Sex, Gender, and the Body

Catalog description

This introductory course considers core topics in the field of feminist sexuality studies to both unsettle popular mainstream discourses on sexuality and to aid students in developing a more comprehensive, inclusive, and ethical lens through which to view intersections of gender, sexuality, and the body. Over the course of the semester, students will engage critical conversations in the field of feminist sexuality studies, from debates on pornography and sex work to subcultural and queer sexual practices to the emergence "hook-up culture" and new technologies transforming the landscape of sexual knowledge and practice. The course also substantively engages the ethics of sexual consent, sexual pleasure, and sexual communication. Utilizing an intersectional approach, the course examines how sexual idenities and experiences are informed by differences of race, ethnicity, gender, class, and dis/ability status. The course is interdisciplinary and grounded in the behavioral and social sciences, drawing from feminist sociological, psychological, historical, ethnographic, and public health literatures in order to provide students with a comprehensive and multi-faceted introduction to recent, contemporary, and emergent scholarship on sexual health and diverse forms of sexual practice. Geographically, the course emphasizes the relationship between social difference, power, and sexuality in U.S. history and society, but takes a transnational perspective when possible by making comparisons to contexts beyond the United States. Furthermore, the class examines how individuals and communities most directly marginalized by these processes of sexual stigmatization contest and re-imagine dominant categories and assumptions. Materials and discussions in the class trace broad social and historical trends as well as dive into the facets of everyday life. The class is designed to encourage reflection on the ethical challenges that arise when we become aware of how privilege, power and difference impact sexual knowledge and practice.