Sex Sexuality and Gender Basic Concepts From Advancing

Sex, Sexuality and Gender: Basic Concepts From Advancing Sexuality Studies: a short course on sexuality theory and research methodologies The International Resource Network

Developed by: The Caribbean International Resource Network Presented in collaboration with: The Institute for Gender & Development Studies at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine (Trinidad & Tobago) With funding from The Ford Foundation & the International Association for the Study of Sexuality, Culture and Society (IASSCS) Available under an Attribution, Non-Commercial, 2

Schedule Learning activity Introduction & aims Time allowed 10 mins Session 1. Challenging biological determinism and defining sex, sexuality and gender Group work & lecture (x 2) Reading images Session wrap-up 160 mins Session 2. Heteronormativity and sexual stratification Introduction and lecture Group work Lecture & group work 100 mins 30 mins 20 mins 50 mins Session 3. Understanding sexuality as historically & socially constructed or Transgender issues in cross-cultural perspective Guided reading and group work 80 mins Conclusion & personal reflection 45 mins 3 Total 130 mins 20 mins 10 mins 80 mins 395 mins

Module aims To: – Introduce and critique biologically determinist understandings of sex, gender and sexuality – Introduce Critical Sexuality Studies definitions of sex, sexuality and gender and examine the history of the construction of sexuality – Examine the relationships between sex, sexuality and gender through consideration of heteronormativity and sexual/gendered inequity 4

Participants will: – Critique biologically determinist constructions of sex and sexuality – Identify key theorists and concepts in the study of sexual inequality – Think critically about the relationships between sex, sexuality and gender – Reflect on the effects of normative constructions of sex, sexuality and gender as these are relevant to their own sociocultural and research settings 5

Session 1. Challenging biological determinism and defining sex, sexuality and gender 6

Group work • Divide into two groups Group 1 – List differences between women and consider: • On what are these perceived differences based? (e. g. biological, social, cultural or religious beliefs) Group 2 – List similarities between women and consider: • On what are the perceived similarities based? (e. g. biological, social, cultural or religious beliefs) (10 mins) 7

Discussion • All participants to consider together: – What are the effects of highlighting differences rather than similarities between men and women? – To what extent do assumptions about biologically determined sex differences between women and men influence popular culture, sayings or beliefs in the Caribbean? (10 mins) 8

Biological determinism, sex and sexuality • Biologically determinist theories of various kinds reduce social organisation and social complexity to an effect of biology or nature – Biological determinists include sociobiologists, some geneticists, psychologists and ‘pop psychology’ writers • Complex, socially embedded behaviours have all been explained as an effect of evolutionary reproductive strategies 9

• In the biologically determinist school of thought: – Biological facts of sex are thought to constitute natural differences between men and women – Heterosexuality is considered a “natural” outcome of this sex difference due to the drive to reproduce the species • Key assumption driving biological determinism: – The primary function and goal of all human sexual activity is the reproduction of the species • Humans have sex because we must reproduce – Homosexuality becomes explained as an “unnatural” genetic deviation 10

‘The gay gene’ • Geneticists search for a ‘gay gene’ to prove there is a biological basis for, and explanation of, male homosexuality – Small differences found between the post-mortem brains of heterosexual and homosexual young men (Le. Vay, 1991) – Research on pairs of homosexual brothers found that some had similar markers on the X chromosome, indicating a genetic basis for sexuality (Hamer et al. 1993) • Le. Vay’s work proved difficult to replicate 11

Challenging determinism • If reproductive differences between the sexes “naturally” drive individual behaviour, why do we need social institutions that police and set moral guidelines for sexual behaviour? – The family, religion, government, the military… • The research evidence for many biologically determinist claims simply does not hold up – Sex “difference” research may be popular, but it masks a great deal of evidence for sex similarities – Differences are often context-specific 12

• Despite continuing interest in a genetic basis for sexuality, no gay or heterosexual gene yet found • Most sex is not reproductive – Human sexuality more complicated than ‘survival of the species’ or of one’s gene pool • ‘Biological drive’ arguments are political – Often used to resist social change and legitimate an unequal, gendered and sexualised social order – Institutionalised power relations affect understandings of sex, gender, and sexuality 13

Definitions • Write down your own definitions of the terms sex, sexuality, and gender (5 mins) • Compare your definitions with those of the person next to you (5 mins) • Each pair to report back to whole group (10 mins) • Brief group discussion (10 mins) 14

Complexities of sex & gender • Is there a difference? Yes, on one level – Sex is biological – male, female, also intersex (reproductive differences based on genitalia, chromosomes, hormones) • Also refers to sexual acts, as in ‘having sex’ – Gender is ‘the structure of social relations that centres on the reproductive arena, and the set of practices that bring reproductive distinctions into social processes’ (Connell 2002: 10) • Gender underlies assumptions regarding ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’ behaviour 15

Hijra in India Caster Semenya, South African athlete A ‘Tom’ in Thailand Trinidadian Jowelle De Souza 16

• Temptation to make an absolute distinction between sex and gender: – ‘Nature vs nurture’ or ‘essentialism vs social constructionism’ • Understanding of the sexed body as ‘natural’ can sustain social inequity between men and women • Butler (1990) argued that gender determines sex – Sex is not ‘natural’ but a social construction – Knowledge systems used to describe and reinforce sex differences already gendered by the language used to express ideas about the body 17

• Cannot neatly separate the sexed body from the gendered body – Mutually constituted through sociocultural processes • Biological science is a social construction, expressed through language which is gendered and value-laden • In Critical Sexuality Studies, the ‘natural’ body is political 18

‘Bodies cannot be understood as just the objects of social process…they are active participants in social process. . . They participate through their capacities, development and needs … through the direction set by their pleasures and skills. Bodies must be seen as sharing social agency. ’ (Connell 2002: 40) 19

Discussion • Bodies have physical capacities and limitations – These influence how bodies can be socially experienced or intervened with • In Critical Sexuality Studies: – Sex, sexuality and gender necessarily involve various dimensions of bodily and social capacities and phenomena – These will be expressed differently in different sociocultural settings • Discussion (5 mins) 20

What is ‘sexuality’? • Quite a new term – Came into English, French and German usage at the end of the 18 th century • Usually meant reproduction through sexual activity among plants and animals – Used in relation to love and sex matters in European discourse in the 1830 s • What does it mean according to the dictionary? – Depends on which dictionary you read – Mirriam Webster (2013): The quality or state of being sexual 21

• Four intertwining strands of sexuality: – Sexual desire or attraction • To whom (or in some cases what) someone is attracted (physically and emotionally) – Sexual activity or behaviour • What a person does or likes to do sexually (intercourse, masturbation, oral sex, sexual fetishes) – Sexual identity • How someone describes their sense of self as a sexual being (e. g. heterosexual, bisexual, lesbian, gay, homosexual) – Sexual experience • Observations of others’ sexualities; education or training related to sexuality; experiences that may not have been consensual • No clear boundaries! 22

The sexuality matrix Desire Behavior Identity Experience 23

General theoretical definition Sexuality … [is] an historical construction which brings together a host of different biological and mental possibilities, and cultural forms — gender identity, bodily differences, reproductive capacities, needs, desires, fantasies, erotic practices, institutions and values — which need not be linked together, and in other societies have not been. Weeks, J (2003: 7) Sexuality: Second Edition, Routledge 24

Caribbean theoretical definition Caribbean sexuality is “characterized by diversity” and involves “embodied sexual practices, identities, knowledge, and strategies of resistance of the colonized and postcolonial subject” (2004: 2). Kempadoo, K (2004: 2) Sexing the Caribbean, Routledge 25

• Are these images of sex, sexuality or gender? • What would we need to know in order to make sense of this question? (5 mins + 5 mins feedback) • Images by Rodell Warner from the “Photobooth” series (2009 -2011) 26

• Are these images of sex, sexuality or gender? • What would we need to know in order to make sense of this question? (5 mins + 10 mins feedback) 27

Session summary • Review the notes made at the start of the session on definitions of sex, sexuality and gender and consider: – To what extent do they equate with working definitions so far? (5 mins) • Final questions or comments about this session? 28

Session 2. Heteronormativity and sexual stratification 29

Like gender, sexuality is political. It is organised into systems of power, which reward and encourage some individuals and activities, while punishing and suppressing others. Gayle Rubin (1984: 309) 30

Lecture • Heteronormativity … the institutions, structures of understanding and practical orientations that make heterosexuality seem not only coherent—that is, organized as a sexuality — but also privileged. (Berlant and Warner (2000: 312)) • Heteropatriarchy …the systems that support the combination of heteronormativity and patriarchy (male dominance) • Maintained and perpetuated by social institutions – e. g. media, education, law, family, religion, healthcare systems 31 – usually through exclusion and marginalisation

Brainstorm • Can you think of examples of heteronormative assumptions that are present in the Caribbean? (5 mins) • Theories of sexual stratification: Adrienne Rich and Gayle Rubin – Offer opportunities for reconfiguring heteronormativity 32

Adrienne Rich • ‘Compulsory heterosexuality and lesbian existence’ (1980) – Women’s Liberation era theorist and poet whose work was influential in the development of lesbian and gay studies • Heterosexuality is not a natural outcome of sex difference – It is a social institution maintained by a series of inducements and punishments for women – Key question: ‘What social forces stop women from expressing their sexual and emotional attraction to other women? ’ 33

Inducements & punishments Induceme nts Material The marriage contract (legalised sexual subordination of women) Financial and material support (husband) Sphere of influence (the domestic) Stay-at home child allowance for women Reduced earning capacity for women compared with their male partners Symbolic or ideological Romance and love – made complete with a man (heterocoupling) Female beauty as an ideal of female worth Motherhood within marriage as female self-fulfilment Women valued only insofar as they are valuable to men Punishme nts • Social ostracism for unmarried mothers, women who leave their husbands and financially independent women Women who are sexually independent labelled as ‘loose, ’ ‘skettels, ’ sluts’ Criminalisation, pathologisation and abuse of lesbians and women who are not exclusively heterosexual A system of gendered sexual violence that keeps women (and their sexuality) in its proper place 34

Group work • Divide into groups • Using the handout supplied on Rich’s work re: inducements and punishments, consider the following focus questions: – Is this model of inducements and punishments relevant in the Caribbean – historically and/or in the 21 st century? If not, can it be rewritten? – Can this table be rewritten to apply to men? (10 mins) • Feedback (10 mins) 35

Gayle Rubin • Thinking Sex (1984) – Hierarchies of sexual value • People and practices high in the hierarchy rewarded with a range of benefits, those low in the hierarchy punished and vilified • Heterosexual couples who are married, monogamous and of the same generation accrue more benefits than those who are not married and/or who engage in more marginalised sexual practices – What is more important: • The sexual categories people fit into and the kinds of sex they have, or • Democratic sexual morality: how people treat each other, 36

Rubin’s ‘charmed circle’ • Form small groups • Read the handout provided, and share your understandings (5 mins) • Discuss Rubin’s diagram in relation to the sexual cultures, identities and practices relevant or currently topical in the Caribbean – Can you redraw the model to fit our local setting? (15 mins) • Feedback (10 mins) 37

Charmed circle: summary • Diagram not intended to be a fixed representation of how heteronormativity works at all times, in all places – The inner circle boundary line can shift over time, and from place-to-place, for instance: • Homosexuality was never illegal in French colonies but was criminalised by the British in all of its colonies; today, samesex marriage is technically legal in the Dutch Caribbean territories that remain part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, but very few have been performed. • Polygamy is illegal in Caribbean territories, but it is commonly practiced. • Intergenerational sex between males was permitted in Ancient Greece but is illegal in Greece now. 38 – Whoever controls the boundary determines what is normal

Session 3. Either: Understanding Caribbean sexualities as historically and socially constructed or: Transgender identities in a Caribbean context 39

Session 3, Option 1. Understanding Caribbean sexualities as historically and socially constructed 40

Guided reading • Read G. Wekker “What’s Identity Got to Do with it: Rethinking Identity in light of the Mati Work in Suriname. ” (2005) Or • J. Alexander “Erotic Autonomy as a Politics of Decolonization: Feminism, Tourism, and State in the Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago” (30 mins) 41

Focus questions (30 mins reading, 15 mins discussion, 30 mins feedback) Alexander (2005): Wekker (1999): — According to Alexander, what is the relationship between sexuality and citizenship in the Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago? — How would you describe mati to someone who had never heard of the practice? — What is her concept of “erotic autonomy, ” and how can it be useful in thinking about Caribbean sexuality? — How is tourism implicated in heteronormativy and heteropatriarchy? — How are mati and lesbians different? Why is it important to Wekker not to label mati as lesbians or bisexuals? — How might mati work challenge heteronormativity? How might it reinforce heteronormativity? 42

Session 3, Option 2. Transgender issues in a Caribbean context 43

Guided reading • Read Caricco (2012) Collateral Damage: the Social Impact of Laws Affecting LGBT Persons in Guayana 44

Guided reading • Focus questions: – How do Guyanese legal and cultural systems affect transgender people? – What (if anything) in the reading is particular to the Caribbean and local understandings of gender and sexuality? – How can transgender identities challenge heteronormativity? How might they reinforce heteronormativity? – What challenges do transgender individuals present for biological determinists? • Discuss in small groups, and consider: – Can you add case studies of your own to support the argument that sexuality is historically and culturally constructed? (15 mins) • Feedback 45

Conclusion • In Critical Sexuality Studies, human sexuality is understood as: – Diverse – Dynamic and – Deeply inventive • The field challenges fixed notions of sex, gender and sexuality • It grounds the interrelationship between these concepts in specific social, historical, cultural contexts 46

• Critical Sexuality Studies challenges the notion that sex and sexuality are biologically determined, but: – This does not mean the body or biological limitations/capacities are irrelevant • Sex, sexuality and gender are invariably linked to power relations—institutional and interpersonal —and to systems of regulation and reward • Heteronormativity and heteropatriarchy exist across the world, but take variable forms 47

Personal reflection • In pairs: discuss the aspect of the module that you personally found to be the most thoughtprovoking (5 mins) • Individually: note down any ways in which this module might influence future research or work you undertake (5 mins) • In pairs: discuss your notes on the possible future influence of the module on your work or research (10 mins) • Reflection sharing 48

Module adapted for the Anglophone Caribbean by: Dr. Rosamond S. King, The Caribbean International Resource Network Original module created by: Dr Deb Dempsey, Swinburne University of Technology and Mr William Leonard, Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society with supporting material from Professor Gary W. Dowsett, Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society Caribbean short course developed by: The Caribbean International Resource Network with the Institute for Gender & Development Studies, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago Original short course developed by: The Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia and The International Association for the Study of Sexuality, Culture and Society (IASSCS) With funding from The Ford Foundation Available under an Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share Alike licence from Creative Commons 49