Chapter 5: "Deviant" and "Normal" Sexuality Flashcards
(35 cards)
In the modern sociology of sexuality, which perspective predominates & which 2 lenses is it most often studied through?
- constructionist
- interactionist & critical lenses
Interactionist lens of study
-address the processes by which people come to understand and attribute meaning to their own sexuality and that of others.
Critical lens of study
- analyze ways that power influences people’s understandings and attributions of meaning
- > power-reflexive work of Foucault emphasized
Elite discourse
the knowledge about sexuality conveyed by those in authority and that comes to be perceived as truth. (Foucault)
What did Foucault make a distinction between?
Sexual behaviour & sexual identity
What do modern Foucauldian sociologists look at?
analyze the ways that scientific, political, legal, religious, and media discourses of sexuality shape the way audience members imagine organizing their lives.
-with elite discourse limiting what is acceptable, or even possible
Canada experienced considerable social changes affecting perspectives on sexuality between which centuries?
17th-20th.
Sexuality in traditional Aboriginal cultures was characterized by…
Variability across cultures & the interweaving of sexuality and all other facets of social life.
nadleeh
Navajo word to refer to masculine female-bodied, and feminine male-bodied members of the community.
berdache
“male prostitute,” European derogatory term to refer to biological males assuming female roles, including relations with men.
Sexuality in 17th century Europe
Sexuality in the context of marriage, for reproduction & isolated from social life
- Kinship a legit regulator of sexuality, reproduction
- Community a legit. regulator of deviance
les femmes du pays
“country wives,” in the early years of colonization, unions between white men and aboriginal women were common.
When did relations with aboriginal women begin to be discouraged?
As the fur trade was replaced with agriculture. The population of mixed-race women such as Mé tis was also growing, and they were seen as more acceptable partners
In the mid 19th century, colonial officials & religious authorities began to fear what?
“race-mixing”
When did aboriginal sexual culture experience changes?
As they began to adopt many aspects of European sexual culture.
In the 17th century, the slaves of white Europeans in Eastern Canada were….
literally sexual slaves, expected to be available at all times.
In 17th century Europe, the definition & control of sexual deviance served what purpose?
to reinforce socioeconomic class, gender, and racial hierarchies.
18th-19th Century sexuality
- increases in “love” marriages & open expressions of affection
- Sexuality based on emotional intimacy in marriage
- Overindulgence was bad (self-control)
- Racial ideologies in sexual culture
- black, Chinese men’s sexuality-> dangerous
between the 18th-19th Centuries, who grew as social control agents?
Women, medical profession, social reformers, cultural industries
In which centuries did self-control over sexuality become a dominant theme?
18th-19th
Social purity/ sex hygiene movements
- equated social purity with sexual purity; sexuality seen as the heart of morality, defined as the cornerstone of society.
- esp. directed at lower class
During the 19th century, the responsibility of controlling sexual deviance…
shifted to the individual and self-control
20th century sexuality
- Personal fulfillment, regardless of marriage (though still subject to multiple controls)
- Expansion of the cultural industry
Sexuality today (21st)
- heavily influenced by cultural industry
- rapid growth in sexual freedom
- very medicalized and commercialized
