Chapter 5: "Deviant" and "Normal" Sexuality

Question 1

In the modern sociology of sexuality, which perspective predominates & which 2 lenses is it most often studied through?

Answer 1

• constructionist

- interactionist & critical lenses

Question 2

Interactionist lens of study

Answer 2

-address the processes by which people come to understand and attribute meaning to their own sexuality and that of others.

Question 3

Critical lens of study

Answer 3

• analyze ways that power influences people’s understandings and attributions of meaning
  
  • > power-reflexive work of Foucault emphasized

Question 4

Elite discourse

Answer 4

the knowledge about sexuality conveyed by those in authority and that comes to be perceived as truth. (Foucault)

Question 5

What did Foucault make a distinction between?

Answer 5

Sexual behaviour & sexual identity

Question 6

What do modern Foucauldian sociologists look at?

Answer 6

analyze the ways that scientific, political, legal, religious, and media discourses of sexuality shape the way audience members imagine organizing their lives.
-with elite discourse limiting what is acceptable, or even possible

Question 7

Canada experienced considerable social changes affecting perspectives on sexuality between which centuries?

Answer 7

17th-20th.

Question 8

Sexuality in traditional Aboriginal cultures was characterized by…

Answer 8

Variability across cultures & the interweaving of sexuality and all other facets of social life.

Question 9

nadleeh

Answer 9

Navajo word to refer to masculine female-bodied, and feminine male-bodied members of the community.

Question 10

berdache

Answer 10

“male prostitute,” European derogatory term to refer to biological males assuming female roles, including relations with men.

Question 11

Sexuality in 17th century Europe

Answer 11

Sexuality in the context of marriage, for reproduction & isolated from social life

• Kinship a legit regulator of sexuality, reproduction
• Community a legit. regulator of deviance

Question 12

les femmes du pays

Answer 12

“country wives,” in the early years of colonization, unions between white men and aboriginal women were common.

Question 13

When did relations with aboriginal women begin to be discouraged?

Answer 13

As the fur trade was replaced with agriculture. The population of mixed-race women such as Mé tis was also growing, and they were seen as more acceptable partners

Question 14

In the mid 19th century, colonial officials & religious authorities began to fear what?

Answer 14

“race-mixing”

Question 15

When did aboriginal sexual culture experience changes?

Answer 15

As they began to adopt many aspects of European sexual culture.

Question 16

In the 17th century, the slaves of white Europeans in Eastern Canada were….

Answer 16

literally sexual slaves, expected to be available at all times.

Question 17

In 17th century Europe, the definition & control of sexual deviance served what purpose?

Answer 17

to reinforce socioeconomic class, gender, and racial hierarchies.

Question 18

18th-19th Century sexuality

Answer 18

• increases in “love” marriages & open expressions of affection
• Sexuality based on emotional intimacy in marriage
• Overindulgence was bad (self-control)
• Racial ideologies in sexual culture
  
  • black, Chinese men’s sexuality-> dangerous

Question 19

between the 18th-19th Centuries, who grew as social control agents?

Answer 19

Women, medical profession, social reformers, cultural industries

Question 20

In which centuries did self-control over sexuality become a dominant theme?

Answer 20

18th-19th

Question 21

Social purity/ sex hygiene movements

Answer 21

• equated social purity with sexual purity; sexuality seen as the heart of morality, defined as the cornerstone of society.
  
  • esp. directed at lower class

Question 22

During the 19th century, the responsibility of controlling sexual deviance…

Answer 22

shifted to the individual and self-control

Question 23

20th century sexuality

Answer 23

• Personal fulfillment, regardless of marriage (though still subject to multiple controls)
• Expansion of the cultural industry

Question 24

Sexuality today (21st)

Answer 24

• heavily influenced by cultural industry
• rapid growth in sexual freedom
• very medicalized and commercialized

Question 25

What are the criteria for determining sexual deviance today?

Answer 25

Degree of consent, nature of sexual partner, nature of sexual act, setting, frequency, time, age, number of partners.

Question 26

Consent

Answer 26

consensus that at its broadest level, consent represents some form of agreement to engage in sexual activity

Question 27

What were the stone wall riots of 1969?

Answer 27

After a raid of a gay bar, patrons fought back with days of riots and protests. This was the beginning of the modern gay rights movement.

Question 28

Name for deviants who engage in sex in public places

Answer 28

Exhibitionists

Question 29

Regarding exotic dancing, these 2 perspectives are in conflict

Answer 29

-Radical feminist (viewing it as exploitative) & sex-radical feminists (viewing it as a choice, exerting agency)

Question 30

McDonaldization of Society

Answer 30

has 4 components: efficiency, predictability, control, and calculability. which govern all industries (including the exotic dancing industry).

Question 31

Exotic dancer’s power is limited by…

Answer 31

the extent to which they reproduce dominant ideals on female beauty for the pleasure of their male customers, as well as the nature of ownership w/in the industry.

Question 32

What are the 3 types of definitions for pornography?

Answer 32

Functional, Genre, Labeling

Question 33

Functional definitions of pornography

Answer 33

anything used by an individual for the purpose of sexual arousal.

Question 34

Genre definitions of pornography

Answer 34

products created for the purposes of arousing the consumer

Question 35

Labeling definitions of pronography

Answer 35

focus on community standards… anything the community members deem obscene.