POLITICS OF SEX
Subject Guide
Semester One, 2017
Subject Overview / Subject Description
This subject introduces ideas developed in feminist theory about the social and political construction of areas of experience relating to the body, gender and sexuality. Issues analysed in the subject include transsexualism, reproduction, eating disorders, pornography, sex work, sexual violence and sexual orientation. Students who complete this subject should be able to understand the ways in which issues connected with the body and sexuality are socially and politically constructed, understand the ways in which the construction of masculinity and femininity affects the learning and regulation of such areas of experience, and apply a variety of feminist approaches to the analysis of these issues.
Learning Objectives
On completion of this subject students should:
• Be able to show understanding of key concepts in feminist political theory;
• Be able to use these concepts to critically analyse issues;
• Be able to explain the ways in which issues connected with the body and
sexuality are socially and politically constructed;
• Be able to demonstrate qualitative research skills, drawing upon empirical and
theoretical scholarship in the social and political sciences.
Skills
• In addition you will also develop generic skills that will assist you in any career you choose
• research- through competent use of the library and other information sources, and the definition of areas of inquiry and methods of research;
• critical thinking and analysis - through recommended reading, essay writing and tutorial discussion, and by determining the strength of an argument;
• thinking in theoretical terms - through lectures, tutorial discussion, essay writing and engagement in the methodologies of the humanities and social sciences;
• understanding of social, ethical and cultural context - through the contextualisation of judgements, developing a critical self-awareness, being open to new ideas and possibilities and by constructing an argument;
• communicating knowledge intelligibly and economically - through essay writing and tutorial discussion;
• written communication - through essay preparation and writing;
• public speaking - through tutorial discussion and class presentations;
• attention to detail - through essay preparation and writing; time management
and planning through managing and organising workloads for recommended reading, essay and assignment completion.
Schedule of Lectures and Readings
Week 1 / Monday 27thFebruary, 2017:
Introduction to Sexuality and Gender
This week will look at how the course is organised and introduce the concepts of sex and gender.
Kate Millett, “Instances of Sexual Politics”, Sexual Politics (London, Virago, 1977): 3-22. Kate Millett, “Theory of Sexual Politics”, Sexual Politics (London, Virago, 1977): 23-58.
Nancy M. Henley, “Body Politics and Beyond”, Feminism and Psychology, v. 12, i. 3 (2002): 295- 310.
Sheila Jeffreys, “Transfemininity: “Dressed” men reveal the naked reality of male power”, Beauty and Misogyny: Harmful Cultural Practices in the West (London: Routledge, 2005): 46-66.
Week 2 / Monday 6thMarch, 2017:
Sexology and the Sexual Revolution
The ‘science’ of sexology over the last century has been important in constructing common sense notions of sex and sexuality. This week we will look at the origins of sexology and its construction of male and female heterosexuality around dominance and submission and the categorisation of homosexuality. We will see how the ideas of
sexology helped to construct what has been seen as the ‘sexual revolution’ of the sixties and seventies, a revolution from which a new wave of feminism and gay liberation emerged.
Margaret Jackson, “Sexology and the universalisation of male sexuality”, in The Sexuality Papers, eds. LalCoveney (London: Hutchinson, 1984): 69-84.
Havelock Ellis, “Love and Pain”, in The Sexuality Debates, ed. Sheila Jeffreys (New York: Routledge, 1987): 505-533.
Marilyn Myerson, “The Politics of Sexual Knowledge: Feminism and Sexology Textbooks”, Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, v. 9, i. 1 (1986): 66-71.
Chloë Taylor, “Female Sexual Dysfunction, Feminist Sexology, and the Psychiatry of the Normal”, Feminist Studies, v. 41, n. 2 (2015): 259-292.
Debra A. Moddelmog, “Modernism and Sexology”, Literature Compass, v. 11, n. 4 (2014): 267-278.
Week 3 / Monday 13thMarch 2017:
Feminist Theory and Sexuality
This week we look at the varieties of feminist theory and the different ways in which they have tended to approach sexuality and sexual violence. We will look at the distinctions between liberal, radical, socialist and postmodern feminist thought on these issues.
Catharine MacKinnon, “Chapter 7”, Towards a Feminist Theory of the State (Cambridge, MA: Harvard 1989).
Gayle Rubin, “Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality”, in The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader, ed. Henry Abelove (New York: Routledge, 1993): 3- 44.
Brenda Cossman, Dan Danielsen, Janet Halley, and Tracy Higgins, “Gender, Sexuality, and Power: Is Feminist Theory Enough?”,Columbia Journal of Gender and Law, v. 12, i. 3 (2003): 601-637.
Elizabeth K. Keenan, "Who Are You Calling ‘Lady’?”: Femininity, Sexuality and Third- Wave Feminism”, Journal of Popular Music Studies, v. 20, i. 4 (2008): 378-401.
Week 4 / Monday 20thMarch, 2017:
Women’s Bodies in Politics: Fashion and Beauty
This week we will look here at the construction of beauty for women including several aspects of the politics of appearance such as cosmetic surgery and the construction of ageing as a disease. We will also look at various ways of interpreting body modification practices including cutting, piercing and tattooing.
Elizabeth Haiken, “Chapter 6”, Venus Envy: A History of Cosmetic Surgery (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997): 228-286.
Sheila Jeffreys, “‘Body Art’ and Social Status: Cutting, Tattooing and Piercing from a Feminist Perspective”, Feminism and Psychology, v. 10, n. 4 (2000): 409-429.
Annette Corrigan, “Fashion, Beauty and Feminism”, Meanjin, v. 51, n. 1 (1992): 107-122. Elizabeth Groeneveld, “‘Be a feminist of just dress like one’: BUST, fashion and feminism as lifestyle”, Journal of Gender Studies, v. 18, n. 2 (2009): 179-190.
Week 5 / Monday 27thMarch, 2017:
Women’s Bodies in Politics: The Politics of Reproductive Technologies
This week we will examine the implications of the medicalisation of women’s reproductive bodies through vaccinations against pregnancy and HPV, hormone for menopause and reproductive technologies for women, such as surrogacy and abortion, and why there has been disagreement between feminists about the usefulness of these developments to women.
Finn Bowring, “Making Babies: The Appropriation of Life”, Science, Seeds and Cyborgs. Biotechnology and the Appropriation of Life (London and New York: Verso, 2003): 227- 258.
Adrienne Rich, “Hands of Flesh, Hands of Iron”, Of Woman Born (London: Virago, 1991): 28-155.
Judith Richter, “Introduction”, Vaccination Against Pregnancy: Miracle or Menace? (Melbourne: Spinifex, 1996): 1-10.
Maya Dusenbery, “The Little Pink Pill That Sparked a Feminist War”, PS Mag, Jan/Feb (2016): 30-25.
Week 6 / Monday 3rdApril, 2017:
Indigenous, Ethnic Minority and Black Feminist Politics
This week will look at the contribution of indigenous, ethnic minority and Black feminists to the development of feminist theory.
Hazel V. Carby, “White woman listen! Black feminism and the boundaries of sisterhood”, in Black British Feminism: A Reader (London: Routledge, 1997): 45-53.
Eva Johnson, “A Question of Difference”, Taking a Stand: Women in Politics and Society, ed. JocelynneScutt (Melbourne: Artemis, 1994): 250-258.
Judy Atkinson, “We Al-li: A program of healing”, Trauma Trails: Recreating Song Lines (Melbourne: Spinifex. 2002): 93-145.
Erendira Cervantes-Altamirano, “Islamic Feminism and the Challenges of Gender, Sexuality and LGBTQ Rights in Contemporary Islam”, The International Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Society, v. 2 (2013): 76-85.
Week 7 / Week Beginning Monday 10thApril, 2017:
No Lectures
Week 8 / Monday 24thApril, 2017
The Politics of Sexual Violence
This week will look at the development of feminist theory around men’s sexual violence towards women. We will concentrate on rape and relationship rape in particular and on the concept of consent.
Lynn M. Phillips, “Managing Contradictions”, Flirting with Danger(New York: New York University Press, 2000): 111-148.
Catharine MacKinnon, "Sex and Violence: A perspective", Feminism Unmodified (Cambridge, MA: Harvard 1989): 85-92.
Anastasia Powell, Nicola Henry, Asher Flynn and Emma Henderson, “Meanings of ‘Sex’ and ‘Consent’: The Persistence of Rape Myths in Victorian Rape Law”, Griffith Law Review, v. 22, i 2 (2013): 456-480.
Heather Wilhelm, “The ‘rape culture’ lie: zero shades of grey”, Commentary, March (2015): 24-30.
Week 9 / Monday 1stMay, 2017
Lesbian Feminist Theory
This week will look at the development of lesbian feminism and lesbian feminist theory, concentrating on the theorising of heterosexuality.
Sheila Jeffreys, “Gay Liberation and Lesbian Feminism”, Unpacking Queer Politics (Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2003): 9-31.
Adrienne Rich, “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence”, in Desire: The Politics of Sexuality, ed. Ann Snitow (New York: Virago 1984): 212-241.
Helen Tate, “The Ideological Effects of a Failed Constitutive Rhetoric: The Co-option of the Rhetoric of White Lesbian Feminism”, Women’s Studies in Communication, v. 28, n. 1 (2005): 1-31.
Kathy Rudy, “Radical feminism, lesbian separatism, and queer theory”, Feminist Studies, 27 (2001): 191-222.
Week 10 / Monday 8th May, 2017:
Pornography
Pornography is the topic that has revealed most clearly the different feminist perspectives involved in what have been called the “feminist sexuality debates”. This week we compare the radical feminist anti-porn position versus the libertarian pro-sex position.
Catharine MacKinnon, “Pornography: On Morality and Politics”, Towards a Feminist Theory and the State (Cambridge, MA: Harvard, 1989): 195-214.
Paula Webster, “Pornography and Pleasure”, Heresies, Sex Issue (1981): 48-51.
Ariel Levy, “Raunch Culture”, Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch
Culture (Melbourne: Schwartz Publishing, 2005). 7-45.
Rachael Liberman, “‘It’s a really great tool’: feminist pornography and the promotion of sexual subjectivity”, Porn Studies, n. 2, i. 3 (2015): 174-191.
Week 11 / Monday 15th May, 2017:
The Politics of Prostitution
This week will examine differing feminist views on prostitution. These range from the sexual libertarian position, that prostitution is just a job like any other, to the views of many feminist anti-pornography campaigners who view men’s use of women in prostitution as a crime against women.
Mary Sullivan, What Happens When Prostitution Becomes Work? (Amherst, MA: Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, 2005).
Amber Cooke, “Sex Trade Workers and Feminists: Myths and Illusions”, in Good Girls. Bad Girls, ed. Laurie Bell (Toronto: Women’s Press, 1987): 190-203.
NahiSorooshyari, “The tensions between feminism and libertarianism: a focus on prostitution”, Jurisprudence Review, v. 30, n. 167 (2010): 167-193.
Jay Levy and PyeJakobsson, “Abolitionist feminism as patriarchal control: Swedish understandings of prostitution and trafficking”, Dialectical Anthropology, 3 (2013): 333- 340.
Week 12 / Monday 22nd May, 2017
• No Lectures in Week 12
Assessment
There are 2 pieces of assessment for this course. All pieces must be completed for a pass in this subject.
ASSESSMENT TASK  |
 WEIGHTING |
WORD LENGTH |
DUE DATE |
 SUBMISSION METHOD |
| Argumentative Research Essay | 50% | 2000 | 5pm Monday 24thApril, 2017 | Via LMS only |
|
Argumentative Research Essay |
50% |
2000 |
5pm Monday 5thJune, 2017 |
Via LMS only |
