Handbook of the New Sexuality Studies

Steven Seidman, Nancy Fischer, Chet Meeks, Steven Seidman, Nancy Fischer, Chet Meeks

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2007
• ISBN:
  9781134169221
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: LGBT Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

As the field of sexuality studies has become a growth area in academia and classes on sexuality studies are incorporated into various disciplines, the expanding book market has been filled with specialist oriented texts which are often theoretically focused and contain too many summaries for an undergraduate audience. Addressing this imbalance, this key new volume presents the field of sexuality in an accessible and engaging way for undergraduates.

Breaking new ground, both substantively and stylistically, this book offers students, academics and researchers an accessible, engaging introduction and overview of this emerging field. Its central premise is to explore the social character of sexuality, the role of social differences such as race or nationality in creating sexual variation, and the ways sex is entangled in relations of power and inequality. Through this novel approach, the field of sexuality is considered, for the first time, in multicultural, global, and comparative terms and from a truly social perspective.

This important volume consists of over fifty short and original essays on the key topics and themes in sexuality studies, and interviews with twelve leading scholars in the field which convey some of the most innovative work being done. Each contribution clearly conveys the latest research with examples. Ideal for students of gender and sexuality studies, this topical and timely volume will be an invaluable resource to all those with an interest in sexuality studies.

Part 1
Sex as a social fact

Introduction

There have always been homosexuals. Just as nature produces heterosexuals, so it produces homosexuals. And homosexuals are different from heterosexuals – sexually, psychologically, and socially. In other words, heterosexuals and homosexuals are two different human or social types. These statements are widely believed by many people across the globe.

However, scholars have questioned these beliefs. True enough, there have always been individuals who desire individuals of the same sex. There are men who sexually prefer men and women who sexually prefer women. But these individuals may experience their sexuality very differently depending on the meaning and social organization of same-sex sexuality. If homosexuality is understood as a personal and social identity, especially a deviant identity, the experience of homosexuality will be very different than if it is understood as just a desire or behavior. In the former case, the individual may be viewed as a danger to society. This person might be stigmatized and driven to the margins of society or even forced to exit society. If homosexuality is viewed as a behavior, even a criminal behavior, the behavior, not the individual, will be punished. Homosexual behavior will be treated like any other legal violation such as drinking under age, adultery, or prostitution. In nineteenth-century America, same-sex behavior was treated the same as fornication, adultery or bestiality – as a minor criminal violation.

In fact, we now know that the idea of a homosexual identity only appears late in history, and only in some societies. Even today, as the chapters on homosexuality in Denmark and the Netherlands show, being gay or lesbian is not an identity in those nations like it is in the US or the UK.

One of the pioneers of a social perspective on sexuality and homosexuality is the British sociologist Jeffrey Weeks. His research suggests that it was in the late nineteenth century in the US and Europe that the idea of homosexuality as an identity initially emerged. And this new identity was a creation of a new science of sexuality that was created by sexologists and psychologists who classified sexual behaviors into sexual types or identities. Weeks’s research, along with the work of many others, made possible new studies in the history and sociology of all aspects of sexuality. While his research is historical, other sociologists have used interviews or surveys to examine the social patterns of sexuality. In one of the largest national surveys ever done in the United States, Edward Laumann and his colleagues charted the changing sexual habits of Americans. One of the more interesting findings was how little change occurred in the last few decades. Differences between men’s and women’s sexuality remain strong, sexual dysfunction continues to plague Americans, and finding intimate happiness in marriage remains a compelling motivation. Yet there is a new frankness about sexual talk, especially about dysfunctions, and these researchers discovered a big divide between younger and older generations in terms of their sexual attitudes and behaviors. This generational divide suggests potentially significant change in the future.

Although sociologists have been innovators in the new sexuality studies, other social approaches have been equally important. For example, Marxists have underscored the role of the economy and class differences in shaping sexual desires, identities, and patterns of behavior. Marxists remind us that social class is expressed in intimate behaviors. As a simple illustration, we would expect lower divorce rates among blue-collar couples because of reduced financial flexibility. Similarly, feminists have pointed to the social role of gender in the dynamics of sexual patterns. They force us to confront the ways men and women differ in their sexual values, behaviors, and approaches to intimacy due to differences in their social roles. For example, sexual pleasure for women carries unique dangers associated with pregnancy and violence. In general, men, at least in contemporary America and in many European societies, rely heavily on their sexual prowess for their sense of gender identity. Women seem to value sex more as a building block of emotional intimacy. In addition to Marxist and feminist social approaches, recently there have developed perspectives that focus on the role of scientific knowledges, medical experts, and popular culture in shaping sexual meanings, norms and behaviors. So, in order for homosexuality to be viewed as a social identity, this idea has to be circulated throughout society by means of popular and scientific-medical culture.

In this part, you’ll be introduced to different social perspectives on sexuality. These should not be seen as mutually exclusive; rather, they are conceptual resources that can help you to understand the complexities of sexual meanings and practices. You’ll be treated to interviews with two leading researchers in the sociology of sexuality. You’ll learn not only about their social research but something of the political and moral motivations of their sociology of sexuality.

1
Theoretical perspectives

Steven Seidman
State University of New York, Albany

What is the relationship between sex and society? Beginning with sexologists who propose a view of sex as fundamentally biological, I review various social approaches to understanding sexuality. I take for granted the belief that there is a biological basis for human impulses, drives, and desires. However, it is social forces that fashion a biological reality into “sexuality.” Individuals and groups give meaning to bodily sensations and feelings, make erotic acts into sexual identities, and create norms distinguishing between acceptable and unacceptable sexualities.

Sexology: a natural order of sexuality

Why do many of us in America and Europe view sexuality as natural? One reason is the development of a science of sexuality. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, there developed a science aimed at discovering the laws of sexuality. This science has come to be called sexology.

Who are the sexologists? Among the more famous are Richard von Krafft-Ebing, Havelock Ellis, and Magnus Hirschfeld. While few of us today have heard of these nineteenth-century pioneers of sexology, many of us have heard of Alfred Kinsey or of Masters and Johnson. Sexologists have produced a body of knowledge that has influenced the way many of us think about sex, in part because their ideas have been stamped with the imprimatur of science.

What are the key ideas of sexology? First, sexology claims that humans are born with a sexual nature, and that sexuality is part of the biological makeup of all individuals. Second, sexology views sexuality as being at the core of what it means to be human: our sexual drive is no less basic than our need to eat or sleep. Sexuality is said to be basic to who we are. Third, sexuality is viewed as a powerful and driving force in our behavior. It influences all aspects of our lives, from the physical to the psychological. It motivates much of human behavior. Fourth, sexology states that the sexual instinct is, by nature, heterosexual. There is said to be a natural attraction between men and women. While few sexologists today believe that the chief purpose of sexuality is to procreate, they continue to think that heterosexuality is the natural and normal form of sexuality.

Sexologists aim to discover the laws of sexuality. Just as physics and biology distrust inherited ideas and test them in experiments, sexology has championed a vigorously scientific approach. Facts, not beliefs, are to guide this science. The truth of sexuality is to be discovered by means of the “case study” method. Like physicians or psychiatrists, sexologists use intensive interviews and observation to uncover the true nature of sexuality. The details of human sexual desires, fantasies, and practices are recorded for the purpose of revealing the laws of the sexual instinct. Sexologists develop elaborate classifications of sexual types and detail the range of normal and abnormal forms of sexuality.

Sexology has always had a social purpose. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, some sexologists sought to expand tolerance for different forms of human sexuality by emphasizing that sexuality is natural. Other sexologists saw their work as a way to contribute to creating a healthy, fit population. Often this meant that sexology was aligned to a belief in racial purity and improvement. Some sexologists even discouraged the sexual intermingling of races.

As racist ideas lost favor during the twentieth century, sexology has often been allied to a mission of strengthening the institutions of marriage and the family. Sexologists have argued that sex is at the core of love and marriage, and that a stable happy marriage requires a mutually satisfying sexual relationship. Individuals should not be burdened by guilt; they must be sexually knowledgeable and skilled. Sexology has aimed to make sexually enlightened and skillful citizens who would marry and stay married, in part because of a mutually satisfying sex life.

While their writings are sometimes technical and often tedious, sexologists have shaped Western sexual culture. Their ideas about the naturalness of sexuality have been popularized by an army of sex advice writers. Many of us believe in the idea of a natural sexuality because of the sexologists.

Freud: between biology and sociology

Alongside sexology, the discipline of psychology has been the source of many of our ideas about sex. In particular, Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, has been probably the single most influential thinker in shaping Western sexual culture.

Freud aimed to uncover the roots of human psychology in our sex drives. Freud accepted many of the ideas of the sexologists. He believed in the biological basis of sexuality and insisted that sexuality is at the root of many of our feelings and actions. Freud also thought that there is a normal course of sexual development and there are abnormal or perverse forms of sexuality. The defining feature of sexual abnormality was deviation from genital-centered, intercourse-oriented heterosexuality based on love and monogamy.

But Freud also disagreed with the sexologists. Whereas sexologists defined the sexual instinct as reproductive and naturally heterosexual, Freud argued that the sexual instinct is oriented to pleasure. Moreover, humans get pleasure not only from sexual intercourse, but also from kissing, touching, caressing, looking, and sometimes dominating and being dominated. Freud argued that the body has many erotic areas and there are many ways of experiencing sexual satisfaction. Accordingly, he held that nongenital pleasures are not necessarily abnormal. It is normal, for example, to enjoy the range of pleasures that are today called foreplay.

Viewing the sexual instinct as a drive for pleasure blurs the line between normal and abnormal. To most sexologists, any sexual expression that deviated from a heterosexual reproductive aim was abnormal. However, Freud allows for a wide range of normal sexual expression beyond heterosexual reproduction. Pursuing nonprocreative pleasures is not in itself abnormal; sex drives become abnormal only when they are fixated on one specific sex act or pleasure. For example, it is normal for individuals to feel pleasure from looking at someone or from kissing and touching. It is abnormal, though, when these pleasures replace heterosexual intercourse.

Freud was convinced that sex is at the core of the self. It is, he thought, the drive for erotic pleasure that places the individual in conflict with social norms of respectability and self-control. Sexuality is then a major focus of psychological and social conflict. The psychological character of the individual rests on how the sex drive is managed. Too much sexual expression leads to psychological and social instability. Excessive social control results in psychosexual frustration that brings personal unhappiness.

Freud held to a much deeper social understanding of sexuality than the sexologists. If the sexual instinct is somewhat flexible in its purpose, it is society that shapes its form and meaning. In particular, the family is the formative social environment shaping our psyches and sexualities. Our psychological and sexual selves take shape as we struggle with the conflict between a drive for sexual pleasure and the social expectation to be productive, responsible citizens.

Marxism: the economics of sexuality

The ideas of the sexologists and psychologists have established important traditions in thinking about sex. However, they emphasize the natural, biological roots of sexuality. They have little to say about how social forces such as religion, the state, or the economy actually form biological impulses into sexual desires, create sexual identities, and establish rules and norms that regulate our sexual behavior.

In the twentieth century, new social ways of thinking about sex appeared. We will review some of the chief social theoretical perspectives that continue to influence the sociology of sexuality.

We begin with Karl Marx. Now, Marx himself had little to say about sex, but he was a great social thinker. One of his key insights was that human nature, including our sexuality, is shaped by society and changes historically.

Marxists argue that the economy is the most important social force shaping human behavior. Consider the way a capitalist economy shapes sexuality. Capitalism is oriented toward profit and economic growth. Marx believed that profit is based on exploiting labor, and growth occurs by reinvesting profits back into an enterprise. Marxists distinguish two phases of capitalist development in Europe and the United States. A market-based capitalism was dominant throughout the nineteenth century; since the early twentieth century, capitalism has been shaped by large corporations.

In the market phase, the chief challenge is to produce enough goods to meet the needs of the population. The answer: a disciplined labor force must be created. Individuals must adapt to the rhythms of a system of mass production that progressively strips work of individual imagination and skill. Ideally, capitalists would like to see laborers become ...

Table of contents

• Routledge International Handbooks
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• General introduction
• Part 1 Sex as a social fact
• Part 2 Sexual meanings
• Part 3 Sexual bodies and behaviors
• Part 4 Sexual identities
• Part 5 Sexual institutions and sexual commerce
• Part 6 Sexual cultures
• Part 7 Sexual regulation and inequality
• Part 8 Sexual politics