Lecture 16 - prostitution Flashcards
What is prostitution primarily considered to be?
An institution of hierarchical gender relations.
* Prostitution is analogous to sex trafficking or sex slavery
Prostitution is viewed as a reflection of gender inequality.
How is prostitution analogous to other forms of exploitation?
Similar to sex trafficking or sex slavery
Both involve the exploitation of individuals, often within a gendered context.
What is sex work bound by?
Moral issues
* We are interested in the mechanisms that are put in place to create this deviant behaviour.
This includes societal perceptions and legal frameworks that shape views on sex work.
What can changing society’s view on sex work to a labour problem do?
Shift the labels associated with sex work
This could lead to a re-evaluation of the normalization of certain behaviours.
Prostitution is a labour problem?
- If we can change society to treat this as a labour problem then a lot of the labels associated with this sex work will shift
- If certain behaviours can become legalized by law, then we can have a conversation about if it’s normal or not.
- Sex work has a lot of stigma and labels attached to it because of the laws and rules put in place.
- Different regulations shape how a behaviour is seen by society.
What factors shape how a behaviour is perceived by society?
Different regulations
The legal and social context can significantly alter perceptions of sexual behaviours.
How is sex typically identified in society?
By the labels ‘male’ or ‘female’ assigned at birth
* Most often identified based on the external appearances of genitalia and, to a lesser extent, chromosomes.
* There is a lot of ambiguity that depends on social structures and laws
This identification is often based on physical appearances and biological factors.
What is gender defined as?
A social construct
* A culture organizes people and labels characteristics and visual cues into identities of “man,” “woman,” and sometimes non-binary” and/or other additional gender categories
* These ideas are time and culture-dependent.
* Women = want to procreate, naturally a mother
Gender is shaped by cultural norms and expectations.
What does gender identity dominate?
All other social identities
It influences how individuals interact within society.
What norms are attached to the categories of ‘man’ and ‘woman’?
Specific symbolic traits and behaviours
These norms guide societal expectations of gender roles.
Gender as a master status?
- it is a master status because we don’t question it most of the time.
- In most cultures, individuals are routinely identified and classified into “man” or “woman” based on perceptions of physical appearances
● Specific norms are attached to “man” and “woman” categories → based on symbolic traits
● Behaviours are constantly judged as “masculine” or “feminine” in all social interactions
● Gender identity dominates all our other social identities and determines our general position within society
● Gender identity impact our daily interactions with all the members of society
Our gender represents something that people can’t actually see and every day we need to show this. Represent our gender
● Norms about gender are reinforced through cultural messages in advertising, media, and even our daily language.
Society gives us scripts of how we should align with our gender
Gender and deviance
● Dominant norms dictate what being a “man” and being a “woman” entail.
● Gender identity can sometimes become less about how we feel and more about how dominant social stereotypes define our behaviours and appearances.
● Gender systems typically identify certain types of people as “normal” and others as “deviant”
What can sex be a source of?
- Pleasure
- Intimacy
- Power and control
- Love
- Casual experiences
- Family formation
- Reproduction - means to start a family
- Can be seen as sinful, romantic and adventurous
Sex can have diverse meanings and implications across different contexts.
What is Alfred Kinsey’s view on sex
● “The only unnatural sex act is that which you cannot perform”
* wanted to create encyclopedia for sex behaviours
- Sexual acts are only “unatural” if they are physically or biologically impossible
- Kinsey is rejecting cultural labels that deem some sex acts as wrong or deviant.
What is sexual identity?
An individual’s self-identification of their romantic, sexual, emotional, intellectual, and/or spiritual attraction to others based on the ways a culture organizes people and labels characteristics and visual cues into socially constructed identities
* Ex. Lesbian, gay, heterosexual, bisexual, transgender, queer
* Sexual identity is socially constructed
* It is dependent on culture, is temporally relative, and is ever-changing.
It is organized by cultural labels and characteristics.
How is sexual identity characterized?
Socially constructed and ever-changing
It is influenced by cultural contexts and historical developments.
Which era normalized same-sex relationships between men in Greece?
The era of pederasty
This was a socially accepted practice that included mentorship and companionship.
What did Adrienne Rich propose about heterosexuality?
Compulsory heterosexuality
She argued that heterosexuality is imposed on women, suggesting a natural attraction to women.
What is the lesbian continuum?
The realization that lesbianism encompasses more than just sexuality
It includes aspects like comradeship and compassion.
Sexual beaviour and sexual identity?
Relationship between sexual behaviours and sexual identity is complex: It has been complex all through history. Our sexual behaviour is attached to sexual behaviours and it attached to social construction.
Sex acts
Sex acts between two people of the same sex date back to the earliest evidence of human existence → paintings show us this.
- The idea of tieing them to sexual identies as gay and lesbian is new
Identity labels
Today’s identity labels such as “gay” or “lesbian” are very recent developments.
* Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) literature portrays both love and marital relationships between men in Fujian noting that this southeastern area of China → absolutely acceptable and sanctioned by the state
* Song Dynasty (960–1279) also demonstrate support for same-sex sexuality between men: “All the gentlemen and officials esteemed it.(Neill 2011:247)”.
What are some mechanisms of repression against lesbian sexuality?
- Death penalty
- Rape
- Clitoridectomy
- Hysterectomy
- Genital mutilation
- Incest
- Child marriage
- Sex work
- Systematized infanticide
These mechanisms reflect societal violence against non-heteronormative identities.
What does Alfred Kinsey’s research suggest about sexual orientation?
Sexuality exists on a spectrum
He found that heterosexuality and homosexuality are not strictly defined categories.