COMM 3250U Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Christine Jorgensen, Ellen Mccormack, Second-Wave Feminism
21 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
1. Human Sexuality
How Sex Changed: Shifting Meanings of Sexuality
Twentieth Century Timeline
20th à increased concern over child welfare, increased effort to regulate child and youth
sexuality
1. Child saving movement, moral, social, legal reform, women’s movement
2. Challenges to Victorian social worlds and order (WWI smashed stable conceptions of
time and space)
WWI, 1920s, WWII: flourishing of gay culture in metropolitan areas
1930s: Depression, growth of cinema (Shirley Temple), rising fears over sexual delinquency, sex
“perverts”
1950s –postwar “normalcy,” Kinsey reports, Christine Jorgenson (first sex change operations) à
Sex advice for teens (Mary Louise Adams), growth in efforts to study sex and the mind, state and
society and project of heteronormativity, leading into Red Scare and the homosexual menace.
1960s, 1970s – Second wave feminism, changes to Canadian criminal codes, growth of human
rights, efforts to address VAW, the Abortion Caravan, RCSW, reproductive rights and
technologies (the pill, abortion), growth of social work interventions into sexual abuse, ongoing
sexual abuse, 60s scoop
1980s – Toronto Bath House Raids, Aids epidemic, pro-charging policies for family violence,
dedicated VAW surveys and research in Canada, changes to sexual assault laws
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
1990s – safe sex campaigns, sex education reforms, popular culture (spurred by advocates and
diversity pioneers push for monogamous gays and lesbians)
2000s – continued reform, amid legal pushback
The case of Mary Ellen McCormack
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/15/health/15abus.html
1874 Testimony: My father and mother are both dead. I don’t know how old I am. I
have no recollection of a time when I did not live with the Connollys. Mamma has
been in the habit of whipping and beating me almost every day. She used to whip me
with a twisted whip... The whip always left a black and blue mark on my body. I have
now the black and blue marks on my head which were made by mamma, and also a
cut on the left side of my forehead which was made by a pair of scissors. She struck
me with the scissors and cut me; I have no recollection of ever having been kissed by
any one—have never been kissed by mamma. I have never been taken on my
mamma's lap and caressed or petted. I never dared to speak to anybody, because if I
did I would get whipped. I do not know for what I was whipped—mamma never said
anything to me when she whipped me. I do not want to go back to live with mamma,
because she beats me so. I have no recollection ever being on the street in my life.
The Social Construction of Childhood
Historically there was little oversight for interventions into the lives of children until
the 2oth C.
3. The concept of “child abuse” is a modern invention
4. The economically and emotionally priceless child
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
5. Middle and upper class ideal in the 1700s, 1800s, 1900s à ideal spreads to working
classes through legal and social reform in the 20th century (1900-1999)
6. Child saving movement 1880s
7. Child saving is a broad term used to identity the effort by social workers and the state
to intervene into the lives of children to protect them from various kinds of abuse.
The economically valuable child à child labour was a necessity for many working
class families leading up the 20th C.
Children worked in the home, boys worked outside
8. Children worked on the streets, “boot blacks”, selling newspapers, stealing
9. Children worked in factories (and still do in the developing world)
Sex and Childhood: How Sex Changed
Growth of the welfare state interventions and child protection laws to create
ameliorative conditions for suffering children
10. à Social construct -- concept of children’s rights and emotionally priceless
and supportive childhood as an ideal of human rights
11. Social agency and social control à change/progress is not linear
1. à compulsorily education, increasing literacy, legal codes to protect children
against sexual and physical abuses
2. à increased effort to police the lives of children and adults
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Wwi, 1920s, wwii: flourishing of gay culture in metropolitan areas. 1930s: depression, growth of cinema (shirley temple), rising fears over sexual delinquency, sex. 1950s postwar normalcy, kinsey reports, christine jorgenson (first sex change operations) . Sex advice for teens (mary louise adams), growth in efforts to study sex and the mind, state and society and project of heteronormativity, leading into red scare and the homosexual menace. 1980s toronto bath house raids, aids epidemic, pro-charging policies for family violence, dedicated vaw surveys and research in canada, changes to sexual assault laws. 1990s safe sex campaigns, sex education reforms, popular culture (spurred by advocates and diversity pioneers push for monogamous gays and lesbians) 1874 testimony: my father and mother are both dead. I have no recollection of a time when i did not live with the connollys. Mamma has been in the habit of whipping and beating me almost every day. She used to whip me with a twisted whip
