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Sex is an integral part of society, it permeates the life of every person. In many cases it defines how we act and feel. However, when sex becomes the topic of conversation the conversation becomes uncomfortable and is considered taboo. In this case what taboo means is that the topic, sex, is not up for discussion for fear of social backlash. During the twentieth century, this backlash was often ostracization and shaming. These punishments are not befitting of a topic like sex, sex deserves to be discussed openly and in full view of society as both a medium of expression and an acceptable topic of conversation. Sex does not deserve to be censored or relegated to a dark corner because it should never be talked about in public. Sex provides a medium through which the true desires and indeed the true nature of a person can be expressed and examined. Meaning that an author is able to more freely express himself/herself through sex than any other topic.
Poetry, after thorough examination and explication, is often found used by the author as a way to express emotions or to provide social commentary. The poet May Swenson, in her poem “In Love Made Visible” uses her poetry as a medium to discuss homosexuality and love. Swenson, a lesbian and Mormon, was repressed by those in her community. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS) also known as the Mormon Church, was not accepting of homosexuals during the 20th century when Swenson was alive. At the time, the LDS believed that homosexuality was immoral, and excommunicated many who were believed to be homosexual from the church; if Swenson was found out to be homosexual she could have lost all of her friends, and those she called her community. This would have been devastatin...
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...tionaries. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Oxford University Press. Web. .
Stuart. "Feminism, Pornography and the Fight Against Patriarchy." Web log post. Scottish Socialist Youth. N.p., 19 Apr. 2011. Web. 16 Dec. 2013. .
Manescu, Larisa. "Inside Pornography: A Rational Feminist Critique." NextGen Journal(2012): n. pag. Web. .
Swenson, May. "In Love Made Visible." Longman Anthology of Poetry. New York: Pearson Longman, 2006. 1241-242. Print.
Nico JACOBELLIS v. STATE OF OHIO. 378 United States Reports 184. Supreme Court. 22 June 1964. Cornell University Law School. Web. 16 Dec. 2013. .
Pepper Schwartz opens Why is Everyone Afraid of Sex? with "In spite of the visibility of sex in the media and popular culture, despite a widespread acceptance of a variety of sexual practices, Americans still hold a deep-rooted fear of sex." (252) Schwartz then goes on to explain the surprising, but obvious truth. American society portrays a sexual attitude, but is actually hiding a fear of the activity. Schwartz does a great job of showing both sides of this argument. She mentions how sex seems to no longer be a completely taboo thing within the media and society today. Within television, magazines, articles, movies, etc, sexual themes are all over the place. Another factor is that premarital sex is becoming more and more acceptable these
Since the dawn of man, sex has played a crucial role in society. Before they learned to read or write humans were engaging in sex and without it none of us would be here. In today’s society, sex has grown to become much more complicated. If I were to ask a group of people on the street what they believed sex was? I bet they would have a hard time answering. The question puzzling society today is how do we define sex? Can we define sex? These are questions raised in Tracy Steele’s article “Doing it: The Social Construction of S-E-X”. This article is about the current questions and issues that have been raised about sex within today’s society. In this paper I will summarize the key points of the article, while sharing my own thoughts and opinions of Steele’s findings.
LAWRENCE V. TEXAS. 478 U. S. 186 :: Volume 478 :: 1986 :: Full Text." US Supreme Court Cases from Justia & Oyez. .
Sexuality has often been confused with pornography. It has been trivialised as something that is a denigration and denial of true feeling by sensationalising genuine expressivism.
The 19th-Century was a period in which the expression of sexuality and sexual compulsion was firmly repressed. Charles E. Rosenberg explores the typical behaviors of the sexes, and how they related to the expression, or repression, of sexuality in “Sexuality, Class and Role in 19th-Century America.” Medical and biological literature tended to adopt very sex-negative attitudes, condemning sexual desires and activity. This literature was often ambivalent and self-contradicting. Initially, people viewed sex as a normal human behavior: they believed sexual excess was bad, but thought it was natural and necessary after puberty because horniness left unsatisfied and untreated could cause disease. However, in the 1830s, the previous sex-neutral attitude was quickly replaced by a harsher, more negative view of sexuality. “Quacks,” or charlatans, tried to instill people with a crippling fear of sex by warning them of
Essay #1: Sexual Politics It has been said that “Society has always defined for us what it means to be a man and what it means to be a woman, what a man should be like and what a woman should be like, and these traditional definitions of gender roles have limited and even harmed individuals”. The theme of sexual politics comes to mind in this quote. One can define sexual politics as the relationship of the sexes, male and female, regarding power. Society’s definition of this can limit an individual in their gender role and restrain a person from being themselves.
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 about sexuality. Through discourses of life and sexuality, power is exercised because humans learned how to behave in relation to sexuality, which method keep individuals controlled and regulated. This explains why people experience that sense of behaving inappropriate when we talk about sex in a different way than the whole society. Foucault points up how sexuality is not just treated in terms of morality, but it is a matter of knowledge and “truth.” However, these discourses, including sexual discourses are not true or false, but they are just understood to be the truth or falsehood to control society. As a result, sexuality begins to be explored in a scientific way, developing the “truth” science of sex (Foucault 69). For Foucault, he asserts that sexuality has developed as a form of science that keeps us all afraid of such phenomena, which people think to be true, thus this science helps society to discipline and control individuals’ behaviors.
Unlike sex, the history of sexuality is dependant upon society and limited by its language in order to be defined and understood.
...gument against pornography is claiming that intercourse is an act of rape, the argument immediately seems outlandish and almost laughable, and it surely seems that way to the average person. People see these examples of radical feminism and attribute those isolated incidents as representative of the entire feminist movement as a whole. Therefore through complexity, the feminist movement lost a substantial amount of its genuine credibility due to perceived extremist views on female sexuality. This, among many other incidents, seems to be the cause of this great reversal in female sexuality in our current day society. Instead of putting an end to pornography, it flourishes. Instead of bringing an end to female objectification, it is often nowadays encouraged. This reversal of feminist ideals is the main cause for the damage to female gender roles in the 21st century.
Gayle Rubin’s “Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality” focused on the history of sexuality and sexual persecution. Gayle Rubin recognizes the idea of sex as a natural force that exists prior to social life and which shapes institutions and society. First, Rubin, emphasizes the idea of negative sex, by showcasing views by other scholars. Rubin notes Foucault in his 1978 publication “The History of Sexuality”, as “sex as the natural libedo wearing to break free of social constraint” (Rubin, 149). This leads Rubin to her understanding of sex negativity. Sex, as Rubin depicts, is dangerous, destructive and a negative force and sex negativity is any negative sexual behaviour other than married or reproductive sex. Many Western religious believe that sex should only be for reproductive reasons and that pleasure and anything outside of martial sex should not be experienced. Third, Rubin goes on to construct the charmed circle, distinguishing good and bad sex. Resulting from sex negativity, Rubin develops an illustration of good and bas sex, better known as the charmed circle. Instances of bad sex include; casual,
The controversy of sex has lead to it being thought of as dangerous. In society there is the controversy of people having sex or having any sexual activity they are considered perverted and lecherous. Then there is the other side of the spectrum where someone who does not have sex at all is considered a prude. Both being lecherous or a prude is unacceptable in society. People feel that they must lie whether they have sex or not because of the word of what opinions will formulate against them. The reason people lie about their sexual experiences is so that that are not harshly judged, criticized, or labelled by society. People can be labelled as a slut, whore, prostitute, or a prude, but it does not mean that it is entirely true because some people do not fully understand some of the meanings behind these words and just use it as hurtful slang. Therefore, sex is more secretive than it should be. Either lie or truth a person will say, other people will make a strong, rude
Pornography can be defined as printed or visual material displaying erotic descriptions or visuals of sexual body parts or sexual activity, and is largely aimed to appeal to a male audience through sexual scenarios which often dehumanize and exploit women and their bodies. Though largely, pornography is is designed to please a masculinized audience, there are some feminists, from multiple genders, who aim to “reclaim their right to enjoy sexual images without violence and negativity” (Klinger). Ideally, pornography would be a context in which there would be a conscious movement towards eliciting a healthy reclamation of sexually charged images from all genders- especially women. Those against pornography usually emphasize the specifics of porn as it occurs in modern culture. Oftentimes anti-pornography feminists point out the extremely male-oriented vision of sexuality, the sexism, and with descriptions such as: “women presented as dehumanized sexual objects, things, or commodities; shown as enjoying humiliation, pain, or sexual assault; tied up, mutilated, or physically hurt; depicted in postures or positions of sexual submission or servility; shown with body parts- including though not limited to vagina, breast, or buttocks- exhibited such that women are reduced to those parts; women penetrated by animals or objects; and women presented in scenarios of degradation, humiliation, or torture, shown as filthy or inferior, bleeding, bruised, or hurt in a context that makes these conditions sexual” (MacKinnon). As the pornography industry is now, it contributes to the ideals of rape culture by fetishizing femininity and female “fragility” and/or “innocence”. This obviously misogynistic practice also creates a reliance on understanding...
... decades ago. This book is one that will allow the reader to view many aspects of sexuality from a social standpoint, and apply it to certain social attitudes in our society today, these attitudes can range from the acceptance of lesbian and gays, and the common sight of sex before marriage and women equality. The new era of sexuality has taken a definite "transformation" as Giddens puts it, and as a society we are living in the world of change in which we must adapt, by accepting our society as a changing society, and not be naive and think all the rules of sexuality from our parents time our still in existence now.
Nims, John . “Love Poem”. Literature to go. Ed. Meyer, Michael. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. Print.
The combination of liberal and radical feminism is not one that often comes to the mind, but it can be useful to consult various viewpoints when tackling complex issues. Despite drastic differences between them, these two views of feminism do hold some similarities with each other by virtue of their common goal (when that goal is simplified to simply equality of the genders). In this paper I will be outlining some of the basic similarities and differences between these two ideologies of feminism and I may not cover all of the connections and gaps between the two for the sake of length. Moving forward from this explanation of liberal and radical feminism, I will use it to explain their views of pornography and how it aided my own understanding