jan 21 2014.docx

Jan 21 2014 Thinking about sexuality 1. Gender performativity (recap) a. Produces a series of effects i. Act, walk, speak, in ways that give the impression of man/woman b. We act like its an internal reality, but is really a phenomenon that is being produced all the time c. no one is a certain gender from the start—judith butler d. how do gender norms get disrupted and policed? e. Important to resist the violence imposed by ideal gender norms f. Gender is culturally formed, domain of freedom 2. histories of sexuality a. noun i. biological category ii. reproductive organs b. sex as a verb i. in 2009, kisney institute does study on significance on sex as a verb 1. 500 residents of Indiana, age 18-96 2. ‘would you say you have had sex with someone if the most intimate behaviour you engaged in was ______?’ 3. 95% said yes for vaginal intercourse 4. 89% said yes for sex without man coming 5. 45% had sex if they touched someone elses genitals 6. 48% had sex if they had their genitals touched 7. 80% said yes for anal 8. men over age of 65 said anal sex wasn’t sex 9. no discussion at all about gender orientation (m-m/f-f) 10. lots of different ideas of what having sex means ii. pre 1900-sex related only biological categories iii. sexual, as in sexual intercourse, sexual activity, dates from 1700s iv. tterms have a history and cant be used uncritically v. need to remember were applying modern categories vi. but past is not totally alien vii. similarity in experiences and ideas c. sex before sex i. two different streams of idea 1. assumption of religious society, sex is sinful and repressed and controlled 2. or people are completely sex crazed ii. similarities between the way we think about sex now and the way people did in the middle ages iii. something you did TO another, rather than WITH someone iv. futuo, future, fututum—to copulate (more like to ‘fuck’but not quite as crude as it is today) [Type text] [Type text] [Type text] v. as something one does to participants are thought of as doing different things vi. different penalties to different actions in 10 century—7 years of fasting for cumming in a mouth, 5 for swallowing vii. irrumator (active participant) and fellator (passive participant) viii. prescriptively and normatively heterosexual and procreative ix. penetratormalemasculine behaviour x. penetratedwomanfeminine behavior xi. deviations discussed in terms of sin xii. change in behaviours have ramifications beyond the action 1. male and female coupling (penile-vaginal) a. pregnancy possibility b. no transgression of masculine and feminine boundaries c. only natural position is missionary, no threat to social order according to medievals 2. male and male coupling (active-passive) a. interfemoral (bwetween the legs) b. man acting as a woman challenges gender roles and social interactions c. variations from prescriptive realities xiii. sex was very central to medieval society xiv. William IX, duke ofAquitaine 1. Renouned troubadour (courtly love style) 2. Wrote in Occitan 3. Wrote about sex, travels 4. Song was meant for nobles, elite, for humour th xv. In the 16 century, visual portrayals of women were of motherhood d. sex and sexuality—Foucault i. sexuality is a cultural construction ii. discourse—discussion around bodily acts iii. social meaning we give to bodies and actions of bodies iv. Foucault 1. 1926-84 2. philosopher 3. famous works include madness and insanity, archeology of knowledge, discipline and punish, history of sexuality 4. 3 volumes of history of sexuality published between 76-84 and 78-86 5. proposed repressive hypothesis 6. ‘sexuality must not be thought of as a kind of natural given which power tries to hold in check’ 7. ‘it is the name that can be given to a historical construct’ 8. ‘sexuality is a cultural production—represents the