SOC 152A Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Guinea Highlands, Infibulation, Mass Media
●Sex+ gender ben = “scripted ben”
●Each society provides lines, scripts, roles which partners learn for sex+gender
○Scripts vary
■California, UK, Japan,
■Also between subcultures
●Mass media+social medial give us scripts (some highly fictitious)
●Modern china still sexually conservative
●Kukukuku (new guinea highlands)
○Sperm = essence of masculinity
○To become men, boys must ingest sperm via homosexual oral sex
●Homosexual activity - natural, normal, beautiful
●64% societies had homosexuality and considered it normal
●All scripts feel natural + normal in societies that use them but danger in thinking that
things are “right” to you're not the only ethically acceptable ones
1. Infibulation
a. Done in 29 countries, 6000x per day (most in africa)
b. Cutting off parts of external genitals
c. Sew remaining tissue together to create 1 small hole for urination
i. Ensures virginity
ii. Faithful to marriage
iii. Very dangerous
iv. After marriage helps w her sexual interest
v. Reducing infidelity
2. Clitorectomy
a. Cutting off clitoris (far less cutting than infibulation)
b. Age old tradition in egypt + other nations
c. Rituals being revised to omit actual cutting
3. Are all values relative?
a. UN declaration of human rights - “not all acts are defensible”
i. Ex: torture, mutilation, slavery
4. Values change over time
a. Ex: only partners sex for procreation natural, making homosexuality wrong +
masturbation wrong too
Document Summary
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