5: Deviant & Normal Sexuality Flashcards
Sexual Citizenship in Canada 1900
Homosexuality was considered deviant, indicative of mental pathology
Sexual Citizenship in Canada 1950s
Seen as a mental disorder, challenged the notion of pathology; ‘sexual pluralism’
1969 Sexual Citizenship
consensual sex between two men under 21 was decriminalized** (PET - no place for the state in bedrooms of the nation)
- “Don’t ask don’t tell” passed around the military
The Stonewall Riots in New York, 1969: Police raid of a gay bar led to days of riots & protesting. In the same year, same-sex activities were decriminalized “There’s no place for the state in the bedroom of the nation”. Three years later, DSM removed homosexuality as a disorder.
Historical Construction of Sexuality: Aristocrats
> Aristocratic males could have marital sex for making male heirs, as well as sexual relationships with other women, slaves, foreigners, and aristocratic adolescent boys for pleasure.
- However, aristocratic men were expected to demonstrate sexual self-control, in part by having sexual relationships only with partners of different social status; sexual activity between two aristocratic men (i.e., two “equals”) was considered unacceptable and subjected to measures of social control such as through law
Historical Construction of Sexuality: Indigenous
Controls imposed upon Indigenous sexualities were “a key part of breaking up landholdings, ‘detribalizing’, and/or translating native territoriality and governance into the terms of [white settler] liberalism and legal geography
- For white settlers, sex was for reproduction, and pleasure & sexuality were frowned upon
- Women’s sexuality had to be controlled to maintain purity and assure paternity
- Union between white men and indigenous women was common because of scarcity of white women and Indigenous’ skills in trapping & language
- Binaries of sex, gender and sexuality were imposed on Indigenous cultures as part of a coercive assimilation
- As Métis grew, became discouraged & Indigenous became “hypersexualized” and “out of control”
Exotic Dancing Ongoing debates
dancers are victims of exploitation, or the decision is a choice, or that they exercise their agency through individual negotiations
Exotic Dancing
Structures of power exist individually (dancers are to embody what the customers want, dancers make fantasy based on “counterfeit intimacy”).
> Because of the way gender is socially constructed, male dancers feel more like “admired stars” while female dancers may feel more objectified
The organizational level of power is the rules governing customer-dancer behaviour
> May think the company exerts control over dancers, but they may use it to their advantage for making more money and for safety through boundaries
Both exist within the larger context of institutional power: competing interests among stakeholders, the structure of capitalism, and, for females, cultural ideals of female beauty
> Goal of owners is to increase revenue, dancers’ goal is to maximze their personal income which can be conflicting
Subjective Perspective
- Social construction processes and deviance dance
- Critical Theorist’s Perspective
- Symbolic Interactionism
- Power-Reflexive Theorizing
Structural Functionalist Theorizing
Talcott Parsons: Family provides a number of functions for society
1. care for children
2. socialization of children
3. social cohesion = social stability
> Sexual activity that is limited to marital relationships is most functional for society
> Sexual “deviance” are those who do not conform to societal standards (norms) and therefore threaten societal stability (potential anomie)
The Construction of a Social Problem: Prostitution
Morality → Public Health → Victimization → Worker rights
Oppression Paradigm
Sex workers are considered incapable of being agents of power or choice (subject to inconvenient findings: their voices are discounted as being indicative of their inability to notice their own oppression). Makes generalizations.
Should be replaced by a Polymorphous Paradigm: Recognizes the varied working conditions and experiences of different groups in varying arenas of sex work. It is important to recognize the difference between those who are victims and those who make the autonomous choice
Prostitution as a Moral Problem
Sinful
- It drives men away from their wives
- It’s the use of a body for purposes other than serving God
The Social Gospel Movement: We need to cleanse the community; only then can people living there find God
Criminal
1892- Canada’s Criminal Code: “Offenses Against Morality”
Infanticide, Sodomy, Incest, Indecency, Seduction, Corruption of Children, Prostitution, Providing or Procuring an Abortion
Prostitution: Morality → Public Health
The Gold Rush (1896-1899) Moving toward tolerance of the sex-trade
- Prostitution ‘necessary evil’
- Acknowledged gender imbalance in the Yukon
- Practical solution for men’s natural lust
- Tolerance would protect women from ‘sex hungry throngs’
1898: Dawson city public health law introduced
- All prostitutes had to be checked monthly for syphilis
1918: Alberta, Ontario, Saskatchewan
- Those charged with prostitution could be tested for STDs
- Government regulation of “educational” literature (like for STDs)
Prostitution: Public Health → Victimization
- Sex trade is linked to human trafficking
- Average age of entry into the sex trade was 13-15 in 2001
- Most male and female sex workers were victims of abuse in childhood
- Most have experienced violence in their work
- Criminality of trade makes work extremely dangerous
They are heavily stigmatized, marginalized and experience lower levels of health-care access
Brothel: Mustang Ranch and Its Women - Alexa Albert
- Requested permission to speak to its sex-trade workers, did not get approved until she got her medical agree
- Work came at a time where sex trade was illegal and victimized
- Brothels got them away from pimps but were still under male management, giving a % to the owner
- Cautions against the dangers still brought in brothels
Prostitution: Victimization → Workers Rights
2014: Anti-prostitution laws struck down; laws determined to infringe on the rights of the workers by depriving them of security of a person included…
1. The keeping of a common bawdy house
2. Living on the proceeds (avails) of prostitution (targeted towards pimps too)
3. Soliciting on the street
The Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act: Treats prostitution as a form of sexual exploitation that disproportionately impacts women and girls. Its objectives were to
- Protect those who sell their own sexual services
- Protect communities, especially children, from the harms caused by prostitution
- Reduce the demand for prostitution and its incidence
> Caused lessened security: women couldn’t have bodyguards & were forced to do things quickly on the street and potentially hinders their safety more
> Won the case that the law obstructs the freedom of security of person
COYOTE Advocacy
- Repeat of all existing prostitution laws
- Most harm associated with prostitution are the direct result of its criminality - The reconstitution of prostitution as a credible service occupation
- No significant distinction between a woman being for 1 hour of sexual services, typing, acting
- Should have the right to sell sexual services just as much as selling her brain services
- Argue that most women engaged in sex work are doing so voluntarily - The protection of prostitute’s rights as legitimate workers
- On basis that work is legit and voluntary
- Institutionalized vocabulary of ‘sex-work’ as workers, they are entitled to worker’s rights
The Flapper (1920s) & Subjectivism
- Independent, young, urban women
- Revealing clothing, makeup & short hair
- Kept later hours, danced, drank, smoked, sex
- Shopped for pleasure, aided by changes in advertising culture
The Flapper & Moral Panic - The first Hollywood death to be sensationalized was Olive Thomas, who died from an accidental overdose as one in the first film with Flapper women
The Flapper as Folk Devil
Society projecting social anxieties onto women’s bodies
The source of anxiety at the time was the constant change like…
- Immigration
- Urbanization
- Morality
- Drug
- Women’s emancipation
Social Typing & The Flappers
Description: Flapper
Evaluation: Flapper, Scatterbrain, Prima Donna, Phony
Prescription: Catholic Church (women who showed skin = sin) & League Against Indecency in Dress (demanded stores to stop selling dresses and distributing catalogues; flapper dress invited sexual assault
Critical Theory of Sexuality
Subjectivist Position
Deviance = people, behaviours that those in power say need correction
- Results from the violation of dominant moral codes determined by those in power
Critical researchers interested in studying deviant/normal sexuality focus on how elite discourses govern sexuality: the governance and regulation of sexual behaviour
Elite Discourses & Governance of Sexuality
- Religious Groups: Christians & resistance to same-sex marriage
- Doctors: homosexuality as a disease
- Educators: gay & lesbian studies being introduced, resistance to teaching same-sex relationships & gender expression
- The State: Laws
The State: Social Conservatism
“It is not the premier of Ontario’s job, especially Kathleen Wynne, to tell parents what’s age appropriate for their children (MPP McNaughton, 2015)”. She was lesbian
Grade 5 - Gender Expression
Grade 6 - Masturbation
Grade 7 - Sexting
Grade 8 - Same-sex relationships
Structural Marxism & Sexual Deviance
> Social rules are in our structures to protect capitalism
Eg: Concerns of a national decline of quality of the “Canadian Race”
Instrumental Marxism & Sexual Deviance
> Social rules are an instrument of protection for capitalists
Eg: Seeking market expansion: desire for the legalization of sexual deviance like pornography
Power-Reflexive Theories: Foucault & Sexuality
> Socially constructed knowledge and regulation concerning homosexuality impacts the experience of being gay
Heterosexuality is the standard → Self-Discipline → Impact on how one sees themself and affecting their experience
Criteria for Determining Sexual Deviance Today
- Consent
- Nature of sexual partner
- Nature of sexual Act
- Location of sexual act
- Frequency of sexual act
Symbolic Interactionism (Weber) McDonaldization of Society
The routinization of activities in the sex-work industry in contemporary capitalism. Characterized by…
1. Efficiency: making use of time, interacting with customers as much as possible
2. Predictability: “product specification” where a standard of beauty is applied when hiring
3. Control: standard set of “characters” to dress as, their choreo, the lines they use
4. Calculability: song selection, timing
Polygamy, Polygyny, Polyandry
Polygamy: More than one spouse at a time
Polygymy: Male has more than one wife
- Wealth impacts the taking of multiple wives
- Animosity may exist between wives
- Second wife elevates status of first wife
Polyandry: Female has more than one husband
- To keep family assets (land) intact
- Reduces offspring as labour source and lineage
Consent
> Primary defining feature of “normal” sexuality in Canada today
- Deviant sex = sex without consent
- The age of consent is 16 if a partner is 5 years or older
- Rape was within marriage until 1983
- Date-rape drugs (Rohypnol, alcohol intoxication?)
- If the woman was a slave and the white man was a member of the slave owner’s family, then consent was a non-issue because she was considered a piece of the family’s property to do as they pleased. Caused by expectation that black & Indigenous women were to be sexually available at all times to white men: therefore they were less likely to get charged with raping them
Effects of Pornography
- Associated with permissive sexual attitudes & more traditional gender role attitudes
- Those who consume more regularly are more likely to engage in sex, act in sexually aggressive ways, or be subject to aggressive behaviour
- Some findings say even though one may consider its use to be acceptable, they feel ambivalent about it and recognize the inequalities portrayed
Nature of Sexual Partner
- In Athens, acceptable partners for aristocratic men were wives, prostitutes, slaves, foreigners, and adolescent males, while equal-status men were inappropriate
- In Settler cultures, marriage lost its place as the only time for sex
> Age-of consent laws, relationships between close family members (incest), bestiality, sexual exploitation
> In law, businesses, universities & schools, psychiatric and psychological communities
At an informal level, certain partners are seen as socially unacceptable, like relationships with first cousins (although it is ok in some cultures)
Nature of the Sexual Act
- Following European colonization, the only acceptable way was through the missionary position
- Preventing children from masturbation was a medical discourse in early 20th century
Pornography
Functional Definition: Is anything used for sexual arousal (would then include romance novels and things more subjective to people
Genre Definition: Products made for the sole purpose of arousing the consumer. So, are romance novels trying to cause excitement? How about underwear shopping catalogues?
Labelling Definition: Community standards and what’s deemed obscene. Includes law. Exceptions include publications that are for educational or medical purposes
