On Sexualisation and Eroticisation: emancipation of love and lust (original) (raw)

Sociology and the problem of eroticism

"Sociology has traditionally been concerned with problems of social order and meaning, and with how modern societies confronted these challenges when reli- gion was in apparent decline, yet classical sociologists struggled to reconcile within their analyses the (dis)ordering and meaningful potentialities of eroticism. This article examines how eroticism has been viewed as a source of life-affirming meanings and as personally and socially destructive. Utilizing the contrasting theories of Weber and Bataille, we explore sociology’s ambivalence towards eroticism, and criticize contemporary sociological approaches to the subject, before turning to the writings of Cixous, Irigaray and Kristeva for alternative models of the religiously informed eroticization of daily life. The perspectives these French theorists bring to the subject, and the issues that remain unresolved in their work, identify new lines of inquiry and re-emphasize the importance of building a sociology of eroticism that can address adequately its relationship to questions of order and meaning. "

The Emergence of a New Taboo: The Desexualisation of Youth in Western Societies since 1800

European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 2000

Sexual abuse of children and minors is, nowadays, regularly highlighted in the media. As such, it became an offence, however, only during the nineteenth century, along with the development of a particular, child-like social role of juveniles. Before 1800, adolescents were less excluded from adult life including marriage and procreation. Sexual activities were also generally criminalised outside marriage. Statutes concerning child abuse had their origins in these laws, as well as in statutes extending the scope of rape to the abuse of immature girls. Along with the increase of the age of consent from 10–12 to approximately 16 in most countries, abuse of boys and sexual contacts other than intercourse have been included in these statutes. This movement, sometimes supported by moral crusades against ‘immorality’, occurred in most Western countries along with the extension of the school system, and with the acceptance of the view that adolescence should, as a distinct period of life, be...

Can We Eroticise Equality? On the Politics of Sexual Desire

Sex is not a natural act. It feels radical to assert this claim in a cultural climate where biological determinism is again gaining ascendancy. The notion that there is an innate sexual drive – something deeply physiological and immutable about our human desire for sex – is thoroughly embedded in dominant discourses in the West. But sex doesn't exist outside the social context in which we're doing it. We must fight the return to determinism and ask if it is possible to practice our sexuality ethically.

Balancing Sex and Love since the 1960s

People long for sexual gratification and for an intimate relationship. These longings are interconnected, but not unproblematically. Today, some people (mostly men) even view them as contradictory.

The Emergence of 'Sexualization' as a Social Problem

The article explores the history of the way the idea of ‘sexualization’ has been problematized – situated as an object of concern – in the USA and UK. My focus here will be on media discourses, having analysed policy and sociological discourses on sexualization elsewhere. I document that, from the early 1980s in the USA, the term ‘sexualization’ came to describe a mal-socialisation which causes the precocious entry by the child into adult forms of sexual subjectivity and desire. I will argue that the media problematization of sexualization has been the result of a ‘discursive coalition’ between a number of conservative and feminist commentators, who for quite different reasons wished to justify measures to protect and regulate the sexuality and morality of young women. Underpinning this coalition is an inadequate account of sexual and commercial choice, as either simply present or absent for young women.

Object Lessons: Romance, Violation, and Female Adolescent Sexual Desire

Journal of Sex Education and Therapy, 2000

The familiar story that organizes "normal" female adolescent sexuality is a romance narrative in which a (good) girl, who is on a quest for love, does not feel sexual desire-strong, embodied, passionate feelings of sexual wanting. In this story, sexual desire is male; it is intractable, uncontrollable, and victimizing. There continues to be no readily available image or story of a normal girl who has and responds to her own sexual desire. Following a social constructivist perspective, the ways in which we do and do not "story" sexuality into being are definitive in how we make meaning out of our bodies and our relationships, and so the ways in which we do and do not speak about sexuality are crucial. This perspective also suggests that providing critiques and alternatives to sanctioned stories can be a crucial intervention. This point is illustrated by following the stories that are available to one girl for understanding her sexuality, and by portraying the tensions, revelations, and challenges that the interplay between these stories and her lived experiences produce. The use of a method for analyzing narratives to develop an understanding of adolescent girls' sexuality in terms of their own desire is described. The article presents an analysis of a case from the author 's current exploration of how girls' knowledge and experiences of their bodies and of their desire is shaped, enabled, and undermined by stories available in the culture about female intimate relationships and sexuality.