Last night I got dumped. My boyfriend and I went to Panera just down the grey, slush-covered street and I asked if he was going to see me before I left for the winter. But then, he paused and said, “we need(ed) to talk.” The scene I always feared progressed in slow motion in front of me whilst my heart fell soft and incongruously shattered on the floor. Nevertheless it was only when tears came to my (previously long since dry) eyes and I begged him to fight for me, that our relationship leaped off the faux wood table and entertained the on-looking patrons, pre-occupied the stages of my friends’ dorm rooms, and gave a topic of interest to the bright little screens of smart phones belonging to gossipers I barely knew. But why did anybody other than me care, I’m sure if I gave an equally commanding emotional display over my differential equations grade nobody outside of my class would give an ounce of reverence. I contend that they care because sex and relationships therein carry power in their duality of being universal and still unique to an individual via both their experiences in tandem with their preferences. Hence when a person emerges into the lime light from a sexual situation observers can peer into the situation, cast a visceral feeling upon it, and most importantly, judge. This essay will address the prominence of sex in international government relations and the intertwining of nations, and the unique backdrop of a leader’s sexuality in the situate of public scandal in order shed light on the manner by which this progression from the private sexual fantasy to the public eye is one of control and manipulation in efforts to paint people and situations they inhabit until scandal breaks out and the public transforms from the ... ... middle of paper ... ... on their sexual deviancy and assumed to step back down into immorality as soon as they step off the stage. We are what we portray, whether that is an image of a virgin, untouched and pure, or of a boy who has never been dumped and causes a scene sure to end up on the local news at seven. The public view of the private fantasy is what it is decorated to be, and that has shaped the history of the world as we know it; painting happy marriages of adulterers, and forming bonds between nations based on the sheets that only see private fantasies between them until a male heir is born to parents that love the kitchen help more than one another. Works Cited 1. Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality. Trans. Random House, Inc. Vol. Volume 1: An Introduction. 3 vols1978. Print. 2. Lauren Berlant, Michael Warner. "Sex in Public." Critical Inquiry 24. No. 2 (1998). Print.
Butler, Judith. "Besides Oneself: On the Limits of Sexual Autonomy." Ways Of Readers An Anthology For Writers. Ed. Davis Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. 240-257. Print.
The article by Laura McEnaney titled Gender Analysis and Foreign Relations is an interesting article focused on a relatively new type of analysis that offers another angle in the world of policymaking. The diplomatic historians who use gender analysis use it in addition to the customary methodologies of the historian to enhance the historian’s studies. Gender analysis has inspired new investigations in the history of men and women and diplomacy, giving way to a new type of understanding of power in a historical context; however gender analysis “enters diplomatic history only through the aegis of culture.”
In nineteenth century, a discourse on homosexuality started to occur; meanwhile, boundaries between black and white became more and more clear. (16) It was the era when the issues that were considered as minority started to appear, and it was also the time when people were reinforcing their ideal “social norms” into the society. It was a dark age for LGBT people, African American people and female. In the article, Scientific Racism and the Homosexual Body, the author, Siobhan Sommerville, makes a strong connection between scientific racism and sexology and women’s bodies. “Although some historians of the scientific discourse on sexuality have included brief acknowledgement of nineteenth century discourses of racial difference in their work,
Jordanova, Ludmilla. Sexual Visions: Images of Gender in Science and Medicine between the 18th and 20th Centuries. London: Harrester Wheatsheaf, 1989.
Irigaray, Luce. “That Sex Which is Not One.” The Critical Tradition: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends. Ed. David H. Richter. Boston: Bedford Books, 1998. 1467-1471.
Works Cited Abbott, Elizabeth. A. A. A History of Celibacy: From Athena to Elizabeth I, Leonardo da. Vinci, Florence, Nightingale, Gandhi, and Cher. 1st ed.
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.
Foucault, M. (1978). The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1: An Introduction. New York: Vintage Books.
Halperin, David. "Is There a History of Sexuality?." The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader. Ed. Henry
Foucault, Michel. “Power and Sex.” Politics. Philosophy. Culture-Interviews and Other Writings 1977-1984. Ed. Lawrence D. Kritzman. New York, New York: Routledge, Chapman and Hall, Inc., 1988. 110-124.
In Sigmund Freud’s “Sexual Morality and Modern Nervousness”, contained in Sexuality and the Psychology of Love, the writer presents separate roles for men and women as it relates to sexuality, even referring to a “double code of morality” (22) for the genders. In his paper the former often takes the role of the subject while the former becomes the object. In fact, women are described as the “true sexual guardians of the race” glorified, it seems, instead of truly studied. However, in one particular section of the essay, Freud turns his focus onto the female sexuality. In specific he references the various factors that, in his eyes, can influence the female sexual formation. The primary influences being that of the society, primarily the institution of marriage, and that of the family, which would include both a woman’s parents and children. After discussing these elements, Freud then
Milstein, Susan A. Taking Sides Clashing Views in Human Sexuality. Ed. William J. Taverner and Ryan W. McKee. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print.
...ve begins generating rumors for male peers who do not qualify as a stereotypical male. For instance, Olive pretends to have sex with a male peer during a popular house party (Gluck, 2010). This imaginary hook-up benefits the male peer’s bullying dilemma. Again, gender policing occurs between men when masculinity is questioned (Kimmel, 2008). “One survey found that most Americans boys would be rather be punched in the face than called gay” (Kimmel, 2000, p.77). The gender police govern Olive’s and the male peer’s status in social standings. America’s obsession with sex disregards if a girl truly sleeps around.
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.
These three articles give the modern reader a sense of what sexuality was in Ancient Rome. These articles reinforce that sexuality is important in human societies. They show that how you did or did not do sexual activity was very important and under scrutiny like in Western societies today. Though these articles are using limited resources to make conclusions, they do their best to help the reader make sense of sexual Roman society.