Gender and Sexuality. Stevi Jackson
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The main achievement of sociological thought has been to challenge taken- for- granted ways of thinking about society, everyday social life, social change and social divisions and inequalities. The founding theorists were primarily interested in explaining the massive transformations brought about by the rise of modern capitalism: industrialization; urbanization; the advent of bureaucratic organization through the state; the reorganization of work and the new power of capital – in short, all that is ‘modern’ about our contemporary societies. The exclusion of gender and sexuality from this project, however, left us with only a partial understanding of modernity:
If our view of modernity derived exclusively from the sociological classics, we would not know that a central part of the great transformation consisted of efforts to organize bodies, pleasures, and desires as they relate to personal and public life, and that this entailed constructing sexual (and gender) identities. In short, the making of sexual selves and codes has been interlaced with the making of the cultural and institutional life of Western Societies. (Seidman 1996: 2–3)
Gender and sexuality are proper topics for sociology because they are socially organized and socially meaningful and because the ways in which they are ordered and made meaningful interconnect with other aspects of modern social life. We have structured our chapters using the key concepts and theories developed by sociology to account for the social conditions that are characteristic of modernity. Sociological work on gender and sexuality has resulted in reinterpretations of these established concepts and theories and has also added new ones, thus enhancing our understanding of the social. For example, while the concept of ‘patriarchy’ appears in the work of Weber, feminist theorists have transformed the way it is used within sociology. Gender was adopted as a sociological concept only in the recent past, with the increasing influence of feminist and lesbian/ gay theories, which also established sexuality as a legitimate field of sociological inquiry. Above all, the concept of essentialism – the fundamental starting point for the sociology of gender and sexuality – is a new concept and one that has now become established, enlarging the scope of the ‘sociological imagination’.
The Structure of the Text
We begin, in Part I, with the development of essentialist ideas around gender and sexuality during the rise of modernity in the West. We then consider the challenges to essentialism associated with advances in sociological explanations of gender and sexuality. Taken with this Introduction, this first part provides a basic overview of sociological ideas around gender and sexuality, placing them in the historical contexts in which they developed. It will introduce some of the key concepts and central themes that will be dealt with in more detail in the subsequent chapters, but Part I provides a self- contained and detailed introduction to the historical emergence of sociological thought on gender and sexuality.
The subsequent chapters offer more in- depth knowledge and work towards fuller understanding through a more detailed examination of key concepts and ideas. Part II is concerned with structural accounts of gender and sexual inequalities – their social patterning – and how they are interrelated with other social divisions and inequalities (such as class and race). In Part III we discuss cultural values, beliefs and ideologies around gender and sexuality, linking these to the structural explanations in Part II, and to how we make sense of our own individual and collective identities, which is the main focus of Part IV. In the Conclusion, we discuss the continued contemporary relevance of the issues raised throughout the book, focusing on power, politics, contemporary social identities and social change.
Learning outcomes will be provided at the end of each part of the book. Your knowledge and understanding of key concepts and theories should develop through each self- contained chapter, but also with a cumulative effect as you progress through the book. To help along the way, each chapter is cross- referenced with other relevant sections throughout the text. Notes marked in the text direct you to further readings and useful resources for further study, to be found at the end of each part, just after the learning outcomes. The notes will help you to find further relevant materials and examples that will aid your understanding and preparation for any written assessments you may have. However, we have included examples of research in the text that illustrate concepts and theories, as well as exercises for students throughout the text that will develop skills of understanding and evaluation of the concepts and theories presented. These exercises come in two forms: first, task-based exercises which can be used in small groups or seminars; and, second, brief exercises which simply ask you as an individual reader to stop and think about a particular question in Your World. Finally, a full bibliography of all the works cited in the chapters and notes will be found at the end of the book.
Notes and Resources for Further Study
1 1. The law banned discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in employment, housing, education and public accommodation and was passed in April 2005. It did not mention civil partnerships or marriage. Accounts from newspapers in Maine are available on www.shgresources.com/me/newspapers, and this particular demonstration and counterprotest took place on 28 April 2005.
2 2. Only a few countries give full marriage rights to lesbians and gays (Belgium, Canada, The Netherlands, South Africa, Spain). (The issue is unresolved in the USA, where the Supreme Court of Massachusetts has voted for full marriage rights, in conflict with most other states in the Union, provoking an on- going legal/constitutional battle.) However, a range of countries have legislation that recognizes some form of partnership – either ‘civil unions’ or ‘registered partnerships’, or will at least recognize partnerships for the purposes of immigration. Most of these are in Western Europe but also include Australia and New Zealand, Israel, Argentina and Brazil. For country- specific information, you can check out Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender rights organizations with information on current status of legislation and campaigns on a wide variety of issues, based in the USA and UK: www.hrc.org; www.ilga.org; www.stonewall.org.uk.These sites contain up- to- date campaign information on same- sex marriage, but for an excellent introduction to these issues in the USA, see the book by A. Sullivan, Same- Sex Marriage, Pro and Con: A Reader (2004).
3 3. In his comprehensive introduction to sociological theory, Swingewood points out that Marx’s collaborator, Engels, did relate the subordination of women within the family to the development of capitalism in The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, published in 1884, but that this approach used the usual concepts of sociology rather than thinking through gender as a distinct sociological concept (Swingewood, 2000: 237). It is interesting to note that in this third edition of the text, Swingewood still refers to feminist sociology and the sociology of sexuality as examples of new directions in sociological thought.
Part I The Development of Sociological Thought on Gender and Sexuality
The aim of this first part of the book is to introduce sociological approaches to sexuality and gender and to place them in historical context. Sexuality and