Thinking Sex - Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality (article)
Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality, is a 1984 essay by Gayle S. Rubin discussing the sex panics about "molesters" in the U.S. and the oppression of sexual minorities, including BoyLovers.
About Rubin
- (From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gayle_Rubin)
- Gayle S. Rubin (born 1949) is an American cultural anthropologist best known as an activist and theorist of sex and gender politics. She has written on a range of subjects including feminism, sadomasochism, prostitution, pedophilia, pornography and lesbian literature, as well as anthropological studies and histories of sexual subcultures, especially focused in urban contexts. She is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Women's Studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Thinking Sex
"Sanitized" essay description from Wikipedia
- In her 1984 essay "Thinking Sex", Rubin interrogated the value system that social groups — whether left- or right-wing, feminist or patriarchal — attribute to sexuality which defines some behaviours as good/natural and others (such as pedophilia) as bad/unnatural. In this essay she introduced the idea of the "Charmed Circle" of sexuality, that sexuality that was privileged by society was inside of it, while all other sexually was outside of, and in opposition to it. The binaries of this “charmed circle” include couple/alone or in groups, monogamous/promiscuous, same generation/cross-generational, and bodies only/with manufactured objects. The “Charmed Circle” speaks to the idea that there is a hierarchical valuation of sex acts. In this essay, Rubin also discusses a number of ideological formations that permeate sexual views. The most important is sex negativity, in which Western cultures consider sex to be a dangerous, destructive force. If marriage, reproduction, or love are not involved, almost all sexual behavior is considered bad. Related to sex negativity is the fallacy of the misplaced scale. Rubin explains how sex acts are troubled by an excess of significance.
- Rubin’s discussion of all of these models assumes a domino theory of sexual peril. People feel a need to draw a line between good and bad sex as they see it standing between sexual order and chaos. There is a fear that if certain aspects of “bad” sex are allowed to move across the line, unspeakable acts will move across as well. One of the most prevalent ideas about sex is that there is one proper way to do it. Society lacks a concept of benign sexual variation. People fail to recognize that just because they do not like to do something does not make it repulsive. Rubin points out that we have learned to value other cultures as unique without seeing them as inferior, and we need to adopt a similar understanding of different sexual cultures as well.
- In this essay, first published in 1984, Rubin argues that in the West, the 1880s, the 1950s, and the contemporary era have been periods of sex panic, periods in which the state, the institutions medicine, and the popular media have mobilized to attach and oppress all whose sexual tastes differ from those allowed by the currently dominative model of sexual correctness.
- She also suggests that during the contemporary era the worst brand of the oppression has been borne by those who practice s/m or cross-generational sex.
- Rubin maintains that we are to devise a theory to account for the outbreak and direction of sexual panics, we shall need to base the theory on more than just feminist thinking. Although feminist thinking explains gender injustices, it does not and cannot provide by itself a full explanation for the oppression of sexual minorities.
Unsanitized essay description from Ipce
In this essay, first published in 1984, Rubin argues that in the West, the 1880s and the 1950s, and the current era, have been periods of sex panics, periods in which the state, the medical institutions, and the popular media have mobilized to attack and oppress all those whose sexual tastes differ from those allowed by the dominant currently accepted model of "sexual correctness".
She also suggests that during the contemporary era the worst brand of the oppression has been borne by those who practice s/m or cross-generational sex.
Rubin maintains that if we are to devise a theory to account for the outbreak and direction of sexual panics, we shall need to base the theory on more than just feminist thinking. Although feminist thinking explains gender injustices, it does not and cannot provide by itself a full explanation for the oppression of sexual minorities.
External links
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