Sexuality & Society

Excerpts from Syllabus

Course Description

This course is an exploration of sociological approaches to sexuality. We will examine the ways that society shapes sexual identities, politics, and behaviors. And we will confront the ways societies are structured by sex and sexuality. The course critically considers legal and medical designations of normality and dysfunction, and addresses the construction of sex and gender, otherness, exoticism, pornography, global politics, marriage, partnership, family, fertility, repression, and panic. Together we will examine the linkages between social structures and human experience. The course also emphasizes theoretical research issues, especially how and to what degree our understanding of sexuality is a direct result of the processes we use to define sexuality. Students will learn to critique popular discourses with critical sociological perspective and will be encouraged to form their own opinions.

Course Objectives

  • Students will have a working knowledge of sociological theories of sexuality

  • Students will feel comfortable identifying connections between sexuality and the social experience

  • Students will be able to deploy sociological research and adopt sociological perspectives in debating critical contemporary issues related to sex and sexuality

SCHEDULE OF COURSE READINGS

I ask that you come prepared to discuss all of the assigned readings on Tuesdays. Tuesday classes will be committed to comprehension: Do you understand the readings and their contributions to the discipline? By arriving at this high level of understanding, we will “earn” Thursday’s critical discussion. On Thursdays, you’ll be invited to challenge and complicate the texts. I structure the week in this way to encourage you to build critical momentum on a foundation of close reading and to sidestep critiques that stem from misunderstanding.

The Sociology of Sexuality

CONSTRUCTING SEX, GENDER, AND SEXUALITY

Sex & Gender 101

  • Doing Gender, Candace West & Don Zimmerman

  • Undoing Gender, Francine Deutsch

  • Doing, Undoing, or Redoing Gender? Learning from the Workplace Experiences of Transpeople, Catherine Connell

CONSTRUCTING NORMALITY & DYSFUNCTION

Sexuality & Medicine

  • Types of Medical Social Control, Peter Conrad

  • Resisting Medicine, Re/modeling Gender, Dean Spade

  • Scientific Racism and the Emergence of the Homosexual Body” Siobhan Somerville(Introduce Debate Topics) 

CONSTRUCTING THE SEX CRIME

Sexuality & The Law

  • Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality, Gayle Rubin

  • What’s Wrong with Rights, (from Normal Life) Dean Spade 

CONSTRUCTING OTHERNESS

Exoticism & Pornography

  • Orientalist Sociology and the Creation of Colonial Sexualities, Philippa Levine

Topics in the Sociology of Sexuality

 MARRIAGE, NONMANOGAMY, HOOKUP CULTURE

  • There Aren’t Words for What We Do or How We Feel so We Have to Make Them Up, Ani Ritchie and Meg Barker

  • It's Not a Wedding, It's a Gayla: Queer Resistance and Normative Recuperation, Dustin Bradley Goltz & Jason Zingsheim 

REPRESSION & SUPPRESSION

  • The Repression Hypothesis, excerpt from History of Sexuality, Michel Foucault

  • Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence, Adrienne Rich

MORAL PANICS, MEDIA PANICS, & SEX PANICS

  • Sex Panic and the Punitive State, excerpt Roger Lancaster

  • In Class Film, Mary Kay Letourneau

CHILD SEXUALITY

  • Politics of Sex Education, Janice Irvine

  • Children’s Sexual Citizenship, Kerry Robinson

FERTILITY, FUTURITY & SEXUAL TECHNOLOGIES, SEXUAL FUTURES

  • In Class Film, Future Baby

INTRODUCTION TO QUEER THEORY

  • I Can’t Even Think Straight’: ‘Queer’ Theory and the Missing Sexual Revolution in Sociology, Stein, Arlene and Ken Plummer

  • A Queer Encounter: Sociology and the Study of Sexuality. Epstein, Steven

Please note that my selection of course texts is not an endorsement of the arguments presented.   I hope that you confront each text critically, even those whose titles you enjoy on spec. I find many of the arguments presented in these works to be compelling and I find others to be quite problematic. I believe the best way for you to shape and articulate your own beliefs is to be challenged to confront diverse arguments, and to develop a rich vocabulary for engaging, critiquing, and repairing them. My hope is that you leave this class better able to ground your work, service, and political beliefs in sociological logic.

 

Assignment Descriptions

Unit Outlines: At the beginning of the course, each student will be assigned a study group. Your group will work together to synthesize course readings and to improve your understanding of course material. Each member will be responsible for outlining 2 weeks of readings and sharing those notes with their group. These outlines will be distributed to me and to your group on the Tuesday of the week you’ve been assigned. These outlines serve your group but you will be graded individually. You are encouraged to use these as study guides but you are also expected to read all of the course readings and to engage these summaries actively and critically.

Attendance: This course is discussion-heavy and attendance is imperative. Absences must be excused, or they will affect a student’s final grade in the course. Each student is granted one unexcused absence without penalty. After this, students will lose 1% from their final grade for each unexcused absence. There will be a sign in sheet at the front of the classroom at the beginning of each class. It is your responsibility to sign in to each class period.

Participation: Participation will be graded based on each student’s contributions to class discussion. To receive a “perfect” participation score, a student must make a substantive contribution each week. If you have an aversion to public speaking or if you require accommodations around participation, please speak with me during the first week of the semester to arrange for an assessment alternative.

Debates: Each study group will be given one opportunity to engage in a structured debate about a current event, legal battle, or policy initiative. Two weeks before each debate, groups will be assigned a topic and a position to defend (which they may adapt but not invert). Students should prepare ahead by carefully reading the course texts and the provided synopsis. Opening statements and an outline of key arguments (including evidence that these arguments are sociologically supported) should be prepared prior to the debate and submitted alongside a 1-page reflection on the day of the debate.

Debate Reflection: In addition to participating in your own debate, you will write a 5-page reflection in response to one of the other two debate topics in which you defend your own opinion and support it with evidence. You are expected to make use of research materials outside the course syllabus.

Final Exam: A comprehensive short answer and essay-based final exam will be administered at the end of the course in order to gauge each student’s mastery of the course readings and lectures.