WMS 70 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Social Constructionism, Sadomasochism, Sexual Repression
Document Summary
Satirizing the way people question homosexual people and constantly ask them to justify their existence. Placing hetersexual people in the mindset of a gay person. Drawing attention to the intrusive nature of the questions, they seem silly when the sides are reversed. Examining how power and sexuality operate together. Draws attention to the politics of sexuality. How sexual persecution has changed and survived throughout centuries. Biological essentialism: sex is purely biological, innate, private, individual. If this is true, sex should not be politicized or regulated. There is a legal backing to marriage evidenced in health care, child custody, taxes, etc. Social constructionism: belief that gender, sex, and sexuality are not solely biological, but rather the product of intersections in society. Rubin"s discussion of sexuality is not stuck on identity. Important because it rejects the framing of sexual repression. Does not want to individualize the concept of sexuality.
