Lecture Notes: 1

Intro to sexuality studies:

What is sex?:
- Biological sex: Broken down into…
- Gametes
- Comes from greek route, meaning marriage
- Sperm (male gametes)
- Ova( female gametes)
- Biological hermaphroditism
- Chromosomes: Part of the cell that contains genes that defines how the
body develops
- Male Chromosomes ( XY)
- Female Chromosomes (XX)
- Intersex Chromosomes ( XXY, XO)
- 22 pairs of chromosomes plus the sex chromosomes
- Hormones
- Chemical substance that flows through our blood
- Stimulates other functions
- Estrogen, female sex hormones
- Testosterone, male sex hormones
- Adrenaline, insulin etc
- Sexed categories:
- Male
- Female
- Intersex
- Sexual Dimorphism
- Secondary sexual characteristics
- Members of the same species will reveal about their sex body beyond the
genitals
- Ex. voice, facial hair, build etc (male)
- Ex. wider hips, large breasts (female)
- Sex and Biological Reproduction:
- Reproduction
- Heterosexual intercourse
- Biological and Sexual Diversity
- More researchers are finding how varied the sex body is
- Biological diversity is potentially infinite and unpredictable
- Sexual variability in biological terms exists on a continuum rather than as a fixed
binary
- How do facts of “sex” translate into “sexuality”
- Sex and sexuality are connected but are not the same thing
- If SEX relates to functioning of the body…
 - Sexuality relates to sexual orientation, and to how the body is read,
interpreted, fashioned, imagined, constrained, disciplined etc. in the social
world
- Sexuality is closely related to the category of gender
- Which comes first?? Sex ?? Sexuality?? Gender??:
- What is gender:
- Is not biological
- Its social
- WHO( World Health Organization) describes it as the socially constructed roles…
that a given society considers appropriate for men and women”
- Genders describes codes, behaviour, and ways of performing in the world that
mark us as feminine or masculine
- The codes are deeply embedded socially and often manifested in unconscious
ways
- Gender norms
- Our culture produces definite ideas about what a “man” and a “woman” should
look like
- We are constantly bombarded with images of ideal femininity and ideal
masculinity
- Sex/gender system
- How we interpret “Sexed” identities in our culture
- A person’s SEX refers to their genital makeup
- People’s genitals are the one part of their body that are prohibited from being
seen in a public context
- Gender is therefore a “creation” of the social, a translation of “sex” into a complex
body of social codes
- We learn to perform our gendered selves
- Ex.
- Born female or male
- Perfor femininity or masculinity
- Desire opposite sex
- Produces a NORMALTIVE MODEL OF SEXUALITY
- Sex and Gender do not always align comfortably
- Ones gendered identification can be different from ones sexed body
- Ones’ sexual orientation may not conform to the SEX/GENDER system
- When sex and gender don’t align, a person may be transgender
- GENDER: as a category helps us to understand how femininity and masculinity are
socially constructed
- SEXUALITY: as a category helps us to understand how sexual orientation is socially
constructed, controlled, disciplined and modelled
- Sexuality studies is…
- Interdisciplinary Encounter Between…
- Feminism
- Critical Theory
 - Queer Theory
- Sociology
- Postcolonial studies and
- Cultural studies
- A study of how we construct our sexuality through social phenomena;
- Discourse
- Institutions
- Ideology
- Binary thought
- The sex/gender system
- Why do categories of sexuality and gender matter?:
- The first question we always ask when a baby is born is “What’s the sex of the
baby?”
- Why is sexuality important:
- Our sexed and gendered identities establish us as subjects in the social world
- Without them, we are not considered subjects
- We are not treated as fully human, or as fully intelligible
- Sex, Sexuality and Gender are foundational aspects of identity formation( along
with race, ethnicity, class etc.)
- Subjects who do not conform to the sex/gender system are repeatedly punished
- They are often not protected by human rights legislation
- In certain countries they are imprisoned or subject to the death penalty.
- How sexuality functions:
- Sexuality expresses social manifestations of sex and sexual orientation
- For humans, SEX is always more than a bodily response
- SEX is filtered through layers of meaning…
- Through taboos
- Laws
- Prohibitions
- Gender construction
- Models of masculinity and femininity
- Class
- Economics etc.
- “We never encounter the body unmediated by the meanings that culture give to
it”
- The body is always being interpreted in society
- The body is marked
- SEXUALITY shows that SEX has a history and geography
- SEX will signify differently in different historical periods and in different cultures
- Is Sex private or public?:
- SEXUALITY brings what we think of as the PRIVATE domain of SEX into the
PUBLIC domains of politics
- In fact, Sex has always been part of PUBLIC AND INSTITUTIONAL
DISCOURSES
 - What institution has played greatest role in controlling sex and sexuality:
- Marriage
- Marriage has always monitored, controlled and policed sexual
behavior
- Marriage has changed over time and place
- Marriage has also helped define and shape gender
- What are the effects of marriage?
- Marriage confers sexual legitimacy
- Married couples are good citizens
- Married couples have more social capital than unmarried couples
- Married couples are economically supported by governments through tax breaks,
inheritance rights etc.
- Useful terms:
- Discourse
- Written and spoken communication; codified language (legal discourse,
medical discourse etc)
- Ideology
- The body of ideas reflecting the social needs and aspirations of an
individual, group, class, or culture
- Ex. Bourgeois ideology
- A system of ideas and ideals especially one that forms the basis of
economic or political policy
- Ex. Neoliberal ideology, communist ideology
- Normativity
- Relating to the ideal standard or model
- Cultural Norms
- Shared values that aim to produce social cohesion and make
society homogeneous
- Norms
- Reflect popularity-endorsed beliefs
- Ex. Family values, Common sense
- Norms are necessary for the functioning of society, but they also need to
be regularly questioned and critiqued