SEX IN SOCIETY
Main reason why heterosexual women vocalized
#1: 92% Make noise to increase encourage partners self-esteem #2: 62% accelerated partners ejaculation. -Not biological, unresponsive response to pleasure
Presence/Absesense of deep kissing in other cultures
- Deep (french) kissing is absent in many world cultures. - Seen as dangerous, unhealthy, disgusting. - Romantic, sexual kissing: in 46% of cultures
Ancient Greece Marriage, role of wife, role of heterosexual relationships
-As boy becomes adult he marries a woman. The male-male relationship is not a substitute. -The older men who courted the younger men were married to women. Ancient Greece women's roles: reproduction, house care, etc.
Sambians: Means of semen replacement
-Avoiding women, giving themselves nose bleeds. -live separately from women until she gives birth to first child.
Judaeo-Christian depiction of sexuality
-Negative: linked to judeo christian, sex with sin/shame, giving into temptation
Sambians: Adult manhood and oral sex (who would have oral sex with whom)
-Sambian Young boy is the fellator, recieving semen from the older boys (being fellated.) -Adult men are not fellators, only get fellated
Soul Kissing- a literal expression
-Soul enters and leaves body through the mouth in many cultures.
Ancient Greece: Normative
-There were a small number of exclusive male-male sexual relationships, but this wasn't normative. -It was normative for homosexual pleasure outside marriage. -Ancient Greek Culture assumed all men have same-sex sexual attraction.
COURSE GOALS: Goal 1
1) students learn to use a sociological lens to view all areas of sexuality.
How sex is social (4 ways)
1. Social norms (rules of society) that govern sexual behavior are CONTINUOUSLY CHANGING. 2. Other SOCIAL FACTORS INFLUENCE sexual activity and its meaning. 3. Sexuality is SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTED. 4. Sexuality is SOCIALLY CONTROLLED.
How sex is social (4 ways)
1. Social norms (rules of society) that govern sexual behavior are continuously changing. -what counts as sex, whats considered erotic etc. has changed over time
goal 2
2) identify myths about sexual behavior and practices.
How sex is social (4 ways)
2. other social factors influence sexual activity and its meaning. -ex: religion, religiosity, level of education, economic status, race, gender, sex
goal 3
3) deconstruct some of the current ways we categorize sexual attitudes and behaviors (broader understand of the complex nature of sexuality.)
How sex is social (4 ways)
3. Sexuality is SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTED -idea that may appear to be natural, normal, obvious to those who accept it, but actually an invention or artifact of a particular culture or society. (ex: race, sexual identity) -just because we make them up there are Real consequences.
goal 4
4) learn concept of sex positivity.
How sex is social (4 ways)
4. Sexuality is SOCIALLY CONTROLLED -social mechanisms that regulate behavior via REWARDS (ex: wedding gifts) and PUNISHMENTS (ex: slut-shame) -also institutional control (ex: family, medical system, legal system)
goal 5
5) improve their critical reading skills
Sexual Desire
All cultures think adults have potential for sexual desire- cross cultural
Alternatives to the "box" system of classifying sexual orientation/ identity
Alternatives to box: -Continuum Scale- hetero to same sex. -more fluidity -Sphere: classifying sexuality as an intersection of different social factors such as race, age, geography, gender, etc
Ancient Greece: Love and male-male relationships:
Ancient Greece male-male relationships seen as Reciprocal and Love Based. --emotional bond
Ancient Greece: Identity? Attraction? Behavior?
Ancient Greece: Identity: No Behavior: Yes Attraction: Yes
Hindu connection between sex and spirituality
Ancient Hindu Culture Sex is positive and spiritual -erotic sculptures in temples
subject line
Appropriate subject line: COURSE NAME AND TIME
Ancient Greece: evolution of relationship
As younger man became an adult it becomes strong friendship.
Ancient Greece: Characterization of male-male relationships
Characterization of male-male relationships in Ancient Greece: -same sex sexuality is normative among men. -relationships among men seen as Natural, Purest, Highest form of relationship
Consequences: Victorian American nonconforming women
Consequences for women who did not conform to Victorian Ideologies: -those who violated norms were labeled as deviant. -Medicalized. -Labels: "Nyphomaniac," "Hysteria"- broadly defined, could be for being to frigid or sexual aroused.
Cultures affect on sexual impulses
Culture takes our sexual impulses and molds and shapes them. -Things we think are biological are not found in other cultures -we take for granted for real or natural.
DANI: levels of desire: interest in sexuality
Dani (Papa New Guinea tribe) -very little clothing but low levels of sexual desire/interest in sexuality
Dani concern about technique, Character of intercourse , orgasm
Dani culture has no concern about sexual techniques or enhancing erotic pleasure -Character: only for reproduction. -Male orgasm and its over. -Female orgasm rate: unknown. -live in separate huts
Dani: Sexual abstinence and childbearing
Dani: -Wait to have sex 2 years after marriage -After 1st child: 4-5 year abstinence (moms nurse this long) -were on brink of extinction
Western view of Deep Kissing
Deep (french) kissing is prominent in our Western culture and viewed by us as instinctive. It is our expression of erotic interest and causes us to become aroused.
Relation of deep kissing to sexual repression/ inhibition in a culture
Deep kissing (or sexual kissing of any kind) DOES NOT EQUAL sexual liberation, sexual inhibition or repression
Dr. Benjamin Rush on masturbation
Dr. Benjamin Rush: anti masturbation crusader, powerful (signed Declaration.) 1812: Dr. Rush believed masturbation was "cause of madness," -hunt for self polluters
Exam drop policy:
Exam drop policy: No make up exams, but can drop lowest of first three exam grades
Freak and Geeks
Freaks and Geeks clip illustrated social construction of tongues role in kissing. -using tongue is socially constructed -really it can be seen as gross -what is a real kiss? -"don't kiss= dislike"
Grade breakdown
Grade breakdown - Exams: 76%. REA's: 14%. In class writing exercises: 10%
How Victorian ideas impact contemporary view of women's and men's sexuality
How we are influence by the Victorian Era: -value women's lack of sexual experience -women's responsibility to tame men's impulses -medicalizing sex and desire
Ancient Greece: who initiated and how does typical courtship process
In Ancient Greece older man initiated courtship with a younger man (love letters, gifts.) -multiple men, pick most noble
Mangaia sexual reputations
In Mangaia culture sex is competitive (not much emotional involvement) -The more orgasms the man can give, the higher his status/better reputation
Where vibrators fit in as home appliances were electrified/where advertised
In the end of the 1800's, beginning of the 1900's women pushed for electric things within the home. #5 thing they pushed for: home vibrator. Sold in Hamilton Beach catalog, Sears
Contents of Kama Sutra
Kama Sutra: sexual manual. -"most influential ever" -sexual positions, recipes for aphrodisiacs
Main point:
Kissing is A BIOLOGICAL POTENTIAL SHAPED BY CULTURE
Laptop policy
Laptop policy: only for taking notes
late REA
Late REA policy/Email REA policy: No late or emailed papers accepted
Location and time of last exam
Location and time of last exam: 10:45-12 in regular classroom
MANGAIA: Levels of sexual desire
Mangaia (Cook Islands Polynesia) -both sexes male and female have strong, high levels of sexual desire as adolecents
Mangaia Boys' sexual lives
Mangaia Boy's sexual lives: - age 13-14 circumcision ritual -go to class and taught how to pleasure girls -learn erotic kissing, cunnilingus, multiple orgasms, oral stimulation for 2 weeks -on the job training with sexual advanced women
Mangaia Girl's sexual lives
Mangaia Girl's sexual lives -Girls training: old women teach how to accept pleasure. -Final Sexual Instruction from "good man"- hold off on own orgasm and give woman up to six
Mangaia strength of desire through life
Mangaia strength of desire through life: young men and women should have experience before marriage and in marriage they have sex 3 times a night 7 nights a week. As you get married, become an adult sexuality decreased then plummets -Marry more for companionship, $ etc.
Max. # of sentences in Main argument
Maximum number of sentences in "Main argument or main point of article" section: 5
Victorian American Men's sexual desires
Men did not have similar labels or consequences as women when it came to sexual desires in Victorian America. -Men seen as animal like with their desires, driven by lust. -Not labeled nymphs
name of professor
Name of professor: Dr. Mindy Stombler
Need for electromechanical vibrator
Need for electromechanical vibrator: Dr's became tired of giving Genital massages. 1880: invention of electromechanical vibrators Why doctors vibrated and women couldn't masturbate: seen as treatment. -"stimulation in doses" "non sexual aid." -The sexual character of physicians massage was hidden.
Oceanic kissing
Oceanic kissing: nose and mouth. -Not present everywhere
Themes evident in our slang terms for sex
Our cultures sex terms: (bang, smash and screw) = Violence and Aggression. -Hetero-normative and gendered. -Men are active, initiator. -women are passive, object, receiving, noninitiator. -Home depot theme. -Mechanical view: emotionless , masculine, use of tools
Photo policy
Photo policy: no photographs, video or audio-recording without the permission of the subjects. If granted, no sharing on social media.
Renewed emphasis on virginity:
Renewed emphasis on virginity: -Virginity Movement in the 90's, -scholarships, billboards, -secondary virginity, -technical virginity, (ex: only p.v. is seen as sex so they try anal) -abstinence contracts, -hymen replacements, - abstinence only education, -ebay
Reverend Grahams solution
Reverend Grahams solution to masturbation: -diet of simple foods, unbolted wheat flour (graham crackers) -american sex machines: anti masturbation -pins and electric shock
Reverend Sylvester Graham's argument about masturbation
Reverend Sylvester Graham: 1930's -ejaculation deprives men of vital fluid
Sambians: Boys' sexual lives
Sambian boys regularly engage in same sex behavior.
SAMBIANS of New Guinea: Type of culture and its relationship to issues of masculinity
Sambians (Highland Papa New Guinea) -warlike culture. -the less gender egalitarian the more warlike
Sambians: How a boy becomes a man/ritual/what is sucked during initiation ritual and what is sucked in an effort to ingest semen
Sambians bolster masculinity & strength through ritual: boys age 7-10 ingesting semen to become men. Separated from family, initiated to male society, live in for 10-15 yr. -Taught to give fellatio. Suck flutes to practice. -Believe leads to puberty.
Sambians: Identity? Attraction? Behavior?
Sambians: Identity: No Behavior: Yes Attraction: No (?)
Sambians of New Guinea: Women as contaminators
Sambians: -divide up women and men, differences emphasized -Believe women will sap men's strength/ contamination
Sambians: Semen investment theory
Sambians: Semen investment theory--The belief that semen is vital to strength and it should be invested into the younger boys rather than conserved
Semen conservation theory
Semen conservation theory: unhealthy to loose it, risking physical health
text book:
Sex Matters: The Sexuality and Society Reader
Sex positivity
Sex Positivity: assumption that consensual sex in any form has the potential to be healthy and plesureable. - we are a sex negative culture
Sex as a preformance
Sex is a performance. -porn plays a role.. it has a lot of vocalization. -taught this is the sound of pleasure. -looking back cross cultures: cant watch porn, shared hut vs. suburban house, don't care about women's pleasure
Sex is social
Sex is social: A learned behavior from people and institutions. No different from other behavior
Sexual double standard
Sexual double standard : -good for men to acquire partners -women valued for sexual inexperience -women sexually passive -men sexually agressive
Sexual fluidity
Sexuality can be fluid and incredibly diverse. Fluid: capacity to experience attractions that run outside of ones sexual orientation. -Especially in younger generations changing attractions over time. -Kinsey Scale 0-6
Social construction
Social construction: create ideas through interaction/ experience with others and forget we created it - think everything we constructed is natural.
Female vocalization during sex
Study on heterosexual woman vocalization: correlate with male ejaculation. When: during and simultaneously
name of T.A.
T.A.: Alithia
Tardiness and Leaving Early policy
Tardiness and Leaving Early policy: Be inconspicuous if tardy. Class and university policy prohibits habitual tardiness, and she has right to drop you from class for violating the Disruptive Student policy. If you leave early you must inform her before class begins.
Ancient Greece: mentoring
These male-male Ancient Greece relationships involved mentoring and sex.
Our cultures view of sexuality
U.S. construction of sexuality: Heterosexist -can be linked to reproduction, gendered, over lifecourse, link to $, link to love, link to violence, central to our identity.
Our culture on masturbation
US on masturbation: gendered- as male, shameful, adolescent, desperate, negative. -some cultures embrace it, some ignore it
REA prompts
Use bolded prompts
Victorian American Women's role/duty in men's sexual desire
Victorian American Women's role/duty in men's sexual desire: Women's job to take care of men's instincts
Victorian American Women's sexual desire
Victorian American Women's sexual desire: -women have little to no sexual desire -relatively a-sexual -only reproductive desire
Victorian Americans: Gendered desire
Victorian Americans: White middle class ideology -formalized culture, appearance mattered, proper behavior, emphasis on women purity -upper and middle class white Americans
Victorian physicians treatment of hysteria
Victorian physicians treatment of hysteria: "Hysteria" treated with hysterectomy or clitorectomy -Genital massage given by Doctor to produce hysterical paroxysm (orgasm)-- seen as nonsexual -only penetration was sexual- massaging vulva/clit not sexual but pap smear was.
eligible for REA
What readings are eligible for a given REA: numbered articles not boxes
When vibrators became less medicalized and more sexualized
When vibrators became less medicalized and more sexualized: -In 1920's they disappear. -Vibrators in erotic films therefore not in reputable catalogs -Emergence in 1960's: Vibrators made a comeback in the 1960s, 70s during the sexual revolution
Writing assignment (in-class) make-up policy:
Writing assignment (in-class) make-up policy: No makeup, no leaving room
# of answer choices
answer choices: 4 or 5
do not use icollege, use g.s.u email. Best contact: G.S.U EMAIL
measures of sexual orientation
measures of sexual orientation: Attraction/Desire, Behavior, (on the DL, more complicated) Identity --Community? (STR8 DUDES)
Who can make up an exam/under what conditions
official university business documented in writing during the first week of the semester, important religious holidays documented in writing during the first week of the semester, and legal obligations with proper documentation submitted within a week of learning about the obligation.
problems with existing "box" system of sexual orientation/identity
problems with existing "box" system of sexual orientation/identity: -doesn't allow for complexities -not everyone fits into a precise box (L, G, S, B)
sexual identity
sexual identity: category you choose to describe yourself as to sexual attraction ID's: Queer=catch all term, used to reject heteronormativity/traditional sexual identities -fluidity, openess -lesbian, bi, gay, straight, pansexual (everyone)
sexual orientation
sexual orientation: refers to sexual attraction based on sex of a partner. -biology -heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, queer, pansexual, etc
sexual preference
sexual preference: used by anti gay activist. -anti biology, -seen as a lifestyle choice, -sexual orientation vs. sexual preference = older terms fighting back and forth
