Week 3 over view of theoretical perspectives

Question 1

who is Micheal Foucault?

Answer 1

made lots of arguments about the history of sexuality

Question 2

what did Foucault argue?

Answer 2

• sexual practices defining one’s sexual identity is a recent phenomenon
• in modern times power operates through discourse

Question 3

how was sexuality viewed before the 19thC

Answer 3

mainly at the hands of religious authorities

Question 4

what happened in the 19thC in regards to the human body and sexuality?

Answer 4

both, human body and sexuality became objects of scientific knowledge to be CLASSIFIED AND CATALOGUED into a fixed truth

Question 5

what is Foucault’s main argument?

Answer 5

• 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

Question 6

power/knowledge

Answer 6

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.

Question 7

The changing sexual norms

Answer 7

1. ancient world - before sexual identity
2. 19th C - scientific truths, and laws of sexuality (sexology and psychoanalysis)
3. 20thC - social ways of thinking about sex (sociology, marxism, feminism)
4. millenium: sexual diversity (gay and lesbian studies, queer and trans studies)

Question 8

2. 19th C - the science of sex

Answer 8

sexology and psychoanalysis

Question 9

sexology

Answer 9

• 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”

Question 10

give an example of famous dude who studied sexology

Answer 10

• Alfred Kinsey - Kinsey scale - recognized asexuality
• William masters

Question 11

Freud’s psychoanalysis

Answer 11

• 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

Question 12

TAKEAWARS FOR sexology and psychoanalysis

Answer 12

• 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

Question 13

3. what schools of thought SOCIAL UNDERSTANDING OF SEXUALITY

Answer 13

marxism
feminism
sociology

Question 14

Marxism

Answer 14

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

Question 15

feminism

Answer 15

• focused on unequal gendered power dynamics of sexuality
• gender norms are created and shaped through socialization (family dynamics)

Question 16

Sociology

Answer 16

social understanding of sexuality
- sexual behaviour is learned
- take on the constructionist perspective of sexuality
- sex is a result of social negotiation and struggle

Question 17

TAKEAWAY FOR social understandings of sexuality

Answer 17

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

Question 18

4. Gay & Lesbian studies, Quiet Theory, Trans Studies

Answer 18

emerged in the millennium?

Question 19

Gay and lesbian studies

Answer 19

• 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

Question 20

Queer Theory

Answer 20

• 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

Question 21

Trans studies

Answer 21

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

Question 22

TAKEAWAY for - Gay and lesbian, queer studies, trans studies,

Answer 22

• they disrupt what is viewed as normative about gender and sexuality
• reveal diverse forms of gender embodiment and practices