Sexuality:
The social Construction of Sexualities
Sexuality includes
o Sexual orientation (whom you are attracted to sexually)
o Sexual identity (butch, femme, heterosexual, straight, etc.)
o Sex acts (kissing, oral sex, penetration, bondage, etc.)
o Sex lives (polyamory, monogamy, infidelity, age of consent)
o Commodification of sex (prostitution, pornography)
Meanings are embedded in our language, laws, popular culture, social rituals, and medical
definitions
Learn what is deemed socially appropriate and inappropriate through interactions
Meanings of sexual desires, sexual acts, sexual expressions have social approval and which are
disavowed
Ex. kissing (in some cultures, its revolting that 2 people would put their germ-filled mouths
together)
Sexual Identities
Includes our sense of self as masculine or feminine, our knowledge of our bodies, sexual histories,
sexual preference
Convey through language and interaction
Sexual orientation refers to an individual’s sexual and emotional attraction to a person of a
particular sex
Homosexuality
o Historically, “closeted” and subjected to systemic oppression
o Heterosexism is the practice of holding up heterosexuality as the ideal and as “normal”
o Homophobia is an irrational fear or hatred of homosexuals
o We live in a heterosexist society
Homosexual identities
o Socially produced (we label it)
o Industrial Revolution
o Gay liberation movement = gays congregated in places
o Legalization of gay marriages o Now legal in Canada, Netherlands, Belgium, and spain
Heterosexuality
o Attracted to and/or engage in sexual activities with members of the opposite sex
o Reinforced through surveillance (Foucault)
o Social organization of heterosexuality vary across time and location
o In Western societies tends to be organized around marriage or long-term relationships
and monogamy
o Enjoy social privilege
o http://www.pinkpractice.co.uk/quaire.htm
o Monogamy is usually driven toward marriage
o Heterosexuality = privileged (the assumption that everyone is straight; you don’t need
to “come out of the closet” if you’re straight)
Bisexuality
o Attracted to both men and women (usually not at the same time)
o May shift between heterosexual and homosexual relationships over their lives
o Challenges the notion that heterosexuality and homosexuality are mutually exclusive
and oppositional categories
o You fit in with neither hetero or homosexual (b/c you haven’t really chosen a side)
o Challenge binary constructions/opposition of sexuality
o Bisexuality usually shows itself in females; and because it turns men on
o Bisexuality has become about men in a way (again)
Pansexuality
o Attracted to anything (men, women, transgendered, transvestite, etc.)
o Romantic and sexual desire for people regardless of their gender identity of biological
sex
o Includes attraction to transsexuals and transgendered individuals
Monogamy
o Coupling of 2 people, excluding the intimate involvement of others (for life)
o Social meanings attached
o Assumption that it
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