GSFS 250 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Sexology, Pansexuality, Uranian
4 Jun 2018
School
Course
Professor
Lecture 4:
Homo and Hetero Binary
Queer:
Umbrella term
Short hand for others
Sexuality and gender variations
But also queer like othering things in a book title- queering or to queer
Main points from Rubin reading:
Sex itself has a cultural/political meaning
Our understanding of sexuality changes over time and what we see as deviant changes over time
Also, it’s pathologized
The fixation on the “homosexual”
Rubin is interested in the idea of the charmed circle- what’s good and moral sex and what’s not
A scale of sexual value
The law itself is building upon what medicine is doing
So medicine is providing the language and the law validates it
What’s the idea of the charmed circle?
In Rubin’s charmed circle- what we as society see as good and moral sex- “vanilla sex”
We see a binary between vanilla sex and kinky sex
Vanilla- heterosexual, for reproductive purposes, missionary- it’s put as a binary against kink
So in the charmed sexual we see vanilla sex- monogamous- Rubin says there’s 1 type of sex
that’s not challenged against- no laws against a married heterosexual sex to make a child
But this “good sex” shifts over time
And then we have the outer circle
As society allows new things in- the inside is always defined by keeping things on the outside
Sex hierarchy:
Not just that some things allowed and not allowed- but some things are good sex and better sex
On a continuum to best sex to worst sex
This may change over time in who’s allowed and not in this
What’s a problem with this theory? Or seem dangerous or like a problem?
It could perpetuate the idea that there is good sex and better sex
But maybe there should be some boundaries on what is bad sex like pedophiles
The inter-generational part is problematic
Doesn’t talk about consent
Essentialism:
Something has an innate essence which is the reason for its being
Women as being more ethical because of their nature- an example
Social construction:
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
But also queer like othering things in a book title- queering or to queer. Our understanding of sexuality changes over time and what we see as deviant changes over time. Rubin is interested in the idea of the charmed circle- what"s good and moral sex and what"s not. The law itself is building upon what medicine is doing. So medicine is providing the language and the law validates it. In rubin"s charmed circle- what we as society see as good and moral sex- vanilla sex . We see a binary between vanilla sex and kinky sex. Vanilla- heterosexual, for reproductive purposes, missionary- it"s put as a binary against kink. So in the charmed sexual we see vanilla sex- monogamous- rubin says there"s 1 type of sex that"s not challenged against- no laws against a married heterosexual sex to make a child. As society allows new things in- the inside is always defined by keeping things on the outside.
