6 Key excerpts on "Sexuality in America"

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  eBook - ePub

  Sexuality

  A Psychosocial Manifesto

  • Katherine Johnson(Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Polity

    (Publisher)

  Despite Helen Merrell Lynd’s warning polarization between psychological and socio-historical approaches has been an all too familiar feature of late twentieth-century thought, particularly in the field of sexuality. In reviewing prominent theories and debates it is reasonable to claim that this polarization constitutes a ‘kind of conceptual impasse’, found in many accounts influenced by either Marx or Freud, or latterly Freud and Foucault, whose vital work sets the scene for contemporary understandings of sexuality within academia and everyday life. This book explores the polarization between psychological and socio-historical accounts that are documented well in sexuality studies and somewhat ambitiously proposes an alternative, a psychosocial manifesto that seeks to stitch and mend the polarization. Yet, as Sedgwick states, trying to remedy, or even articulate the impasse is not without its own problems. Specifically, in trying to articulate accounts of sexuality without recourse to a polarization between psychology and historicism invites us to engage with the ‘psychosocial’, but inevitably within this articulation it is difficult not to fall back on the mechanisms that constitute the split.

  The term sexuality can refer to a set of practices or behaviours, a range of feelings or affects, or as a way of categorizing people on the basis of their sexual orientation, sexual identity or political allegiances. The plural, sexualities, is utilized to acknowledge the multiple meanings of sexuality and to recognize that an understanding of contemporary sexuality needs to engage with a proliferation of identity categories, sexual practices, subjectivities, desires and relationship formations, including for example queer or trans alongside more familiar categories such as heterosexual, lesbian, gay and bisexual. This book explores the way in which the term is conceptualized in an array of psychological and social debate, such as neuroanatomy, adolescent development, sexual health, youth suicide, identity politics or gay marriage, and provides access to a range of theoretical perspectives that seek to explain how sexuality is developed, constructed, queered, embodied and transformed.

  Since the late 1800s, sexologists and psychologists have tended to promote the view that sexuality has its origins in biological processes underpinned by hormones, drives, and more recently, genetics. In contrast, historians and sociologists point to the social field as the defining force that shapes the meanings given to sexuality and sexual experience. This observation provides the starting point for investigating how polarization produces different forms of knowledge and the impact these have on how sexuality can be experienced in personal and political contexts. Such distinctions are familiar within social science accounts of sexuality, but they are also apparent within the humanities and queer studies. For example, Michael Warner (1993) expressed a similar warning to Lynd in the seminal text Fear of a Queer Planet

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  An Introduction to Sociology

  Feminist Perspectives

  • Pamela Abbott, Melissa Tyler, Claire Wallace(Authors)
  • 2006(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  CHAPTER EIGHTSexuality

  Sexuality is generally taken to refer to the social experience and expression of physical bodily desires, real or imagined, by or for others or for oneself. It encompasses erotic desires, identities and practices. Seemingly one of the most private, intimate aspects of our lives, sociologists have argued that sexuality is fundamentally social and political. This is because sexuality is experienced and expressed within relations of power and exchange and what we think of as sexual varies historically and culturally as well as in different social contexts. Sociologists have therefore argued that no human sexual behaviour or practice can be divorced from the social and political circumstances in which it takes place, and the social relations within which it is embedded. This means that even individual sex acts (such as masturbation or other forms of auto-eroticism) are social acts because the way in which we think about and make sense of them is shaped by a range of social values, attitudes, norms and sanctions. Yet sexuality remains something of a neglected topic in sociology when compared to say social class or the mass media, brought onto the sociological agenda only relatively recently. Largely as a result of the contribution of feminist sociologists and political activists sexuality has now begun to emerge as a legitimate focus of sociological concern. Indeed, that New Right movements in many Western societies have mobilised considerable political energies through their emphasis on the sanctity of the family, hostility to gay and lesbian sexuality and to ‘sexual deviance’ of various kinds is, as Jeff Weeks (1991, p. 12) has noted, something of a ‘back-handed compliment to the success of feminism’.

  Sexuality has been one of the main concerns of feminist theory and politics not least because feminists regard men’s control of women’s sexuality as one of the key mechanisms through which patriarchy is maintained. Feminists have drawn attention to the social control of women’s sexuality through religious, state and medical regulatory practices. In particular, feminists have emphasised the role of sexuality in reinforcing patriarchal power relations, highlighting issues such as pornography, sexual violence, clitoridectomy, prostitution and ‘compulsory heterosexuality’ (Rich, 1980) – the social compulsion to be heterosexual. Feminists have also made a significant contribution to theorising sexuality and the sexual body. They have also highlighted the relative neglect of issues of sexual identity in the social model of disability (Lloyd, 2001). Many have argued that the so-called ‘sexual revolution’ has merely been a means of increasing and legitimating a male right of sexual access to women. Others have highlighted, however, the ways in which sexuality can be a means of challenging and resisting women’s oppression. Feminist contributions have also drawn attention to the ways in which so-called scientific perspectives (including those developed by social scientists) have served to perpetuate women’s sexual oppression.

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  eBook - ePub

  Human Sexuality

  Biological, Psychological, and Cultural Perspectives

  • Anne Bolin, Patricia Whelehan, Muriel Vernon, Katja Antoine(Authors)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  The other biological definition of sex focuses on the physiology of sexual arousal and coitus and on the reproductive biology of humans. This includes changes in the human cycle in both reproductive physiology as well as human sexual response. As Jacobs and Roberts (1989: 441) so eloquently point out: “reproduction and sexuality are codependent variables in the human life cycle. But sex and sexuality are much more complex than linking them with reproduction.”

  Behavioral, Cognitive, and Affective Definitions and Dimensions

  The social science perspectives broaden the study of human sexuality by looking beyond the mechanics of sexual behavior to other factors, most notably behavioral, cognitive, and affective factors, which influence sexual expression and perception. The behavioral definitions of human sexuality focus on behaviors and consequences that can be both observed and measured. When dealing with the cognitive dimensions of sexuality, yet another layer is added to sexuality by considering how we think about, judge, rationalize, attribute, and perceive sexual stimuli and behaviors. Finally, affective dimensions also are considered by social scientists studying sexuality. Our emotional or affective responses add many dimensions to our experiences by influencing how we interpret and view behavior. In this capacity, they can actually serve as motivators of behavior, influencing who and what we are willing to accept and approach.

  The work of Kinsey and his colleagues represents one of the most well-known behaviorist studies of human sexuality: Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female

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  Origins of Sexuality and Homosexuality

  • John Dececco, Phd, Michael Shively(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Human Sexuality in Biological Perspective: Theoretical and Methodological Considerations

  Thomas Ford Hoult Arizona State University DOI: 10.4324/9781315804392-9

  ABSTRACT. An increasing number of observers are claiming that a biological model is more appropriate to an understanding of human sexuality than the conventional social-learning one. Such claims have prompted a perusal of the biological literature to ascertain whether the relevant evidence is convincing. The results of this review suggest that claims for the biological model are questionable since the evidence for that model either derives from animal studies (and is thus not generally applicable to human behavior) or is inconclusive, contradictory, or methodologically deficient It is concluded, therefore, that behavioral scientists are at present on firm ground in using a social-learning, in preference to a biological, model to interpret most aspects of human sexual behavior.

  During the last few years an increasing number of scholars, including some social scientists, have asserted that evidence now available is sufficient to justify replacing a social-learning model with a biological model in examining human behavior. Their assertions are sometimes global. Richard Alexander (1979) , for example, claims that all behavior of all organisms consists of nothing but direct or indirect attempts to maximize reproductive success. More often, advocates of the biological model narrow the focus to the assertion that the various aspects of human sexuality are largely if not entirely a function of inborn factors.

  It is with the latter assertion that the present paper is concerned. The term “human sexuality,” as used here, includes sexual actions per se, sexual orientation (erotic object choice), and gender identity (an individual’s sense of being either male or female, or a mixture of the two). The underlying question for this paper is: How convincing is the biological evidence that details of human sexuality are directly due to innate traits and processes?

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  Philosophy And Homosexuality

  • Noretta Koertge(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Erotic fantasies are the individual's mental images of one or more persons engaged in physical sexual activity or involved in idealized affectional (i.e., romantic) relationships.

  In the current research at C.H.E.E.R., social sex-role and sexual orientation are conceived along several independent continua. In accord with the work of Bern (1974) and Spence and Helmreich (1978), social sex-role is represented as two continua—one for femininity and another for masculinity. Qualitatively, an individual female or male can be seen as feminine, masculine, or both feminine and masculine; quantitatively, femininity and masculinity can range from none to very much. Sexual orientation is conceived along three Kinsey continua, one for each of three aspects of sexual orientation. Qualitatively, an individual can be placed on each continuum as heterosexual, homosexual, or both heterosexual and homosexual; quantitatively, the degree of heterosexuality and homosexuality can range from none to very much.

  This view of sexual orientation reduces confusion rampant in most lay and clinical discussions of homosexuality, in particular the confounding of social sex-role and sexual orientation. For example, psychoanalytic theory construes male homosexuality as pathology and focuses on the patient's masculinity, presumably underdeveloped and battered by an engulfing mother or a weak, distant, or hostile father (e.g., Bieber, Dain, Dince, Drellich, Grand, Gundlach, Kremer, Rifkin, Wilber, & Bieber, 1962; Hatterer, 1970; Socarides, 1978). The traumatized patient turns to homosexuality to compensate for the loss of masculinity. But what exactly does this homosexuality consist of, and what part does it play in the patient's life? Philosophers of science warn social scientists (and they should include clinicians) about formulating theories of etiology to account for phenomena that were never adequately defined or described in the first place (e.g., Suppe, 1978).

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  eBook - ePub

  Sexuality and Illness

  A Guidebook for Health Professionals

  • Anne Katz(Author)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  4 Sexuality across the lifespan from adolescence to old age

  DOI: 10.4324/9781003145745-4

  This chapter presents an overview of sexual development and behaviors across the lifespan. Numerous models that have been developed to explain sexual development are presented because there is no single widely accepted definitive model or description. Misconceptions about sexuality from adolescence to old age abound; these include assumptions about promiscuity in younger individuals and asexuality in older adults. We are sexual beings from infancy until death and each stage of life presents key developmental tasks that should be met for general health and well-being. Biology and society affect our sexual development and how we understand who we are as sexual beings. Societal influences are highly relevant and ‘teach’ individuals what is acceptable in terms of sexual behavior, sexual roles, and sexual relationships.

  Theories of sexual development

  One of the first models of sexual identity is that of Freud’s five-stage theory that begins with a focus on oral sensations (the infant breastfeeding, putting objects into the mouth) and developing over time to a focus on phallic pleasure (Brandon-Friedman, 2019). Many of Freud’s ideas have been criticized including the notion of female orgasm being immature (clitoral) as opposed to mature orgasm (vaginal). Erickson’s eight-stage model has greater relevance. The fifth and sixth stages reflect sexual development in adolescence and young adulthood. Identity versus role confusion, the fifth stage, describes the developmental tasks of adolescence when identity separate from family is supposed to occur; this stage encompasses self-discovery, social bonds with peers, and sexual experimentation. The sixth stage, intimacy versus isolation, occurs in young adulthood when lasting relationships are formed and sexuality becomes integrated into these relationships (Brandon-Friedman, 2019). Sexual development in sexual minority individuals was described by Cass (1979) based largely on white males. The six stages of this model include identity confusion, identity comparison, identity tolerance, identity acceptance, identity pride, and identity synthesis. This model has been criticized as being applicable only to men, being linear, and not addressing racial and ethnic factors that influence sexual identity in addition to changes in society since the model was first published. Sexual fluidity also is not considered (Kenneady & Oswalt, 2014).

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