Sociology of Sexuality Exam 1 Study Guide

• These notes cover the readings, films, audio interviews, and lectures for the Sociology of Sexuality Exam 1.
• Focus on key arguments, methods, and the relationship of topics to understanding sex and sexualities.

Readings

• Be familiar with the readings listed.
• Understand key arguments and methods used.
• Relate articles to understanding sex and sexualities.
• Consider if readings challenge or reinforce ideas.
• Consider how authors handle social interactions, institutions, and environments.
• Consider how authors address power dynamics and privilege.
• Relate articles to identity, behaviors, and inequalities.
• Readings include:
• C. Wright Mills' "The Sociological Imagination."
• Kathleen Fitzgerald and Kandice Grossman's "Sociology of Sexualities."
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: The Social Construction of Sexuality
• Chapter 2: The Science of Sexuality
• Chapter 3: Gender and Sexuality
• Chapter 5: LGBTQ+ Discrimination and Inequality
• Chapter 7: Media, Sport, and Sexuality: Focus on media

Films and Audio Interviews

• Be familiar with films and audio interviews.
• Summarize each film and audio interview.
• Connect films and audio interviews to course material.
• Includes "Orgasms and Gender Inequality" (https://youtu.be/4oy7UH9rNI4?si=VJxKNU9dx5CeG8QY) and "Feminist Porn: Shifting Our Sexual Culture" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x38-iHvUqLY).

Lectures

• Be familiar with lecture content.
• Discuss lectures with classmates to increase understanding.
• Key topics include:
• What is gender?
• What is sex?
• What is the relationship between gender and sex?
• What is sexuality/sexualities?, and why should one consider multiple sexualities.
• Gain from sociological perspectives on sex, gender, and sexualities through sociological imagination.
• Apply sociological imagination to the study of sexualities by understanding troubles and issues.
• Understand how the Genderbread Person can help understand sex, gender, and sexualities.
• Understand the differences between sociology, anthropology, and psychology.
• Sociology differs by using empirical evidence, reliability, and validity, also considering social location.
• The invisibility of a Dental Dam in American sex education indicates aspects of sexual culture.
• Intersectionality is important in the study of sex and sexualities.
• Consider social constructions of sex, gender, and sexuality.
• The gender binary is related to other binaries, and is learned.
• Understand relationships between essentialist and constructionist approaches to sex and sexuality.
• Examine essentialism (nature) vs. constructionism (nurture) through the case of David Reimer.
• Sexual socialization begins and ends.
• Consider sexual scripts.
• There are 3 levels of sexual scripts, which are learned.
• "Doing gender" involves performing gender.
• Consider how sexuality is gendered.
• Nonbinary, intersex, and trans folks can challenge the gender binary.

Define

• Hegemonic masculinity, hyper masculinity, and toxic masculinity.
• Hegemonic femininity, hyper femininity, and pariah femininity.
• Asexuality, and why it's an umbrella term.
• The earliest scientific studies of sexuality emerged and their focus (von Kraft-Ebing and Ellis).
• Understand famous early sex researchers and their understanding of the relationship between sex and gender
• Identify the "father" of American sex research and their key contribution.
• Differentiate Margaret Mead's research on gender (and sexuality) and its key finding.
• Understand phases of Masters & Johnson's Human Sexual Response Cycle, and critical elements of phase 4.
• Consider how evolutionary theory is used to understand gendered sexualities and related problems.
• Understand the relationship between sexuality, power, and control according to Michel Foucault.
• Michel Foucault links “sexuality” and “sex,” and how his work relates to sexual inequality.
• Understand the 3 developments that led to the emergence of queer theory.
• Identify the 3 inter-related projects of queer theory.
• Social inequality relates to institutional inequality.
• Define privilege, and who benefits from sexual privilege in society.
• Understand how sexual privilege plays out in law, work, and medicine through: adoption, military, marriage, workplace discrimination, housing discrimination, medicalization, and criminalization.
• Define heteronormativity and its relation to privilege.
• Differentiate between media and social media.
• Differentiate between hypersexualization and sexual objectification.
• Understand the male gaze and what is the difference from the "female gaze".
• Consider who is seen/missing in media representation & create inclusive media beyond binaries.
• Understand pornography and the relationship between pornography and obscenity.
• How pornography is produced and presented and who is frequently represented in mainstream pornography.
• Understand the Feminist Sex Wars and their relation to pornography.
• Focus on feminism and contributions of 2nd wave Western feminists to the study of sex and sexualities.
• Summarize the current research on violence and pornography.

Understand

• Feminist pornography and its differences from the mainstream.

Essay Topics

• Define "sociological imagination" and differentiate troubles and issues
• Use the sociological imagination to explore sex education in the U.S. today. How might a person view sex education as a trouble? How could it be viewed as an issue? According to Mills perspective, what is needed to change sex education in the US today? Why?
• According to Michel Foucault, explain the relationship between "sexuality" and "sex."
• Explain how "sexuality" can be used to control/discipline populations and define the model for this type of control.
• Explain how Foucault's theory relates to marginalized sexualities.
• What are sexual scripts? What are the three levels of sex-scripting? Give an example of how each might play out. What are the benefits of sexual scripts? What are the challenges that could be associated with sexual scripts? How do we learn sexual scripts?