New Orleans : A Controversial Theory Of The Politics Of Sexuality Essay

The paper written by Kennedy and Davis, which was called The Reproduction of Butch-Fem Roles: A Social Constructionist Approach, provides further evidence that the history of sexuality is young and

In his article, “The Invention of Sexuality”, Weeks argued that sexuality is a product of society and is shaped by

Ira L. Reiss, a well-known sociologist, has contributed greatly to the field of human sexuality and in the 1960’s brilliantly predicted the revolutionary changes in sexual attitudes. In his novel, An End to Shame: Shaping Our Next Sexual Revolution, Reiss develops the notion that our previous sexual revolution did not adequately eliminate the inequalities related to sexuality. In reality he argues that America is in need of a newly formed sexual revolution, one that will address the negative consequences that our sex negative culture is experiencing. A significant portion of our population argues that these consequences are due to the fact that we talk too much and too soon about sex. This is an inaccurate view of the reasoning behind the sexual problems we are experiencing in America, as in reality the negative sexual outcomes we observe are due to the opposite of this view. This misconception is a common explanation for our sexual problems and many believe it is the key to solving our sexual crisis, but in reality is part of the problem. Reiss argues that “America is long overdue for a rendezvous with sexual reality” (18) and that the future of our nation depends on accepting these realities.

have looked at the history of sexuality since the 18th century in what Foucault calls

Sexuality has an inherent connection to human nature. Yet, even in regards to something so natural, societies throughout times have imposed expectations and gender roles upon it. Ultimately, these come to oppress women, and confine them within the limits that the world has set for them. However, society is constantly evolving, and within the past 200 years, the role of women has changed. These changes in society can be seen within the intricacies of literature in each era. Specifically, through analyzing The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, one can observe the dynamics of society in regards to the role of women through the lens of the theme of sexuality. In both novels, the confinement and oppression of women can be visibly seen as a result of these gender roles. Yet, from the time The Scarlet Letter was published to the time The Bell Jar was written, the place of women in society ultimately changed as well. Hence when evaluating the gender roles that are derived from sexuality, the difference between the portrayals of women’s oppression in each novel becomes apparent, and shows how the subjugation of women has evolved. The guiding question of this investigation is to what extent does the theme of sexuality reflect the expectations for women in society at the time each novel was written. The essay will explore how the literary elements that form each novel demonstrate each author’s independent vision which questions the

The benefits as explained above will be the lifeblood of New Orleans. These sectors include tourism, port operations, wages, and taxes. I feel that examining these areas will give us a better look at the microeconomics of New Orleans and allows us to better estimate the benefits of a recovery effort.

Foucault asks "What are the links between these discourses, these effects of power, and the pleasures that were invested by them?" (Foucault, 11). In the case of New Jersey governor it seems clear that power, language and pleasure were very much related in his speech on August 13, 2004, in which he announced his resignation, that he had had an affair with a man, and that he was a "gay American." A man in a position of power was both given power and gave power to the general public with his announcement. Consequently he opened up a multiplicity of discourses on the matter ranging from the true reason for his resignation, to the true meaning of the word Gay, to the effects that his coming out

In The Introduction to the History of Sexuality, Foucault explains how during the 19th century with the raise of new societies, the discourse or knowledge about sex was not confronted with repulsion but it “put into operation an entire machinery for producing true discourses concerning sex” (Foucault 69). In fact, this spreading of discourse on sexuality itself gives a clear account of how sexuality has been controlled and confined because it was determined in a certain kind of knowledge that carries power within it. Foucault reflects on the general working hypothesis or “repressive hypothesis,” and how this has exercised power to suppress people’s sexuality. It has power on deciding what is normal or abnormal and ethical or unethical

The findings of this early study indicated that the act of sexual intercourse served as a means of pleasure for these women rather than the traditional view that sex in marriage was a duty of the wife. In the 1920’s scholars noted the increase in premarital intercourse for the means of pleasure, this which was controversial compared to the pleasure seeking married women years before. This time would come to be known as the first sexual revolution, in which these revolutionary individuals developed a more egalitarian view of sexuality. This set the stage for the second sexual revolution that developed in the late 1960’s, both revolutions were similar in that they involved one major war, a rise in divorce and witnessed an increase in equality between women and men (85). Reiss argues that although these two sexual revolutions have tipped the scale toward greater equality between the two sexes there are still gapes to fill before we as a nation can declare full equality.

In Marge Piercy's book, Woman on the Edge of Time, sex plays a major role in both the utopia and the dystopia. The portrayal of sex in the novel comes from a feminist point of view. The main character, Connie, is caught between a utopian world and a dystopian world where the takes on sex are on different levels. By using a feminist approach, the two worlds of sex can be examined and contrasted.

Several of the fundamental shifts in the ideas about the sexual nature and sexual differences occurred in the eighteenth and nineteenth-centuries. During this period the new scientific knowledge is increasingly accepted concerning biological sex, gender, and sexuality, under which the belief that men and women are biologically different emerges. As the acceptance of this discovery grew it creates a new cultural system of proper behavior for men and women, and new constructions of gender. Through the change in the gender/sex system, Rousseau’s ideas about what makes men and women different and the evolution of homosexuality the ways by which behavior is codified as proper or deviant in the eighteenth and nineteenth-centuries is made clear.

The 18th and 19th centuries saw a turn from managing the sex lives of married couples to the governing of perversion in terms of the sexuality of children, the mentally ill, the criminal—inclusive of “hermaphrodites”, and the homosexual. As these individuals became scrutinized, they began to confess the truths about their sexualities. The rules of sex also started to fray as the “individual [became] driven, in spite of himself, by the somber madness of sex (Foucault, 1990, p. 39).” The outing and labeling of such individuals are perverts gave them and those studying them power to no longer be repressed by the governing laws of marriage and desire. Foucault (1990) posits, “it is through the isolation, intensification, and consolidation of peripheral sexualities that the relations of power to sex and pleasure

Reading Gayle Rubin’s “Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality”, I was fascinated by the concept of sex as a complex social system worth discussing so I made a collage to represent my interpretation of America’s understanding of sex. The collage focuses on the tension created by sex appeal, the aesthetics of sex, being presented as a version of natural taste and sexuality, the act of sex, being presented as a natural fact. The two aspects of sex’s definition of nature becomes a double standard. Sex appeal’s nature is flexible and situational. In comparison, sexuality’s nature is stationary and predefined. These definitions create two categories, internal and ambiguous, with definitions of nature that are filled with tension and inconstancy. As these two sets of understandings bleed together, the definition of natural becomes more and more obscured until blatant inconstancies start to appear in people’s rationales. In the end, it leaves four categories of sex, sex appeal, sexuality, internal, and ambiguous, each with its own definition of natural.

For centuries, sexuality has been silenced “product of human activity” (Rubin, 1984, p.143). However, the XX and XXI centuries have become the periods of sexual revolutions, when sexuality has been transformed from private sphere to the public one. It has become the part of the modern art, has started to be regarded as a political issue especially in the discussions about women empowerment, and has become the part of one’s identity (Epanova, 2011).

Within our modern minds reside two very different ways in which we deal with the subject of sexuality. The conceptual framework of modern society, to some extent, has developed out of past notions about the body. We can see that springing from our historical roots, issues concerning sexuality have been dealt with through mutual feelings of desire and disgust.