Social Construction of Sexuality
WMST/SOCY 1006.001
SPRING 2006
Instructor: Matthew C. Brown Sociology Dept. Office: Ketchum 219
Office: Ketchum 310 Sociology Dept. Phone: 303.492.6410
Office Hours: T & R 2:30 – 3:15 and by appointment Mailbox: Ketchum 219
Office Phone: 303.492.3203 Email: brownmc@colorado.edu
You are responsible for everything in this syllabus, the text, the registration handbook, and material covered in lecture.
This course investigates sexuality using a social constructionist framework to critically engage with essentialist and biologically determinist perspectives, dominant in Western society, regarding sexual identity and sexual expression. Contemporary sexual identity, desire, behavior, health, research, and expert advice will be viewed, in part, as outcomes and techniques of social control. We will explore the construction of heterosexuality, homosexuality, femininity, and masculinity as they impact our cultural and individual understandings of sexuality. Throughout the course we will be examining and analyzing our own and others’ sexualities in a sociological perspective of larger trends and social influences. We will also discuss the sexual basis and consequences of the stratification system in place in this society currently with an emphasis on identifying erotic injustice and oppression.
DISABILITY STATEMENT
If you have specific physical, psychiatric, or learning disabilities and require accommodations, please let me know by the end of the third week of the semester so that your learning needs may be appropriately met. You will need to provide documentation of your disability to the Disability Services Office in Willard 322 at 303.492.8671.
Course Texts
Required: Material is available at Word Is Out Bookstore, 2015 Tenth Street, 303.449.1415.
The Social Construction of Sexuality. 2005. Edited by Matthew C. Brown.
Optional:
The Good Vibrations Guide to Sex. Cathy Winks and Anne Semans. 2002.
This text is a great reference for information about the body, health, communication, and sexual information. I highly recommend this book!
CLASS PARTICIPATION
Your participation
Your participation in class discussion is encouraged. You are welcome to ask questions at any time or even take us a bit off-track in discussion. If something is interesting and important to the class, I do not mind getting off the subject. In this class, we will most assuredly express strong opinions and argue over some points. We critique ideas not people. No one should be made to feel as if they are being attacked personally over something they express in class.
You respect other students by listening attentively when they are speaking, not rudely interrupting anyone speaking and by not making hurtful insults and/or comments that may silence other people in the class by declaring whole groups of people wrong/criminal/sinful/sick because of ethnicity, religion, politics, gender, ability, age, appearance, consensual sexual choices or decisions about when, why, what, where and with whom to or not to engage in sexual activities. We will be discussing how those attitudes and the enforcement of those opinions have operated to deny some people opportunities and resources that most of us expect and demand. You are encouraged to say whatever is there for you to say, being responsible for the effect your words will have on others. As a theme in this class we will also be discussing how words are social actions themselves with the power to enforce power relations and are reflective of existing power and privilege inequities.
My participation (teaching style and language)
The social constructionist perspective is founded on the principle that the language we use creates our reality and experience of the world in which we live. This class is about sexuality as it is experienced in the everyday world rather than the world of experts and doctors. Because of this, I consciously use language to uncover the implicit meanings about sexuality and gender and how words are used to create our common understanding of sexuality. We will not only be “thinking sex” in this class, we will be talking sex too. Anyone who does not wish to participate in a classroom where sexuality, identity, behavior, desire, and sexualized parts of the body are discussed in “common” language is encouraged to seek alternative courses. This is a difficult class at multiple levels (level of comprehension and integration of material required for tests as well as dealing with strong emotional reactions to course content and presentation styles). In my opinion, it demonstrates a high level of maturity to recognize your limits of comfort and what you are willing to take on this semester and act appropriately as quickly as possible.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
· Provide an understanding of social influences on the individual experience and meaning of sexuality and foster an ability to employ the sociological imagination, resulting in a greater range of choices and empowering us to create a world we love to live in.
· Gain an understanding of the essentialist and social constructionist perspectives, and the assumptions both are based on, as they are employed in biological, psychological, and sociological explanations of sexuality and gender.
· Critically examine heterosexuality sociologically as an institution within society, with emphasis on the supporting institutions and ideologies that perpetuate this as a “pattern of interaction,” the techniques of social control that are utilized within this institution, the resulting stratification effects, the potential and actual changes occurring within this institution and sources of those changes.
· Achieve a broader understanding of the sociocultural dimensions of human sexualities with increased appreciation of the possible and manifest variation in human expression of desire, intimacy, pleasure, and love.
· To be knowledgeable, appreciative, and proud of our bodies as sources of pleasure and beauty.
· To be able to discuss sexual matters with appropriate levels of sensitivity, respect, comfort, and humor (because let’s face it, talking about sex can be fun—and funny).
· To realize and clarify our individual sense of sexual self, individual way of being comfortably and morally sexual, and sexual decision making process—as always, within a sociological perspective.
· Demonstrate the accomplishment of the above insights on tests and in class discussions according to academic style and standards.
Rules of the Game
· Please arrive in the classroom and be prepared to begin on time. Please stay for the entire class period.
· Please turn off phones and beepers or switch to vibrate if you have a childcare or emergency situation.
· Please participate in the main conversation by being attentive, abstaining from reading other materials, and not carrying on side conversations during class.
· Turn in assignments on time. Adhere to university policies regarding academic honesty.
· The recitation listserve is a formal way for your professor and TA to share information and schedule changes, please read the announcements.
· If you have any suggestions, feedback, or some aspect of the course requirements or material is not clear, let me know.
Strategies for playing the game successfully
· Even though this is a large class, attend and participate (if only with your attentive listening). Studies suggest that this is highly correlated with the grade you earn.
· Keep up with the reading. You cannot participate or fully get the class material or have fun with the discussions if you have not done the readings and thought about them.
· Become a person to your instructor. You can do this by asking questions, coming to office hours, and engaging with the material.
· Read and follow instructions carefully.
· Ask for assistance when you need it.
· Speak up and participate in discussions by asking questions, answering questions, giving opinions, or tying together others’ comments. Do this even if you do not think you have the right or best thing to say. You will learn something by doing it.
Evaluation Components
Group Presentation: A final group presentation will be given at the end of the semester. You will be put into groups and are encouraged to rely upon group members for missed class notes and study partners. This presentation will be 15 minutes long and be worth 50 points.
TENTATIVE COURSE SCHEDULE
Tuesday, January 17
Thursday, January 19
Topic – Basic Sociological Concepts and Social Control
Read – “Introduction” and “White Privilege, Male Privilege”
Tuesday, January 24
Topic – What is sexuality? Why study sexuality? Sexuality Pioneers
Read – “Are We Having Sex Now or What?” and “Understanding Human Sexuality”
Thursday, January 26
Topic – Assumptions of Essentialism
Due – Turn in Consent Form (If you do not turn in a consent form, you will be dropped from this class.)
Tuesday, January 31
Topic – Assumptions of Social Constructionism
Read --- “Social Constructionism”
Thursday, February 2
Topic – History of Sexual Distinctions
Read – “Homosexual and Heterosexual”
Tuesday, February 7
Topic – Radical Theory of Sexuality
Read – “Thinking Sex”
Thursday, February 9
Topic – Charmed Circle and Democratic Morality
Read – “Thinking Sex”
Tuesday, February 14
Topic – Panic Discourse and Moral Contagion Model
Read – “Heterocopulative Syndrome” and “Sexually Transmitted Diseases”
Guest Speaker – Rodger McFarlane: AIDS, America, and Sex
Thursday, February 16
Exam One
Tuesday, February 21
Topic – Hegemonic Masculine Sexuality
Read – “Rock Hudson’s Body”
Due – Short Paper
Thursday, February 23
Topic – Hegemonic Feminine Sexuality
Read – “The Egg and the Sperm”
Tuesday, February 28
Topic – Erotic Bodies
Read – “All Together Now” and “Our Cunts Are Not the Same”
View: Viva La Vulva and Private Dicks*
Topic – Hegemonic Sexual Script
Read – “Atypical Sexual Behavior”
Topic – Disrupting Heteronormativity
Read – “In Praise of Strap-Ons”
Topic – Media and Representations
View – Cultural Criticism and Transformation
Topic – Humor and Sexuality
Read – “Heterocopulative Syndrome”
View -- Homerphobia
Exam Two
Topic – Disruptions II: Imperialism and the Sexual “Other”
Read – “Black Sexuality”
View – The Life and Times of Sara Baartman”
SPRING BREAK MARCH 27 – MARCH 31
v Get Consent, then get it again!
v Don’t get a sexually transmitted illness!
v Don’t cause a pregnancy or get pregnant!
v Have fun!
Topic – Rape Panic and Sexual Coercion
Read – “Rape, Racism, and the Myth of the Black Rapist”
Thursday, April 6
Tuesday, April 11
Topic – Rape Culture
Read – “Conversations of Consent”
Thursday, April 13
Topic – Disruption III: Sexual Variance
Read – “Over a Knee Willingly”
Guest Speaker – William: The BDSM Scene
Tuesday, April 18
Topic – Disruption IV: Sexually Explicit Images
Read— “Aroused,” “Grading,” and “Sex For Sale”
View – SEM Video Collage
Thursday, April 20 PSA
Topic – Sexual Pioneers
Read – “My Mother Liked to Fuck” and “Sluts and Utopia”
Tuesday, April 25
Exam Three
Thursday, April 27
Due -- Group Presentations
Tuesday, May 2
Due -- Group Presentations
Thursday, May 4
Final Examination Schedule: Tuesday, May 9, 2006 10:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.
*SEM (Sexually Explicit Material) – sexually explicit images in video format or photographs that show exposed genitals and/or explicit sexual activity. Your attendance is NOT required, BUT you are responsible for any material discussed that day. First, see a class member for notes then talk with me.
**BDSM presentation – This presentation will involve a discussion of BD/SM practices and philosophy as well as a safety demonstration of some techniques by members of the Colorado Scene. I do NOT allow any cameras or recording devices of any kind during this presentation in order to protect the confidentiality of the guest speakers. Your attendance is NOT required, BUT you are responsible for any material discussed during the presentation. First, see a class member for notes then talk with me.