Sexuality, gender and social relations
C Lloyd
8 points * 3 hours per week * First semester * Caulfield * Prerequisites: First-year SCY sequence or equivalent
The subject starts by examining a range of theoretical positions that address sexuality and its linkages with gender. These will include social constructionist approaches, feminist positions, Foucauldian and postmodernist accounts and psychoanalytic views. These theoretical positions will be used to explore the social construction and regulation of sexualities and women's and men's gendered bodies; sexual diversity, sexual transgression and political contestation; the commodification and commercialisation of sexualised bodies, including the `trade' in bodies and desire (eg prostitution and pornography); sexuality, domination and the eroticisation of violence in contemporary society. The subject considers how different modes of theorising have implications for understanding the relationships between sexuality and power and for intervening in the area of sexual politics.
Assessment
Essay (2500 words): 40% * Project (1500 words): 30% * Seminar presentation and summary (500 words): 10% * Five article reviews (300 words each): total 20%
Recommended texts
Vance C (ed.) Pleasure and danger: Exploring female sexuality RKP, 1985
Connell R W and Dowsett G W (eds) Rethinking sex: Social theory and sexuality research MUP, 1992