Tutorial 4 handout- sexual citizenship & sexual politics

Reading 1: Travis Kong, “Transnational Queer Sociological Analysis of Sexual

Identity and Civic-political activism in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland
China”.

● Transnational Queer Theory: a brand new methodology

● historical theoretical development before;
● geological analysis: homonationalism
○ Taiwan: active citizens;
○ Hong Kong: political impasse;
○ mainland China: family cultural movements

Question 1
How will you define the term ‘nationalism’? Do you think it will contribute to social
sexual movements?

Question 2
Do you think the ‘Transnational Queer Theory’ is already a perfect sociological queer
analysis methodology? Are there any drawbacks?

Reading 2 Rubin, Gayle. (2007[1984]). “Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical

Theory of the Politics of Sexuality”.

The need for sexual theories and politics- “The realm of sexuality has its own internal
politics, inequalities, and modes of oppression” (Gayle, p.143)

The notion of sexuality

● Sexual essentialism and sexual constructivism
● How sexual theories influence formulation of sexual politics

Sex Negativity and the sex hierarchy

● What is a normal and abnormal sexuality
● Standards on sexuality and their implications

Sexual Transformation
● The development of sexuality from traditional kin-based system to a modern
system of sexuality

Sexual Stratification
● Consensual acts of sexuality and their legality under sex laws
● Sexual stratification in different aspects of life- Economy and family
Sexual conflicts
● sexual-political conflict (territorial & border)
● moral panics

Limits of Feminism
● feminism claims
● the middle moderate feminists
● Gayle’s opposition and new sights on the relationship between gender and
sexuality

Question 3
Do you agree that ‘Sexuality is to feminism what work is to marxism…the moulding,
direction, and expression of sexuality organizes society into two sexes, women and
men”? (MacKinnon, 1982, pp.5-16)

Question 4
What other forms of sexual stratification can you figure out in the society? (Or under
the context of Hong Kong?)

Reading 3 Richardson, Diane. (2000). “Constructing Sexual Citizenship:

Theorizing Sexual Rights”.

Defining sexual citizenship

● How do we understand sexual citizenship?- rights and responsibilities
● How have sexual citizenship been conceptualized in the past decades?- the
right of consumption or individual rights

Defining sexual rights

● Conduct-based right claims
○ The right to participate in sexual activities- Privacy/ Morality
○ The right to sexual pleasure- Feminist strategy and its fallacies
○ The right to sexual self-determination- Possibility of male precedence
● Identity-based right claims
○ The right to self-definition- Strategic essentialism, however a mere right
of identity but not on expressions
○ The right to self-expression- The need for coming out?
○ The right to self-realization- How to actualize and what to ask for?
● Relationships right claims
○ The right of consent to sexual practice in personal relationships- Age of
consent and the legality of sexual practice
○ The right to freely choose our sexual partners- Miscegenation and
racial considerations
 ○ The right to publicly recognized relationships- Disparity in social
welfare across sexualities

Question 5
Which of the three types of sexual rights mentioned by Richardson do you think
should be prioritized in constructing a sexual citizenship or policy for the bisexual
community? Hence, do you think it is necessary for bisexuals to come out in order to
argue for their rights?

Question 6
How does social welfares apply to the notion of sexual citizenship proposed by
Evans (1993) ? How does this apply to the theorizing of sexual rights?