Heterosexual Deviance

(these ideas drawn from Goode, 1994-2008 chapter 10. See the disclaimer)

ESSENTIALSM VERSUS CONSTRUCTIONISM

Essentialist

•  Sees sexuality as an instinct or drive that demands fulfillment, an independent and powerful force.
•  Sex is there; it exists prior to the human consciousness; it is a natural force in the world that has to be reckoned or grappled with.
• This is the physiological or hydraulic model of sexuality, one that sees the sex drive as an unstoppable force of nature, much like the flow of water.

• Overlaps with the symbolic interactionist approach
• How is sexuality itself constructed? What are the meanings that are attached to it?
• Behaviors or phenomena that may appear to be the same to an external observer, can have radically different meaning to the participants
• Actions and other phenomena that are objectively different can have very similar meanings to observers or participants.
• Sexual meaning does not exist intrinsically or inherently in a given act.
• Sexual meanings areassigned to phenomena or behaviors inparticular social contexts
• Sexual meanings are often ambiguous and clearly problematic categories
• Sexual meaning does not arise automatically from the nature of the act; it is the meaning that makes the act sexual in nature.
• Sexuality does not shape our social conduct - social meanings give shape to our sexuality.

Constructionists use sexual scripts to understand sexual behavior and there are three varieties of scripts that guide human sexual life:

1. Cultural scenarios
2. Interpersonal scripts
3. Intrapsychic scripting

Cultural Scenarios

• The "instructional guides that exist at the level of collective life"
• Provide broad outlines for appropriate behavior what is acceptable and unacceptable and with whom and under what circumstances sex may take place.
• There are blank spaces/gray areas in cultural scenarios; interpersonal scripts fill in where cultural scenarios leave off

• Permit the actor to turn from acting in a play with parts written by another (that is culture) to "being a partial script writer or adapter shaping the materials of relevant cultural scenarios into scripts for behavior in particular contexts."
• Constrained by and created with real partners in the concrete world: what is allowed and what isn't.
• Such constraints do not apply to intrapsychic scripting

• Enables the actor to "reorganize" reality, to create "a private world of wishes and desires"
• The more diverse the society, the more varied and diverse are the scripts that operate to guide our sexual behavior.

Constructionists argue: sex is not a given,  something that simply "is," but something that is created or fashioned out of our biological "raw material," partly by our culture, partly by our partners and our interaction with them, and partly by the richness of our imagination. It is not sex that makes us but we who make sex - along with whatever it means to us, and to the people with whom we come into contact.

GENDERING SEXUALITY

Sexist Society

• Provides an economic benefit to women who sell their bodies, and then labels them as deviant
• Women as sex objects--Conversation Law
• Women denied access to the means of success in other areas
• Extension of dominant value, activities, and institutions of conventional society.

1. Male oriented, male dominated
2. Advertising
3. Double standard
4. Profit and capitalist ethic
5. Alienated labor
6. Sexually restrictive society

How do we "gender" heterosexuality?

 "Heterosexuality is a category divided by gender."  So we need to understand what Weitzer (2000) refers to as the "gender disparity" in heterosexual deviance, that is, that male sexual behavior "is less subject to social strictures" than female sexual activity.

For Example (page 244):

• A sexually active teenage girl is condemned more strongly than a teenage boy. Stigma or condemnation is dependent on who is doing what (with whom).

• The problem of teenage sex, pregnancy, and subsequent out-of-wedlock births is widely regarded as a problem almost exclusively for the behavior of girls.

• The vast majority of "sex work" jobs are enacted by women for men. "Female sex workers are quintessential deviant women, whereas their customers are seen as essentially normal men."

Sexual behavior generally and sexual deviance more specifically are expressions or manifestations of the roles of men and women. It is naive to assume that a given sexual encounter between a man and a woman means the same thing to the two participants, has the same consequences, or is interpreted by members of the society in the same fashion.

An understanding of gender (social roles) always informs our view of sexual deviance.

SEXUAL BEHAVIOR AND CUSTOM AROUND THE WORLD

Mangaia v. Inis Beag (see also)- represents the extremes of sexual permissiveness and repression.    

• "What should be clear is that many of the phenomena many of us might assume to be biological functions, such as the frequency of intercourse and the experience of orgasm in the woman, are learned and not innate in the human organism. They may have biological basis or potential, but whether this is manifested in real life is determined by the culture, not biology." (Goode 2001, p. 244)
• "Sexual behavior, sexual custom and sexual deviance are dictated not by - the body's anatomical, hormonal, or genetic characteristics, but the society and culture in which humans live."

What Constitutes Sexual Deviance?

• What creates the phenomenon of deviance is the reactions of specific others; these can be quite variable and relative 

• Sexual deviance refers specially to socially disapproved behavior and characteristics and that only. (not pathology or disorder--no implication of harm)

• Psychological and sociological deviance are not the same thing.

• Certain times
• Too young an age
• Promiscuity

What is of interest to the sociologist of deviance is:

• The dynamic quality of condemnation, that is, the acts that once attracted more condemnation now attract far less, or none.
• How common the activity is

What is condemned is not a universal, but culture - specific, actor - specific, and situation-specific

Who, What, Where, and When: Deviance

1. Degree of consent
2. Nature of the sexual object
3. Nature of the sex act
4. The setting in which the act occur.
5. Also, The how often question: sex addict versus impotent or frigid.

A MAJOR NATIONALLY REPRESENTATIVE SEX SURVEY

• Ken Plummer (1983) classifies sex research into four "main traditions"

1. The Clinical Tradition of Freud and the psychoanalysts, psychiatrists, and clinical psychologists    
2. The "social bookkeeping" tradition of Alfred Kinsey and other survey-takers
3. The Experimental Method of Masters and Johnson and many other psychologists
4. The descriptive/ethnographic/symbolic interactionist tradition of anthropologists and participant observation sociologist.  

Strengths of "social bookkeeping"

• Allows us to make inferences about what behavior is likely to mean to the majority of the society we are studying
• Allows us to discover correlations or relationships with key factors or variables that do bear symbolic meanings
• Enables us to see, in a systematic fashion, differences between the sexes not only in how they construct meanings but also in objective, concrete behavior.

"Sex in America" ("Now for the Truth About Americans and Sex," Philip Elmer-Dewitt, Time, October 17, 1994)

• Nearly 3,500 adults age 18 to 59 were interviewed nationwide; they represented an accurate cross-section of the country in that age range. The study results turned out to be surprising in that the sexual behavior of the American population turned out to be a great deal more conservative and conventional in their behavior than almost anyone, the researchers included, had expected.
• Perhaps the most consistent findings  was that, whether or not marriage was the aim of the relationship, people usually have sex with partners who are similar to themselves - in age, 'race' and ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, especially education.

WHY? 3 Reasons

• Meeting someone takes place within social boundaries.
• Social relations are constrained by religious membership, neighborhood or community residents, school or occupational setting, friendship networks, and so on.
• "Stakeholders" - parents, relatives, peers, coworkers, friends, acquaintances, associates in one social networks are likely to put pressure on one to date within certain social boundaries.
• More than 8 Americans in 10 had had sex with either no partners 12%, or only one partner 71%, in the past year, only 3% had had sex with five or more partners.
• Since the age of 18, not quite 59% had had sex with 4 or fewer partners; only 9% said that they had had sex with more than 20 partners in their lifetime.
• Three-quarters of the married men 75% and 85% of the women said that they had been sexually faithful to their spouse during the course of their marriage. Among married persons 94% said that they were faithful during the last year.

Homosexual Behavior  

• Only 2.8% of the men in the sample, and 1.4 % of the women, identified themselves as homosexual or bisexual.
• Only 2% of the men and the women said that they had had sex with a same-gender partner in the past year.
• Only 5.3% of the men, and 3.5% of the women, said that they had done so since the age of 18
• Only 9% of the men, and 4% of the women, said that they had done so since they onset of puberty.

• Considerably lower than many observers had anticipated.
• Only one-third of the sample 34% had sex as often as twice a week; of that total, only 8% said that they had sex as often as four or more times a week.
• One out of ten of the men in their fifties 11%, and three out of ten of the women of that age 30% did not have sex at all during the past year.
• Married members were significantly more likely than the single members to have had sex twice a week or more 41% v 23%
• Cohabitation partners who were living together but unmarred were even more likely to have had sex this often 56%
• In addition: the marrieds were most likely to report being physically and emotionally pleased with their sex and its frequency.
• Thus: the image of the wild, free and easy sex lives of the "swinging singles" received a serious body blow from the findings.

Most appealing Sexual Activities:

•  Traditional penile-vaginal sex turned out to be the only sexual activity that was almost universally appealing: 83% of men and 78% of women said that is was "very appealing to them."
• 80% of the sample said that every time they had sex during the past year, they had vaginal sex.
• Half of the men and a third of the women said that watching their partner undress was very appealing
• Giving oral sex: 37% men, 19% women
• Thus: the activates the respondents said they found appealing were quite traditional and conventional. Unusual, far-out "deviant" activities attracted very few positive evaluations.

Critics of the study assumed respondents would lie about their sex lives - The fact that researchers used a variety of techniques to cross - check the answers respondents gave gives us more confidence that the answers they received are accurate. And the fact that similar similar conclusions for a number of behaviors were found in a Britain study.

The Tourist Sex Trade: Feminism versus ethnography? (see pages 254-257, Goode, 8 ed.)

• "Etic" versus "emic" accounts?
• Who benefits from prostitution?
• Choice and stigma?
• Tradition or imposition?

RADICAL FEMINISM

• The defining feature is the view that all heterosexual sex is patriarchal or male dominated and therefore oppressive.
• "Sex work" generally and prostitution and pornography specifically, represents the most extreme forms of patriarchy and sexual oppression
• All women are exploited, demeaned, and brutalized by pornography: Men who are exposed to it carry over this exploitative stance into their relations with all the women in their lives.
• All sex is saturated by patriarchy- the "anti-sex" position- All heterosexual sex is sexual slavery. Hence, it is necessary to do away with all sex.

PRO-SEX FEMINISM

• "Good" sex can be separated from "bad" or bogus sex
• Prostitution and pornography are not really an expression of sexuality at all, but a corruption of sex that must be excised from the body social
• It is the tasks of feminism to enlighten the members of the society about the exploitative nature of commercial sex.
• Men must learn that every time they patronize a prostitute or watch a pornographic video, they are contributing to the exploitation of women.
• Women must learn that by working in such enterprises, they are oppressing not only themselves, but all woman-kind
• Women bear the responsibility of teaching their husbands and boyfriends the truth about patriarchy and the role that prostitution and pornography play in upholding it.

SEXUAL LIBERTARIANISM  

• "Sex work" is empowering, not degrading
• The woman is not a slave or a victim, but a free agent who chooses a path that not only defies society's normative restrictions, but also makes her a dominant party in sexual transaction
• Far form representing power, offering money for sexual services is an expression of weakness
• All sexual acts including "sexwork" have meaning independent of the culture or social structure and two each sexual encounter is an isolated independent act

SEXUAL RADICALISM

• Blends sexual libertarianism ( versus the "anti-sex" position of the radical feminists).
• Issue: the meaning of sex generally and "sexwork" specifically is negotiated with in the framework of patriarchal system.
• Unusual sexual practices can be liberating, only if they are designed to subvert the dominant system of patriarchy.
• Prostitution and pornography like other forms of commercialization can be interpreted "in more complex ways than simply confirmation of male domination." Sex workers do not need to be "saved" or liberated form their current mode of employment. Indeed, these writers and theorist argue, sex workers have a great deal to teach us about the nature of sexuality and gender. It is they who may very well liberate us from the oppressive bonds of patriarchy.

Clients

Prostitutes' Attitudes

Becoming a Prostitute

• Research sources: Limitations of sample
• Background factors: Variety of experience, although abuse and early promiscuity are common.

Casual Sex ==> Drift ==> Transition ==> Professionalization

Step-by-step process: Learning and Sub-cultural Theories, Labeling and Secondary Deviance

Types

1. Streetwalkers
2. Bar girls
3. "Baby Pros": Children (introduced through family, part-time and school, cavalier attitudes and like the money (Inciardi, 1984: "Little Girls and Sex", Deviant Behavior, 5:71-78)
4. Adolescent Female (Marginality)
5. Adolescent Male Prostitutes (Typically unplanned, Peer-Delinquent Subculture: Hustling Network, Gay Subculture)
6. "Road Whores": Labor camps, Conventions, Truck stops
7. Massage Parlor, Photo Studio
8. Escort Service
9. Business Office: "Party girls," "Mistresses," "Career Climber"
10. House Prostitutes
11. Call girls (Entrance, Apprenticeship, Contact Development)

WWW Links on Prostitution

• Prostituion Research
• CONDOM USE AMONG FEMALE COMMERCIAL SEX WORKERS IN NEVADA'S LEGAL BROTHELS
• The San Francisco Task Force on Prostitution
• COYOTE
• International Sex Worker Foundation for Art, Culture and Education
• Prostitution in The Netherlands

Pornography in Cyberspace

Center for Democracy and Technology Communication Decency Act Page

Stigma yes, yet ambivalence

TEENAGE SEX

 "Sex in America" survey

• The majority of the American population, 61%, believe that teenage sex is always or almost always wrong."
• There is a double standard concerning teenage sex. Adults are much more concerned about teenage girls having sex than teenage boys.
• Age at first intercourse has declined
• Likelihood that someone will have intercourse by the age of 20 had risen
• Increase among teenagers in having sex with more than one partner -women who had sex with two or more partners in their teenage years has more than tripled.

THUS: Not only are young women today having sex at an earlier age than was true in earlier eras, but: sex typically takes place at time when it is regarded as unacceptable to the parental generation, before their 20th birthday, most teenage girls engage in what adults view as sexual deviance.

• Teenage sex is simultaneously an activity in which a majority of adults view as sexual deviance. It is simultaneously an activity in which a majority engage and an activity that is condemned by the majority at least a majority of adults. But their disapproval is considerably less powerful than in the past.

• Whenever persons in power fail to exert the social control they consider legitimate, they must necessity disapprove of the activity that escapes their supervision. But parents would explain their disapproval in more practical and less symbolic terms:

• Teenage sex is thought of as the gateway to pregnancy. Thus, it is activates fear from all sides of the political spectrum from liberal to conservative. But the birth rate among teenage women has declined in the 1990s- 62.1 per 1000 for females age 15 to 19 in 1991 to 54.7 in 1996.

• The decline was attributed to both an increase in the use of contraceptives among sexually active teenagers and a decline in teenage sexual activity.

In spite of the decline, the United States has the highest rate of teenage births among all the industrialized nations of the world. In 1996, just under half a million babies were born to girls age 15 to 19; 10,000 were born to girl's age 14 and younger.

The 1990s "moral panic" regarding teenage sex and more specifically teen pregnancy virtually exploded precisely at time when illegitimate births among 16-19 years old actually declined.

Extramarital Sex
 

• Adultery is far less common than most of us imagine
• It may be the cause and consequence of marital instability
• Evolutionary psychologists say, the tendency of organisms, humans included, to act in such a way that they maximize the transmission of their genes to later generations and one way of understanding this process they claim is the differences between males and females in responses to questions about what would be most upsetting about the infidelity of their spouse or partner. "What would distress you more"?
  • Women are much more likely to be distressed by the emotional involvement of their partner's sexual infidelity while men become more upset at their partner's sexual infidelity. This 'jealously gender gap' is encoded in our genes.
  • Assumption-- Women are "evolutionarily programmed to become more distressed at emotional infidelity than sexual infidelity"

• In the United States three times as many men as women are upset at her partner sexual faithlessness versus their emotional infidelity . Moreover, while the relative differences between men an women support the theory the absolute size of the percentages runs counter to it. Evolutionary Biologists predict that more men would care about sexual than emotional fidelity; in fact most men are not disturbed more by sexual than emotional infidelity, which is totally contrary to the theory.

• Men's conception of female sex has it that her sexual infidelity implies emotional infidelity as well if she has sex with another man, he assumes that pretty much means that she love him too
• In addition, some women can be in love with another man but not have sex with him hence the man loses twice when his partner is sexually unfaithful a more threatening situation tan simple emotional infidelity which may imply nothing beyond that.
• In contrast, women are aware of the fact that their male partner can have sex with another woman without loving her but when a man forms a romantic or loving attachment to another woman it is more likely to be a serious threat on his relationship with the first women.