SOCI 369 Midterm 1

sexology

studies the science of sexuality

• use quantification and formal scientific techniques

psychology (Freud)

studies the core sense of self vs social conflict

• psychoanalytic: focuses on the conflict between individual pleasure and societal expectations

economics - main concepts

production and consumption

production

• the family is a unified household responsible for producing its own needs in order to sustain itself

  • sex is used for procreation to continue the functioning of the family

consumption

sex is liberated from the confines of the family unit

• can exist freely as it is not necessary to maintain status quo

• serves to satisfy the emergence of niche markets

feminism - main idea

gender is the base of everything, all else is suprastructure around it

4 ideas of feminism

• socialization

• institutional compulsion

• domination and control

• hierarchies

socialization (Chodorow)

how are young peopel socialized to think of what it means to be a man, woman, boy or girl?

• do you connect to your mother or separate from and identify with your father instead?

institutional compulsion (Rich)

social, legal, and societal structures make heterosexuality the only option

domination and control (McKinnon)

focuses on power relations between men and women

• to what extent do men extend domination and control over women?

hierarchies

some genders, sexualities, and behaviours are given more legitimacy/power than others

sociology - 3 theories

• sexual scripts

• labels

• nature vs nurture

sexual scripts

we experience cultural narratives that surround us

• being exposed to this, we encounter stories that teach us how to behave as a gendered person

• we take these in and reenact them to become a gendered self

labels

words that tell us what kind of sex we like, whether they have good or bad labels

• eg: “normative” vs “hedonistic”

nature vs nurture

to what extent is there a genetic or biological basis of sexuality? is it socially constructed?

gay/lesbian studies

focus on historical developments and emergence of sexual identities

queer studies - main ideas

• discourse

• performance

discourse

sexuality is produced through discourse - the language and ideas we use to talk about sexuality

• what’s considered normal/abnormal is dependent on these discourses

performance (Butler)

gender is something we perform, instead of something we are

• when someone performs gender “successfully” to fit societal expectations, they are understood

• when someone does not fit these expectations, people become confused or uncomfortable and try to judge/regulate/correct their behaviour