Chapter 5 Sexualities Flashcards
What is Reparative/Conversion Therapy?
- It claims it can cure people of their homosexual impulses.
Are they’re any evidence that reparative/conversion therapy works?
No. The researchers can’t find any evidence to prove their claims.
It has actually been proven that these ‘therapies’ are more harmful than anything else.
Who was Alex Cooper?
Mormon girl who went to Mormon reparative therapy. She told her parents that she was gay. In ‘therapy’, she was beaten and had to go through various forms of torture.
Who’s Leelah Alcorn?
She was a trans girl who was sent to reparative therapy. She then committed suicide.
When was reparative therapy made illegal in Canada?
The bill was introduced in 2020, but was officially signed in 2022.
Is sexuality considered a social construct?
Yes
What does the Sambia of New Guinea believe?
- women’s presence pollutes young boys and makes them effeminate.
- boys btw 7-10 are removed from the villages and go live in all men camps.
- must transmit semen to boys for boys to become men (through oral sex).
Sexuality and Ancient Greece:
- for the greeks, a ‘normal’ sexual partner had nothing to do with your partner’s sex.
- ‘normal’ sex was btw a social superior and inferior.
- a “pervert” = one who has sex with an equal.
Foucault: The History of Sexuality
- no necessary connection btw sexual practice and sexual identity.
- same-sex sex acts have always existed, but the status of a homosexual only emerged in the 19th century.
- he argued that modern society creates that identity.
When was homosexuality decriminalized in Canada?
In 1969
In 1869, what was homosexuality classified as?
A personality disorder.
Is sexuality biological?
No, it is linked to biology BUT is not determined by it.
What is heteronormativity?
It means taking heterosexuality as the norm and anything else as a deviation.
Definition of Queer:
an umbrella term for anyone who doesn’t identify within or wish to uphold sexual binary categories.
Definition of sexual identity:
How a person perceives their sexual self–whether as straight, gay, lesbian, queer, questioning, asexual, Two-Spirit, or otherwise.
Sexuality consists of at least 3 components:
1) sexual attraction: whom we desire to be intimate and/or physical and/or romantic with.
2) sexual behaviour: whom we actually are intimate and/or physical and/or romantic with.
3) sexual identity: how we see ourselves and label ourselves for others.
What factors impact whether people take on a particular sexual identity or label?
Key factors are age and generation. Younger people are more likely than older people to identify as sexual minorities, particularly when it comes to bisexuality.
Definition of Homophobia:
Fear or hatred of homosexuals, or behaviour that suggests such fear or hatred.
What are Moral Crusades?
they are social movements to label a particular behaviour deviant. A social attempt to change norms, laws, etc…
How did Graham and Kellogg tried to cure masturbation?
Through nutrition.
What is Women’s Hysteria?
- caused by the stress of modern life.
- women had to be cured therefore they went to see physicians to get treated.
- treating hysteria was time consuming so they created an instrument.
What’s the instrument that doctors created to treat women’s hysteria?
The vibrator
***When home electricity became available, patients could “treat” themselves at home.
What is the main point that retain from women’s hysteria?
the norms of sexual practice are determined by many elite institutions, groups, statuses/roles. (Elite discourse against masturbation)
What does Foucault means when he says that sexual identity is linked to elite discourses?
the way we understand and categorize sexuality is shaped by powerful institutions (like medicine, law, religion, and psychology). These institutions createdominant narratives (discourses)about what is considered “normal” or “deviant” in terms of sexuality.
