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The Seminar
The Cultural History of Sexuality
Week 1: The Prehistory of Sex, Those Sex-Crazed Chimpanzees,
The Enigma of the Ice Age Venuses, the Holy Vulva and Sex as
Sacrament. Cells copulate in the primal stew, randy chimps make peace
with sex, corpulent Ice Age Venuses tease and titillate, and the
patriarchy evolves, but goddesses rule and sex is the central sacrament of
early literate cultures.
Week 2: The Reign of the Phallus, the Triumph of the Patriarchs, and
the Religious Suppression of Eros. The intensely masculinist Greeks
institutionalize pederasty, imprison wives and daughters to assure paternity,
both adore and abuse prostitutes, claim birth as a male attribute, and used
sex as an instrument of domination. The Hebrew patriarchs blame Eve for
sin, claim birth as a male attribute, and designate motherhood as the only
appropriate role for women.
Week 3: Enlightenment Philosophs Dis’ Women, Women Couple in
Boston Marriages, Bohemians Talk About Sex, and the New Woman is
Born. Enlightenment philosophers focus on sexual differences, declaring that
women are disabled by menstruation and pregnancy, and deny them education.
Freud favors the vagina, dismissing the clitoris as a child’s plaything.
Nonetheless, the Victorians guiltily rediscover sex, women go to college and
couple in “Boston marriages,” and the “New Woman” emerges from radical
Bohemian culture.
Week 4: Dr. Kinsey, Bad-Boy Beats, the Rock ‘n’ Roll ‘60s and the Next
Sexual Revolution. Kinsey brings sex out of the bedroom and the Beats act
out, presaging the 1960s. Masters and Johnson promote sex therapy instead
of psychotherapy, the Pill provides women sexual choices, popular music
becomes overtly sexual, and a rebellious youth culture celebrates sexuality,
but sex is still defined by men’s needs and preferences. Feminists and gays
move beyond the ‘60s and along with progressive scholars and sexologists,
help create the next, ongoing, sexual revolution. Meanwhile, a conservative
backlash against masturbation and a polymorphous sexuality arises and seeks
to limit sexual choices, once again, to the confines of the patriarchal family.
By becoming acquainted with the cultural history of sexuality, we can discover
the ancient roots of modern sexual practices. Then we can more easily
address our own personal beliefs, convictions, and uncertainties regarding sex,
and can more readily identify what is at stake in contemporary debates and
controversies in the sexual arena.
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