Heterosexual Deviance

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

ESSENTIALSM VERSUS CONSTRUCTIONISM

Essentialist

Constructionism  

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

Interpersonal Scripts Intrapsychic Scripting

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

  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):

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 Constitutes Sexual Deviance?

General Taboos of Intercourse Include:

What is of interest to the sociologist of deviance 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

  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"

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

WHY? 3 Reasons

Homosexual Behavior  

Sexual Frequency

Most appealing Sexual Activities:

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

RADICAL FEMINISM

PRO-SEX FEMINISM

SEXUAL LIBERTARIANISM  

SEXUAL RADICALISM

Prostitution and Pornography in the USA

Widely condemned

Widely tolerated

Sub-world:

  1. Social structure
  2. Roles
  3. Status
  4. Internal organization: "Deviant Street Networks"- "The Hustle"
  5. Link to wider society

Prostitution

Extent of Prostitution:

(Clinard and Meier, Sociologgy of Deviant Behavior, 9th ed., Harcourt Brace College Pub., 1995)

  1. 72 So. California prostitutes (Bellis, 1990)
  2. Sample served 560 clients per day (2-30/women, average 8)
  3. Fees: $20-$100, most common: $30
  4. Most popular act: intercourse and fellatio ("half and half")
  5. Total population: 100,000-500,000 (1971 est.)
  6. $1 billion annually
  7. 1992: 96,200 arrests (most female), age: early 20s, 60% white. (problem of multiple arrests)
  8. Many experts suggest decline in recent years: Sexual freedom for women==> greater sexual access for men?
  9. 20% of adult male population have had some experience as clients

Clients

Prostitutes' Attitudes

Becoming a Prostitute

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

Pornography

Definitional problems:

Hard Core

Effects of Pornography on consumers

1970 Commission on Obscenity and Pornography: Little impact, lack of violent pornography in study.

Meese Commission 1986--link to aggression (correlation vs. causation): sex offenders use porn, therefore porn causes sex crime.

  1. Baron and Strauss (89), states with high levels of porn also have high rape rates; but, 3rd variable-hypermasculine culture (violence, rape myth, etc).
  2. Gentry (91) control for SMSA--no relationship, cities with high rates of porn have same rape rates as cities with low porn rates.

Criminalization:

  1. Constitutional
  2. Definitional
  3. Big business-40% VCR owners consume

Pornography in Cyberspace

Center for Democracy and Technology Communication Decency Act Page

Stigma yes, yet ambivalence

TEENAGE SEX

 "Sex in America" survey

Exactly the same trend was found in Great Britain.

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.

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
 

Not all agree that jealous is genetically encoded. Enormous variation exists from one society to another with respect to how jealousy its members are at the infidelity of their partners. The male-female gap predicted by the evolutionary biologists is found everywhere it is true, but the size of the difference varies considerably.
 
What triggers sexual jealousy?
 
It is our awareness of what sex and sex roles mean to our partners that determines the differences that researchers observe.

The "jealously gender gap " critics of evolutionary psychology argue is the result of a cultural, intellectual, and to some degree, rational process-- not the nagging and largely unconscious demands of our genes.

Regardless we can be certain that marital infidelity is not likely to be accepted any time soon.

Homosexuality and Deviance in the USA

URL: http://www.umsl.edu/~keelr/200/hetsex.html
Owner: Robert O. Keel rok@umsl.edu
References and Credits for this Page of Notes
Last Updated: Monday, April 14, 2008 2:04 PM