RADICAL PERSPECTIVES ON SEXUALITY (8 Week Course)

Note Start Time: Thursdays from 6:30 to 8:30pm -- beginning on Thursday, 15 January 2004

(scroll down for full course syllabus )

Course Facilitator: Rob Teixeira

email: satyr9@sympatico.ca

This introductory 8 week course will examine sexuality and politics. Radical perspectives about sexuality and society will be explored. How has our culture/society constructed sexual identity? How do we come to know ourselves as sexual beings and what larger structures do our "private" practices express and inhabit? The course comes from the fundamental perspective that notions of "biology is destiny" need to be radically questioned. Sexuality and politics will be discussed within the context of specific issues. A possible overarching question for this course may be, "What form(s) may a "liberatory" sexuality take, and what are its manifestations as well as the barriers to its realization." There may be videos and/or speakers in addition to readings. Participants are welcome to suggest additions and/or changes to the syllabus.

Course Requirements: Here are some suggestions that we discussed during the last term.

At our first meeting we discussed course requirements. Suggestions were offered on what people could "produce" as they engaged with the readings for the course. The list of ideas were as follows:

- 800 word reflection paper on any readings or classroom discussion that engaged the participant. It could be a reflection on one article or could be a comparison of two different authors

-a zine, a cut-and-past photocopied zine that could incorporate images, text and could look really "fun"

-A self-produced radio show, or audio document.

-an online "journal" that any participant could access on the website and keep running notes, reflections on the readings and classroom discussion. To view our class comments hit LINKS then hit the "Radical Perspectives on sexuality" link.

-a book or article review

It was also suggested that participants could do individual projects or hook up with others with similar interests to produce something collaborative.

Course Materials

A package of photocopied articles to be distributed at the start of each section. There may be a minimal fee to cover the costs of photocopying.

Suggested Course Book:

• Brenda Cossman, Lise Gotell and Shannon Bell. Bad Attitudes on Trial: Pornography, Feminism and the Butler Decision. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997.

Optional Course Book:

• Shannon Bell. Whore Carnival. New York: Autonomedia, 1995.

These books can be purchased from Pages Bookstore (256 Queen St. West), The Toronto Women's Bookstore (73 Harbord St.), or This Ain't the Rosedale Library (483 Church St.).

COURSE SYLLABUS

Week 1: The Construction of Heterosexuality or, Why is that Homo on the margins? (Jan 15)

Go-around and discussion on themes, issues and assumptions about sex and sexuality and the groundwork for our discussions. Our discussions may be guided by an introduction to social construction, and historical perspectives using short reading selections from:

• Ken Plummer. "The Social Significance of Sexuality" in Jeffrey Weeks, Janet Holland, Matthew Waites, eds. Sexualities and Society: A Reader. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2003. p. 6-7.

• Lynne Segal. "The Coital Imperative: Sexology and sex research" in Straight Sex: The Politics of Pleasure. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994. p. 70-71.

Note: These are short one page excerpts that we will read in class.

Week 2: Queer Sex: Radical Offerings (Jan 22)

• Gayle Rubin. "Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality" in Carole S. Vance, Ed. Pleasure & Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality. London: Routledge, 1984. p. 267-319. (Core)

• Jeffrey Weeks. "The Meaning of Diversity" Sexuality & Its Discontents. London: Routledge, 1985. p. 211-45.

Week 3: Pornography in Canada (Jan 29)

• Brenda Cossman, Shannon Bell, "Introduction". Bad Attitude/s on Trial: Pornography, Feminism and the Butler Decision. Toronto: UTP, 1997. p. 3-47. (Core)

• Material on Canada's Child Pornography Law.

• Shannon Bell. Whore Carnival. New York: Autonomedia, 1995. (optional)

Week 4: Commercial Sex: Prostitution (Feb 5)

• Deborah R. Brock. "Sexual Regulation & Sex Work" & "Campaigns & Moral Panics" in Making Work, Making Trouble: Prostitution as a Social Problem. Toronto: UTP, 1998. pp. 3-43. (Core reading)

• Pat Califia. "Public Sex" in Public Sex: The Culture of Radical Sex. San Francisco: Cleis Press, 1994. pp. 71-81.

CONFIRMED Speaker: Kara Gillies.

Kara Gillies has been engaged in sex work and sex workers' rights for the past 12 years. A member of Maggies (a Toronto drop-in and resource centre run by and for sex trade workers) she also currently hosts a sex workers' rights radio program on CIUT 89.5 FM called "The Shady Lady" (2nd Monday of the month at 11am). Her political work focuses on migrant sex workers' issues and labour organizing.

BREAK (We don't meet Feb 12)

Week 5: Gender Systems, Sexuality and Race (Feb 19)

PLEASE NOTE: We will be looking at the extra articles for inclusion for the final 2 weeks of the course.

• Craig Womack. "Howling at the Moon: The Queer but True Story of My Life as a Hank Williams Song" in As We Are Now: Mixblood Essays on Race and Identity. Ed. William S. Penn. University of California Press, 1997. p. 28-49.

• bell hooks. "Reflections on Race and Sex" in Yearning: Race, Gender and Cultural Politics. Toronto: Between the Lines, 1990. p. 57-64.

• Joan Nestle. "My Mother Liked to Fuck" in Ann Snitow, Christine Stansell, Sharon Thompson (eds). Powers of Desire: The Politics of Sexuality. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1983. p. 468-70.

Week 6: Hysterical Sex: Children's Sexuality (Feb 26)

• Shannon Bell. "The Image Cannot be Seen" Bad Attitudes on Trial: Pornography, Feminism and the Butler Decision. Toronto: UTP, 1997. p. 199-242.

• Su Negrin. "Ageism". Begin at Start: Some Thoughts on Personal Liberation and World Change. New York: Times Change Press, 1972. p. 155-165.

Distribution of text for discussion:

• Show Me! A Picture Book of Sex for Children & Parents. photography, captions, designs by Will McBride; explanatory text by Dr. Helga Fleischauer-Hardt; translation by Hilary Davies. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1975.

Week 7: The Modern Sex Panic: Pedophilia (March 4)

• Judith Levine. "Manhunt: The Pedophile Panic" Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2002. p. 20-44.

• Tom Reeves. "Loving Boys" The Age Taboo: Gay Male Sexuality, Power & Consent. Boston: Alyson, 1980. p. 25-36.

• Joel Featherstone. "Positive Adult-Child Sex: The Evidence" Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed (No. 33, Summer 1992). p. 60-63.

Screening: After the Bath dir. John Greyson 1995 Canada (45 min. video).

Description of Video:

In November, 1993, a bag of porn tapes featuring teenage boys was found in a river near London, Canada. This discovery triggered a sensational investigation into child pornography, resulting in the arrest of over 60 London-area men. Yet members of the gay community began to speak up, accusing then London Police Chief Julian Fantino of conducting a homophobic witchhunt. After the Bath digs past the lurid headlines to investigate this moral panic. Interviews with journalists, social workers, police officials and gay activists are juxtaposed, exposing how the police and media have manipulated terms and statistics to create the specter of a province-wide 'child pornography ring'. In fact, only two of the men arrested were charged under the new kiddie porn law; the rest were charged with procuring (consensual) teen prostitution. Some of the hustlers and men describe how their lives have been destroyed by the front-page headlines.

Week 8 : Where to now? Anarchism & Foucault? (March 11)

• Selections From: Michel Foucault. The History of Sexuality, Volume 1. New York: Pantheon, 1979. pp. 3-13; 92-99.

• Michel Foucault. "The Abnormals" in Ethics, Subjectivity and Truth: Essential Works of Foucault 1954-1984. Ed. Paul Rabinow. New York: The New Press, 1997. p. 51-56.

Week 9: (March 18)

Ruta presented a video and led a discussion about female genital circumcision/mutilation. A video which depicts the lives of West African women and their plight to abolish this practice was screened.

Dimitry handed out an article, "The Future of Sex: What will happen when we can transcend erotic desire, romantic love and the human body?" found on the www.betterhumans.com website.

Special Event: On Thursday March 25, 2004 some intrepid members of our class held a public discussion about sexuality such as monogamy and polyamory on Toronto's Transit System. The TTC Bloor subway line was host to a chatty, happy collection of folks talking openly about sex! That's bringing it to the masses...Hurrah!

Week 10: (April 1)

Sexuality Social: Sex talk, Food and invigorating company.