SOC3039 Understanding Sexualities
Professor Andy King
Office Hours: Monday 4-6pm 25AD03
Class Hours: Monday 2-4pm LTA
Assessment 1:
Individual Essay
50%
Tuesday 10th December
Assessment 2:
Seen Exam
50%
TBC
Contents:
PG.2 Week 1 – Introduction/What is Sexuality?
PG.8 Week 2 – The Science of Sexuality
PG.15 Week 3 – Sociological Perspectives on Sexuality
PG.22 Week 4 – Sexuality in Global and Historical Perspective
PG.27 Week 5 – Diversity, Difference and Sexualities
PG.31 Week 6 – Questioning Heterosexualities
1
,Week 1 – Introduction to the module/What is Sexuality?
What does the term sexuality mean to you?
Sexual preference.
Identity.
Community.
Attraction.
Subjective.
In what ways do you think that people are defined by their sexuality?
The way people look/act/speak.
Physical and emotional.
Subcultures.
Where does sexuality come from?
Innate/biological.
Religion.
History.
Social conditioning.
Key learning outcomes:
Understand what the term sexuality means.
Understand two ways of conceptualising sexuality.
Consider the different ways that sexuality has been studied.
What is sexuality?
Natural/original.
Related to sex/gender – men have normally defined sexuality.
Actions/practices – certain parts of the body are seen as related to sexual actions. This
changes over time/through society.
A type of person – in the past it didn’t define you as a specific type of person, however in
the nineteenth century there was a move by scientists to understand sexuality through
science. That led to them defining people as belonging to particular sexual categories.
Pleasurable and dangerous – to have sex can be a pleasurable thing, but it can also be a
dangerous thing (diseases/forms of control and violence). Sometimes things are categorised
as pleasurable whereas at other times they’re defined as dangerous.
Private – we associate sexuality with peoples ‘private lives’ and associate it with the
domestic sphere (home/bedroom). It hasn’t always been this way – before consummation of
marriage has been a very public thing.
Identity – we think that sexuality is part of our identity, but this hasn’t always been the case.
Plurality – there are multiple sexualities, different practices, categorisations.
(See Hawkes, 1996)
Two conceptualisations of sexuality:
Essentialist explanations
Sexuality is grounded in an inner truth or essence that is unchanging.
We are ‘predetermined’ to have a particular sexuality.
Religion/biology.
Social constructionist explanations:
Sexuality is a social, historical, legal, political construct i.e. our understandings of
sexuality change over time.
2
, When did the word ‘sexuality’ first appear? Nineteenth century. It wasn’t that
sexuality wasn’t significant, it was that it hadn’t been conceptualised in the way it
has been now.
Some social constructionist approach completely reject the essentialist view,
however some incorporate it.
Why study sexuality?
Control and the health of the population.
Sexuality is not objective and free from ideology.
Sociologists and sexuality (Weeks, 2010)
How does sexuality relate to other aspects of social identity?
How, and why, has sexuality become so important in contemporary (western)
societies? Policy makers, health profession, politicians all want to shape it.
What is the relationship between sexuality and power? Why has women’s sexuality
largely been defined by men?
How has sexuality been studied?
Medicine/Science:
Hormones, brains, genetics.
Ever since the nineteenth century people have been looking for a biological basis for
the origins of people’s sexuality. This has grown and changed.
There have been studies on hormones in the womb and how sexuality appears later
in life.
Number of studies looking at the brains of particularly gay men, and trying to find a
location in the brain where peoples sexuality emerges. Looking at the hypothalamus
in the brain.
Search for the ‘gay’ gene – recent research says its maybe not down to one gene but
multiple genes and how they interact.
Case studies:
Psychoanalysis.
He had long conversations with people about their fears, hopes, dreams and this
formed his theory of psycho-sexual development.
How has sexuality been studied?
Surveys – Natsal: The National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles.
Findings from latest 2010 report:
People are more accepting of non-heterosexual relationships.
STIs have increased.
People are having sex at a younger age.
Benefits of the survey:
Can help inform policy.
Shows societal views from a historical perspective.
Problems with the survey:
Social desirability.
A sensitive topic – people might not want to disclose information.
It’s only every 10 years – attitudes can change rapidly.
Difficulties surrounding asking certain questions to different groups.
Media reports – ‘British people having less sex than usual’
Diaries and letters:
Gentlemen Jack – about diary entries from a woman (Anne Lister) written in code
about her sexual practices/sexual life.
Useful in finding out about the sexual practices of people living in times when
certain sexual practices were more stigmatised.
3
, However we can’t know if they’re truthful/we interpret them the same way they
did.
Ethnographies:
Tearoom Trade – Impersonal sex in public places, Laud Humphreys. Followed
people, covertly interviewed people, observed. Found that a lot of the men having
homosexual sex in public places mostly lived conservative lives with wives and
children.
Interviews/focus groups:
How can we know they’re telling the truth.
Social desirability.
Interviewer effect.
Studying cybersex:
Big data – looks at data from sites eg Pornhub. Found that there are more men
interested on gay porn online than gay men in the population. Also found that there
are more woman than thought interested in violent pornography.
Apps – tinder, grind.
AI – sex robots, how they reproduce gendered understandings of sexuality.
New research area.
Q’s for next week:
1. What is the difference between an essentialist and a constructionist view of sexuality?
2. In what ways has sexuality been associated with morality and tradition?
3. What does Weeks suggest are the positive and problematic aspects of scientific
understandings of sexuality?
Week 1 Reading:
Weeks, J. (2010). Sexuality. 3rd ed. London: Routledge. Pg.1-11
The Languages of Sex
Summary:
Sex is related to strong feelings and emotions.
It has been a focus of moral debate between traditionalists and progressive reformers.
Sexuality in the west has been seen as being related to virtue and truth.
We need to know what sexuality has been and is before we decide what it could or should
be.
There has been an assumption in the west that our sexuality is ‘the most spontaneously
natural thing about us.’
But who decides what is natural or unnatural? Who lays down the laws of sex?
Sex refers to both an act and a category of person.
Sexual hierarchy – from heterosexual intercourse to the ‘perverse’.
Naturalistic fallacy – that the key to our sex lies within nature. However the author sees
sexuality not as ‘natural’ but as a ‘product of social and historical forces.’
Sexuality as a historical construction.
The book critiques an essentialist approach to sex. Instead it argues that the meanings we
give to sexuality are socially organised.
New social movements such as feminism and LGBT movements have critiqued the ‘sexual
tradition.’
Notes:
4
Professor Andy King
Office Hours: Monday 4-6pm 25AD03
Class Hours: Monday 2-4pm LTA
Assessment 1:
Individual Essay
50%
Tuesday 10th December
Assessment 2:
Seen Exam
50%
TBC
Contents:
PG.2 Week 1 – Introduction/What is Sexuality?
PG.8 Week 2 – The Science of Sexuality
PG.15 Week 3 – Sociological Perspectives on Sexuality
PG.22 Week 4 – Sexuality in Global and Historical Perspective
PG.27 Week 5 – Diversity, Difference and Sexualities
PG.31 Week 6 – Questioning Heterosexualities
1
,Week 1 – Introduction to the module/What is Sexuality?
What does the term sexuality mean to you?
Sexual preference.
Identity.
Community.
Attraction.
Subjective.
In what ways do you think that people are defined by their sexuality?
The way people look/act/speak.
Physical and emotional.
Subcultures.
Where does sexuality come from?
Innate/biological.
Religion.
History.
Social conditioning.
Key learning outcomes:
Understand what the term sexuality means.
Understand two ways of conceptualising sexuality.
Consider the different ways that sexuality has been studied.
What is sexuality?
Natural/original.
Related to sex/gender – men have normally defined sexuality.
Actions/practices – certain parts of the body are seen as related to sexual actions. This
changes over time/through society.
A type of person – in the past it didn’t define you as a specific type of person, however in
the nineteenth century there was a move by scientists to understand sexuality through
science. That led to them defining people as belonging to particular sexual categories.
Pleasurable and dangerous – to have sex can be a pleasurable thing, but it can also be a
dangerous thing (diseases/forms of control and violence). Sometimes things are categorised
as pleasurable whereas at other times they’re defined as dangerous.
Private – we associate sexuality with peoples ‘private lives’ and associate it with the
domestic sphere (home/bedroom). It hasn’t always been this way – before consummation of
marriage has been a very public thing.
Identity – we think that sexuality is part of our identity, but this hasn’t always been the case.
Plurality – there are multiple sexualities, different practices, categorisations.
(See Hawkes, 1996)
Two conceptualisations of sexuality:
Essentialist explanations
Sexuality is grounded in an inner truth or essence that is unchanging.
We are ‘predetermined’ to have a particular sexuality.
Religion/biology.
Social constructionist explanations:
Sexuality is a social, historical, legal, political construct i.e. our understandings of
sexuality change over time.
2
, When did the word ‘sexuality’ first appear? Nineteenth century. It wasn’t that
sexuality wasn’t significant, it was that it hadn’t been conceptualised in the way it
has been now.
Some social constructionist approach completely reject the essentialist view,
however some incorporate it.
Why study sexuality?
Control and the health of the population.
Sexuality is not objective and free from ideology.
Sociologists and sexuality (Weeks, 2010)
How does sexuality relate to other aspects of social identity?
How, and why, has sexuality become so important in contemporary (western)
societies? Policy makers, health profession, politicians all want to shape it.
What is the relationship between sexuality and power? Why has women’s sexuality
largely been defined by men?
How has sexuality been studied?
Medicine/Science:
Hormones, brains, genetics.
Ever since the nineteenth century people have been looking for a biological basis for
the origins of people’s sexuality. This has grown and changed.
There have been studies on hormones in the womb and how sexuality appears later
in life.
Number of studies looking at the brains of particularly gay men, and trying to find a
location in the brain where peoples sexuality emerges. Looking at the hypothalamus
in the brain.
Search for the ‘gay’ gene – recent research says its maybe not down to one gene but
multiple genes and how they interact.
Case studies:
Psychoanalysis.
He had long conversations with people about their fears, hopes, dreams and this
formed his theory of psycho-sexual development.
How has sexuality been studied?
Surveys – Natsal: The National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles.
Findings from latest 2010 report:
People are more accepting of non-heterosexual relationships.
STIs have increased.
People are having sex at a younger age.
Benefits of the survey:
Can help inform policy.
Shows societal views from a historical perspective.
Problems with the survey:
Social desirability.
A sensitive topic – people might not want to disclose information.
It’s only every 10 years – attitudes can change rapidly.
Difficulties surrounding asking certain questions to different groups.
Media reports – ‘British people having less sex than usual’
Diaries and letters:
Gentlemen Jack – about diary entries from a woman (Anne Lister) written in code
about her sexual practices/sexual life.
Useful in finding out about the sexual practices of people living in times when
certain sexual practices were more stigmatised.
3
, However we can’t know if they’re truthful/we interpret them the same way they
did.
Ethnographies:
Tearoom Trade – Impersonal sex in public places, Laud Humphreys. Followed
people, covertly interviewed people, observed. Found that a lot of the men having
homosexual sex in public places mostly lived conservative lives with wives and
children.
Interviews/focus groups:
How can we know they’re telling the truth.
Social desirability.
Interviewer effect.
Studying cybersex:
Big data – looks at data from sites eg Pornhub. Found that there are more men
interested on gay porn online than gay men in the population. Also found that there
are more woman than thought interested in violent pornography.
Apps – tinder, grind.
AI – sex robots, how they reproduce gendered understandings of sexuality.
New research area.
Q’s for next week:
1. What is the difference between an essentialist and a constructionist view of sexuality?
2. In what ways has sexuality been associated with morality and tradition?
3. What does Weeks suggest are the positive and problematic aspects of scientific
understandings of sexuality?
Week 1 Reading:
Weeks, J. (2010). Sexuality. 3rd ed. London: Routledge. Pg.1-11
The Languages of Sex
Summary:
Sex is related to strong feelings and emotions.
It has been a focus of moral debate between traditionalists and progressive reformers.
Sexuality in the west has been seen as being related to virtue and truth.
We need to know what sexuality has been and is before we decide what it could or should
be.
There has been an assumption in the west that our sexuality is ‘the most spontaneously
natural thing about us.’
But who decides what is natural or unnatural? Who lays down the laws of sex?
Sex refers to both an act and a category of person.
Sexual hierarchy – from heterosexual intercourse to the ‘perverse’.
Naturalistic fallacy – that the key to our sex lies within nature. However the author sees
sexuality not as ‘natural’ but as a ‘product of social and historical forces.’
Sexuality as a historical construction.
The book critiques an essentialist approach to sex. Instead it argues that the meanings we
give to sexuality are socially organised.
New social movements such as feminism and LGBT movements have critiqued the ‘sexual
tradition.’
Notes:
4
