative Exploration of the “Coming Out” Process for Asexual
Individuals
• 31: Adventures with the “Plastic Man”: Sex Toys, Compulsory
Heterosexuality, and the Politics of Women’s Sexual Pleasure
• 32: A Sexual Culture for Disabled People
SOCI 119:
Sexuality & Sexual Identities
UC S A N D I E G O
W I NT E R 2022
P ROFE S SOR: JE N N RO S E N
Week 7
Sex Education
▪ Who are the main agents of socialization?
▪ Parents
▪ Media
▪ Peers, Religion, the Law
▪ What is the dominant sexuality and sex education narrative
portrayed by each?
▪ Which perspectives are privileged and which are silenced? What
impact does that have across all sexual identities?
Sex Education
▪ Mainstream (Western) narrative privileges heteronormative norms
▪ This not only sets heterosexual individuals as “normal” and homosexual
individuals as “abnormal” but also refers to behaviors (i.e., sexual acts)
▪ There is extreme variation in sexual expression across historical
periods and cultures
▪ Ancient Greeks categorized sexuality not in terms of homosexuality and
heterosexuality, but in terms of active and passive sexual subjects
▪ In the Cook Islands adolescence is constructed as an acutely sexual period in
development
Parental Influences
▪ Parents often provide a child’s first perspective on sexuality-related
issues.
▪ Sets the stage for child’s level of comfort in discussing sexuality-related issues
▪ Even as infants/toddlers, parents are constantly explaining sex
differences and issues related to sexuality.
▪ Greater parental openness about sex and sexuality is associated
with healthier attitudes and safer sex practices among adolescents.
Media Influences
▪ Teenagers are exposed to media for over half of their waking hours and
devote more time to media than any other activities.
▪ Over 70% of the television shows teenagers watch most frequently
have sexual content but less than 15% discuss risk and responsibility
▪ What is the dominant sexuality narrative in mainstream media?
▪ The majority of mainstream media representations of sex and sexuality reproduce
stereotypical gender roles, which become internalized (Croteau, 2003)
▪ Discrepancies in depictions of men and women — Female nudity is more common
▪ How does this reinforce differences in power?
Peers, Religious, and Legal
Influences
▪ Most mainstream religions are based on ideas about procreation as “holy”
and therefore sex acts that do not or cannot result in conception are
“unholy”
▪ A historical look at the anti-sodomy laws show that homosexuality only
became legal throughout the United States in 2003.
▪ There are 69 countries that criminalize homosexuality
▪ Peer relationships are very influential in adolescence for a variety of social
and emotional functions
▪ However, among teenagers, peers are often the main source of information
about sexual health, which means they are possibly getting “not trustworthy”
information.
History of Sex Education
▪ Late 19th/early 20th century people were taught that sexually
transmitted diseases were the result of god’s punishment for immoral
behavior.
▪ 1918 legal mandate that soldiers are educated on syphilis and gonorrhea
▪ 1920s- Sex education is introduced in high schools.
▪ 1930s- The US Office of Education first publishes sex education materials and
trains teachers.
▪ 1930s-1940s: Human sexuality courses appear in colleges.
▪ 1960s-1970s: Sex education becomes a political issues; parents start
protesting it in schools.
History of Sex Education
▪ 1990s: First guide for comprehensive sex education is published.
▪ Mid-1990s: Every state has a mandate for AIDS education
▪ 2000s: Abstinence-only sex ed funding increases despite research that finds it ineffective for
preventing HIV and teen pregnancies.
▪ 2020:
▪ 30 states mandate sex education and 39 states mandated HIV/STI education.
▪ 36 states allow parents to opt their children out
▪ 22 states require that abstinence is stressed in sex education and 35 states do not require that
contraception is covered.
▪ 8 states require contraception methods be covered to some degree.
▪ 9 states require that consent be taught in their sex education program.
▪ 19 states have a sex education program that promotes heterosexual marriage.
▪ In total — 7 states mandate sex education, HIV/STI education, AND comprehensive healthy
relationship content: California, Hawaii, Maryland, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, and Vermont.
Comprehensive vs Abstinence-Only
Sex Education
▪ Abstinence-Only Sex Education
▪ Teaches that abstaining from sexual activity is the only certain way to avoid out-ofwedlock pregnancy, STIs, and other emotional and physical health problems;
▪ Teaches that sexual activity must be abstained until an individual enters a mutually
faithful monogamous heterosexual relationship in the context of marriage
▪ Comprehensive Sex Education
▪ Talks about abstinence as one possibility.
▪ Provides accurate information about human biology and human sexuality.
▪ Teaches about contraceptive methods
▪ Teaches young people to develop healthy relationships and interpersonal skills
▪ Teaches young people to exercise responsibility in sexual relationships and avoid
pressures to have sex before they are ready
What Works?
• Rigorous scientific research has examined the impact on behavior and health
outcomes of both types of sex education
Comprehensive programs (Kirby, 2007)
Comprehensive programs (Kirby, 2007)
Improved knowledge and confidence:
▪ Knowledge about risks & consequences
▪ Knowledge about sex, condoms, &
contraception
▪ Confidence to say “no,” insist on
condom use
▪ Confidence to say “no,” to avoid sex or
unprotected sex
▪ Communication with adults about sex
Improved sexual behaviors:
▪ Delayed sexual initiation
▪ ↓ # of partners, frequency of sex
▪ ↑ condom or contraceptive use
▪ Did NOT lead to earlier or more
frequent sex
▪ Worked for wide variety of
participants, in different settings,
communities
What Works?
• Rigorous scientific research has examined the impact on behavior and health
outcomes of both types of sex education
Abstinence-only Sex Ed (Maynard et
al, 2005; Trenholm et al, 2007)
Improved Views of abstinence
BUT increased inaccurate
information about condoms
▪ Did not decrease number of
partners
▪ Did not delay sexual initiation
▪ Did not decrease number of
partners
▪ But did NOT have negative impact
on condoms, contraceptives
Network Analysis and Sexual Health
▪ Social Networks are a “collection of interpersonal and communal bonds
that people have throughout their lives to establish social relations and
satisfy certain needs and maintain their wellbeing”
▪ Social networks have been found to impact sexual health
▪ Network analyses help us understand different patterns of disease across different
populations.
▪ Higher rates of STIs in certain populations:
▪ In the U.S. people of color have higher rates of STIs then Whites
▪ Combine network analysis with a framework that emphasizes the structural
inequalities that lead to different rates of disease across groups
Network Analysis and Sexual Health
STI Prevention
HIV/AIDS Prevention — Intersectionality
Week 7 Readings
• 16: The Death of the Stork: Sex Education Books for Children
• Box, Sex-Positive Parenting, or We Don’t Touch Our Vulvas at the Table
• 18: Conflicted Identification in the Sex Education Classroom
• 19: LGBTQ Youth Need Inclusive Sex Education
• Box, Disability and Sexuality Myth-Busting: Non-normative Sex Liberates Us All
• 36: Venereal Disease: Sin versus Science
• 37: Damaged Goods: Women Managing the Stigma of STDs
• 39: PrEP for HIV Prevention: Community Controversy and Generational Sexualities
• 40: America’s Hidden HIV Epidemic
SOCI 119:
Sexuality & Sexual Identities
UC S A N D I E G O
W I NT E R 2022
P ROFE S SOR: JE N N RO S E N
Week 8
Sexuality as Historically Controlled
Heterosexism, Racism and Sexism were encouraged in our ideas of
Sexuality
◦ Heterosexism – belief that heterosexuality is the only and morally
best type of intimate relationship
◦ Racism – Pressure to stay within ethnic group
◦ Sexism – Women should be passive and men should be active
Sexuality as Historically Controlled
1) Controlling Sexuality through Laws (which attempted to
control gender identity as well)
◦ Laws existed controlling who could marry
◦ Miscegenation Laws existed until the sixties.
◦ Gays/Lesbians could not marry.
◦ Laws controlled divorce
◦ Laws controlled what was considered rape
◦ Laws benefit those who are married.
◦ Laws controlled access to birth control and abortion
◦ Laws controlled Childbearing
◦ How do these laws shape gender and race identity?
Sexuality as Historically Controlled
1) Controlling Sexuality Normatively
◦ Compulsory Heterosexuality – The pressure we place upon people
to ensure women and men are attracted to each other.
◦ Pressure to marry and bear children.
◦ Homophobia – Encouraging negative cultural attitudes towards
LGBTQ people
Sexuality: Organizing It
Women –
Dichotomy
◦ Women’s sexuality is often reduced to madonna/whore.
◦ Madonna didn’t change the dichotomy. She just made the whore
side more acceptable
◦ Male Gaze – Women’s sexuality is often defined by what is men’s
fantasy.
◦ What does Porn teach men and women about women’s sexuality?
◦ Victoria’s Secret, Cosmo, etc.
Sexuality: Organizing It
Men
◦ Always want it.
◦ Dangerous
◦ Out of Control
In a society that values men more than women, this means that
women are responsible for men’s “out of control” behavior.
◦ Blamed for rape. Can’t walk around at night or blamed for
consequences. Have to watch dress, etc.
Sexuality at Work
Pressure to be Heterosexual
◦ Women feel pressure to use sexuality to move up.
◦ Men feel pressure to be “one of the boys” by denigrating women.
Pressure to be Closeted
◦Discrimination and its protection by the law
◦ 2/5 gay people report harassment at work.
◦ 2020 it became illegal to fire people based on their sexuality.
‘Down Low’ Discourse
▪ Black men who secretly have sex with other men while maintaining
heterosexual relationships with women and publicly presenting
themselves as masculine rather than effeminate.
Key Social Components
1. Blackness
2. Sex between men
3. Secrecy
4. Appearance of heterosexuality
5. Masculinity
Importance of Social Context
▪‘Down Low’ is not a new a concept
▪Early AIDS epidemic (1981-1996)
▪Understanding HIV in the heterosexual population
▪ The need for a scapegoat
▪ Bridge theory
Intersectional Framework
▪‘Down Low’ is a concept that develops meaning at the
intersections of:
▪ Race
▪ Gender
▪ Sexuality
▪ ‘Down low’ is a racialized concept
▪Historic and contemporary representations of Black men
Intersectional Framework
▪Intersections of Gender & Sexuality
▪ Women’s sexuality is often ignored / overlooked
▪ Particularly their sexual desires and experiences
▪Straight men’s fantasies
▪Women were largely ignored in medical research related
to HIV/AIDS
Sexual & Gender Fluidity
Week 8 Readings
• 42: Sick Sex
• 44: No Brokeback for Black Men: Pathologizing Black Male
(Homo)sexuality through Down Low Discourse
• 46: “How You Bully a Girl”: Sexual Drama and the Negotiation
of Gendered Sexuality in High School
• 48: “How Could you Do This to Me?” How Lesbian, Bisexual,
and Queer Latinas Negotiate Sexual Identity with Their Families
SOCI 119:
Sexuality & Sexual Identities
UC S A N D I E G O
W I NT E R 2022
P ROFE S SOR: JE N N RO S E N
Weeks
9 & 10
In this lecture I will discuss topics of rape and
sexual assault
In this lecture, I will touch on the topics of rape and
sexual assault, as covered in the Week 9 and Week 10
readings.
This content is disturbing, so I encourage you to prepare
yourself emotionally beforehand.
If you believe that you will find listening to a discussion
about these topics to be traumatizing, you may choose to
not listen to this lecture. You will still, however, be
responsible for material covered, so if you do not listen to
the lecture please contact me individually.
Rape as Social Control
➢ Rape is a form of social control at the individual level
▪ One person’s attempt to control another person.
➢ Group domination
▪ Threat (or fear) of rape controls women as a group
o Fear of being raped leads women to change their
behaviors
o Women who report being raped are often blamed for
playing a part in the assault
Trans-Gender Specific Facts
◦ Approximately 33% of transgender youth have attempted suicide.
◦ Around 55% of transgender youth report being physically attacked.
◦ Almost 75% of transgender youth reported being sexually harassed
at school
◦ In a survey of 403 transgender people, 78% reported having been
verbally harassed and 48% reported having been victims of assault,
including assault with a weapon, sexual assault or rape.
Dismantling a Culture of Violence
1. 27% of transgender employees report having been fired, denied a
promotion, or experiencing another form of mistreatment in the
workplace due to their gender identity or expression
2. LGBTQ people are 97 times more likely to report being sexually
abused in immigration detention and 40% of trans people held in
state or federal detention report being sexually abused
3. 90% of transgender youth reported feeling unsafe at school because
of their gender expression.
4. Transphobia has led to the murder of at least 3,600 transgender
people in the last decade in dozens of countries.
https://reports.hrc.org/dismantling-a-culture-of-violence
Dismantling a Culture of Violence
▪Rape Culture is a widely used term describing a
system of beliefs in which rape and sexual violence are
common and inevitable.
➢ Prevalent attitudes, norms, practices, and media
condone, normalize, excuse and encourage sexualized
violence.
➢ Sexist jokes, victim blaming, minimizing sexual violence,
and sexual objectification.
Examples of Rape Culture
▪ Everyday Experiences:
◦ Street harassment, rape jokes
▪ Institutions & Systems:
◦ Athletics, schools, legal response, faith institutions
▪ Cultural & Societal Norms:
◦ Victim blaming, media messages (music, movies,
advertisements, news coverage, etc.), gender expectations
In Schools
▪ Dress codes that treat or describe girl’s bodies as
“distractions”
▪ Abstinence only sex education
▪ Social expectations and pressure on prom night about
sexual activity
▪ Inadequate sexual assault and harassment policies
▪ Expecting and tolerating violent displays of masculinity in
athletics
Legal System Responses
Victim Blaming
Victim blaming includes beliefs, attitudes and actions
which affectively blame a victim of rape for the rape
itself. This can include comments and questions such
as:
◦ “Why didn’t you scream?”
◦ “Why did you go to their house?”
◦ “Why were you drinking/drunk?”
◦ “Do you understand how this will affect their life?”
◦ “I just don’t believe they would do that.”
Media Messages
Often messages about consent and
sexual violence in the media just
reinforce the norms of rape culture.
Consent should and can be a
normalized part of a healthy culture
though.
Source: punditpress.com
Objectification
Media messages about
gender, typically women,
support rape culture by
picturing them as:
Property
Prize to be won
As valuable as an object
Source: pinterest.com
Intersections
Rape culture exists
on a continuum of
actions that are
directly related to
systems of
oppression.
Narratives of Resistance
▪Emphasizing Women’s Strength
➢ Make room for a range of women’s stories about their
experiences
▪ Reoccurring Question:
➢ Who’s standpoint is the narrative told from?
Take Back the Night
(https://takebackthenight.org/ )
▪One of the earliest collective actions to
combat sexual violence and gender-based violence
➢First recorded march was in 1972 at University of Southern FL
▪ Challenges the narrative that women and girls are
taught – and what has become society’s strategy for
stopping rape – that it is their responsibility to avoid
sexual violence
▪ We spend more time telling women and girls to not be
out alone at night or not wear certain clothes than we
spend telling boys and men not to rape.
Week 9 & 10 Readings
WEEK 9
•49: “I Wasn’t Raped, but . . .”: Revisiting Definitional Problems in Sexual Victimization
•50: Rampant or Rare? The Conundrum of Quantifying Rape and Sexual Assault on College Campuses and
Beyond
•51: The Rape-Prone Culture of Academic Contexts: Fraternities and Athletics
•53: Everything You needed to Know about Consent That You Never Learned in Sex Ed
WEEK 10
•Spotlight on Research: An Interview with Kari Lerun
•56: Can We “Cure” the Men Who Pay for Sex?
• Box: Strip Clubs and Their Regulars
•58: Autonomy and Consent in Sex Work
•Sex Matters: Future Visions for a Sex-Positive Society
D
Question 1
1 pts
In “Venereal Disease,” Elizabeth Fee states that the surgeon general shifted the disease from a
“moral” one to a “scientific” one in the 1930s by:
Shifting the perspective from the sinners to the innocent victims.
O Providing medical data that showed visual images of the effect of syphilis.
O Criminalizing those who had syphilis.
O Establishing a committee to deal with the epidemic.
D
Question 2
1 pts
According to Professor Rosen’s lecture, network analysis helps explain:
O Prevention justice approaches to public health.
O Why some communities are more sexually promiscuous.
O Why smaller and more insulated communities have more protection against sexually transmitted diseases
O Why rates of sexually transmitted infections vary across racial groups and LGBTQ communities.
n
stion 3
pts
Adina Nack argues in “Damaged Goods” that individuals go through many stages of stigma
management. Covering refers to:
O Passing as an unstigmatized person.
O Converting stigma to pride.
O Ignoring the social factors of your stigma.
O Making up stories so as to not disclose your stigmatized attribute.
D
Question 4
1 pts
Which of the following is a problem identified with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders in “Sick Sex” by Elroi J. Windsor?
O The criteria for dysfunctional and unusual are subjective and informed by sociocultural norms.
It fails to acknowledge the role of distress in a person’s life situation.
All people can technically be diagnosed with some sexual disorder.
It is consistent in how it considers issues of consent in diagnosing.
U
n
Question 5
1 pts
According to Professor Rosen’s lecture, which of the following is NOT true about ‘down low’
discourse?
Men on the ‘Down Low — Black men secretly having sex with other men — were blamed for bringing
HIV/AIDS into heterosexual communities.
O’Down Low’ discourse reinforces heteronormativity and hegemonic masculinity.
O’Down Low’ is a new concept that emerged during the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
It is widely accepted that ‘Down Low’ refers to secret sexual encounters between Black men and other men,
even though white men also engage in the same behaviors.
Question 6
1 pts
According to Sarah A. Miller’s ” ‘How You Bully a Girl,” what is one of the main differences between
boys’ and girls’ bullying?
O Boys often use humor, and girls rarely do.
O Girls often use swear words, and boys often do not.
O Boys’ bullying is often physical and direct, whereas girls’ bullying is often relational and indirect.
O Girls often focus on insulting abilities, whereas boys often focus on insulting appearance.
u
Question 7
1 pts
According to Nicola Gavey in ” I Wasn’t Raped, But..!”feminist activists and scholars over the past
several decades have…
O b. Asked thousands of women if they have ever been raped in order to understand the prevalence of sexual
violence.
O a. Worked to redefine rape as a widespread social problem rather than isolated inter-personal incidents.
O c. Argued that women should attempt to fight off perpetrators of sexual violence.
O d. Provided psychological counseling to women who were raped.
Question 8
1 pts
According to Patricia Yancey Martin in “The Rape-Prone Culture of Academic Contexts,” what do
fraternities and intercollegiate athletic programs have in common?
They both actively try to reduce sexual assault and rape on campus.
They rarely allow women as members.
O They both generate a lot of revenue for their schools.
They encourage the kinds of masculinity that make sexual assaults of women more probable.
u
Question 9
1 pts
According to Professor Rosen’s lecture, rape culture describes…
O Sub-cultures that legally sanction rape and sexual violence.
O A system of beliefs in which rape and sexual violence are normalized as common and inevitable.
O Programs that teach young people about the need to express clear and enthusiastic consent during sexual
encounters.
O Myths about rape that emphasize stranger rape over acquaintance rape.
Question 10
1 pts
In the article “Autonomy and Consent in Sex Work” by Kimberly Kay Hoang, how did the women in
the study describe factory work or domestic work in comparison to sex work?
More personally rewarding
Easier and less physically demanding
Less time consuming and more fun
O Far more abusive and less autonomous