Sexual Histories 2 nd Lecture Sexual Histories A

Sexual Histories, 2 nd Lecture Sexual Histories: A Framework

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History 102 Student Representatives Jasmine Clancy, jcla 331@aucklanduni. ac. nz Isabella Francis, ifra 344@aucklanduni. ac. nz

Aims of lecture: 1. To get you thinking about key theme of the paper – i. e. , sexuality as a social, cultural and historical construct (to be continued in Barry’s ‘Thinking Sex’ lecture) 2. To consider range of ways one might approach topic of sexualities from a specifically historical point of view. Outline: 1. Sexuality is historically constructed. Its forms and meanings vary across time. 2. Possible frameworks for sexual history a. Essentialist. Sex is biologically driven and thus largely unchanging across time. b. Progressive narratives. Past societies were repressed, recent societies increasingly permissive. c. Social Constructionist. Sexualities vary across time and according to their social or cultural context.

1. Sex is Historically Constructed Ideas about sex and sexuality, that may have the cultural status of ‘reality’ or ‘common sense’, can be shown to be produced in specific circumstances and thus subject to change. That is, like ideas about ‘race’ and ‘gender’, they are subject to change. A nun picks fruit from a penis tree, from a 14 th. C copy of La Roman de la Rose, Bn. F MS Fr. 25526

We are interested in the variety and diversity of human sexualities in different historical eras. We offer accounts of what we take to be dominant themes, or dominant discourses, of sex and sexualities in different periods. ‘Venus venerated by Six Legendary Lovers’. Birth tray made in Florence, c. 1400.

Current concern with “identity” Our notion of sexual “identity” and primary division into “homosexual”, “lesbian”, and “heterosexual” is only about a century old. Previous western cultures were more concerned with power and social structures; sin and morality; and marital and familial frameworks, and organised basic sexual concepts accordingly.

What is this?

‘Gabrielle d’Estrees and One of Her Sisters, ’ School of Fontainbleau, late sixteenth century. Gabrielle (on right) was a famous beauty and mistress of King Henri IV of France (reigned 1572 -1610)

‘Gabrielle d’Estrees at her Bath’ (French school, early seventeenth century, Chantilly, musée Condé)

‘Essentialism’: The view that biological, physiological and genetic factors are the fundamental causes of human behaviour. An essentialist view of sexuality therefore holds that human beings are and always have been basically the same in their sexual desires and practices. It does not allow for major differences between cultures or across times. ‘We are survival machines – robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes, ’ Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, 1976, p. v. A Married Couple in Bed Receiving a Child from the Holy Trinity, French School, (15 th century) Bibliotheque de L'Arsenal, Paris.

Progressive narratives These chart a history from repression to ever greater liberalisation of attitudes to sex and sexuality, wherein western societies become increasingly open-minded about sexual matters.

Philip Larkin, (1922 -1985), ‘Annus Mirabilis’ Sexual intercourse began In nineteen sixty-three (which was rather late for me) Between the end of the "Chatterley" ban And the Beatles' first LP. Up to then there'd only been A sort of bargaining, A wrangle for the ring, A shame that started at sixteen And spread to everything. Then all at once the quarrel sank: Everyone felt the same, And every life became A brilliant breaking of the bank, A quite unloseable game. So life was never better than In nineteen sixty-three (Though just too late for me) Between the end of the "Chatterley" ban And the Beatles' first LP. From High Windows, 1974.

Michel Foucault (1926 -84), author of The Will to Knowledge: The History of Sexuality vol. 1 (1976)

‘Constructionism’ The view that social and sexual categories are cultural constructs, subject to change across time and across cultures. The seduction of Lancelot, from Le livre de Lancelot du Lac, France ca. 14011425, Bib. Nat. De France, Arsenal 3480, p. 33.