Week 3 over view of theoretical perspectives Flashcards
who is Micheal Foucault?
made lots of arguments about the history of sexuality
what did Foucault argue?
- sexual practices defining one’s sexual identity is a recent phenomenon
- in modern times power operates through discourse
how was sexuality viewed before the 19thC
mainly at the hands of religious authorities
what happened in the 19thC in regards to the human body and sexuality?
both, human body and sexuality became objects of scientific knowledge to be CLASSIFIED AND CATALOGUED into a fixed truth
what is Foucault’s main argument?
- Sexual identity is a historically recent category of identity
in Ancient Greek and romans
- gender was fluid - must be maintained
- sex = social/political relation of power
power/knowledge
POWER breeds the conditions of its own resistance.
- power is never total
- ex. power behind a discourse says that heterosexuality is a norm, this is a powerful discourse. In fact, it has not got UNCHALLENGED today, still excepted. But this power is not total bc there will always be people who resist it. When a power is declared a discourse, it will always create an opposing side who will resist this discourse.
The changing sexual norms
- ancient world - before sexual identity
- 19th C - scientific truths, and laws of sexuality (sexology and psychoanalysis)
- 20thC - social ways of thinking about sex (sociology, marxism, feminism)
- millenium: sexual diversity (gay and lesbian studies, queer and trans studies)
- 19th C - the science of sex
sexology and psychoanalysis
sexology
- late 19thC - wanted to discover the laws of sexuality
- main assumptions:
o humans have a sexual nature
o sexual drive is a basic human need
o sexuality drives behaviour
o heterosexuality is a norm
o this is when sexual types were classified as “perversions”
give an example of famous dude who studied sexology
- Alfred Kinsey - Kinsey scale - recognized asexuality
- William masters
Freud’s psychoanalysis
- uncover the roots of human psychology in sexual drives
- believes that humans have sex for pleasure not just procreation
- non=-genital sex is recognized
- recognized SOCIAL understanding - social environment of the nuclear family
TAKEAWARS FOR sexology and psychoanalysis
- these 2 branches of sex sciences emerged in 19th C
- wanted to identify origins of sexual desire by classifying and cataloguing sexual experiences that ppl have
- say that discourse is an example of power/knowledge
- what schools of thought SOCIAL UNDERSTANDING OF SEXUALITY
marxism
feminism
sociology
Marxism
the economy is what shapes all human behaviour
- 19thC demanded personality type that demands discipline for industrial production - produces a culture of sex that was organized around procreation - increase the Taskforce
- 20thC consumer capitalism - CONTRAST this consumer capitalism more permissive sexual culture - organized on the commercialization of sex
- using sex to sell things
feminism
- focused on unequal gendered power dynamics of sexuality
- gender norms are created and shaped through socialization (family dynamics)
Sociology
social understanding of sexuality
- sexual behaviour is learned
- take on the constructionist perspective of sexuality
- sex is a result of social negotiation and struggle
TAKEAWAY FOR social understandings of sexuality
they mainly focus on the impact of social and economic conditions of sexual norms
- show how sexual norms are NOT natural, but change one time based on social, political, and economic circumstances
- Gay & Lesbian studies, Quiet Theory, Trans Studies
emerged in the millennium?
Gay and lesbian studies
- rise of gay/lesbian activists paralleled the development of gay and lesbian studies
o lots of earlier activists were also scholars
o earlier scholars - biological approach that sexuality was inborn, same sex desire was inborn - if this was true then shouldn’t we all have equal rights - viewed same sex behaviour as natural part of human condition, even if gay identity is historically recent
Queer Theory
- how sexual norms are created, how things are considered as “natural and normal”
- bodies are naturally different, but how we view these differences changes over time
- Queer - falls outside norms in a given time and space
o gay and lesbian - uncover all instances of normalcy of same sex desire (what makes same sex desire normal)
o Queer - what are the processes that make things normal
Trans studies
more media visibility of binary and non-binary views
- attention to distinction between gender identity and sexual identity
- challenge assumptions of sexual identity that see gender as binary
TAKEAWAY for - Gay and lesbian, queer studies, trans studies,
- they disrupt what is viewed as normative about gender and sexuality
- reveal diverse forms of gender embodiment and practices
