Sexualizing the Social: Power and the Organization of Sexuality PDF
Preview Sexualizing the Social: Power and the Organization of Sexuality
SEXUALIZING THE SOCIAL Sexualizing the Social Power and the Organization of Sexuality Edited by Lisa Adkins Lecturer in Sociology University of Kent at Canterbury and Vicki Merchant Principal Lecturer in Sociology University of Central Lancashire Preston ~ Palgrave Macmillan ISBN 978-0-333-65000-4 ISBN 978-1-349-24549-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-24549-9 SEXUALIZING THE SOCIAL Copyright© 1996 by British Sociological Association Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1996 978-0-333-64999-2 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address: St. Martin's Press, Scholarly and Reference Division. 175 Fifth Avenue, New York. N.Y. 10010 First published in the United States of America in 1996 ISBN 978-0-312-16024-1 (cloth) ISBN 978-0-312-16025-8 (paper) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sexualizing the social : power and the organization of sexuality I edited by Lisa Adkins and Vicki Merchant. p. em. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-312-16024-1(cloth).-ISBN 978-0-312-16025-8(pbk.) I. Sex-Congresses. 2. Feminism-Congresses. I. Adkins, Lisa, 1966- . II. Merchant. Vicki. HQ23.S484 1996 306.&--dc20 95-26258 CIP Contents List of Plates Vll Acknowledgements VIII Notes on the Contributors ix Introduction 1 Lisa Adkins and Vicki Merchant Part I Power and Consent 1 Heterosexuality as a Problem for Feminist Theory 15 Stevi Jackson 2 Sinking into his arms ... Arms in his Sink: Heterosexuality and Feminism Revisited 35 Jo VanEvery 3 The Social Construction of Consent Revisited 55 Lynn Jamieson Part II Identities 4 Beyond Victim or Survivor: Sexual Violence, Identity and Feminist Theory and Practice 77 Liz Kelly, Sheila Burton and Linda Regan 5 Genital Identities: An Idiosyncratic Foray into the Gendering of Sexualities I 02 Tamsin Wilton 6 Irish Masculinities and Sexualities in England 122 Mairtin Mac an Ghaill v vi Contents 7 Beyond the Predatory Male: The Diversity of Young Glaswegian Men's Discourses to Describe Heterosexual Relationships 145 Daniel Wight Part III Sexual Exchange 8 Organized Bodies: Gender, Sexuality and Embodiment in Contemporary Organizations 173 Anne Witz, Susan Halford and Mike Savage 9 Feminist Debates on Prostitution 191 Mary Mcintosh I 0 The Cultural, the Sexual, and the Gendering of the Labour Market 204 Lisa Adkins and Celia Lury Index 224 List of Plates 1 Tom of Finland (1963). 2 Tom of Finland (1986). 3 Advertisements from Gay Times (June 1993). 4 Advertisements from The Pink Paper (1989). 5 Phone lines for women: Women Only (1992). 6 Phone lines for men: Knave (1992). 7 'Lesbians' from phone advertisements for men: Knave (1992). 8 From safer-sex leaflet produced by the New Zealand AIDS Foundation (n.d.). 9 Cover of leaflet produced by San Francisco AIDS Foundation and San Francisco Department of Public Health Jail Medical Services (n.d.). vii Acknowledgements This book consists of chapters originally delivered as papers at the 1994 British Sociological Association (BSA) Annual Conference on the theme of 'Sexualities in Social Context', held at the University of Central Lancashire, 28-31 March 1994. It is one of three volumes pro duced from the papers given at that conference. The companion vol umes are: Sexual Cultures: Communities, Values and Intimacy, edited by Jeffrey Weeks and Janet Holland, and Sex, Sensibility and the Gendered Body, edited by Janet Holland and Lisa Adkins. The conference itself was one of the largest ever held by the BSA, and these three volumes offer a distillation of the 258 papers given at the conference. The editors of all three volumes had great difficulty in making a representative selection of the papers, and we would like to thank the forbearance and patience of all the contributors while we reviewed each paper and came to our often painful decisions concern ing them. The editors of this volume would particularly like to thank the contributors for the speed and efficiency with which they responded to editorial comments and revisions. More broadly, we would also wish to thank all the participants at the conference, both those who gave papers, and those who participated in the various streams. We think that all who participated in the conference gained enormously from the intellectual vitality and excitement that was apparent there. We hope that this volume and its companions reflect some of that excitement, and contribute to the growing recognition of the significance of sexu ality in understanding the social dynamics of contemporary societies. That the conference was such a success is due to the efforts of countless people. We would like to thank members of the British Sociological Associa tion staff for their support throughout this venture. We are grateful for the support given by staff at the University of Central Lancashire both before and during the conference itself. The editors of this volume owe a great debt of gratitude to their colleagues at the University of Central Lancashire and to former colleagues at the University of the West of England. We owe personal debts to our immediate partners and friends; they know who they are. We dedicate this, and the companion volumes, to the many young sociologists who attended the BSA Conference, many for the first time. Their enthusiasm for the subject, and for the theme of the conference, gave us great hope for the future of the discipline. Vlll Notes on the Contributors Lisa Adkins is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Kent at Canterbury. Her research interests are focused on the sociology of gender, especially sexuality, the labour market and the family. Her publica tions include Gendered Work: Sexuality, Family and the Labour Mar ket (1995) and Sex in Question: French Materialist Feminism (edited with Diana Leonard, 1996). Susan Halford is Lecturer in Sociology at Southampton University after having spent six years as Research Fellow in Urban Studies at the University of Sussex. She has published widely on the implemen tation of equal opportunities initiatives in local authorities and is the co-author of Gender, Careers and Organisations (forthcoming, with Mike Savage and Anne Witz). Stevi Jackson is co-ordinator of the M.Litt. in Women's Studies at the University of Strathclyde. She is co-editor of Women's Studies: A Reader (1993), has a book on Christine Delphy forthcoming in the Sage 'Women of Ideas' series and has co-edited, with Shaun Moores, The Politics of Domestic Consumption: Critical Readings (forthcoming). She has also published a number of articles on romance and sexuality. Lynn Jamieson is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Edinburgh. Her research interests are: family-household relationships, with reference to historical and life-cycle change; sexuality; 'sexual' assault; youth and childhood; and oral history. Her publications in clude: State, Private Life and Political Change (edited with H. Corr, 1990); Country Bairns (1992); and Sex Crimes on Trial: The Use of Sexual Evidence in Scottish Courts (with B. Brown and M. Burman, 1993). Liz Kelly, Sheila Burton and Linda Regan have been working together for over five years at the Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit (CA WSU), University of North London. The Unit exists to develop fem inist research and methodologies, theory and practice which develop connections between forms of sexualized violence. Their work involves a creative combination of large and small scale research projects, training, ix X Notes on the Contributors policy development and networking, which requires bridging the worlds of academia, policy and practice, and activism. They sometimes think that the most creative part of their work together has been generating all the running costs of CA WSU! Celia Lory teaches women's studies and cultural studies in the Soci ology Department, Lancaster University. She is interested in exploring what theories of culture can offer to feminism, especially in the con ceptualization of power. Publications include Off-Centre: Feminism and Cultural Studies (edited with Sarah Franklin and Jackie Stacey, 1991), Cultural Rights ( 1993) and Possessing the Self (forthcoming). Mairtin Mac an Ghaill works in the School of Education, University of Birmingham. He is author of The Making of Men: Masculinities, Sexualities and Schooling ( 1994 ). Mary Mcintosh teaches at the University of Essex. She is currently working on a book on prostitution and public policy and has previously written 'The Homosexual Role' (1968) and, with Michele Barrett, The Anti-Social Family (1982). She was a founding editor of Feminist Re view and has contributed to debates on Marxism and feminism. Vicki Merchant is Principal Lecturer in Sociology, University of Central Lancashire. She is Chair of the National Harassment Network and has research interests in power in organizations, computer pornography, and harassment and bullying at work and in higher education. Mike Savage is Professor of Sociology at Manchester University and has a visiting part-time appointment at the University of North Caro lina at Chapel Hill, USA. Among his recent publications are Property, Bureaucracy and Culture (with James Barlow, Peter Dickens, and Tony Fielding, 1992) and Urban Sociology, Capitalism and Modernity (with Alan Warde, 1993). Jo VanEvery received her PhD in Sociology from the University of Essex in 1994. A book based on her doctoral research, entitled Hetero sexual Women Changing the Family: Refusing To Be a 'Wife'! was published in 1995. She is currently developing research on the way sociologists conceptualize housework and pursuing some questions about heterosexuality and feminism. She is also trying to apply all this the ory to the practice of having a long-term relationship with a man.
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