Sexuality Flashcards
1
Q
Case Study - AD
A
2016 Sainsbury’s Christmas Ad
- greatest gift time with family - ideal good life
- range family types - but fact still all organised around family unit even eg. homosexual
- christmas ads draw societal concerns/politics
- stressed, overwhelmed life narrative
- performance dad greatest gift
- modern work can be done by machine
2
Q
Case Study - Marriage
A
Same Sex Marriage norm contestation
- about social, not just sexuality
- Q of authority - God vs Law
- image child as protected institution marriage - creation
3
Q
Case Study - catcalling
A
- respond, witty is to disrupt - turn gaze back - suspend form power
- all spaces coded norms - public space, gender
4
Q
Brown et al (2007)
A
- “ … participants experiences of spaces are regulated by norms regarding what is acceptable or expected sexual practice. These norms and expectations are not set in stone, but can be challenged and renegotiated. The spaces, whether sexualised, heterosexualised or even homoexualised, are constituted through the enactment, negation and contestation of norms of appropriate sexual conduct, even when the sex act itself may seem to be ‘irrelevant’”
- “… for example, assumptions about ‘normal’ sexuality that structure conversation (how do you refer to ‘a partner’); discussions of life aspirations that presume a heterosexual relationship and marriage (‘are you not married yet’); disparaging comments about ‘gays’, and jokes that presume all present share a common distaste for those who do not conform to the heterosexual norm, backed by labelling those who do not want to ‘get the joke’ as spoilsports. These everyday contexts, discussions and practices not only create an ‘Other’ to heterosexuality, they also constitute spaces as heterosexual and, indeed, constitute heterosexuality itself”
- “Heteronormativity allows heterosexuality to go unmarked and unremarked upon – to be thought of as normal – by making homosexuality operate as heterosexuality’s binary opposite. Homosexuality is made to function as the marked, abnormal Other of heterosexuality. The categories of ‘heterosexuality’ and ‘homosexuality’ are, thus mutually constitutive and cannot be understood autonomously. The intelligibility of the categories of ‘heterosexuality’ and ‘homosexuality’ is also reliant upon the opposition between ‘male’ and ‘female’ and upon the supposedly natural sexual desire between these two sexes”
5
Q
Berlant and Warner (1998) Lecture Quotes
A
- Heteronormativity as a ‘motor of social organisation
- … paying taxes, being disgusted, philandering, bequeathing, celebrating a holiday, investing for the future, teaching, disposing of a corpse, carrying wallet photos, buying economy size, being nepotistic, running for president, divorcing, or owning anything “His” and “Hers.”
- multiple heterosexualities “Heterosexuality is not a thing. We speak of heterosexual culture rather than heterosexuality because that culture never has more than a provisional unity. It is neither a single Symbolic nor a single ideology nor a unified set of shared beliefs. The conflicts between these strands are seldom more than dimly perceived in practice, where the givenness of male-female sexual relations is part of the ordinary rightness of the world, its fragility masked in shows of solemn rectitude”
- “To be against the processes of normalization is not to be afraid of ordinariness. Nor is it to advocate the “existence without limit” she sees as produced by bad Foucauldians. Nor is it to decide that sentimental identifications with family and children are waste or garbage, or make people into waste or garbage. Nor is it to say that any sex called “lovemaking” isn’t lovemaking; whatever the ideological or historical burdens of sexuality have been, they have not excluded, and indeed may have entailed, the ability of sex to count as intimacy and care. What we have been arguing here is that the space of sexual culture has become obnoxiously cramped from doing the work of maintaining a normal metaculture.”
6
Q
Brown (2005)
A
“’The closet’ is the term used to describe the denial, concealment, erasure, or ignorance of lesbians and gay men. It describes their absence – and alludes to their ironic presence nonetheless – in a society that, in countless interlocking ways, subtly and blatantly dictates that heterosexuality is the only way to be … It allows us to speak our anger and pain about being silenced, and going unseen. The closet’s ontological demands are exacting and exhaustive: that we cannot be in the world unless we are something we are not”
7
Q
Case Study - Spatial Movement
A
- Home site can’t be yourself, violence - disrupts ideal home as site love - run away conventional family unit
- redemption narrative through his movement
- home and space associated norm not fit
- mother/father enactment norms - eg. father gives money, mother hug
- hope urban tolerant space - harm to cosmopolitan
- feeling constantly on run
8
Q
3 Examples reproduce heterosexuality norms
A
- Say yes to the dress
- take me out
- first dates
9
Q
Valentine (1993) Lesbian perceptions everyday spaces - heterosexist space
A
- heterosexuality dominant sexuality - power operating everyday environments - lesbians feel out place space organised heterosexual - also expressed in space antigay discrimination/violence
- remains stigma despite social change
- heterosexuality linked gender binary, gender identities map sexed bodies - perpetuates patriarchy - to be gay is violate norms sexual behaviour, family structure, m/f behaviour
- many ok homosexuality but do not want see in public - sexuality linked private spaces - reality heterosexuality is in the public realm not just private - institutionalised marriage, law, tax, welfare systems
- housing designed nuclear families - heterosexual norms - lesbians less likely have children, no housing design their lifestyles . 1970s trend lesbians communal living. gay partners not have same legal rights succeed tenancy death partner. pick housing based sexuality space eg threat violence.
- home often only space lesbians feel safe, express sexual identity - living parents home often site alienation
- homosexual discrimination workplace - things like benefits private health care for heterosexual family units - roles m/f work reflect stereotypes - women doing male job seen lesbian man as nurse seen gay. women sexualised at work - heterosexual everyday exchanges, lesbians have conform often
- heterosexuality in hotels, restaurants, pubs - lesbians book double room hotel implies something - some hotels reject same-sex couples - claim no vacancies
- places like drs organise forms heterosexually - hairdressers
10
Q
Oswin (2008)
A
- queer geog drawn attention production space as heterosexualised
- critique dominant queer space idea homospaces existing in opposition heterospaces - beyond binary understanding
- geog studies spatial expressions sexual others starts 70s-90s - queer geog challenges naturalisation
- not all queer spaces deliberately trying upset norm, many want extension norm
- often focus classed dimensions queer lives but not race
11
Q
Hubbard (2008) Heteronormativity
A
- how are heterosexual practices, spaces rendered normal
- address concern geog sexuality focus spaces as either homo or heterosexual - fail acknowledge diverse sexualities within those
- classifications in society over time take on truth - taken for granted - esp when linked biology like gender - lot ideas about sexuality drawn biological fact gender - men/women sexually attracted each other - reproduction, natural order, popular culture romanticised
- queer critiques show heterosexuality effect discourse, outcome representations and knowledges (poststructuralist) - Weeks (1989) exposed heterosexuality as invented social practice, normalised through work health experts etc
- classification people homo/hetro, m/w social invention
- heteronormativity = imposition certain beliefs about sexuality through institutions and policies - normative heterosexuality = assumed sexual identities conform social norm heterosexual love, sex, reproduction, nuclear family
- othering homosexuality
- dominant heterosexual norms also marginalise hetero identities too
- study sexuality and space needs consider heterosexual as well homosexual - not just focus red light district but everyday spaces
- complex site rural - zoophilia, public sex, haven homosexuals - not just tradition heterosexual like marriage, farm, nature, wedding tourism (Johnston 2006)
12
Q
Hubbard (2000) disgust, moral geog
A
- fem geog need account sex as cultural - understand heterosexuality to interpret female place society, performance sexual roles, use space
- heterosexuality also shapes masculine ideas
- spaces sexually charged eg nightclub vs supermarket depending norms
- sexuality identity narrative
- gender roles not natural, socially culturally constructed maintain female oppression - patriarchy dominance masculine values - women’s bodies objects desire
- Foucault heterosexuality modern as representing network power sustained practices self
- Butler sex/gender fictions maintained repeated performance - denaturalise heterosexual matrix
- sexuality/patriarchy - non natural sexualities seen erotic, poor taste as is women’s sexual gratification independent procreation - whether act morally acceptable crucial defining heteronormality - put acts immoral to define centre ideals family life, heterosexuality, mother/father roles - morality always Qs with sexuality
- moral geog allows way see how heterosexuality naturalised
- site city often focus districts immoral, sex industry, slums - geog sex clubs, sex shops - spaces immorality often away communities disturb. In NY mayor sought eliminate commercial sex businesses form Manhattan esp times square where disney reinventing site as for family - incompatible adult entertainment - passed resolution sex business had close - businesses at least 500ft from church, school, residence district - maintain distance non-normative and moral expressions heterosexuality
- prostitute figure sexual promiscuity, morally wrong - threat heterosexual norms - C19th linked slums, threats urban life
- what about moral heterosexual performances in everyday settings - queer much expose naturalisation
- geog housing much consideration heterosexuality - nuclear family - the home key site heterosexuality naturalised and de-eroticised
- single mother image irresponsible, sexually unruly - underclass, high welfare dependency - demonisation by state - idealisation domestic heterosexuality
13
Q
Valentine (1993) lesbian time-space strategies navigate space/multiple sexual identities
A
- 80s geog focus gay residential communities - male dominated
- interviewed women born heterosexual family units, lesbians - note felt different child but conventional hero upbringings prevent earlier realisation lesbian identity
- most fearful consequences abuse or work finding out about sexuality
- often conform heterosexual expectations in space - at work, play heterosexual role
- conceal sexual identity through appearance
- may only show identity at home
- conversations public vague about private lives, always defensive, may make up fake life story
- conflict identities eg come into contact someone from different time in their lives - avoidance strategies
- not live where grow up, often live further out from work or live close but stop, socialise further away, not walk hand in hand during day
14
Q
Binnie (1997) coming out of geog towards a queer epistemology
A
- need pay attention how geog studied, may reproduced heterosexism to challenge marginalisation homosexuals/sexual dissidents
- production geographic knowledge - how diff paradigms dealt eg. positivism, poststructural - some theories damaging
- argue positivism heterosexist - new cultural geog inspired poststructuralist thought marked hereosexisim
- fem critique objective, masculine, little mention sexuality - reflexivity - reluctant recognise homophobia in ourselves/others - thorny issue
- Shield’s (1991) focus brighton fails mention sexuality - only dirty weekend, AIDs capital britain, not gay agencies, haven brighton is
- Operation Spanner - police investigation same-sex male sadomasochism UK 80s - gay/bisexual men questioned police
- idea single observable truth also silenced lesbian/gay lives and experiences - queer as fem challenged universal positivistic approach knowledge
- England (1994) notes issues doing work on lesbian/gay geog as straight women - charts her failed research project lesbian community Toronto - significant straight researchers admitting limits representation
15
Q
Self-Help - Rosenberg (2014)
A
“Real love is out there. Kailen Rosenberg will help you find it.From dedicated matchmaker, costar of the groundbreaking series “Lovetown, USA,” and relationship expert on OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, this proactive guidebook will help you get past the things preventing you from finding real, authentic love. Through a physical, mental, and emotional self-appraisal, which asks you to examine the things might be afraid to admit are holding you back, Kailen, lays out a fail-proof, step-by-step thirty-day plan that will make you love-ready and lead you to love”
16
Q
Berlant (2012)
A
- “Self-help discourse has tended to reproduce the split in romance ideology that we have been developing: valorizing the promise of love and the mutual obligation of lovers, it presumes that problems in love must be solved by way of internal adjustment, to make certain that its conventional forms can remain and keep sustaining the signs of utopian intimacy”
- “… de-isolates subjects who are suffering from desire, and yet names them as both the source of and the solution to their problems … this emphasis pushes people to think of their private lives as the only material over which they might have any control (despite all the evidence to the contrary); as love and its intimate contexts come to bear the burden of establishing personal value generally, and especially for women, popular culture initiates a contradictory image set for establishing emancipatory agency. Love induces stuckness and freedom; love and its absences induce mental/emotional illness and armour fou; love is therapy for what ails you; love is the cause of what ails you”
- “The fantasy forms that structure popular love discourse constantly express the desire for love to simplify living. The content of these narratives is, in a sense, just a surface variation on a narrowly-constructed theme: love’s clarifying wash is expressed positively, in bright eyed love stories, and negatively, in narratives that track failure at intimacy in the funereal tones of tragedy or the biting tones of cynical realism. Even when ambivalence organizes a narrative, keeping desire and negativity in close quarters, love is often named as the disappointing thing that ought to have stabilized these antithetical drives”
- “This desire for love to reach beyond the known world of law and language enables us to consider the idea that romantic love might sometimes serve as a placeholder for a less eloquent or institutionally proper longing. A love plot would, then, represent a desire for a life of unconflictedness, where the aggression inherent in intimacy is not lived as violence and submission to the discipline of institutional propriety or as the disavowals of true love, but as something less congealed into an identity or a promise, perhaps a mix of curiosity, attachment, and passion. But as long as the normative narrative and institutionalised forms of sexual life organise identity for people, these longings mainly get lived as a desire for love to obliterate the wildness of the unconscious, confirm the futurity of a known self, and dissolve the enigmas that marks one’s lovers”
