Sex, Gender, and Sexuality The New Basics An Anthology

Abby 1. Ferber Kimberly Holcomb Tre Wentling

New York Oxford OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2009 10 at! the gender omlaws who work to liberate us Oxford Universiry Press , Inc. , publishes works thar further Oxford University cia objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. For Miriam Johnson. Scholar Oxford New York. , reacher, mentor, and inspirarion; Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kopg Karachi she w1l1 be missed Abby Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico Citi Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto For Moo Ma and Pa a fotmy rr. 1 e , an thelt endless support. for Petal:"y ove an my rock; for Jen , there for the long haul of the book's advent. ' an lor my With offices in Stu ents, d or makmg my dreams come true. Kimberly Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece f, Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore

South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Viernam For my mother, Kelly, and brother, Andrew, and for my love , Bri. Tre

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Sex, gender, and sexuality: the new basics: an anthology / (compiled by) Abby Fetber, Kimberly Holcomb, Tre Wenrling. cm. Includes bibliographical teferences. 19-533290- ISBN 978- 19-533289-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) - ISBN 978- (hatdback) , Abby 1. 1. Sex. 2. Sex role. 3. Gender identity. I. Ferber 1966- II. Holcomb , Kimberly. III. Wenrling, Tte. HQ21.S471652009 2007052828 305.3-dc22

Ptinting number: 987 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper "--.-- , '-" -"------.--..------

IENCEAND THE LAW fying the Power of the Heterosexual Man

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Why is so much of what we know aboUt sexuality limited to the physical body? 2, Why does Ussher argue that both science and the law proteCt and serve men' How does the law construCt what it means to be a " ety' How does sociobiology continue this tradition tOdayman" or a "woman" in soci- 3, Why has the law viewed homosexualiry between men differenrly than lesbianism? 4, How have science and medicine served as a form of histnrically and sril1 tOday social control over women

Jane! !ssher Sexual Science and the Lav " tram Pa"'aJ"'" of Pcmillillit)'; R,jramillg tbe e'IlO/ddrier 'ISex. Copyright iD 1997 by Rmgers Universit)' Press. Reprinted with rhe permission of Rmgers University Press. INVESTIGATING POWER: KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION , POPULAR CULTURE , AND VIOLENCE 78 . SEXUAL SCIENCE AND THE LAW . 379 REGULATING THE RATIONAL TRUTH POWER: Women s ability to own land or money; the The intent of sexual science is ro obtain careful obsetvations or measure- MATERIAL BODY right to vote; custody rights over children; the right ments of sexual phenomena which, in turn, ate expounded in a theotetical and abiliry to live oUtside the control of man; women Representations of "sex " and of "woman" and "man" do and religious power. structure, Predictions." ate deduced from these theories, which once again not sit in a theoretical vacuum, of interest only to aca- are measured against observations of sexual behaviour. Progress in sexual sci- demics concerned with the symbolic sphere, They have MARRIAGE: Mental health and marriage; physical health and longevity of life span and matriage; domes- ence is facilitated by the inflating database and the continually reformulated teal" effects. Phallocentric visions of "woman" and the tic violence; "childbrides, theories, conflation of "woman" with "sex" directly influence many arenas of material practice Abramson, 19901 , in which the physical SEXUALITY: Forced child and adult prostitUtion; pros- body of woman is tegulated and controlled! I am not titUtion law; forced marriage and polygamy; sexual talking hete about the actions of individual misogy- slavery; dowry murders. LAW AND TRUTH nistic men bUt about institUtionalized practices and Legal reasoning, , , is intellecrual and rati~flal, ' , rhe judge can come ro know procedures sanctioned or condoned by the machinery Each of these areas could fill a book in itself- enough of indeed enough about the whole complex of the law and faCt ro discovet of the state, Until very recently, it was these material over the last century, many books have been written the truth ro settle wisely dispUtes before the court, , It requires an open and ptactices that preoccupied the critical attention and many campaigns to change discriminatory practices political campaigns of feminists attempting to liber- cultivated mind, run and, in Europe and North America at leasr ate women from the shackles of patriarchal subjugation , many Derman et ai, 1995' changes in the material conditions of women s lives and COntrol. It is a relatively recent luxury to be able to brought aboUt as a result (although we still have a long condemn and resist representations of "woman" in the way to go). The same could be said of representations of IDEOLOGY AND POWER symbolic sphere- for centuries women did not have woman" and "sex" in sexual science and sex law. If we At any given time, the more powerful side will create an ideology suitable ro rights over their own bodies or their own lives. In many examine the way in which "sex" is legally and scientifi- contexts rhey still don help maintain its position and ro make this position acceptable ro the weaket t. In examining the relationship cally defined, representations of and official reactions to between representations of " one. In this ideology the diffetenrness of the weaker one will be interpteted woman" and "sex" and rhe sexual violence, and theories and treatments for sexual regulation of the body or the person in the physical as inferiority, and it will be proven that these diffetences are unchangeable, deviancy and sexual problems, we can see how phal- world, I could have looked at a number of other ateas: basic or God's will. It is the function of such an ideology ro deny or conceal locentric images of "woman" and "sex" are enshrined and legitimated in the machinery of the state. This has the existence of Struggle, REPRODUCTION: Access to contraception, abottion and serious and often damaging consequences for the lives Horney, 1967' treatments for sexually transmitted diseases; myths about menstruation, pregnancy and the menopause; the of many women (as well as for men who step oUtside control and treatment of women during pregnancy and the phallocentric boundaties of sex). SECRECY childbirth; elective abortion and infanticide of female Sex" is not an immutable, biological, given fact, driv- What is peculiar to modern societies" , is not that they consigned sex to a children; infant mortality rates; edicts and controls of ing us unthinkingly or instinctively towards pleasure (or shadow existence, bUt that they dedicated themselves to speaking of it fertility. pain). What we define as "sex" is not a simple insrinc- tual or hormonal process- while exploiting it theas secret. vaginal intercourse" may infinitum, WORK AND EDUCATION: Women s rights to education or be commonly acknowledged to be " Foucault, 1979' sex " but are mas- paid work; the position of women as unpaid housework- turbation, nocturnal emissions or the rubbing together ers; women s earnings; women s promotional opportuni- of naked bodies? We are not born with a natural tem- ties; the presence of women in positions of authority and SATURATION plate that determines how we desire, how we express our NOthing is less certain ro ay t an sex" . and nothin tOday is less cerrain power; sexual harassment in the workplace; womens tax sexuality and what is unequivocally a sexual crime or and pension rights; maternity leave and the rights of than desire, behind the proliferation of its images. , In matters of sex the pro- problem. These processes are determined by social rules mothers to work; child-care provision. liferation is approaching rotalloss, Here lies the secret of rhe ever increasing and tastes;' they differ across cultures and across time, In Anglo-American western cultUres science and the law production of sex and its signs, and the hyper realism of sexual pleasure", THE BODY: Female circumcision; foot-binding; cosmetic surgery; sexual and gynaecological surgety; witch trials. are two of the major social institutions that influence more want, no more prohibitions, and no more limits, , It is the ghost of these processes, shaping what we see as "sex " how we Sex is everywhere, except in MENTAL HEALTH: desire that haunts rhe defunct reality of sex, Rates and causes of mental illness in learn to desire, how 'We experience our sexual selves and women; the conflation of femininity with madness; ' sexuality, treat- how we learn to tepress or conceal the sexuality that is Baudrillatd , 1990' ments' meted out tOwards women positioned as "mad. currenrly forbidden, As a consequence rhis shapes how \80 . INVESTIGATING POWER: KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION , POPULAR CULTURE , AND VIOLENCE SEXUAL SCIENCE AND THE LAW interests of woman;IJ wholesale rejection ofIegal and sci- we experience ourselves as "woman" or "man," The pen- and ejacularion; female sexuality (if consideted at alP) is safety and security and giving us reassurance that those alty for ignoring the edicts of science or the law is that reduced to oesttOgen and progestOgen or to the biologi- entific theorizing on the subjeCt of " woman" and "sex deemed "other" can be clearly categorized and thus , our sexuality cal components of reproduction-menstruation , preg- has been advocated as a result. Others have taken a more we become sexual outsiders Ot outcasts controlled, However, rather than providing us wirh moderate stance seen as a sign of illness, crime or, to some, sin, This is nancy and the menopause, considered almost solely at a , recognizing that both science and law objective knowledge and guidance contain many contradictions , examining how sci- not merely a process of categorization, a matter of asctip- biologicallevellO or ro hetetOsexual response, mainly , many dicrates supporting ence and law regulate the boundaries of sex and sexual male privilege and interest tion of labels we can discredit or ignore, Scientific and receptivity to the penis in hetetOsexual intercoutse, , but others playing a part in deviancy largely demonstrates the power of phallocen- the proteCtion and empowerment of women. legal edicts have concrete effects in enforced referral for These easily observed and measured bodily "realities " Here the tric privilege itself; examining anomalies and anachro- invasive treatment, incarceration or, in extreme circum- are dissected and displayed in otdet finally ro uncover baby is not thrown out with the bathwater, and both nisms in the praCtice of law in this area demonstrates stances, sentence of death; they constitUte a sexual ideol- the mysteries of sex, Biological theories are offered as law and science are seen to offer something positive for how rigidly the dominant institutions define and seek ogy with material and often drastic effects, explanations for sexual violence, sexual problems and women, Campaigns to change the more archaic aspects ro maintain their privilege and control. For the last two hundred years "sex" has beeQ sexual deviation , as well as for the vagaries of "normal" of the law or scientific theory and practice have been exposed to the rigours of the secular gaze, the sexual . sex, Subjectivity, and social or cultUral context, is in executed as a result. IS In the following two chaptets I body scrutinized, categorized and contained within the the main marginalized or denied, will examine how the law defines "sex " sexual deviancy boundaries of exact measurement and control estab- Howevet, the rhetoric of objeCtivity rhat dominates and sexual problems and then examine in derail the DEFINING THE BOUNDARIES lished by scientists and legal experts, Common law and in both science and law is itself merely a smokescreen phenomenon of sexual violence-in particular the way OF "SEX" science act to categorize and classify what is "other fot the acting out of idenlogically motivated power and it is represented and explained in science and law. Each in the sphere of the sexual; what is outlawed because control. Science and law ate both gendered and phallo- of these issues is not merely a mattet of abstract theory; THEOLOGICAL AND CANON LAW: lf The smokescreen of objectivity acts ro deviant, or open to clinical intervention because dys- centtic. conceal for in the execution of punishment or "cure " in the GOD S WORD MADE FLESH functional. Law and science combine to define "normal" the way in which the rule of science and law is intrin- legal apportioning of " blame" for a sexual crime , both Any Woman who aCts in such a way that she can- sexuality by regulating what is "abnormal"-under-age sically influenced by the fears and fantasies of "man, science and the law have very concrete material effects nOt give birth ro as many childten as she is capable sex, incest, anal and oral sex, adultery, homosexuality, In this hallowed sphere, the mysteries of woman and on the lives and bodies of women and men. rape and sexual abuse and obscenity and pornogra- the fear she provokes in man can be carefully classi- Most people would agree that we need some legis- of makes hetself guilty of rhat many murdets, just phy, There are clinical classifications and treatments fied and controlled, An illusion of power serves to watd lation on sex , that the boundaries of the law and her as with the woman who tries ro injure herself after for dysfunCtion and perversion. Some laws are rigidly off the fears of phallic powerlessness, the fear that we sister profession sexual medicine provide safety and conception, enforced; others ignored, Some "dysfunctions" are tOl- really do not " know" what woman is, or what sex, or security against general debauchery and licentious- St, Augustine, ad 354--430 erated; othets carefully treated, Yet in the annals of sexual desite, is about, Both science and sex law act to ness, that we need to control the sexual outlaws, the science and the law the lines of demarcation between teify the mythical power of the phallus by emphasiz- sexual criminal, the rapist and the abuser. Yet it is not A man with a hundted tOngues who normal and abnormal sex are teassuringly clear-no ing the aCtive, powerful sexuality of man in contrast to that simple. How do we define a sexual crime? How do lived for a cen- tury would still not be able to complete the task of messy uncertainty here, rhe passive, receptive (or absent) sexuality of woman. we define sexual deviance or a sexual problem? It all What science "knows" about "sex" and "woman" is The model reflected in both science and law is hetero- depends on our definition of normal sex, We cannot describing the vices and defeCts of a woman. .'2 He is the benchmark against which all merely accept science or the law as neutral or see the focused almost entirely on the physical body; sexual- sexual man Mahabhatara, Hindu text ity is reduced to its bodily components , to instincts else is measured, It is his interests which the power- boundaries of "sex" they police as a reflection of given somehow natUral tUles. We must and drives, to genetics, hormones and reproductive ful social institutions act to proteCt and serve, Equally, see this institution- Take her skin ftOm her face and thou shalt see all organs, This is partly a result of the dominant ethos the boundaries of " normal" sexuality established in alized proteCtion of "normal sex" for what it is-one loathsomeness under it , , . within she is full of phlegm of modern-day scientific endeavour, which follows the scientific and legal theoty ate those of heterosexual" of the most powerful means of maintaining hetero- philosophy of positivism. This stipulates that the gaze ity; all that deviates or detracts from this is at risk of sexual hegemony and phallocentric constructions of stinking, putrid, excremental stuff, of the scientist is primarily concerned with what is mea- categorization and control. So lesbians and gay men as woman" and "man." The cool and calculated analysis St. John ChrysostOm , AD 347-407 surable Ot observable, with what can be experimentally well as women who deviate from the script of feminine of sex is part of a wider process of secularized control of the body" and , through control of the body, con- manipulated or tested ro see if it is "real." The scientist ity become the targets for legislation which is at best In pain shall you bting forth chiJdten, woman, and you is concerned with facts , not values; with " truth " not biased and disctiminarory, at worst misogynistic and trol of the person. (Madness and criminality, two other shall turn to your husband and he shall rule ovet you, supposition or belief. Concepts such as desire, lust homophobic, in many of its diCtates and decrees. forms of disruptive deviancy, have also been subjected And do you not know that you are Eve? God' s sentence love, pleasure or misogynistic fear are too nebulous Yet whilst science and law may be prime sites fo!.'. to the "objective" analysis of these legal and scientific hangs allover your sex and his punishment weighs and vague, not easily trapped within an experimental the regulation of "sex " they are also prime sites for experts.) The mechanisms of this control are a means ptism; they are material for the philosophers, the poets tesistance, Both science and law have been laid open to of convincing us that all the confusing irregularities of down upon you, You are the deviJ's gateway; you are and the playwrights, feminist scrutiny and critique, Some have argued that human experience can be explained and contained, that she who first violated the forbidden tree and broke the Male sexuality has been reduced ro testosterone and both professions are simply sexist , acting to support anything out of the ordinary, anything not "normal law of God, androgens can be punished or treated-thereby maintaining our , to the functioning of the penis, ro erection the interests of man whilst denigrating or negating the Tertullian . '

182 . INVESTIGATING POWER: KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION, POPULAR CULTURE, AND VIOLENCE SEXUAL SCIENCE AND THE LAW . 3" Edicts defining and controlling sexuality have been connecred to sexual intercoUtse and child-rearing. In 24 The as set down by God, punishment fot contraven- a drive that somehow must be teleased. Any aspect at the centre of theological law for centuties and have this way she would be "suited to glo~y rather than to tion of such laws was ultimately eternal damnation- of sexuality that could not be explained within this provided the foundations for much of the common law shame." This offers a chilling parallel to the sexual exclusion from the promise of eternal life in the king- framework was at risk of being deemed a "perversion, which defines and controls " sex" tOday, even though murdeters of today, many of whom cUt OUt or disfigure dom of heaven, The fornicatOr, the adulterer or the Since the birth of sexology all manifestations of sexual theological and common law differed in their aims, women s genitalia whilst claiming divine inspiration homosexual may have enjoyed their sinful pursuits on perversion, delinquency and dysfunction have been HistOrically, a main concern of theological law has been for their crimes, , . , The only way for woman to betmly earth, bUt always with the knowledge that they would clearly classified within the taxonomies of psychiatric the danger of woman s sexuality, as the extracts above spiritUal and rational, Augustine declared, was for her be excluded from everlasting salvation whilst the pure illness, This was ostensibly to provide a framework for illustrate-the images of "woman" as temptress, her to remain a virgin, denying her sexuality and physical- of heart and mind would bask in God's grace as their the development of valid and reliable theory and for body an instrument of evil and corruption for which ity altogether, This heralded centuries of celebration of juSt reward. the prescription of appropriate intervention. It allowed she must be eternally reviled and punished, of woma!).o, female virginity," epitOmized by the Catholic church' This isn t merely histOrical anachronism-arguably, experts to communicate with each other aboUt specific incapable of intellectUal thought, childbirth and child~ belief in the "virgin birth," through which Mary is fifteen centuries later, the traces of these archaic edicts sexual problems or forms of deviance and ro compate tearing her natUral, God-given destiny. reputed ro have given birth to Jesus without having remain. The Christian belief in the sanctity of marital across populations ro see if rheir treatments or theories Christian dictates on sexuality have their origins been soiled by carnal desire or sex. sex and the sinfulness of all else, still holds in many of aetiology were COrtect. But as is the case with the in the Augustinian creed, which was established in Whilst celibacy became the ideal ro which the angels quarters tOday-certainly in official religious doctrine. law, clear ideological judgements about "sex" and aboUt the fourth century a,d. St. Augustine was originally (or their earthly counterparts, the clergy) should aspire Yet as common law and science rook over the regula- the sratus of "woman" and "man" underpin all these a scholar, and adhered to the strict Manichean faith Augustine acknowledged the biblical edicr to procre- tion of "sex" in the eighteenth and nineteenth centu- supposedly objective systems of classification. which advocated complete celibacy and dictated that ate and so declared that sex could take place, bUt only ries, punishment on earth rook the place of threatened One of the earliest sex researchers, Havelock Ellis, sexual intercourse which led to pregnancy was to be within marriage and with impregnation of the woman punishment ro come, Sex oUtside the boundaries of catalogued a range of sexual abnormalities-sexual condemned because it caused a soul to be trapped in (not pleasure) as its sole aim (an interesting reversal of normality" has been brought intO the sratUte- books urges which are displaced on to objects outside the "nor- another s body, perpetUating a cycle of good versus his eatlier position). All sexual activity oUtside mar- tUrning sexual sinners into common criminals. The mal" sphere of desire and arousal. Ellis wanted to move evil. 19 In his eleven years as a member of the Manichean riage was considered sinful-as was sexual intercourse scientific expert has moved away from the teligious away from the norion of wickedness inherent in the faith Augustine battled unsuccessfully against his own not carried out in the appropriate "missionary" posi- emphasis on sexual iniquity and vice to define clini- pteviously ubiquitous term "perversion he was talk- sexual dtives, Rather than resolve what he saw as the tion, with the woman on her back facing the man. cal categories of sexual problems and "perversions, ing of illness not evil or vice-and so he called these cat- conundrum of whether he should confine himself to a Augustine s decrees were not novel, bUt merely the Categories of sin, debauchery and moral tUrpitUde have egoties of abnormality "symbolisms." His classifications mistress, to prostitUtes or to a wife, he underwent a continuation of a long-held belie~ enshrined in theologi- been replaced by taxonomies of disease , madness and formed the building blocks for modern-day descriptions religious conversion to Christianity and found that he cal law, that active sexuality on rhe part of a woman degeneracy, of "paraphilias" and are worth a brief examination. They suddenly no longer desired sexual release. was sinful and perverse and, if not avoided, would lead also illustrate the tight boundaries placed by science and Augustine s celebration of his new-found celibacy ro the downfall of man, As Paul decreed in Romans SCIENTIFIC TAXONOMY AND sexology around "normal" sexual expression (phallocen- and freedom from lustful desires for women came ro 1:25-27, women who "changed the order of narure" by CLASSIFICATION: CATEGORIZING tric heterosexuality) and the strict tUles which define be enshrined in the doctrine and decrees of the eatly taking up a sexually active position were evil "daugh- DEVIANCE AND PERVERSION what is an "acceptable" erotic object. Christian church, His hostility tOwatds the act of sex- ters of men" accused of seducing the "sons of gods." (In Ellis claimed there were three levels of erotic ual intercourse led him to declare that nothing was sharp contrast, men who tOok the passive position in It was only in the second half of the late nineteenth symbolism -eroticism tOwards parts of the body, more likely ro bring the manly mind down from the homosexual activity were the ones who were deemed century that the scientific community saw the publica- rowatds inanimate objects and towards acts and arti- heights than a woman s caresses, and that joining of degraded and condemned.)'" So male and female sexual tion of a number of key sexological tomes which both tUdes, He defined arousal by hands, feet, breasts, but- bodies without which one cannot have a wife,2O Men behaviour was closely defined-passive receptivity pre- spelt OUt the importance of sexuality for society as a rocks, hair, secretions and odours as "normal"; arousal were tOld to worship the spiritUal natUre of woman but scribed fot women and proscribed for men, This is the whole and gave an air of respectability ro its scientific by " lameness, squinting, pitting of smallpox, pae- ro despise her bodily reality: script of heterosexuality we see in women s magazines stUdy through the discipline of " sexology."" Krafft- dophile (sic), presbyophila, or love of the aged , and romantic fiction, films and pornography, positioned as Ebbing was working in Germany, Magnus Hirsch necrophilia" and "erotic zoophilia" (excitement caused A good Christian is bound towatd one and the same moral edict in the Christian bible. and Havelock Ellis in England; all were committed by animals) as "abnorma1." All arousal by inanimate woman, ro love the creature of God wbom he desites Later Christian scholars and theologians extended ro objective, disinterested analysis of both sex and the objects- gloves shoes , stOckings and garters, aprons ro be transformed and renewed, but to hate in her the considered and clarified the boundaries of what was anatomical body. Sigmund Freud was also an influential handkerchiefs, underlinen -or by "acts and attirudes corruptible and mortal conjugal connection, sexual sinful sexuality. St. Thomas Aquinas outlined four "sins pioneer, bUt his work has arguably had less impact on such as "whipping, cruelty, exhibitionism, mUtilation intercourse and all that pertains ro her as a wife. against nature" that were to be prohibited and con- mainstream sex research, as his methods are positioned murder, being whipped, , . . acts of urination and defe- demned: masturbation, intercourse in an unnatUral posi- as "unscientific" and his theories "untestable, "26 cation and the coitUs of animals" was also categorized Augustine pteached that woman could pass into the tion, homosexual activity and bestiality. These activities The dominant model of late-nineteenth- and early- as abnorma1. Sado-masochistic sex-sex involving kingdom of heaven only if her body was cleansed and were seen as more serious than adultery, rape or seduc- twentieth-century science was of sex and sexuality as the infliction of punishment, pain or injury on a con- her spiritual self literally separated from those organs tion because they were sins against the laws of nature, biological phenomena, an instinct for reproduction or senting partner-was first discussed as a medical ~ ' , " , "

384 INVESTIGATrNG POWER: KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION , POPULAR CULTURE, AND VIOLENCE SEXUAL SCIENCE AND THE LAW

category by Ktafft-Ebbing in 1886, He conceived of implication , the other 90 per cent are "normal men under a cloak of scientific rhetoric. It also pathologizes the placement of the penis in the vagina in wedlock."" it as tesulting from a "congenital hereditary tainted who inflict an appropriate degree of " and individualizes sexual behaviour that deviates ftOm suffering" to gain Looking at how the law defines and regulates " constitution;" involving a "pathological intensification s compliance, It is also interesting that sex" and the woman the norm , legitimaring the right of the experts to inter- sexual crimes illustrates very clearly the role it plays of the masculine sexual character (in sadism and a) perversion -with a few notable exceptions-is seen vene. Yet this is no more objective Ot rational than the in defining and regulating what it is to be " degeneration of the psychical peculiarities of women to be a male prerogative: sex laws which define a particular sexual act as criminal woman and how, at the same time, assumptions aboUt what it (in masochism)."" It remains as a category of sexual in one place and time and legal in another (see below), means to be "woman" or "man" are irrevocably linked dysfunction (or perversion) today; it may also be cat- The extreme forms of symbolism (pervetsion) are What is perversion in one context may be normal sexual to our very definitions of "sex. egorized as a "crime, " These are all fluid con- chiefly found in men, They are so rate in women that behaviour in another, cepts, open to interpretation and subjecr to change. The modern-day classification systems have not Havelock Ellis s classification of "perversions Krafft-Ebbing stated, even in the late editions of his " was Whilst there is remarkable agreement across legal diverged much from this model. The Diagnostic and probably of little importance to the majority of people systems about the criminal natUre of sexual assault Statistical Manual of the American Psychopathia Sexf/alis that he knew of no cases of erotic Psychiatric Associ*tion in the nineteenth century; equally, if representations of (although questions of how it can be defined and who one of the most widely used systems of fetishism in women, (DSM), clas- sexuality in today s pornography are anything to go by, is to blame are open to interpretation), there is much sification lisrs exhibitionism , fetisism , frotteur Havelock Ellis, 1946'" clearly many readers could be clinically defined as devi- disagreement aboUt the boundaties of "normal" con- ism , paedophilia, sexual masochism , sexual sadism ants-sex with animals , fetish objects, SM and "water sensual sex-whether homosexuality, adultery, sex transvestic fetishism and voyeurism as "paraphilias. Except for Sexual Masochism, in which the sex ratio spOrts" are not uncommon fate in the pornographer with children and the praCtice of "perversions" should Homosexuality was only removed from the DSM visual diet. These sexual ptactices may technically be is estimated to be 20 males for each female, the other be criminalized and, if so, what the punishment should 1973; befote this date it was classified as psychiatric classified as "paraphilias " but who cares? Only if you paraphilias ate practically never diagnosed in females, be. Historically, as we have noted sex" was only deviance, The International Classification of Diseases come forward to an expert for help will the diagnostic allowed to occur within marriage and was restricted an international taxonomic system , includes all but some cases have been reported, (lCD), categories be invoked. What s more, the very notion of to procreation and the missionary position. Yet whilst of the above, as well as bestiality, transsexualism , dis- DSM 111- , 1987" these acts being transgressive may add to their allure adultery may contravene theological doctrine-one of orders of psychosexual identity and homosexuality- (the recent trend for 8M clothing worn as a fashion the ten commandments being "Thou shall not covet thy although a disclaimet is included with the latter that As both the early experts and the more recent diag- accessory has been greeted with dismay by serious afi- neighbour s wife" (clearly positioning the man as active we should "code homosexuality here whether or not nostic bible inform us, women ate rarely " petverse. cionados of SM sex). Social, cultural, legal and psychi- agent, the woman as object of his it is considered as a mental disorder, desire)-the major- "" Clearly many It is only in the case of masochism-ironically, as it atric judgements are open to resistance, That is, at least ity of people would not view it as a criminal offence people still do;ICD- leaves our options open. , perhaps , the archetypal feminine position-that as far as the state allows. tOday-certainly not in Britain, Yet, technically, it Whilst the law condemns those who break laws of female "perversion" is at all acknowledged, Is this a crime in many American states;,H until 1978 adultery consent as sexual offenders, in the taxonomies of sex merely a teflection of women s lack of imagination? Or was a criminal offence in Italy; in Greece until 1981. tesearch child sexual abuse is classified as "paedophilia, is it because a phallocentric view of "woman" underpins In Saudi Arabia adultery is still very firmly outside the The DSM defines this as " intense, sexual urges and sex- COMMON SEX LAW: ANOMALIES these diagnostic categories-a view of "woman" as sex- law, with flogging or stOning to death the penalty usu- ually arousing fantasies, of at least six months' duration ually passive and inactive? Yet as the earlier examina- AND ANACHRONISMS IN ally exacted on those caught-often only the woman. involving sexual activity with a pre- DEFINITIONS OF " ILLEGAL" pubescent child, tion of women s erotica illustrates, women are certainly SEX When the United Nations attempted to prevent such To receive a diagnosis, the person has to have aCted on capable of exploring and experimenting with sexual- MARRIAGE AND ADULTERY punishment for adultery in 1980, the president of the these urges-or to be "markedly distressed by them." ity in the realm of the "perverse -even if sexologists Saudi Court of Appeal declared that flogging and Transformed into a clinical disorder, the behaviour of choose to tUrn a blind eye. Sex laws in the late twentieth century are a hodgepodge stoning were appropriate punishments for "such a sexual abusers of children is thus contained within a None of these diagnostic categories of sexual dis" of anomalies and anachronisms, yet they still position horrible crime that makes men start to ,doubt if they diagnostic category as a list of presenting "symptOms, order are based on incontrovertible "fact there is no phallocentric heterosexuality as the norm and enshtine are the natUral fathers of their children" and which Interestingly, adult sexual assault Ot rape is not teason why arousal associated with hair is "normal" but belief in female sexual passivity with strictures to con- causes " both the family and society to disintegrate"34 categorized as a "sexual disorder perhaps it would attraction to an elderly person is not. It all depends on trol the libidinous temptress. There are many contra- primogenitUre as justification for the annihilation of condemn tOO many men, Those who are categorized the social values adopted by those who construct the dictions in the law itself particular sexual activities the lascivious woman. as "sexual sadists" because they have sexual urges and classification systems, Yet this scientific classification coming within the jurisdiction of legislatOrs at one Saudi Arabia is not unique in punishing women fantasies involving the physical and psychological suf- of sexuality as deviance or dysfunction is often seen point in time and not at others, An act that is illegal fot sex crimes carried oUt jointly by a woman and a fering of the victim may commit rape, we are informed as reflecting the "truth" and thus gives a false air of in one context may be legal in another; an act that is man, Women are punished for adultery because it is by the DSM, In these cases "the suffering infliCted on respectability to the theories and the therapies of the encouraged or accepted in one context may be crimi- seen to be their dUty to refuse men s advances and to the victim is far in excess of that necessary to gain sex experts, It sets in stone (or academic tome) and nalized and condemned in another, In faCt , the very ptOvide boundaries for male sexuality (the theme of compliance, and the visible pain of the victim is sexu- gives a false legitimacy to what are subjective, value- definition of what constitUtes "sex" can vary greatly romantic fiction enshrined in "'9 We are reliably tOld that only 10 per law). An assumption ally arousing. laden judgements of what is abnormal and what is not, within the law. As Gayle Rubin has commented the implicit within the law is the notion that the male sex cent of rapists exhibit sexual sadism. Ptesumably, by It conceals the ambiguities and uncertainties of "sex only adult sexual behaviour that is legal in every state is drive cannot be contained and that, as a consequence , . , "

INVESTIGATING POWER: KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION, POPULAR CtI!.TURE , AND VIOLENCE J86 . SEXUAl- SCIENCE AND THE LAW . 387

it is woman s tesponsibility to refuse or resist. As one common ptactice of parents selling their daughters to childten, The only physical restraints are the develop- Within the law certain groups of individuals appear British MP, engaging in a debate on sex law earlier this brothel keepets.'o A report published in 1882 , which ment of the sexual body, which will preclude sexual to be deemed incapable of being raped, Women work- , stated that the desire for young intercourse or pregnancy on the parr of the girl century, pronounced: prompted the 1885 Act , and the ing as prostitutes or women who are deemed "pro- girls was so grear that prostitUtes in the West End of ability to maintain an erection and ejaculate semen on miscuous" may find it almost impossible to bring London had to dtess as little gitls in order to get any cus- rhe part of the boy, However Sex attraction is one of the elemental things in life , these physical restraints a successful chatge of rape againsr a man, regardless , then editOr of thePall Mall Gazelle only apply when we conceive of " and it will be agteed that whenyou get down ro the rom," W, T. Stead sex" as being herero- of the circumstances-as do married women against instincts which move men and women in sex matters caused an oUtcry when he publicized the fact that he sexual intercourse leading to ptegnancy-orher forms their husbands. Consent is deemed to be always pres- the outstanding imtillct of the male is pursuit, , The had with great ease purchased a rhirteen-year-old girl of sexual activity are not inevitably restricted by biol- ent in these circumstances, . . . Equally, within a model imtinct of the female is resistance, resetve, followed, if from her mother for prostitutior'r'. The tesulting public ogy or physical maturity in the same way, It is social of hererosexuality which positions man as seducer and she is won, by surrender, but broadly speaking she has debates acted to spur on the legislative campaigns of laws that define these boundaries and tell us when woman as resistant rape" of a woman by a man has to we are legally allowed to become " the reserve, and the resistance. , and the most potent early feminists such as Josephine Butler and J. Ellice sexual " and these be extreme or violent to be proven, Or,." it is merely individual force tbat makes for sexual morality in a . Hopkins " creating a climate that facilitated changes boundaries are variable, as we have seen, , , . seen as "sex." In the same way, gay men are assumed to community is woman s modesty (my italics)." in the law of consent. Yet until the 1929 Marriage Act consent to sex with other men, so "rape" is deemed less it was still legal in England for girls of twelve to marry DEFINING RAPE: RElFYING THE PENIS serious-or impossible-when they are the victims. It The implication here is that the woman who doesn ~d have full sexual intercourse with their husbands bUt AS PHALLUS is only rhe young boy sexually abused by an older man object is responsible for the sexual act that then takes illegal for them to have sex with anyone else. Today, any or the raped heterosexual man, who are likely to be place, as man can t help his " instincts women are girl who " has sex" (defined as sexual intercourse) under Rape" is legally defined as sex that occurs in the believed if they claim to have withheld consent, Whilst blamed for adulterous sex (as well as fot sexual vio- the age of sixteen is committing a legal offence, If there absence of consent, If we examine the definition of defence counsel has been known to plead precipitation lence, , , ), This is also why even in conreXts where adul- is a five-year age difference between the girl and her rape we have a further demonstration of the ideological in cases of the rape of a homosexual man, this would be tery is not officially outlawed, men who punish their parmer, it is "child sexual abuse." assumptions underpinning sex laws and their narrow unthinkable in the case of rape of a heterosexual man adulterous wives (often with murder) ate treated sym- Yet this young age of consent is not merely a histOri- definition of what we consider to be "sex." For example for whom "sex" with a man is unthinkable. In this vein pathetically by the law, . cal anachronism, For example, in Bangladesh (which in England and the majority of states in North America many people believe that rape is worse for heterosexual is one of the few countties where at 55.9 women s life rape is natrowly defined within the law as penetration men than it is for women, as it is a sexual aCt which expectancy is lower than that of men , at 56, 8) one fifth of the vagina by the penis -anal or oral penetration violates the "normal" boundaries of sexual behaviour, THE QUESTION OF CONSENT of women tOday have given birth by the age of fifteen, or assault by objects would be defined as " indecent The fact that the defence of attempted rape has been The arena in which the law is most vigilant is sex with- Wirhin the United States of America the age of consent assault " a lesser crime in the eyes of the law, (New successfully used by heterosexual men in a number of OUt consent, The law defines "sex" as an activity that varies across states: In Oregon it is twelve, in Missouri SoUth Wales, Australia, is one of the few places that has recent murder trials demonstrates the serious way in is only allowed to take place between adults, between Georgia and Washington fourteen, and in California a broader cover definition of "rape " which includes pen- which the law views rape of a heterosexual man.'. For 4' In many those who are deemed mature enough to give or with- Idaho and Wisconsin eighteen cultures etration by objects, as well as the penis, and penetration these men (and the law), it seems, it is better to kill '6 Yet the age of consent for sex var- hold consent, there are no laws aboUt the age of consent whatsoever of the moUth, rather than just the vagina or anus.) In than to be subjected to rape. ies greatly across cultures and across time, leading to and sexual activities between adults and children occur England, where a life sentence can be given for "rape However, consent is often assumed to be present if different definitions of what constitutes child sexual unchecked and" unquestioned. For example, anthro; ten years is the maximum for "indecent assault, the victim of sexual abuse or violence experiences any abuse and variations in the age at which young girls are pologists have tecorded that in the Sambian tribe of. Yet in the same way that women (or men) may form of sexual arousal or tesponse duting the eVent-a deemed "ready" to receive the sexual attentions of older the New Guinea Highlands parr of rhe initiation of engage in many activities other than vaginal penetra- not uncommon finding in both male and female vic- men:" For example, in sixteenth-century England chil- boys into adulrhood involves fellatio (oral sex) between tion with the penis and define them as "sex" (oral sex; tims of certain forms of sexual assault. This is even dren were betrothed and married well before the age of young 'boys and men, with the young boys ingesting mutual masturbation; sex tOys; anal sex,. ,), penetra- more visible and noticeable to the abuser when the tion by objeCts other than the penis or violation of parts puberty, invariably because of the financial or political the adult male semen as a rite of passage into mane victim is male. It is not rare for the man to have an gain such matches would accrue for their parents. In the hood,44 All boys take part in this ritualized acrivity so of the body other than the vagina may be experienced erection or to ejaculate when being subjected ro rape Elizabethan era the age of consent for girls was ten,'. In they can become strong and courageous warriors. Ids as a traumatic "rape," A woman who is violated with a This can cause incteased trauma for the man, can be broom many cases, the boy was not physically able to consum- not categorized as "sex."" , a baseball bat and a stick-as was the case- with used to infer homosexuality and, by implication, com- mate the union. The marriage of Catherine of Atagon So what is considered to be sexual violation of a child a gang rape of a woman which occurred in Glen Ridge plicity in the "sexual" act. This "myth of complicity"'O and her first husband Ptince Arthur is one notable case in one conteXt is deemed acceptable (or compulsory). New Jersey in 199147 is the victim of an extreme form is also common in cases of sexual abuse of boys, where the lack of consummation being the reason that Henry sexual behaviour in another, There is no immutable of sexual violation. To her it is "rape." To categorize ,his abusets have been known to comment on the size of as less serious than rape with a penis is a complete denial VIII could marry his brother s wife" Up until the late point at which children become sexually responsible the viCtim s erection during the attack , positioning nineteenth century girls could legally engage in sexual and capable of giving consent, no point at which a sex:, of the seriousness of the crime as well as a glorifica- the boy as a willing party in what is teconstructed as intercourse at the age of twelve, This was raised to the ual act "naturally" becomes legal or acceptable betwee~~ tion of the power of the penis as weapon. This is "rape a purely "sexual" encounter. Equally, if a boy experi- age of sixteen in 1885 only because of the increasingly adult and child, between twO adults or between twO defined from the point of view of phallocentrism. ences an erection he may be less likely ro categotize the .')

388 . INYESTIGATrNG POWER: KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTIO"!, POPULAR CULTURE, AND VIOLENCE SEXUAL SCIENCE AND THE I-AW . 389 experience as "abuse " even if force is used, and so be a "real" man, raping a "real" woman, in a "teal" vagi- crime (bestiality) is committed by young petsons, agti- another man, Relying on theological dictates concern- reluctant to disclose. na-a reconsttucted one clearly does not count, , , , cultural labourers etc. OUt of pure ignorance, The crime ing homosexuality, the court concluded that homosex- However, within the law, the very existence of male of sodomy with mankind stands on a different foot- uality was a threat to the American family and to the rape " is rarely acknowledged, In England the first ing", (my italics)."" It was "diffetent" in that it was American way of life prosecUtion for male rape was brought in 1995, fol- POLICING DEVIANT SEX: almost unequivocally condemned-fucking an animal The law on homosexuality highlights many of the lowing the introduction of the Ctime on to the stat- THE CASE OF HOMOSEXUALITY was clearly more acceptable than fucking a consenting contradictions and anomalies tbat underpin the legisla- ure-books in 1994 (this first convicted offender was human, tion which frames our sexual lives and exemplifies the given life imprisonment). A similar position exists in MALE HOMOSEXUALITY: THE SIN The use of the law on sodomy has been sporadic. invasive nature of the strictures that can potentially the United States, where few states (exceptions being OF SODOMY As the sexual historian Jeffrey Weeks comments , it is condemn our sexual practices, For example Michigan and Massachusetts) recognize male "rape';: , whilst difficult to know how many men were hanged under within English law consensual sex berween two men In both countries sexual assault by one man on anothe Laws and scientific theories that regulate and explain the powers of the 1533 Act, What is clear from the over the age of eighteen, if carried OUt in private is categorized as " indecent assault" and , as a conse- homosexuality also reveal the phallocentric bias within , is not statistics available is that at particular points in history illegal, if one of the parties is under eighteen (even by a quence, lesser penalties than those meted out for rape " science and the law-the fact that both professions motal crusades wete conducted to rid England of this month), or if anothet person is present (male or female), are attached to this crime. As forced buggery between reflect the interests and the feats of the "normal" het- heinous sin," For example, Weeks reports that in 1806 even if they ate not engaging in any sexual aCtivity, it men isn t categorized as "rape," the cross-examination erosexual man-and provide further examples of the there were more hangings for sodomy than for murder is illegal. If sexual intercourse takes place between two of the sexual histOry of the complainant " which has variable nature of the legal and scientific pronounce- and in 1810 four OUt of five convicted " sodomites" were men with another person present, they could still be been almost univetsally banned in male-female rape ments on the rights and wrongs of "sex." Arguably, it condemned to death. sent to prison for life. In conrrast, today, individuals trials , is allowed, was in the categorization of homosexuality as "illness In England, the Offences against the Person Act of engaged in heterosexual or lesbian sex (or even a com- However, it is not the case that male rape doesn and sexual ctime that the early sexologists had the 1861 was extended in 1885 as part of an act aimed at bination of the two) can enjoy as many partners simul- exist within the law. One of the contexts in which it greatest impact on the lives of individual women and controlling prostitUtion, so that any acts of "gross inde- taneously as they wish, and the law of England will has been officially recognized is in American prisons, A men: It is one of the few fotms of" deviancy" where the cency" carried oUt between two males , either in public say nothing. This particular law against homosexual number of surveys have estimated that at least 14 per sex police come knocking at the door. The homoerotic or in private, were made illegal. Labelled a "blackmail- men is certainly enacted: Each year scores of men are cent of prisoners in the USA will experience rape which fantasies we have seen framed in the masculine gaze in s charter " it resulted in the ruin and imprisonment arrested for "cottaging having sex in public toilets- given the figute of 1 200 000 men in prison at anyone are, film and pornography are transformed into material of many thousands of men , one of the most infa- because this is defined within the law as an "unnatural time, means 150 000 male rapes per year." Yet convic- controls of sex as they enter the legal statUte-books. mous being the playwright and poet Oscar Wilde, It offence of gross indecency." Until recently, many police rions are rarely, if ever, brought. Many young prisoners Active homosexual sex between men has been remained on the statute-books in England until 1967 forces placed specially trained officers in public tOilets are subjected to repeated gang rapes , and it has been almost universally condemned within theological doc- when consenting sex between two men over the age in an attempt to trap such offenders. The voyeurism demonstrated that if men are not sexually dominant in trine throughoUt the ages-with sodomy being seen as of twenty-one, in private, was decriminalized, Whilst involved in peeping through pinholes in order to catch these contexts, engaging in rape, they are at high risk a "crime against nature" more heinous than murder.56 In in the majority of European countries today the age men having consensual sex with each other beggars the England the act of sodomy was criminalized and made of being positioned as sexually submissive-and vio- of consent is the same for heterosexual and homosex- imagination, laced, This situation may be changing as a result of the punishable by death under an Acr of 1533, promoted by ual sex-following a recommendation of the Council Equally, many men have been convicted for engag- 1994 US, Supteme Court ruling that prison officials King Henry VIII. The death penalty remained on the of Europe in 1981-in Britain, until 1994 , the age of 57 when the Offences ing in consensual sex with those under the age of could be held responsible for not protecting a prisoner statute-books until 1861 against consent was twenty-one for homosexual men , and six- homosexual consent bUt above the age of hetero- from sexual violence, which tesulted from a number of the Person Acr imposed sentences of between ten years teen for heterosexuals; the former only latterly being sexual consent. For example, in 1988 when the age prominent rape cases being brought to appeal and life. , includ- reduced to eighteen in a private member s bill. of male homosexual consent in England was twenty- ing the gang rape of a male-female transsexual who Histotically, the law has been directed as controlling Male homosexuality continues to be illegal to this one, twenty-three men were convicted for consensual was placed in a male prison, This ruling ended what the act of homosexual sex, rather than criminalizing the day in many cultures-in the mid-eighties it was srill sex with men over sixteen." The justification for such one male tape victim described as "the Gulag of rape "'3 homosexual person-it was the act of sodomy that was- illegal in Cyprus, Eire, Mexico, New Zealand, the prosecution and for the differential age of consent for wbere prison warders implicirly condoned open and outlawed, whether it was " between man and woman, Soviet Union and all Moslem countries61 In 1993 it was heterosexual and homosexual men is that young boys often organized sexual violence, , or man and man."58 In England, in the man and beast illegal in twenty-four North American states " with are deemed open to easy corruption by the seductive Under current laws on male rape a transsexual or years following the 1861 Act that abolished the death the most severe stare penalties being twenty years in powets of older homosexual men. Following discus- hermaphrodite cannot, legally, be "raped" even if the penalty for sodomy, the Home Office made attempts jail. Against an appeal brought by gay legal activists in sion of a lowering of the age of consent in the British sexual assault in question involves the penetration of distinguish between the occasional sodomite and the 1986, the Supreme Court upheld the right of the state parliament in 1990, the then Conservative party cbair- a vagina by a penis " as the law does not tecognize a homosexual" man-the notion of homosexual iden" of Georgia to criminalize adult , consensual, private sex man Kenneth Baker was reported to be appalled, com- cbange in sex-born a man, one dies a man, So it is not tity or orientation having been recently introduced by between two men. The appeal concerned the Bowers menting that "Parents will be shocked to know that simply an opetational definition which classifies tape Victorian sexologists (p, 296). In this vein, Mr. Justice Hardwick case, in which a young man had been artested this ptotection fot their children could be temoved,"65 not simply a matret of penis and vagina, It bas to be Hawkins commenred that: "For the most pate in his own bedroom for engaging in " illegal" sex with Boys are clearly deemed in greater need of "protection .'.' , "

390 . INVESTIGATING POWER: KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION, POPULAR CULTURE , ANO VIOLENCE SEXUAl. SCIENCE ANO THE LAW 39J

lying unused on the statute-books, In other cases the medieval Spain than girls, who are legally free to choose whomsoevet , enshrined in the law code of 1256, of the woman s inability to attract and keep a man. As law (along with medicine and psychology) is strongly Particular forms of lesbian sexual activity were deemed to have sex with aftet the age of sixteen even though one aUthority declared A woman usually influential in shaping social mores on sex, This is most becomes a as the Howard League reports, there is no evidence that more worthy of such punishment. One Spanish jurist witch after the initial failure of her life as a woman' after boys can be "converted" to homosexuality, This is an clearly illusttated in legal rulings (or tefusals ro rule) on atgued that "burning should be mandatory only in frustrated or illegitimate love affaits have left he: with interesting reversal of the belief in "man" as tational the subject of lesbianism, cases where a woman has te1ations with another woman a sense of impotence or disgrace,"Bo The antecedent of and controlled and "woman" as vulnerable and easily by means of a material instrument,"" This edict was the belief tOday that all a lesbian needs is a good fuck; seduced, (Another legacy of this fear for the corrup- repeated in Italy, where it was decreed that if a woman THE HORROR OF LESBIANISM she is only a lesbian because she can t get a man, Yet as tion of children by supposedly rapacious homosexuals merely made overtures to another woman she should well as being conceived of as a sad, second-rate activity, These moral weaknesses (lesbianism) date back ro is to be found in Clause 28, introduced by the Btitish be denounced, if she "behaves corruptly with another lesbianism was also positioned as a licentious sexual act parliament in 1988, which made illegal any public pro- ~ the very origin of history, and when they grow and woman only by rubbing," she should be " punished in the annals of witchcraft, One account produced in motion of homosexuality as normal or equal to het- become ptevalent in any nation or in any country, it yet if she " introduces some wooden or glass instrument France in 1460 declated: erosexuality, particularly in schools or places of further is the beginning of the nation s downfall. The taIling into the belly of another she should be condemned to , away of feminine morality was ro a large extent the "74 A distinCtion between " education.) This was again illustrated by the comments death, vanilla sex" and the Sometimes indeed indescribable outrages are perpe- of a conservative MP, Robert Spink, during the 1994 cause of rhe destruction of the early Greek civiliza- heinous crime of phallic masquerade being introduced trated in exchanging women, by order of the presid- tion, and still mote the cause of the downfall of the parliamentary debates that preceded the lowering of in the Middle Ages? ing devil, by passing on a woman to another woman the homosexual age of consent: Roman Empire, Yet perhaps evidencing a foretaste of twentieth-cen- and a man to other men, an abuse against the natUre tUry prudishness (or panic), official secrecy and silence of women by both parties and similarly against the The public intereSt is best served by an uncompromis- Whilst male homosexuality has been almost univer- invatiably surrounded these particular sexual crimes. A nature of men, ing prosecution policy, , , any teduction in the age of sally castigated and condemned, lesbianism has been fifteenth-century cleric who declared "lesbianism" (as prosecution would put teenage boys at danger from remarkably neglected in the statutes of the law. In we now know it) a sin again God and a crime against No wonder the aUthorities wanted to remain the probuggery loony, It would be a contempt of par- English law, there is no age of consent for lesbian sex. nature proclaimed that "women have each other by silent on the subject. In England this legal silence liament for any waiver ro be given, The buggery of Laws on homosexuality are uniquely applied to men. detestable and horrible means which should not be named has largely continued ro this day (in contrast lesbian- teenage boys is the only issue on the table Theological doctrine is similarly silent on the subject, or written (Brown s italics)."" In the sixteenth century, ism is named-as illegal-in nearly 50 per cent of (one exception being Paul's epistle to the Romans in Switzerland, the authorities were advised that in the u.S. states)." It is widely thought that the current Today, whilst many aspects of sexual behaviour concerning the dangers of women turning from the case of those women conviCted of same-sex sex the death absence of any law regulating consensual sex between between men temain illegal, few convictions are actu- natural into the unnatural" (1:26)). Yet whilst women sentence should be passed, yet the crime itself should adult women in England is due to the fact that Queen ally brought for consensual sex in private. This non- were clearly romantically and sexually engaging with not be described , for "a crime so horrible and against VictOria refused to allow any mention of lesbianism in application of sex law is not unusual. In 1948 Kinsey each other long before the Victorian sexologists catego- narure is so detestable and because of the horror of it, it the sexual offences acts of the late nineteenth century, "76 So when one rematked that 95 per cent of American men were rized them as "lesbian" (Ot as female sexual inverts), it cannot be named, woman was drowned on which our laws on sexual consent are based, This regularly engaging in sexual acts that were technically would be wrong ro assume that women have had the fot the crime of sex with another woman in Geneva was supposedly because she could not conceive of such freedom ro engage in same-sex sexual activity whilst in 1568 ctiminal67 yet very few were actually convicted (or , the jurist Colladon recommended that "it is perverse acts actually being carried OUt by women- even saw themselves as criminals), For example, whilst men have been tOrtured and hanged for the same. For, not necessary ro desctibe minutely the circumstances which is why to this day there is no legal age of consent oral sex between consenting heterosexuals is techni- the fears of Paul outlined in the New Testament, have of such a case, bUt only ro say that it s for the detestable for lesbian sex in England."' A 1904 medical treatise cally illegal in many u.S. states today,6B and anal inter- been enshrined in secular law in a number of different crime of unnatutal fornication,"77 entitled Woman appears to reinforce this view, claim- course between consenting heterosexual adults was contexts. Sex between women Was often implicitly positioned ing that female homosexuality had never been made a For example, in 1260 the Code of Orleans was intro; as orgiastic within the law- illegal in Britain until 1994, under the Sexual Offences part of a general absence of criminal offence because of "the ignorance of the law- Act of 1956 12 duced in France, prohibiting sex between women, stat" libidinous control. For example (s. (1)), convictions for these crimes have , the charge offemina cmn making power of the existence of this anomaly,"" This would, rarely been brought. (A sentence of eighteen months ing that whilst for the first two offences a woman feminfls (woman with woman) was often repeated during in fact, was not so, But it appeats that even when law- was given for the crime of heterosexual sodomy in lose her member " for the third she would be burned to: the witch trials of the Middle Ages, during which thou- makers knew, they preferred absence of legislation ro 1971.j69 These are behaviours which the majority of the death. In Italy in 1574 women who were found engage sands of women were condemned for their supposedly open acknowledgement of the threat of the lesbian. It population would no longer see as particularly deviant ing in sex with other women, if they were over the age voracious sexuality.'" One of the most famous cases of a wasn t Queen VictOria bUt the ruling parliamentarians if consensual and practised in privacy, What this selec- of twelve, received the following punishment: "she shall. woman burned for heresy and witchcraft, that of Joan of who maintained the silence on lesbianism. tive application of sex laws demonstrates is that public be fastened naked to a stake in the street of LocuStS Ate, centred around her wearing of male attire and her consensus on sexual morality (or immorality) and the and shall remain there all day and night under a relit supposed sexual relationships with other women-all REGULATING LESBIANISM IN ENGLISH LAW law is entwined in a complicared symbiotic relation- able guard and the following day be burned oUtside th~ seen as evidence of her criminality.79 In the fifteenth cen- ship. In many instances public morality changes prior city."" Burning at the stake was also the punishmetlt.' tury it was believed by many that witchcraft (seen here Whilst there may have been no legal age of consent to changes in the law leading to anachronistic edicts for women caught having sex with another womanitl as synonymous with lesbianism), was often the result for sex between women , the collcept of sex (or at least " " , " , " " , "

392 INVESTIGATING POWER: KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION, POPULAR CULTURE , AND VIOLENCE SEXUAL SCIENCE AND THE LAW 393

sexual assault) between women was certainly recog- The decision of what to do with these female "pet- "91 What nothing whatevet to do with the othet sex, that her daughter had a female lover. Saunders argued verts" also presented difficulties, Lieutenant Moor- nized by nineteenth-century legal experts in England. fragile male egos must have ptOmoted such fears, Can in her own defence that both women had known she , in presiding over one patticular case Brabazon suggested thtee ways of dealing with them: Fot example the powet of the phallus be so easily supetseded? was a woman and had wanted her to dress as a man in in 1885, a Mr. Justice Lopes acknowledged that a stamping them out with the death penalty, locking That women having sex with each other could be ordet to conceal the fact of their lesbian relationship, woman (ould commit an indecent assault, a pteviously them up as lunatics or, best of all , ignoring them-not such a threat is undoubtedly testimony to the vulner- Whether the court was punishing "assault" (which had unthinkable concept; this assault could be carried OUt because they were innocuous, but because they would ability felt by the law-making men in the face of the been consensual sex at the time it happened), "lesbian by a woman on a man, or could take place between eventually extinguish themselves, sentiments reminis- autOnomous sexual woman , her sexual passivity no sex" Ot the audacity of a woman taking on a masculine tWO women, " Similarly, official legislation regulat- cent of the eugenics movement that advocated steriliza- longer confirming man s "natUral" phallic mastery and masquerade is open to speculation. ing "indecent activity" between women was discussed tion fot "deviant" men and women. So it was declared: power, her rurning from the phallus-both as symbol In other cases when the law on female indecency in England in 1913, but refused by the then home and as embodied sign (in her apparent rejection of the is invoked there is an implicit assumption that secretaty before it was even brought before parlia- ' (We should) leave them entirely alone, not notice penis)-acting as the greatest conceivable threat to women s sexuality is somehow less than that of men, uproar them, nOt advertise them, This is the method that has ment, for the reasons discussed above. An man," This was perhaps what promoted the apparent This was made cleat in a 1957 Royal Commission on the MP " been adopted in England fot many hundred years, and was provoked in 1920 by the attempt of blindness (Ot lack of imagination?) in generations of law- Homosexual Offences and ProstitUtion (s. 103), which Mr. Macquisten to introduce a change to the 1885 I believe it is the best method now, , rhey have the makets-the inability (or reluctance) to imagine woman reported that it had " found no case in which a female , which would recognize merit of exterminating themselves, and consequently Criminal Amendment Act as sexually active and therefore potentially threatening, has been convicted of an act with another female which " If they do not spread or do very much hatm ro society in law the crime of " indecency between women, as well as the horror evoked by confirmation that she exhibits the libidinous features that charactetize sexual , the change would have placed female and at large", To adopt a clause of this kind would intro- enacted was capable of being so, Fot as recently as 1978 the acts between males."9' This reflects the belief that les- in the duce into the minds of perfectly innocent people the male homosexual sex in an equal position British government was quoted as stating: "The ques- bian sexuality is somehow more benign and innocuous eyes of the law, as the wording of the clause to be most revolting thoughts, tion of homosexual acts by females has never-so far than heterosexual or gay male sexuality (what do they introduced was: "Any act of gross indecency between as the government of the United Kingdom are aware- do in bed?), an assumption that sits strangely with the female persons shall be a misdemeanout and punish- , despite its apparent danger, lesbianism remained been generally considered to raise social problems of the converse belief that "the lesbian" is the epitOme of rapa- oUtside the law, Lord Desart, a former directOr of public able in the same manner as any such act committed kind raised by masculine homosexuality,"92 cious, rampant female desire. The fact that the British by male persons under section eleven of the Criminal prosecutions who had been involved in the indictment Legally denying acrive female sexuality-or the very serial killer Rosemary West engaged in " lesbian sex Law Amendment Act, 1885. of Oscar Wilde, opposed the bill with the comment: existence of woman s rejection of man-can be seen as appeared to be regarded as unsurprising by both court The teaction to this bill epitOmizes traditional teac- a defence against the anxieties and fears associated with and media during her 1995 trial for the murder of twelve You ate going to tell the wodd that there is such an tions to female sexuality that exists outside the bound- woman, The above comment reflects the preju- women. Her defence lawyer revealed his own prejudices aries of phallocentric control-disbelief, disgust and offence, ro bring it ro the nOtice of women who have diced fears directed tOwards male homosexuality-the in his comments in opening her defence: "She may be perhaps most strongly, despair. For as the main pro- never heard of it, never thought of it, nevet dreamt of threat supposedly posed to young men by the preda- a lesbian, bUt she s not a murderer." I wondet which ponent of the bill, Mr. Macquisten, declared to his fel- it, I think it is a very great mischief. tOty advances of the rapacious homosexual man (per- he thought was worse' During the same period, the low patliamentatians there is in modern social life an haps concealing a dread many men have of their own media was full of salacious reports of the wife of the undercurrent of dreadful degradation, unchecked and The Lotd Chancellor, Lord Birkenhead, reiterated these homoerotic desires)-and the narrow definition of "sex then Greek prime minister, Dimitra Papandreou, as a sex sentiments: uninterfered with" (lesbianism). The notion of " used within the law (penetration of vagina by penis); result of photOgraphs supposedly showing her engag- between women was clearly publicly recognized as a and is analogous to the laws that narrowly define "tape ing in "lesbian sex" (photographs allegedly of het on a " could possibly involve I would be bold enough ro say that of every thousand possibility. BUt what this "sex as vaginal penetration by a penis, seeing penetration by beach embracing another woman), This was seen as evi- , whilst women, taken as a whole, 999 have never even heard was still a conundrum; Colonel Wedgwood objects not as "rape" and therefore as a lesser crime, dence of her errant sexuality and threatened her whole agreeing with Macquisten s sentiments of horrot and a whisper of these practices. Among all these, in the Sexual activity between women was implicitly rec- repUtation (as well as that of her husband)-a " lesbian How on earth are homes of this country, , , the taint of this noxious and dismay, was driven to comment ognized in English law in a number of divorce cases is cleatly the antithesis of a "good woman, horrible suspicion is to be imparted, people to get convictions in a case of such a kind?,"6 in the late forties, where a woman s "unnatural sexual Yet if the law does not like to think of Ot mention Arguably, what this sexual activity between women relations" with another woman were deemed grounds lesbian sex, it has no compunction in regulating lesbian experts down the could possibly involve appears to have been so unthink- In the manner of the legal for her husband to divorce her?3 The 1956 Criminal motherhood, HistOtically, women in lesbian relation- able to the learned men that tWO of them, Colonel Webb ries they were beset by the feat that if allY Offences Act, ss, 14 & 15 also acknowledged that a ships have been deprived of custOdy of-or even access and Sir Earnest Wild, were driven to declare that it were given to the concept of sex between women, 'Voman was capable of carrying OUt an indecent assault to-their childten on the grounds of being unfit to was a beastly subject and they did not want to pollUte women who had never previously imagined the m another woman, BUt few cases have been btOught be mothets, For example, in the 1981 case of Dailey the house with knowledge of it,"" The latter claimed tence of such activities might be tempted to try )efore the courts, In 1991 Jennifer Saunders was jailed Dailey the woman s ex-husband argued. "Your honour The grave tisk was that they would then forsake that lesbianism "saps the fundamental institUtions of or six years for "sexually assaulting " her two girl- this is the bible belt. This (a lesbian raising her chil- men, as it was feared, in the wotds of one society, stops childbirth," "produces neurasthenia and fiends and for impersonating a man;' the case being dtenJ might be okay in New York or California, bUt insanity" and "causes our race to decline, ian, that "any woman who indulges this vice will )rought after the mother of one of the gitls discoveted this is the bible belt," The woman lost custOdy of her , " , " , "

394 . INVESTIGATING POWER: KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION, POPULAR CULTURE, AND VIOLENCE SEXUAL SCIENCE AND THE LAW 39: children, with her access severely restricted, as het hus- Heterosexual intercourse within marriage is the only EvolUtionary development was believed to have led to subconsciously, band' s attOrney argued that in Tennessee the woman sexual act to be universally legal (and universally rec- the gender roles men and women its aCtive manifestations need in the occupied; as Ellis first place ro be was technically a criminal for engaging in lesbian sex ognized as "sex ), and the legally (and religiously) sanc- concludes Woman breeds and tends; man provides; caUed our, That, in om society, normaUy the husband' In a similar case in Virginia in 1993 a twenty-two-year- tioned relationship of "marriage " seen to provide the s function.'" it remains so even when the spheres tend to overlap,"106 old woman, Sharon BottOms, was denied custOdy of her bedrock of social order, is a telationship that can take So "woman" was conceived of as a modest , reticent crea- At the same time man was warned of the risk of the two-year-old son because the judge believed he would place only between a man and a woman, lOO tUre, whose role was reproduction and the resisrance of woman who was grow up not knowing the diffetence between men and The law frames heterosexual intercourse as normal rhe male sex. too sexual. Fot as Krafft-Ebbing cau- tioned in 1886 women if he srayed with his lesbian mothet, The child' and legal; science positions it as "naturaL" In common Prior to the nineteenth centUry female sexuality had woe unto the man who falls inro the meshes of such an insatiable Messalina grandmother was granted custody, and commented with their theological forebears , the early sexologists nor been so clearly distinguished from men , whose sexual s-well into appetite is never appeased.""o The powerful sexuality don t care how my daughter lives, bUt Tyler (the childj! positioned sex primarily as an instinct for reproduc- the late eighteenth century both sexes had been seen as will be mentally damaged by this. We can take care "f of the "nymphomaniac" was seen to pose a danger to tion, with heterosexual intercourse, the man in control potentially passionate, lewd and lasciviouslO7 "97 Yet the now consistent body of but the the whole of civilization and ourselves, he can , , and the woman acquiescent, being seen as a biologi- VictOrian se~910gists elevated the , as a consequence, extreme myth of "woman treatments" were prescribed- research on children being raised by lesbian parents has cally dtiven act. For example, take the comments of as Madonna or whore into scientific dogma, Working- clitoridectOmy, ovariec- tOmy, blood- found no evidence that this has any deleterious effects Havelock Ellis-who was widely acknowledged to class women letting, cold baths and enforced bedrest , prostitUtes or women from "immigrant all being used as " or that rhe child is any more likely to be homosexual one of the more liberal and reforming sex researchers 1O1 populations (especially African- cures." The "symptOms" that pre- ' American women) were cipitated such extreme forms of intervention included in otientation themselves (the feared OUtcome of the on the subject of courtship. positioned as "naturally " promiscuous and sexually mastUrbation coutts which often prevents custody being granted to unrestrained because of their lower position on the evo- , excessive desite for marital sex, lesbian- BIOLOGICAL PHENOMENON: Courtship, properly ism and uncontrolled sexual feelings tOwards sttange a lesbian mother)?" Encouragingly, in the light of this lutionary ladder understood, is a biological ptOcess which can be found , whilst that archetype of femininity, the men. Carol Groneman has described one case reseatch, as well as the result of political lobbying, it is middle-class Victorian maiden , of "Mrs throughout the bisexual animal world, It represents the , was assumed to be less B," who referred hetself to the American gynaecologist becoming increasingly possible for lesbian mothers to sexual than man, As William Acton declared in 1870: psychic aspect of the slow attainment of tUmescence Dr. Horatio be treated fairly in custody hearings after a divorce-so Storer in 1856 because of "lascivious rhe method of securing contrectation. l02 dreams." "Mrs B" was reported to have sexual thoughts the law does appears to be open to movement, Yet the Many of the best mothets, wives and managers of whenever she met any man reacrions in parliament of two conservative MPs to a ON THE MODESTY OF WOMAN: The modesty of women , although she insisted she households know little of or ate careless abour sexual would not respond to any " recent British case where joint cusrody of a child was which, in its most primitive form amongst animals, is indulgences, , , a modest woman seldom desires any improper advance." She enjoyed intercourse with her husband " awarded to two lesbian women ate relling: based on sexual periodicity, is, with that periodicity, an sexual gratification fot herself, She submits ro her greatly" and had sex nightly for the seven years of their marriage. Storer essential condition of courtship . , . modesty may be said, husband' s embraces bur principaUy to gratify him; recommendation in this " I am immensely unhappy when adult sexual behav- to be the gestUre of sexual refusal by the female animaL.. and were it not for the desire of maternity, would far Case of Nymphomania" was 103 that the affliCted woman restrict her intake of meat iour inflictS a distorted lifestyle on children. I believe who is not yet at the period ofestrus, rathet be relieved from his attentions. and brandy, take cold baths and regular enemas strenuously that every child deserves a mother and There can be no doubt that sexual feeling in the , swab ON THE SEXUAL PRIMING OF MAN: Without the reti: her vagina with borax and replace her feather pillows fathet, female is in the majority of cases in abeyance cence and delays of modesty, tUmescence could not be , and that with those of hair to reduce her sexual drive and cool Emma Nicholson it requires positive and considerable excitement to be adequately aroused in either sex, nor would the fende her passions. He warned that if she could not curb her roused at aU; and even if roused (which in many cases have time and opportunity to test the qualities of the desires "it would probably become We don t pur children in the hands of the insane, Why it never can be) it is moderate compared with that of necessary to send candidates for her favours, and to select the firtest male.IO~, her to an asylum.""1 If a man had been showing such should we pur them in the hands of the perverted?"" the male, 'os symptoms" he would not have been deemed in need of Sir Nicholas Fairbairn Hete we have the masquerade of femininitY7' psychiatric or medical help; he would merely have been woman s charade of feigned resistance to the sexU%l, n respectable society, the phallocentric view positioned demonstrating "normal" masculine drives. Whilst some sections of the law may be open to change attentions of man-elevated to a biologically necessdrX: nan as actively sexual and woman as sexually respon- Conversely, a woman showing in many (powerful) quatters, things remain the same"., process which aCts to further the reproductive poterirj' ive to man. Ironically, this laid the blame fot women any desires for another woman could be categorized as a sick nymphomaniac and subjected tial of the species, The script of courtship laid outiPf exuallmre.rponsivenm at the feet (Ot hands, , , ) of men ro these myriad "cures." romantic fiction and teenage magazines is reified as'~i; ;iving us a foretaste of the pressure to perform many natUral" biological process. Phallocentrism wasa1s~1J 1en feel today. As Havelock Ellis commented: SCIENCE DEFINES "NORMAL" SEX dominant in the early theories, the penis beingsc~W; SEX " AS BIOLOGICAL RESPONSE as the most important component of sex. As Ellis The chief reason why women are considered ' NORMAL SEX: A HETEROSEXUAL frigid' lies This view of sex as a biologically based " atgued: "tUmescence and detumescence are alikefl1~;i~ less in themselves than in impulse" dif- INTERCOURSE men, It is evident through- ferent for women and men is not a historical anach- damental, primitive and essential; in testing rhe sexH~~ Out that while in men the sexual impulse tends to ronism. Following in the path of these If homosexuality is positioned as the epitome of devi- necessarily connecred processes,w~,~ develop spontaneously and aCtively, in women early sex impulse on these , how- tesearchers many psychiatric and medical texts dealing ant or perverse sex, its antithesis is heterosexuality. are basing ourselves on the solid bedrock of natUre::~2Jii eVer powetful it may be latently and more or less with sexuality in the late twentieth century still work , " , "

396 . INVESTIGATING POWER: KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION , POPULAR CULTURE , AND VIOLENCE SEXUAL SCIENCE AND THE LAW . 50 on rhe assumption that both "notmal" and "abnor- biological rheories which implicitly position the script so we are told. Women are rimari seek 109 evI ence to express sexuality, their drive can never match that mal" sexuality are ptimarily instinctUal or hormonal of phallocentric heterosexuality as "natural" because it that ~ man IS superIor breeding material which means of men: phenomena: is biologically driven and see "sex " as simply a physi- physlCal strength and skills relevant to defence and ological tesponse, provISIon and willingness to share the burden 0f ch' , ld- I don t think its wrong fot a Our sexual behaviour is controlled "by phytogeneti- Take, fot example, the comments of the psycholo- rearmg."121 Iven the evidence that women still take woman to be sexually aCtIve or take a dominant position when cally ancient partS of our brain and therefore is best gist Glenn Wilson, who has justified male promiscuity on the burden of child-reatin making love even ga ltarIan at whatever, Bur I don understOod at the level of instincr, within the concepts and men s attraction ro large-breasted , small-waisted couples. 122 they are obvIOusly going wrong somewhere. t think the need is as great, Women can enjoy sex of ethology and sociobiology, In fact, the 'reproduc- women on the basis of "patental investment theory, Ironically, it is those men who are , and when they enjoy it it least like the stereo- beauriful. They need ro do ir rive imperative' is the ultimate principle underlying which means that the goal of the male is "ro impreg- typical caveman painted in the sociobiologists , bur it s not as great as ' theoties men s kind of anxiety." all human behaviour, since animals survive in propor- nate many females simultaneously, hence his interest who are most likely to take an equal role in the home- tion ro theit breeding suctess, in multiple mates of breeding age."117 ,We are informed the almost mythical new man , whose main goal in life Others had long believed that women had Wilson, 1988112 , that men ate programmed ro seek " physically atttac- IS not muscle growth and macho power. no sexual desJre: tive women " those with "proportionately large breasts Traditionally, evolutionary theory positioned women The cycle of sexual response, with orgasm as the and hips", and (a) natrow waist " which gives a clear as being relatively passive in this roce eJr prI- One of tbe rhings I grew up with was finding it hard ultimate point in progression, generally is believed indication to man that the woman is "fertile ground in mary function being to attract men and to " accom- to believe that a woman in any circumstances could ro develop from a dtive of biologic-bebavioural ori- which ro plant their seed."'rs modate male sexual initiation." In recent years it has have any sexual desire, that was possibly the way my gin deeply integrated into the condition of human On the same lines, we are tOld by the anthropolo- bee~ widely acknowledged that " females" do ~ctively CIrcle of frIends worked existence, gist Donald Symons that " nubility cues" are what are mmate sexual aCtlVlty, leading one proponent of evolu- , it was the men, the boys, con- stantly doing tbe playing, the sexual role MaSters & Johnson, 1966"; attractive ro men: yoUth, light skin colour and high tlonary theories of sex , whereas the , Kim Wallen, to comment the girls were the ones who played the role of the object waist to hip ratio" (the hourglass figUte-Marilyn notIOn ~f t~e sex~ally passive female is , one hopes, dead of their desire." Given the explosive tare at which the f,elds of molec- Monroe would be the ideal), He argues that evolUtion- as convmcmg evidence of female sexual initiation has ular genetics and neurobiology are expanding, it is ary theory provides the most plausible explanation now been reported in a range of mammalian species, "I23 Men also atgued that women were more inevitable that the perception of our own natUte, in for the type of woman represented in pornography- Indeed , as it has been suggested that females are selective more than men" a fact related both to their passivity in sex the field of sex as in all attribUtes of our physical and young, with large breasts and bright eyes-as men active that males in "mate choice," feminist evolUtionary and ro their greater "emotional needs mental lives, will increasingly be dominated by con- are biologically programmed to find this image erotic. theorIsts, such as Dorothy Einon, have claimed that this cepts derived from the biological sciences, When women wear cosmetics, fashionable clothing Ot IS a model of sexuality which can be seen to be empow- Women are a bit Le Yay, 1993".1 engage in diets, exercise or cosmetic surgery, they are eting for women.'" Yet if we look at how these theories more selective", there is an emotional need for women ro become actually attempting ro "manipulate age and patity cues hav~ passed into lay discourse emotionally , we find that it is the very attached to somebody before they have sex, , , The exact role of female sexual motivation in modu- in order ro enhance their sexual attractiveness,""9 This tradmonal (and phallocentric) view that is dominant, bur it not totally necessary for men." instinctual" the lating female sexual behaviour is unclear. The resolu- argument may be used ro justify as " Biological theories of sexuality have, undoubtedl tion lies in understanding the role gonadal hormones constraining rituals of the feminine masquerade, the a a sen 109 10 uence on lay beliefs aboUt what it is h d Men tend to be mOte ovett in physical play in regulating the female's ability ro mate and her beauty" tituals women s magazines sell as "pleasure." to be "woman" and "man." They certainly formed the things-men are probably thinking of sex more rhan women, , , interest in mating, Yet how evolutionaty theory explains the changing dominant views of male- whereas female sexuality entertained women are in the receiving posirion and they tend ro Wallen , 1995115 fashions in what is deemed sexually attractive, or dif~ by many of the men I interviewed, The belief that men be a bit more removed and be a bit more considered ferences across cultures, is not clear. The flappers of the are biologically driven to have sex (whereas women are and tend ro assess the petsonality of the person." These biological theories fall into three major camps: twenties, the skinny models of the sixties and many of not) was seen as "true " as one man commented: evolUtion-based theotists, who focus on the "selfish the "supermodels" of the nineties, had 110 waist ro hip Whilst many of the men I interviewed did acknowl- gene" and the instinct to reproduce; endocrinologists ratio. Are these icons of female beaUty not atttactive I think men have a great sex drive", this is prob- edge women s desire and arousal who measure "sex hotmones ; and clinically otientated ro men? And why are distended ear lobes, facial scat" ably going ro sound awful , echoing Ellis and , bur I don t think women Acton, it was always assumed ro be less than men reseatchets, such as Masters and Johnson, who focus ring, elongated necks Ot distorted lotUs feet attractive actUally need sex as much as men do, Because obvi- s, If a woman s desire was greater than theirs on the actual workings of the physical body-on .the in other cultUral contexts? Would evolutionary theo~ ously men have gOt that biological thing, a greater , she was often positioned as having a problem: ~chanics of sexual response, And whilst many sci- rists suggest that African or Chinese populations have sex drive, , , you can see it in the animal kingdom, , , entists who advocate biological theories of sexual evolved differently? Surely the reproductive imperative don t think women need to feel thar satisfied or they My long-term girlfriend wanted sex more than me, behaviour do present us with a sophisticated analysis is the same everywhete? don t have that kind of tension, perhaps, She needed sex, ro fill some need in her, I'd pUt it which acknowledges the impottance of social or cul- Women, on the other hand, are primarily intereste~ down ro insecurity, It may very well not be, Anyway, tural facrots (even if these are often seen as second- in protecting their offspring, "and hence the coyness of A corollary to this view is that whilst women might "12O very often it became a confrontational area, So I'd ary influences),116 in many instances these are narrow the female and their need ro build relationships -,ot enJoy sex and that women and men both have a right have sex whenever just for an easy life, 398 . INVESTIGATING POWER: KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION , POPULAR CULTURE, AND VIOLENCE SEXUAL SCIENCE AND THE LAW . 399

and ejaculation, the woman with vaginal engorgement These men positioned the differences they per- book for sex as conceived by the (phallocentric) scientist, of exact experimentation in mainstream sexology. ceived in male-female sexual behaviour as simply a Here it is, step by step: and orgasm, We might see this as an advance on the Take this introductOry paragraph in an academic paper biological issue; these were all "natUral" differences theories of many of theit predecessors' positioning of on female sexual response, entitled "Infrared Vaginal that we couldn t do anything aboUt, This sociobio- (I) erection of the penis; (2) engorgement of rhe walls woman" as inevitably sexually passive, We may even PhotOplethysmography: Construction, Calibration, and logical view may give pseudo-scientific credence to of the vagina and the labia majota, lubrication of the go so far as to claim it is emancipatOry for women Sources of Artifact man taking a controlling role in sex, and, at the same vagina by glandular sectetions and transudation, and according their sexuality the same statUs as that of time, it reifies the beaUty myth and positions male etection of the clitOris; (3) insertion of the penis into men, BUt this would be prematUre. During the past five years, several basic and clinical promiscuity as "naturaL" So Glen Wilson , again the vagina; (4) pelvic thrusting by one or both part- Masters and Johnson reached the majority of these researchers have conducted physiological assessments waxes lyrical on the biological basis for " the ten- ners; (5) elevation of the uterus , with a consequent conclusions aboUt female sexuality from controlled of female sexual arousal using novel instrumentation dency for males ro be sexually recharged by nov'tl forward and upward rotation of the mouth of the cer- experimentation that tOok place in a laboratOty, Due to approaches (reviewed by Hoon, 1979), One of the most females,"'2S which he tells us has been observed ~ vix; (6) ejaculation of semen into the vagina; and (7) the difficulties in petsuading women to take part in sex promising approaches is based on the principle most mammals: otgasm , the intensely pleasurable sense of climax and research in the fifties, Masters and Johnson used female reflected light from the vaginal capillaries", Several ";o The release, often accompanied by incteases in heart rate prostitUtes in many of their pioneering stUdies, studies have shown vaginal photoplethysmogra- (This) is anothet manifestation of theit teproductively flushing of the skin, muscle spasms, and involuntaty techniques learned from these women were central phy measures ro be sensitive and valid analogues of components of their "clinical research programs" car- optimal "promiscuity strategy." This presents a prob- vocalizations, sexual arousal", However, there is still controversy normal" couples, In order to test their lem, for men especially, over the course of a long mar- ried oUt on " concerning sensitivity of the AC versus DC coupled sexual tesponse cycle riage and is responsible for a great deal of adultety, A typical hetetOsexual encounter? How easy it hypotheses about the human signal, . , and it.is still not yet known ptecisely which vaginal pulse amplitUde," women s orgasmic tesponses vaginal haemodynamic processes are represented by Progressive "contempt due ro familiarity" (at least as sounds (or how boring, depending on one s own sexual and the female arousal cycle were observed in a neUtral r3S regatds sexual excitement) is an almost inevitable out- proclivities), Le Vaymay be seen to be egalitarian-at these signals laboratOry, This is a model of come of sexually exclusive marriage, It is not unusual least he recognizes female response. BUt within this detached manner in the for sex therapists to see men who are unable to achieve definition he reinforces the notion of "coitUs" as penis- research which continues to "dominate in sexology to That these researchers are interested in the sexuality "'3I Take these recent experimental stUdies on erection with theit wives but perfectly capable of srud- focused, with erection of the penis always coming fitst; this day. of women is impossible to gauge from this text. Indeed like prowess with their new secretary, Once again, as well as implicitly negating any other form of sexual female sexuality: in one, the response of women read- it is the vagina that they are interested in, or "sexual ing neUtral or sexually arousing passages whilst wear- what is observed is not diseasea but a normal biological stimulation, or desire, which may be a necessary com- arousal," rather than the woman herself. ing masks impregnated with androstenol or a placebo phenomenon and realistic solutions must be sought (my ponent of "sex" (ironic, given that he is gay himself~ To understand why this is nOt an unusual depiction of were measured;1J2 in another, the responses of pre- and italics).'" yet as we have already seen, he advocates a biological the sexuality of "woman," we have to look to sex research root to homosexuality as well). postmenopausal women viewing a neUtral or erotic film as a discipline, Sex tesearchers are preoccupied with the This distinction between "disease" and "normal bio- Desire is acknowledged in one of the formative sci" whilst sexual arousal and vaginal pulse amplitUde and legitimacy of their field-preoccupied with notions of logical phenomenon" is interesting, given the tendency entific models of sex: Masters and Johnson s Human Sex lubrication were being recorded wete examined, with second-class citizenship and with the stigma of working of many sex researchers to position sexual dysfunction Response Cycle Model. It has been highly influential oestradiol, testosterone and luteinizing hormone also in a "kingly" research area. One prominent sex tesearcher and "disease" as biological. Wilson is presumably tefer- in shaping our understanding of both "normal" sexu, being collected, In others , vaginal photoplethysmog- has commented that "sexological research is stigmatized ring to the statistical frequency of such behaviour, sug- ality and sexual problems and forms the basis for thf raphy in response to sexually arousing or anxiety- as slightly unsavoury and verging on pornographic,""6 provoking narratives was colleCted;!3; and vaginal erotic gesting that men would all like to have sex with their categorization of "sexual disorders" in the DSM. The Another has claimed that the risks include "rejection by sensitivity was measured in "coitally experienced" secretaries, given half a chance, and therefote that it four stages of the cycle are described within the psyj peers. . , vilification. , . threats. , , and FBI listings,"J37 As women is a "normal biological phenomenon," The advice that chiattic manual as (1) appetitive (fantasies aboUt sexual , by means of systematic digital stimulation of feminist sex researcher Leonore Tider has commented both vaginal walls. l34 tealistic solUtions must be sought" for man s inability activities and a desire for sex); (2) excitement (a subjec" it's not surprising that sexologists have " doggedly stuck to maintain an erect penis in the presence of his wife tive sense of sexual pleasure accompanied by physical In these experiments female sexuality is reduced to to the most traditional "hard" methodologies of positiv- yet to be able to do it every time with his "new secre- changes); (3) otgasm (peaking of pleasure with a release the statUs of abstract experimental variable-the woman istic science, whilst rejecting all that is political or ideo- tary" is tantalizing. Should secretaties have this written of tension); (4) resolUtion (general relaxation, well-be- hetself invisible behind the attention given to carefully logical for fear that it add even more of a taint to their selected aspects of her body, which are dissected and dis- into their job descriptions-resuscitation of the flag- ing). Seeing sex as a closed energy system, a series of serious endeavours. So serious sex researchers attempt cussed. The vibration of her vaginal walls is of interest; ging apparatUS of the boss? physiologic reactions," a cycle that repeats itself, again to achieve legitimacy through adopting the methods of her subjective experience of being " Those who examine the mechanics of sex itself fre- and again, Masters and Johnson provided a model of woman" or the social rigour" and "objectivity" and focusing on what can be construction of sexuality is ignored. Whether these quently advocate similarly reductionist views. For exam- normal sex" by which generations of couples would, observed-the physical body. They distinguish them- intrusive expetiments are meaningful or justifiable may sexophosists," ple, Simon Le Vay has desctibed sexual intercoutse as come to judge themselves (through the "sex guides selves from what have been described as " be questionable not impartial but value- such a simple behaviour that "one hardly needs a brain and sex manuals influenced by Masters and Johnson , bUt the fact that this genre of research those who are " laden, ideologi- "9 Given the fotms the bulk of scientific teseatch on female sexuality cal and judgemental," those interested merely in the to do it,"127 His description of the "basic components" of approach): appropriate stimulation, the, is evidence of the denial of subjectivity at the expense philosophy of sex,"'" So sex-research conferences are coitUs " as he coyly calls it, say it all. It could be a recipe body was expected to respond, the man with erection 400 . INVESTIGATING POWER: KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION , POPULAR CULTURE , AND VIOLENCE SEXUAL SCIENCE AND THE LAW . 4 So whilst the nineteenth-century woman who showed invariably closed affairs, which only " legitimate sci- Female sexuality was positioned as vaginal reJpome, minutes of penetration. Most women require more than IN There tOO much sdual drive was entists" or those specially invited can attend. conttast to male sexuality, which was framed in terms at risk of being defined as two minUtes of vaginal penetration to achieve a vagi- deviant or dysfunCtional (as a " ate, however, the signs of the beginning of change, of performance, Sexual "problems" were thus mani- nymphomaniac ), in the nal orgasm (if penetration is the only form of stimula- legacy whICh late twentieth century it is women who are Subjective expetiences of sexualiry, and the views , of fested differently in women and men-a unable tion they are getting), Yet two minUtes ate seen to be experience desire or orgasm who are at risk of being individual women and men are becoming more legm- continues to this day, enough to please by many experts. The sex researchet The DSM categorizations of female sexual dysfunc- categorized as " ilL" BUt tOday this categorization is mate tOpics for sex research, Yet the legacy of the very Martin Cole, comments as dubious as the view that the nineteenth-century reductionist viewpoint lives on , with the focus of sex tion illustrate this most clearly, The twO most common arousal- woman was "naturally" asexual. Both are value- therapy being primarily on bodily tesponse. disotdets ate anotgasmia and disordets of laden Natllrally, more responsibility falls upon rhe male than judgements, reflecting our changing social definitions both positioned as disorders of heterosexual response, upon the female in relationship formation, , of what "normal sex mote- The estimates of prevalence of anorgasmia in the " is (and normal sexual roles for FEMALE SEXUALITY: A PROBLEM over, ro add ro his problems, the male needs ro get an general population range from 29 per cent'" to 4 per woman" and "man OF RESPONSE ereCtion at least a minute or two before ejaculation in l4J as most women don t teport such problems (or Take the case of inhibited female orgasm cent; , diagnosed otder ro, as he sees it, ' if a woman cannot achieve orgasm through intercourse have sex' and 'please his part- Whilst the nineteenth-century sex researchets con- , even categorize them as such) it is impossible to know ner , (my italicsJr;o firmed the prejudices of their theological predecessors the exact numbets, The way in which these disorders but not if she cannot achieve orgasm through masturba- tion, This clearly defines orgasm during vaginal pene- in conceiving of female sexuality as passive or inac- are classified by theDSMI44 is outlined below: This shouldn t surprise us. Within the tration as the normal expetience for women. A woman phallocen- tive, reinforcing archetypal myths about "woman " sex tric view of sex perpetuated by sexologists it isnatf!- DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA 302.72: FEMALE ability (or willingness) to give herself autonomous plea- researchers in the latter half of this century have taken rally man s climax, his arousal and orgasm which act SEXUAL AROUSAL DISORDER sure is not deemed an issue for clinicians a slightly different view, For whilsr the pioneering sex , unless she as punctuating marks of the is being taught to masturbate as part of a programme sexual encounter, The reseatchers of the fifties, such as Masters and Johnson A, Either (1) or (2) woman merely follows him (by necessity very quickly). of therapy, If the clinician judges the sexual activity to or Kinsey, concentrated on physical response, they did (1) persistent Ot recurrent partial or complete failute ro This is why man s inability tocontrol be "adequate in focus his response is a at least acknowledge that the sexuality of women was maintain the lubrication-swelling tesponse of sex- , intensity and duration " then the problem; it doesn woman should reach orgasm-although how the cli- t allow woman to be pleasured suf- as important as that of men, Echoing liberal feminist ual excitement until completion of sexual activity ficiently, As Kaplan has written: theories of sexuality, Mastets and Johnson claimed that (2) persistent or recurrent lack of a subjective sense of nician will glean this information withoUt obsetving the sexual act is not obvious. If the sexual activity is In a comparison of male and female sexual function, it sexual excitement and pleasure in a female during A man s ability ro control his ejaculation is crucial for adequate " and the woman doesn should be emphasized that in sexual response it is the sexual activity t reach orgasm we proficiency in lovemaking, , , The effective lover must are ominously informed that she will be subjected to similarities of, not differences between, the sexes that B, Occurrence not exclusively during the course be able ro engage in sex play whilst he is in a highly ""o a thorough sexual evaluation therapists find remarkable. of anOther Axis 1 disorder (other than a Sexual , which may even require aroused state in order ro bring the woman a trial of treatment, , who is usu- Hailed by some as the instigatOrs of the sexual tevo- Dysfunction), such as Majot Depression, " This implies that her body will ally slower ro respond be examined-not her , especially when she is young, IUtion Masters and Johnson were seen as emancipatOry feelings aboUt sex, about men ro a high plateau of excitement and orgasm, ", becau~e of their recognition of the importance of clitO- or about the pressure to respond to vaginal penetration, DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA 302.73: INHIBITED Perhaps it is the fear of being classified as sexually dys- ral stimulation and the existence of the clitOral orgasm In an era when women are expected to enjoy sex FEMALE ORGASM functional which results in I'he high numbers of women (prior to this it was only the vaginal orgasm th~t was and to be "pleasured" by men the biological difference , or absence of, orgasm who report faking orgasm during acknowledged as "normal"), Yet they still considered Petsistent or recurrent delay in heterosexual inter- in men and women s sexual responses is inherently course (as well as their desire to protect the egos of men), female sexuality within the confines of heterosexual in a female following a normal sexual excitement phase problematic. It can result in frustration and sexual dis- matriage, whete the woman was expected to experience during the sexual activity that the clinician judges ro The DSM recognition that many women cannot satisfaction for both parties if the man cannot control experience orgasm during intercourse " sexual pleasure and orgasm during heterosexual inter- be adequate in focus, intensity and duration, Some withoUt clito- his ejaculation (patticularly if " ral stimulation foreplay" is not brought course and to be aroused by the man (or by anticipation females ate able to experience otgasm during non- " is interesting. A number of surveys into the sexual repertoire). Even.if a man have reported that a high percentage of women rarely can control his of penettationof penis). coital clitoral stimulation, but are unable to experi- own sexual responses, this is invariably at the cost of or never achieve " ence it during coitus in the absence of manual clitotal unassisted" orgasm during inter- splitting off his own pleasure and desire for the sexual coutse-up to 80 per l4J It is a relief In essence, the vaginal bartel responds 1:0 effective Stimulation. In most of rhese females this represents cent in one stUdy. act he is engaging in. According to Anthony Crabbe: to know that the stimulation by involuntaty ' preparation fot penile a normal variation of the female sexual response and DSM doesn t deem this deviant or Female pathological bUt merely part of the "normal variation penetration, Just as penile ereCtion is a ditect physi- does not justify the diagnosis of Inhibited A man learns, or is taught, that, in order ro avoid of the female sexual response, ologic expression of a psychologic demand to mount Orgasm, However, in some of these females, this does " And if the findings of being a selfish lover, he must often distance himself the earliest sexual surveyor so expansion and lubrication of the vaginal batrel reptesent a psychological inhibition that justifies the , Alfred Kinsey, are in any from the sex act, His biological way correct capacity ro be sat- provides direct physiologic indication of the obvious diagnosis, This difficult judgement is assisted by a , women s need for extra stimulation isn isfied more quickly is a liability for which he must surprising: he repotted that 75 per cent of men ejacu- psychologic mounting invitation, thorough sexual evaluation, which may even requlfe compensate by concentrating on his performance, Sex late (and therefore terminate intercourse) aftet only two MaSters &Johnson, 1966"" a trial of treatment manuals make this clear , "

402 . INVESTIGATING POWER: KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION , POPULAR CU1:rURE , AND VIOLENCE SEXUAL SCIENCE AND THE LAW . 400 A similat argument could be made about " inhibited such as a hug or a kiss One man I interviewed said I try to think about , which suggests a progression is the parts of her body which are of interest when sexual desite," a disordet which can be experienced by to sex, Certainly an extreme reaction , not her football , or about inane things like cabbages , by anybody subJectlve expetience. I'm having sex, It makes me last longer. " As we have men, but is much more commonly reported in wom- standards. l5I It is manifested by " Many of the aetiological theories pUt forward to already seen, metl often split sex from love as a result en, persistently or recurtently Vaginismus is a rare disorder-reported to affect explain women s sexual problems reinforce the very , atguably, deficient or absent sexual fantasies and desire for sexual 4 per cent of women."3 One obvious teason for the of fears of dependency atld vulnerability; yet definmon of sex as a bodily phenomenon. Illnesses such the pressures to perform sexually and to "fight" bodily functioning." This could imply that a woman who does attention given over to it by researchers and clini- as epilepsy, cancer, heart disease not desire her partner (or any man) is somehow ill (a ~lans IS that it provides a more amenable and obvious , diabetes, cystitis, pel- tesponses reinforce this more deeply rooted psychologi- VlC pain, spinal-cord lesions or arthritis are seen to be focus for research and intervention than other aspects cal splitting, It also teinforces the notion of male and critique which would equally apply to men who don major causes of sexual problems of female sexualtty, as it is more easily identified and , or they are seen to female sexuality being diffetent. As Crabbe writes, desire women). This unambiguously refers to a pathol- be ~ssociated with the woman measured. This is what the " s reproductive life cycle (Men) know that they do not express their sexual ogy wirhin the woman rather than looking to her part- real" scientist is inter- (whIch by Implication is pathologized or positioned as a ner or the relationship for reasons for het disinterest ested in-something which pleasure as demonstratively or fot as long as women " can be easily observed. narrow hor monal event), with menstruation, pregnancy ""9 In a world where it is men who are supposed to or iooking more critically at this natrow definition of Changes in arousal or absence of orgasm are not so eas- can. and chIldbmh, or with the menopause, l55 Social or psy- be sexual , the realization that women s sexual pleasure sex," which many women find limiting, boring and ily measured (at least Outside the experimentallabora- chologlCal theories have been suggested-cognitions inapproptiate for their own sexual needs. As these tOry where there are a gamut of machines to measure is potentially greater (or at least lotlger lasting) than sexual abuse, personality, anxiety or depression being men that women can enjoy "sex" without having to women I interviewed tOld me: female sexual response in tow). Vaginismus may also seen as possible causes of women s sexual problems distract themselves with thoughts of football or cab- be deemed more problematic within a phallocentric and there is a move towards multifactorial models in frame, as it interferes very directly with a man bages-can clearly bolster feelings of envy or resent- "I'm certainly nOt intetested in an overabundance of s ability sex research and therapy, in which social to penetrate the woman , psychological ment towards women on the part of men. pumping penetration, you know it juSt seems to me , whereas absence of desire or and bIOlogIcal factors are seen to interact to produce The DSM categorization of female sexual arousal rhat it is possibly one of the ways in which the whole anorgasmia does not, It is also something that men will ~he problems under investigation. I" John Bancroft's disorder is also interesting, It focuses attention primar- world has been pumped off its axis, if you know what very obviously notice-thus precipitating treatment- psychosomatIc model of sex" is one of the most well , yet also I mean, Irs just not necessary at all, this, like, empha- whereas absence of arousal or orgasm can be ignored (or ISB This ily on the physical mechanics of sexual response known. move is to be commended But the , it s just such a waste of time, Its presence pretended), acknowledges the woman s feelings and the importance sis on performance majoriry of researchers and clinicians ignore ' the social of the absence of subjective excitement. Well and good ;:et the fact thatsome men will ignore this "prob- construction of sexuality and the way in which both , the psychological level is being Men who are skilled lovers can have any women they lem and endeavour to " have sex we might say, At last " anyway is illustrated sex" and "sexual problem" are defined; it is extremely acknowledged, But the woman is implicirly patholo- want because theyre so rate, The thing that depresses by this recent description of dyspareunia and vaginis- rare for any question of what it means to be "woman gized-technically, she is suffering from an illness me abour sex is how. grateful we are as women for mus In a texr on sex therapy: (and the implications this has for " sex ) to be raised because she doesn t respond to a man, Being willing to such minimal pleasure and excitement, If a man s half or any questioning of the " Dyspareunia in the female (pain in the vagina during normality" of heterosexual perform certain sexual acts has also been pathologized. decent in bed we think he's gteat:' Intercourse. For example, we are told in a recent textbook on sex tntercourse) and vaginismus can be viewed as simi- therapy that an aversion to fellatio is the most com- As "sex" is synonymous with heterosexual inter- lar problems with varying degtees of intensity. They PHALLIC PERFORMANCE AS " mon "sexual phobia" in women. This is described as course, it is perhaps not surprising that those disorders range from a dyspareunia of mild discomfort, through NORMAL SEX serious and perhaps intolerable pain an aversion in women ro semen and of coutse oral sex which impede this activity-vaginismus and dyspare- , ro vaginismus, So despite rhe claims of sexologists to be neUtral and ""O Is where the reflex contracture of the peri-vaginal mus- when the woman takes the penis into her moUth, unia-have received the greatest amount of attention objective observers of human sexuality,"9 we can see semen really that erotic? Should a moUth full of semen from researchers and clinicians, Vaginismus is the term cles effeCtively prevents penetration by the penis, In In their categorization of sexual dysfunction a strong used to describe " recurrent or persistent involuntary more serious cases, any attempt ro tOuch or approach be woman s greatest erotic desire? The experts seem to adherence to a narrow, ideologically motivated model the vagina leads ro powetfuJ think so. Like many other things in life it s a matter of spasm of the musculature of the outer third of the reflex adduction of of "normal" sex, In descriptions of female sexual prob- personal prefetence. Women shouldn t be seen as pho- vagina that interferes with coitus." This prevents "sex the thighs, thus precluding even the possibility of lems it is assumed that the woman attempted penetration,I54 s partner is a man bic for declining to fellate, Given that a tecent survey (defined as intercourse) from happening or, if the man and the focus of attention is heterosexual intercourse, suggested that the majority of men are not overly con- perseveres, can result in extreme pain for the woman Monogamous marriage is advocated as necessary for That penetration cottld cerned with genital hygiene (only one in four change Dyspareunia is the diagnosis given to pain expetienced be attempted in such cir- sexual health; in her critique of popular sex manuals their undetweat every day; one in ten change it once a by the woman (or man) during intercourse, and may cumstances seems starrling. Yet it is obviously not Meryl Altman has described Masters and Johnson include vaginal pain or mote general symptoms such as uncommon given the comment above-and week), is it surprising that many women prefer not to appears The Pleasure Bond as "a marriage manual in the most implicirly to be condoned by the get too close? Yet as fellatio is generally acknowledged nausea. Whilst positioned as physical problems, both tesearcher. The lan- unironic sense "r6o for whilst it explores alternatives to guage here is telling. That this is a to be one of the sexual activities on the tOp of the list have a clear psychological component and have often description of a het rosexual marriage it concludes with proof that they sexual phobia."'52 The symptOms woman who cannot (or does not want to) have sexual of sexual preferences of many men (it certainly is in been described as a " are unworkable and damaging." In the sexologists intercourse could easily be overlooked in the discussion ' ver- pornography), it is clearly very convenient to position as include anxiety, profuse sweating, nausea, vomiting, SIOn of the fairy tale, the "dream-team couple Masters ill" the woman who won t play this patticular game, diarrhoea or palpitations, often precipitated by an act of peri-vaginal muscles and reflexes of the thighs, It and Johnson take up the difficulties of the sexually , POPULAR CULTURE , AND VIOLENCE 404 . INVESTIGATING POWER: KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION SEXUAL SCIENCE AND THE LAW . 4(

74) increasingly seen ro lie with prosthetic aids, Can sex dysfunctioning man and woman in otder to reunite and Yet it is the inhibited male otgasm (category 302, tbe stimulative process. While some women have really be reduced to the cute" thern, As they walk intO the ptOvetbial sunset that most clearly reveals the heterosexual bias and the successful achievement of a reported a mental translation of the ensuing intra pressure for men to " " sex in the classification of dys- tumescent penis? It does not take much cynicism ro they are " fully functioning" sexually, vag mal sensation ro that of penile containment, few And this isn t juSt the woman-within a phallo- functional sex. It is described as: ask whose vIew of sex this is-particularly when very bad any pteference for the opportunity."1 few of the outcome studies examining the effectiveness centric model of heterosexuality, the pressure is on the , at absence of, orgasm of these penile implants even think to ask the man man, As one sex researchet commented: Persistent or tecurtent delay in A high percentage of the women I intetviewed in a male following a notmal sexual excitement phase female patrner if she is satisfied with the device, I69 The reported intense enjoyment during digital penetration s age wom~n is implicitly positioned as passive object Few sexual problems are as devaStating ro a man as that the clinician, taking intO account the petson , pen- of the vagma, The main complaint, from heterosexual , intensity and dura- etratton of her waiting body the assumed aim of rhe his inability ro achieve or maintain an erection long jlldges ro be adequate in focus women at least, is that few men could do it well. That se7ual game, The irony is that if this teally were the enough fot sexual intercourse, For many men the idea tion, This failure ro reach orgasm is usually restricted they saw it as "foreplay," with penile thrusting being , with aIm, the man could do worse than use orher parts of of not being able ro 'get it up' is a fate wotse than to an inability ro reach orgasm in the vagina the mam focus of sex, Lesbians tell a different tale; as , such his body-his fingers perhaps-and provide death, l6I orgasm possible with other types of stimulation satisfac- we have already seen, their sexual repertoire is not lim- as masturbation, tion for the woman who enjoys penetration, as many Ited by emphasis on one part of the body which always lesbians (as well as teenagers engaging only in " Where "sex" is reduced to the biological wotkings fore- has ro "work" for "sex" to occur. Sex therapists and sex play ) have long known, of the body and focused on the aCtions of (or response The classification acknowledges the (little discussed) researchers could learn much about the sexuality , Ir doesn t take too much of a leap of the imagina- to) the penis, it isn t surprising to find that male sexual fact that with increasing age male potency diminishes women If they widened the scientific gaze ro examine tIon to ascertam problems are signified by a dysfunctional penis, For markedly, So orgasmic problems in an older man are wby sex therapists don t advocate such lesbl~n sex, It is rare for them even ro acknowledge that courses of aCtion for men- with the exception of "disordets of desite," where the a notmal part of aging rathet than being "dysfunc- it could make the penis It exIsts (oUtside of theories of pathology), This means redundant, Echoing the comments of the problem is manifested by absence of intetest or aver- tional." It is younger men who must be able to main- legions of that many aspects of women s sexuality are marginal- legIslatOrs who would eschew any mention of lesbian- sion to sex, the wotkings (or not) of the penis are the tain an etection, enjoy it at the same time and then Ized or Ignored in mainstream sex research-such as ism for fear that women would catch on to the notion issue at stake, So theDSM classifies male sexual prob- teach a climax of pleasure. If they can only do this with female ejaculation , or the changes in sexual response and take up the infamous practice lems as categoties of male erectile disorder, inhibited another man or with their hand they are at risk of being , sex experts have and destre across the menstrual cycle-issues which advised men nor to penetrate the woman male orgasm and prematute ejaculation, As the ability classified as ill, because the vagina is deemed ro be the s vagina with are as important for heterosexual women as they are anything bllt the penis, Certainly not with the fingers, to " " sex is so central to what it means to be "man appropriate place for male orgasm to occur (regardless for lesbians, It appears to be the case that if an aspect As one sex manual explains: it's not surprising that men feel anxious Ot afraid when of what hardcore porn suggests). of female sexuality is not immediately noticeable or sex they can t "get it up" (and in); they have " failed" as Given this focus on the pellis as central to " constitUted as an issue within a phallocentric model of Many, men who realize the need of preliminary play real men. s not surptising to find that physical intetventions, sex " it is simply left oUt of the frame '72 rend ro ovetdo it, This is nOt advisable from the The DSM classification system appears to teinforce such as penile implants, ate one of the most common this, very notion, For example, one of the ctiteria fot treatments for erectile problems in both Britain and medical viewpoint, particularly when the fingers 16' These devices consist of a plastic FEMALE SEXUALITY AND MADNESS: THE 72) is the United States. are inserted deep into the vagina, for it may cause male erectile disorder (diagnostic categoty 302, DANGERS OF THE REPRODUCTIVE BODY or silicone rod surgically implanted in the penis, with infection. The use of fingers should be limited to the failure in a male to attain or maintain an erection " (my italics).162 an inbuilt hinge so that the now permanently erect the entrance of the vagina, Fingeting the cervix or Science and medicine have not stopped at sexual prob- until completion of the sexual activity l66 (up stored" against the body device the vaginal waIl should be avoided for anothet rea- PrematUre ejaculation (category 302.75 in the DSM) otgan can be " lems as a means of containing both "woman" and also an emotive subject. Its clinical description is "per- or down, whichever your ptefetence), or an "inflatable son: the woman may develop deeper satisfaction from sex, One of the more insidious means of denigrating these caresses than from vaginal intercourse itself (my sistent or recurrent ejaculation with minimal sexual prosthesis," a device which can produce an erect penis both female sexuality and what it is to be "woman bulb device, which fills emphasis)."" stimulation before, upon, or sbortly after penetration on demand by use of a squeeze- has been the centuries-old association between sexual- "163 As we and befote the person wishes it (my iralics). inflatable silicone cylinders in the erectile tissue of the ity and madness, now seen as a hormonal connection 167 The ultimate phallic fantasy-the Does this mean that there is nothing have already seen , the pressure to petform sexually and penis, with saline. essential within the mainstream endocrinological analysis of sex. aboUt the male that provides sexual satisfaction for the to live up to the myth of the phallic hero is a major evet-ready penis, It's reminiscent of the strap-on dildo Tradmonally this connection between biologicallabil- female? Could fingers be more stimulating? Masrers cause of anxiety for men, In defining the boundaries we see in lesbian porn, yet here minor surgety is part of ity and ill health was tepresented by theories associated and Johnson reassure us that the majority of of "normal" performance the DSM doesn t necessarily the price to be paid. Thousands of men undergo such women with hysteria and anorexia, Today, the reproductive 168 don t think so, and that this deeper pleasure can only allay fears, For how do we define "shottly" after pen- surgery each year. syndromes of premenstrual syndrome (PMS), postna- be obtamed by the woman ptetending that the pen- etration, in the description above? If a man wishes to Male impotence or erectile problems are a serious tal depression (PND) and the menopausal syndtome , and etratmg fingers are a penis: keep an erect penis fot two hours and can only manage matter, particularly in a cultUre where the penis have taken on the same connotations: the association of it for one is his ejaculation "premature ? What if his successful achievement of sexual intetcourse, is how women s madness with the wandering womb'" There is usuaIly litrle value teturned from deep partner wants him to go on for longer-can she count sex" is defined. But it is a sotry indictment of medi~ The association of female reproduction with insan- vaginal insertion of the fingers, particularly early in as "the petson cine that the means of addressing such a difficulty is ity assumed scientific legitimacy in the nineteenth , " ' , , "

406 . INVESTIGATING POWER: KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION , POPULAR CULTURE , AND VIOLENCE SEXUAL SCIENCE AND THE LAW . 4C century and formed the basis for the present position of (or inability) to bear children was petceived by many profession has taken note, A range of different bio- passive participant, The (until tecently) ubiquitOus stir- the reproductive body as a source of illness and vulnet- authorities, continuing a view fitst pUt forwatd by chemical aetiological factOrs has been proposed , from ability, As twO medical experts claimed: Plato, to be at the root of this pathology: oestrogen and progesterone to dopamine rups in which she was strapped helpless and splayed , pyridoxine or symbolizing her position as prostaglandins imbalances, IB2 A vessel to be relieved of similarly wide range its burden, The hospital setting maintained women The monthly activity of the ovaries, , , has a notable The womb is an animal which longs to genetate chil- of biochemical rreatmenrs has been proposed , with alienation, their sense of being sick effect upon the mind and body; whetefore it may dten, When it remains batten too long after pubetty, women taking oestrogen , or srupid, '" and , progesterone, lithium, /Juox- of pregnancy and childbirth as an illness, As Adrienne become an important cause of mental and physical it is distressed and SOtely distutbed , and sttayjng erine or dygesterone, as well as rhe vitamin B6 (cur- Rich commented: derangement, , , It is a mattet of common experience aboUt in the body and cutting off the passages of the rently most popular) to cure the many symptoms with in asylums, that exacerbarions of insanity often take breath, it impedes respitarion and btings the sufferer which they /Jock to their doctors, However , as there We were, above all place at menstrual periods, into extteme anguish and ptovokes all manner of d,s- have been suggestions of a placebo effeCt of 20- , in the hands of male medical 80 per technology, , Maudsley, 1873174 eases besides, cent, and many of the treatments produce marked side The experience of lying half-awake in a batred crib effects (which can be worse rhan the original symp- , in a labour room with other women moaning in a drugged condition Every body of the least expetience must be sensible of It was believed that "this distUtbance continues tOms), this is actually a very disquieting practice, As , where 'no one comes' except to do a pelvic examination or give an injec- rhe influence of menstruation on the operations of the until the womb is appeased by passion & love """ and the "faulty hormone" at the root of PMS has not been tion , is a classic mind, In ttUth, it is the moral and physical barometet so the "cure" was clear-heterosexual sex , motherhood identified , and the majority of researchers and experience of alienated childbirth, clini- The loneliness of the female constitUtion, an matrrage the messa e of romantic fiction traced cians are now acknowledging that there isn , the sense of abandonment, of being t one single imprisoned George Man Burrows, 1828'" k to PlatO, Yet it was not only madness bUt also cause" of PMS, treating women as if we " , powerless, and depersonalized is the chief know " the collective memoty of women who have given birth in acoral tUrpitUde that was seen to be associate, d Wit' biological cause of their problems merely perpetUates American hospitals. lR7 The very fact of reproduction was seen to be an ~male reproduction, As Maddock wtOte in 1854 the the clinical physical and mental classification of wom- insufferable burden, from puberty to menopause. Thus reproductive organs", are closely interwoven wIth s bodies. At a tecent conference I attended on the Is this a coincidence? Or is the positioning of female as one learned doCtor declared "mental derangemen erratic and disordered intellectUal, as well as mor subject of PMS, at which a whole range of theories and reproduction as illness or liability not another frequently occurs in young females fro~ amenorrhoea manifestations."'" The sexologists took this long his- therapies had been suggested, a member of the audience re/Jec- tion of the envy of womens power to reproduce? and treatment in the form of "an occasIonal warm hlp- torical connection between badness and the womb asked the expert speaker Is there any guaranteed cure bath, or leeches to the pubis" was advocated in order to and reworked it into a clinical categorization of sexual fot PMS?" " Hysterectomy," came the answer-given accomplish all we desire.""6 deviance or petversion. Today, female reproduction with no sense of irony at all. This is using a hammer It was the medical categorization of hysterIa that and madness are linked irrevocably through the repro- to crack a nut, analogous to conducting a lobotOmy to SCIENCE EXPLAINS SEXUAL PMS (named late lUteal phase reified the ancient superstition about the "wander- ductive syndromes- cure depression. Most clinicians, thankfully, are more VIOLENCE ing womb" as illness, From the time of the AnCIent disorder in the DSM), PND and the "menopausal humane: offering counselling Ot a range of drug treat- Greeks it had been believed that the womb travelled syn rome the irs to h steria and the fear of the ments to the women who come forward for help, BUt THE BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF RAPE , In wandering womb. The sophistICatIOn of the categorrza- throughoUt the body, leaving illness and madness few of them question the legitimacy of "PMS" as a syn- AND SEXUAL ABUSE wake In the nineteenth century hysterIa, deslg- tion may appeat to have increased yet, arguably, the drome; few question the notion that it is reproduction Some sex offenders nated recently as "the joker in the nosologlCa. Ipac k"177 process is the same. Women are at risk of belng unsta- which causes distUrbance or distress, As I have argued , in spite of their behaviour, may not be evil or bad people, , , the key ro better understand- became the source of attribution for a myriad ailments ble and in need of treatment because of therr reproduc- elsewhere 18J there isconsiderable evidence to suggest ing of sex-offending behaviour may be tied mote ro and symptoms supposedly associated with "woman." tive bodies, The whole reproductive life cycle has ~een that symproms women experience in the premenstrual pathologized-from puberty to menopause-wIthin biology than ro theories of evil or moral corruption, lSB As Sydenham commented in 1848: phase of the cycle-or after the birth of a child or dur- the modern reproductive categOrIes, Any symptOm ing the menopause-are as much to do with social and Given the fact that " The ftequency of hysteria is no less rematkable than any complaint, any ailment, any abnormalIty can be psychological factOrs as they ate to do with sex" is positioned as a bodily phe- the body, categorIes which both nomenon in much of sexology and scientific research the multiformity of shapes which it pUtS on, Few of neatly fitted into the nosological The symptoms are also irrevocably linked to what it is we shouldn t be surprised to find that sexual violence the maladies of misetable mortality ate not imitated describe and dismiss women s behaviout. As E1al to be "woman " with reproduction for centuries having is treated similarly. The law acts to by it. Whatevet part of the body it attacks, it will cre- Showalter has argued in The Female Malady, hysterIa been seen as a liability or a cause of dysfunCtion categorize and , and condemn sexual offences-science explains the offend- ate the proper symptOm of that part, Hence, without worked wonders as a means of denying women s frus- continue to serve as a legitimate source of attribUtion s behaviour. The law in/Jicts punishment; science skill and sagacity, the physician will be deceived; so as tration and anger in the nineteenth centUry, as ameans for women s disttess tOday.'" through the professions of psychology and medicine to tefer the symptoms to some essential disease of the of categorizing together a cornucopia of complalnts. Equally, since the male obstetricians wrested COn- offers treatment. Here he is not evil part in question, and not to the effects of hysteria.'78 This process is alive and well tOday, trol of childbirth from female midwives as early as the , bur ill; he is not a monster, bUt mad or misunderstOod, Or perhaps he Take PMS, According to recent stUdies, up to 40 per sixteenth century, '" childbirth has been construed is merely a man whose body is to blame Women s sexuality was firmly connected with both cent of women are said to suffer from PMS to such an as a technological accomplishment on the part , a man who of the is acting in the manner in the curse and cure of hysteria and a woman s reluctance extent that it seriouslyaffects their lives. The medical expert-the woman herself is positioned almost as a which he is genetically primed, his hormones or bodily parts driving him out , " , " , " ""'" , "

"liS INVESTIGATING POWER: KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION , POPULAR CULTURE , AND VIOLENCE SEXUAL SCIENCE AND THE LAW of control. For one of the most influential bodies of sci- wives are remarkably few: in response ro a wife's positioned as an aCt which improves his " fitness pOten- to feel herself conquered, A masterly touch in her lovet entific research would appear to suggest that the man sexual infidelity (or cues thereof), ot a wife's unilat- tiaL" Man is primed to have sex with and attempt to is invariably pleasing, r help it-his biology is to blame, eral decision ro terminate rhe relationship (or cues fertilize" as many women as he can in order to maxi- Serial sex killers have used the hunter meraphor to Ooe " fact" that has to be addressed and explained thereof), as well as ro "discipline" a "too independent" mize his chances of reproducing his genes. As Archer serve their own ends. by science is that it is overwhelmingly men who execute wife, and in response ro other factors (perhaps his own comments: "" The American "co-ed killer Edmund Kemper declared. "I was the hunter and sexually violent crimes, Women, regardless of circum- infidelity or paranoia) that activatelIIa!e Jexlla/ iea/omy they were the victims ; Ted Bundy, speaking of him- stances, rarely behave in a sexually violent way, So sci- mechanisms (my italics).rn The fimess costs of any acr of sexual intercourse have self in the third person , says entists have looked for the reasons fot this, Evolutionary always been less for men than for women what really fascinated , which sug- him was the hunt, the adventure of searching out his theory has provided one of the most simple explana- Here, sexual jealousy (and by implication sexual gests that the evolved sexual psychology of men is viCtims; David Berkowitz wrote to the press with the tions: Men ate simply " born that way," Like sex its~lf violence) is framed as some inescapable bodily "mecha- likely to be less discriminating regarding choice of boats " I love to hunt, prowling the streets looking for sexual violence ' has been seen as an evolutionaty adap- nism " which has an adaptive pUtpose (for man). parmer for a single sexual opportunity than that of fair game-tasty meat. , , I live for the tation, which protects the male s biological interests- women, r", hunt-my life, Blood for Papa," EvolUtionary theorists would presum- his need to plant his fertile seed and serve the interesrs We propose that the particular cues and circum- ably argue that these men are merely acting out all that of his "selfish gene, stances whicb inspire men ro use violence against their This reifies the notion of the promiscuous male, who is repressed in our politically correCt age For example, one evolutionary theotist partners reflect a domain-specific masculine psychol- will have sex ar any available opportunity, Rape is sim- , the urges the , John Archer new man" has to deny, , . , claimed that "those who initiate violence do so typi- ogy which evolved in a social milieu in which assaults ply an extension of this, a practice which has evolved, cally where there is some means to the end of fitness to and threats of violence funCtioned to deter wives from be gained,"'" Competition for woman-or in this case pursuing alternative reproductive oppormnities Another design jeafttre of male sexual psychology wbich access to her womb-is deemed "natutal." Archer, con- which would have tepresented substantial threats ro is relevant to the occurrence of rape is the apparent UNDERSTANDING SEXUAL VIOLENCE: LOOKING AT tinues Unmated males of many species", challenge the husbands" firness by misditecting parental invest- disregard of women s unwillingness as indicared by conspecific males who are guarding the fertilizable ment and loss of mating opportunities ro reproductive the use of coetcion to achieve copulation, The ability WHAT IT IS TO BE "MAN" female (the limited resource for male fitness), and in such comperirors.'" of rhe male to,remain sexually competent in such cir- Not all sexual scientists advocate a narrow reduction- cases (for example, many hoofed animals) success in vio- cumstances presumably refleCts the paSt fimess ben- ist view of rape, As a result of two decades of feminist lent contests is highly predictable of mating success",r9o A woman doesn t need to exert violence to " keep efits of pursuing and achieving copulation in the case critiques, there is increasing recognition that in under- Here we have an evolUtionary explanation for men fight- her man. She has got his seed Ot can seek another more off em ale tesistance (my italicsJ. standing sexual violence, we have to look at what it is ing each other for women , and unquestioned parallels dominant" male if he strays in order to fertilize her ro be "man" and how this man is positioned in relation being drawn between animal and human behaviour, All waiting womb, The greatest threat to het from a fit" The fact he is " sexually competent" even rho ugh she to "woman" within the script of heterosexual sex. This , we are told , is rape (not the threat are explained simply as the natUral urges of "unmated ness perspective is screaming in terror, or crying with pain, is deemed means that we have to look beyond the individual to males" who are desperately seatching for a mate, death). Raped, she will lose the proof rhat rape is biologically primed, that it is a design the construCtions of masculinity and femininity and This notion has passed into lay consciousness as an featUre of masculinity. How rape involving botdes to the relation of "man" to "woman" in a phallocentric explanation for sexual violence, where we see the ste- oppormnity to choose who is likely ro sire her off- broom handles ' or fists is explained within this model sphere. We also have to look to the feats and fantasies teotype of the lonely man who is driven to "seduce spring, thereby depriving her of the oppottuniry both I do not know, Or rape of men or young children , who associated with man as sexual other to man- forcibly (tape) a woman because of his deep bodily to have her children sired by a man with desirable have no "reproducrive potential" at all. fears asso- ciated with homosexuality in particular, as women are drive-a myrh perpetUated by borh the courtS and phenotypic qualities and to have her children benefit This version of evolutionary theory appears implic- not the only tatgets of the anger, fear and sexualized , effort and resources of a father, l94 itly to condone sexual violence the media. , , . Yet as the majority of rapists and sexual from the time , elevating the assail- violence of man, attackers are in relationships with women 191 this expla- ant to the statUs of anti- hero; he is primitive man, or Sexually violent men are not all perverts; they ate not nation juSt doesn t wash, It also fails to explain why a Does this suggesr that we should merely supet-macho man , a warrior hero, merely following all mad, They share much with non-violent men-a fear man would attack the woman he already "owns his women to take the contraceptive pill? Then rape in the footsteps of his primitive ancestOrs, As Archer of women; a fear of the feminine side of themselves; a choice" of mate, This is concludes The competent girlfriend Ot wife, BUt evolutionaty theoty can explain not deprive them of this " use of violent skills con- fear of homosexual desite; a fear of closeness in emotional that as well, for men enact violence in this way in order reminiscent of the comments of many assailants tributes quite directly to male fitness: both successful relationships which makes sex or physical contact with because warriors, , . and successful game to "deter a wife from putsuing courses of action that believe that the woman cried rape only hunters", have con- children the only arenas in which they can make Contact verted their success into sexual are not in a man s interest his biological intetests, that left her after the "sex" , , . , of the myth that a , marital and reproduc- with another person, Given the way in which vulnerabil- tive success."'9S The myth is, Archer continues with what might appear to be an will put up with anything as long as she gets her of romantic fiCtion-every ity and subordination are eroticized woman loves a dominant aggressive man- , it s not surprising exoneration of wife-battering: (or in this case, his sperm). is also ele- many men Ctoss the barrier and tUrn this closeness into vated to scientific " Rape, within evolutionary theory, has been trUth," As two earlier sex tesearch- sex " tegardless of the consent of the woman or child. ers commented The use of violence against wives is ubiquitOus, Bur tioned as "a very effective means of controlling Normal aggressiveness in the male Sex becomes the arena within which men are supposed to "195 it is the contexts in which husbands commonly assault reluctant victim also given legitimacy by appeals to the female "I99 and "the notmal woman likes satisfy all rheir own emotional needs, it is the only place """ """ , " , " , " , "

410 . INVESTIGATING POWER: KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION , POPULAR CULTURE , AND VIOLENCE SEXUAL SCIENCE AND THE LAW that they are able to be vulnerable, given the dominant can absolve himself of tesponsibility for giving pleasure notion of the penis as weapon , seeing heterosexual sex providing a script which positions rape and child sexual constructions of what it is to be "man," Yet for many to a woman, in which he can guarantee that he is in as analogous to rape and therefore as the WOtst viola- abuse as "sex" and a legal framework which exonerates men, the vety closeness that sex can bting is rhreaten- control. She cannot reject him here; she will not laugh at tion of women, It is not the penis which is at fault , it is the behaviour of sexually violent men, , , ing to their sense of themselves as "man" and so violence him-she is tOO afraid of death, Ot if she is a child, she the mal~volent man who wields it as weapon, It is man 2C) is completely vulnerable and in his control; she has no or sexual aggtession becomes their knee-jerk response, who pOSItIons the penis as phallus and it is man, in the s not surprising- man" is expected to be powerful previous expetience of sex with which she can compare extreme case of sexual violence, who wields it as a tOol and in control; when he is having "sex" he is supposed to his petformance, As one interviewee commented: of destruction, Psychologists and sociologists may help NOTES know what t~ do and to do it well. An impossible double us m understanding some of the psychosocial factors For my own experience I wouldn t feel satisfied if a bind- is created in which neither women nor men win, which are commonly associated with such violence, but 1. Abramson, p, R, "Sexual Science: Emerging Discipline s almost like giv- or Oxymoron?" : Positioning the rapist or child abuser as ' :?ther woman wasn t satisfied, I mean it they cannot explain it all. Not the mass rapes in war Thejollmal a/Sex Research27, 1990 t get pp, 147-65, p, 149. prevents us from recognizing the continuities between ing a performance and sort of saying if you don rape m marrIage, acquaintance rape, rape on college , you don 2, Dethan , D" Mahet, F. & Wallar sexual violence and "normal" heterosexual sex, Tqe applauded whats the hell point of doing it campuses or m the minority cases of "real" rape (real , 1. An 11lIrodliction to the Law North Ryde, NSW: The Law Book Company, desire to dominate, the desire for power, the use of the feel very good about it yourself."' 10 the eyes of the law) by a stranger in the street, There penis as weapon of phallic power and the subordination are many factors which precipitate these acts of rape. Quoted 10 Naffine, Ngaire, Law and the Sexes: Explorations in Feminist jllrispmdence London: Allen & of "woman " ate embedded in dominant constructions The man who rapes doesn t have to wait for the As Alexandra Stiglmayer says of the rapes during the Unwin, 1995, p, 24. of masculinity, as we have already seen. They underlie applause (or fear that a woman will discuss his perfor war in Bosnia: 3, Horney, Karen Feminine Psychology,H, Kelman (ed, mance with her ftiends, another common fear), Equally representations of "woman" and "man" in art, film, por- London: Norton, 1967, p, 116, nography and the mass media; they are rooted in man she cannot say " " and so he avoids the risk of rejection A rape is an aggressive and humiliating act 4, Foucault , as even a , M. The Hittory o/Sexllality, Vol, I London: fantasies and fears about women, his fears that he is not As one man I intetviewed said Women have the rea soldier knows, Ot at least suspects. He rapes because Penguin, 1976, p. 35, he wants ro engage in violence. He rapes because he 5, Baudrillard man," Arguably, sex offenders merely adopt a rhetoric power because they have what no man likes and that , J., Sedllction New York: St Martin s Press in line with phallocentric conceptUalizations of what the ' ' response, " Given the current consttUctions 0 wants to demonstrate his power, He rapes because 1990 6, Foucaultp, has referred 66, it is to be "man" in explaining their crimes, As these masculinity and femininity and the way they intersec he is the victor, He rapes because the woman is the ro this as control of the "useful convicted rapists commented: with constructions of "sex " perhaps we should be ask enemy s woman, whom he wishes to humiliate and body," in contrast to control of the "intelligible body through representation, ing why 1/Iore men don t carry our sexual crimes. annihilate, He rapes because he despises women, He 7, Fot example, in the nineteenth centuty Jetemy Rape was a feeling of tOtal dominance, Before the Not all men rape, The majotity, thankfully, deal wid rapes to ptove his virility, He rapes because the acqui- Bentham desctibed homosexuality as an " their fears and desires through other means, Yet in thr sition of the female body means a piece of tertirory imaginaty rapes, I would always get a feeling of power and anger, offence," which was dependent on changing concepts of I would degrade women so that I could feel there was extreme cases, sexual murderers desecrate and destro: conquered, He tapes to take Out on someone else the taste and morality. See Weeks, 1981 , p, 242, a petson of less worth than me."""' the objects of their dread and desite, Millions of womer humiliation he has suffered in the war. He rapes to 8, Fot an excellent discussion of the relationship between are raped and sexually assaulted every year, Indeed work off his fears, He rapes because its really only bIOlogICal and cultutal factors in sex, see Abramson Rape gave me the power ro do what I wanted ro are many men. Despite what sexual science might sug some "fun" with the guys, He rapes because wat, a p, R, & PinkertOn , S, D" Sexual Natllre, Sexual ellltllre man ChICago: University of Chicago Ptess do withour feeling that I had to please a parmer or gest, these are not the acts of madmen or monsters, Wi s business, has awakened his aggtessiveness, and , 1995, tespond to a parmer. I felt in control, dominant. Rape should be looking at what it is to be "man " not posi he directs it at those who playa subordinate role in 9, See Ussher, Jane The Construction of Female Sexual was the ability to have sex without caring about the tioning those few who are caught as deviant perverts the world (of war)."" Problems: Regulating Sex, Regulating Women, 10 Ussher woman s response, I was totally dominant. We should be looking at the fantasies and fears abOll , Jane & Barker, Christine, Psychological PerspectIVes 011Sexual Problems: New Directions in Theory woman" that underlie man s misogyny and dread Substitute the word "world" for "war" and we have and PracticeLondon: Routledge Seeing them lying there helpless gave me the confi- We should be looking at the continuum of violence it an eloquent description of the complexity of rape, It is , 1993, 'o; and the connections between 10, See Ussher, Jane The Psychology 0/ the Female Body, dence that I could do it", with tape I felt tOtally in women s lives sexud aboUt man proving that he is " man" and lashing oUt London: Routledge, 1989. , timid. When a woman wanted to harassment, rape and child sexual abuse. We shoul, ~t those who challenge and threaten that certainty. It chatge, I'm bashful 11. See Eisenstein , Z, H" The Female Body and the Law IS not a coincidence or an arbitrary fact give in normal sex, I was intimidated, In the rapes, I be looking to the fear and dread of homosexuality an, that " California: University of California Press woman , 1988, fo~ an was totally in command, she tOtally submissive, to the way in which that feat is sometimes projectet is the target of both man s anger and fear as it is she analysis of the law as phallocentric, ~ho provokes both his desire and his dread. The way 12, Many would argue that this is a white outwards on to other men, We should be looking att~i , middle-class If "man" is positioned as having to be in control of systems which implicitly condone such abuse, seeingiJ In whICh sexual violence is represented and dealt with heterosexual man. 13, See MacKinnon sex and to have to "pleasure" a woman, it isn t surprising as trivial or as a product of the malicious imaginatiOI1 by the mass media, science, and the law tells us more , Catherine Feminism, Marxism Method and State: An Agenda for Theory, that he feels anxiety and dread, This adds to the dread of those who are abused, We should be looking to t~r aboUt the institUtionalized acceptance of phallocentric Signs, vol. 7, no, 3, 1982 and fe~t of woman which, arguably, goes back to early way in which sexual violence is used to keep worne) fantasies about "woman" than any other subject in the , pp, 515-44; and MacKinnon Catherine Feminism down-as it is women who are the main targets Oft~1 sphete of sex, It is also an arena in which misogynis- , Marxism, Method and St~te: experiences with women, to the early fantasies and fears Toward Feminist Jurisprudence sexual violence of men.'oa This is not to reinforce t~i tIC myths have the most marked matetial effects- Signs, vol. 8, no, 4 of the mother, Sexual violence is an arena in which man 1983, pp, 635-58, for a discussion of these issues in , p, )," , p, , " , p, , " pp,pp, , " , " ),

4!2 . INVESTIGATING POWER: KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION , POPULAR CULTURE , AND VIOLENCE SEXUAL SCIENCE ANO THE LAW

the law. See Harding, Sandta \Vbose Science? \Vhose and in most therapeutic practice, as well as on popular not unknown for a "marriage" to take place, bur for 55, See Corbett v, Corbett, 1971 , p, 83; Co.rsey v, UK, 1991 Knowledge? Thinkingfrom \Voma,'.. Live.. Milron Keynes: culture, through his identification of the important the wedded couple ro be housed separately and not FLR 492, Open University Press, 1991: and Keller, Evelyn Fox role sexuality plays in the wholeof our psychic lives, expected ro consummate the union, 56, See Encyclopaedia of Hamosex/tality, pp, 682-98, for a Reflections on Gender and Science, New Haven: Yale However, from the earlieSt inception of psychoanalytic 39, He later artempted ro divorce her on the grounds that discussion of law on homosexuality across cultures and University Press, 1985, theories and therapy, the worldof real her first marriage Science (with Il'as consumated, allowing him ro across histOry, 14, See Smart, Carol \'(Iomell , Crime and Criminology: A a capital S ) has dismissed Freud almost tOtally as a argue that his own marriage should be annulled, 57, Weeks, 1981, p, 99, Feminist Critique, London: Routledge & KegaD Paul; prejudiced charlatan , as a man who based all his theo- 40, Howard League Working Party Report," 1984 58, Ibid" p, 99, and Harding, 1991. For an excellent review of the many ries on his analysis of middle-class Viennese women Section 2:14, p, 10, 59, Public Record Office HO 144/216/A 49134/2, Quoted debates in feminist legal theoty,see the tWO edited studied in a way that was simply "unscientific his 41. Personal RightsJollrnal 15 September 1882, Quoted in in Weeks, 1981 , p, 119, volumes: Frances E, Olsen (ed, Femini..t Legal Theory rheories cannor be objectively proven-or disprov- , 1985, p, 54, Jeffreys 60, Weeks, 1981 , p, 100, I: FollndatioTIS and Outlooks; Feminist Legal Theory II: en-so have little weight in the scientific world." It 42, Butler and Hopkins spearheaded a " social putity move- 61. "Howard League Wotking Party Report," 1984, Positirming feminist theory within the lail', New Yotk: is a line still fed ro generations of psychology under- ment" and advocated celibacy for both women and Section 2: 16 p, 11. New York University Ptess, 1995. gtaduates today, who are taught ro forget all their lay men, They were not concerned merely with the dangers 62. Rivera , Rhonda R" "Sexual Orientation and the Law," 15, See Lees, Sue Cal'!/al Knowledge: Rape on Trial, London: petceptions of Fteud as a "great man of sex for young women but the dangers of psychology, of sex for in Homosexllality: Research Implications for P"blic Policy, Penguin , 1996, Freud' s place in the academy of real" science, including everyone, See Jeffreys , 1985, for a discussion of this, Gonsiorek, J. c. & Weinrich, J. D" London: Sage, 1991 16, See Foucault, M" The History afSexllality, Vol. sexology, has been almost completely dismissed. 43. "Howard League Working Party Report," 1984 81- New York: Pantheon, 1976, 27, Krafft-Ebbing P..ychopathia Sexualis F, S, Klaf (trans, Section 2:14, p. 10, 63, Bowers v,IOO, Hardwick 478 U, S, 186 (1986) at 191. 17. Tertullian, in a letter to his wife, Quoted in Tong, New York: Bell, 1886, p, 133. (ICD indicates the 44, Herdt, Gilbert Ritllalised Homosexllality in Melal1esia, Cited in Rivera, in Gonsiotek & Weinrich, R" \Vomen, Sex and the Law, New Jersey: Rowman & Berkeley: University International Classification of Diseases), of California Press, 1984, 1991 , p, 83, Allanheld, 1987, p, 99, 28. ICD-9 classification listed in DSMIII- (DSM indicates 45, Herdt , Gilbert The Samhia: Ritllal and Gender 64, Poulter, J. S" Peers, Qlleers and Commons: The Struggle 18, For example , Weeks, Jeffrey,Sex , Politiu and Society, the Diagnostic and Statistical Mannal of the American in New Gllinea,New York: Holt, Rinehart & for Gay Law Reform from 1950 to tbe Present London: The Regulation of Sexuality since 1800 London: Psychiatric Association) p, 462, Winston, 1987, Routledge, 1991, p, 253, Longman, 1981, p, 243, states that "the Wolfenden 29, DSMIII-R, p, 287, 46, Two exceptions are the statesof Massachusetts, and 65, Ibid" p, 253, Report, , argued that the putposeof the criminal law Ellis, H" " , H" Psychology Michigan, whete a gender-non-specific definition 30, Sexual Deviation," in Ellis 66, Gllardian, 28 March 1994, was to preserve public ordet and decency, and to pro- of Sex, London: Heinemann (first published in 1933), rape includes penetration by objects other than the 67, Kinsey, A" Pomeroy, W, & Martin, c. Sexllal Behaviollr tect the weak from exploitation, It wasnot ro impose a 1946 130, penis, See MacKinnon, 1983, p, 647, See 520a(h); in the Hllman Male Philadelphia: Saunders, 1948 particular pattern of moral behaviour on individuals." DSMIII-R, p, 281. 31. 520b, pp, 389-93, This is following a long-held pattern within law, 32. Rubin, Gayle Thinking Sex," inPleasnre and Danger: 47, In re B, G" 589 A, 2d 637 , 640-41 (NJ Super, Ct, 68, See Sex Codes of Califomia Sarah Senefeld Beserra 19, See Dynes , Wayne R" Enqclopaedia of HomOJexuality, Exploring Female Sexnality,Carol , Vance (ed.), London: App, Div, 1991), SeeFordham Law Review, vo1. 63, Nancy M, Jewel, Melody West Matthews & Elizabeth London: St James Press, 1990, secrion on ChriStianity, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984, p, 291. October 1994, Panel discussion: Men , Women and R, Garov (eds,), Public Education and Reseatch 22, )3, Perkins, R, M" Criminal Law, 2nd edn" London: Rape, Donald Dtipps , Linda Faitstein, Robin West and Committee of California 1973, pp, 163- 20, Ibid" p, 222, Deborah W, Denno, p, 129, Macmillan, p, 578, 69, See Honore, 1978, p. 24, 21. Quoted in Tong, 1987, p, 100, 34, "Howard League Working Party Report Unlawfnl 48, Toolif, Kevin A Queer Verdict Gllm-dian \Veekend 70, Parliamentary debates in the House of Commons 22, Virginity is nOt a universal ideal for women, Sex: Offenw, Victims and Offender.r in tbe Criminal Jmtice November 1995, pp, 14- 22, 1921 , vo1. 145, 1799, Quoted in Jeffreys, 1985, Anthropologists have reported that in other cultural 49, See Morgan- System of England and IVales, London: Waterlow, 1984 Taylor, M, & Rumney, p" "A Male 114, contexts (such as Central Africa) fetrility is the goal Section2:15, p, 11. Perspective on Rape,"New Law Jollrnal, 144 (6669), 71. See Robson, Ruth Legal Lesbicide," in Jill Radford ro which women aspire, and notions of virginity-or 35, Parliamentary debates in the Houseof 1994, 1490- Commons, 3 93, & Diana Russell (eds, Femicide: The Politics of \Voman the regulationof female "promiscuity alien, March 1921. Quoted in Jeffreys, S" 50, See Gerber -are The Spinster and Her N" Victims Become Offenders: A StUdy Killing, Buckingham: Open University Press, 1992 See Caldwell The Demographic Enemies, Feminism and Sex//ality 1880-1930 London: of the Ambiguities;' inThe Sexllally Abllsed Male, Vol, 1, , J. & Caldwell 40-5, for a discussion of these cases, Evidence for the Incidence and Courseof Abnormally Pandora, 1985, p, 84, Prevalence, Impact and Treatment M, Hunter (ed, 72, CromptOn , L. The Myth of Lesbian Impurity, Low Fertility in Tropical Aftica,"\'(Iodd Health Stati..tics 36, Foucault, 1976, bas argued that it was only in the seven- Lexington, MA: Lexington, 1990, pp, 153-76, in The Gay Past: A Collection ~f Historical Essays, , 1983, pp, 2- 51. Morgan- Qllarted)', 34. teenth century that the "pedagogization of sex occurred Taylor, 1994, Licasta, & R, Peterson (eds,), New York: Howorth 23, Johannsson, Warren, " Law: Major Traditions in the with sex play between children coming ro be seen as 52, See Fordham Law Review vo1. 6 , OctOber 1994, p, 129, Press, 1985, P, 16, West," in Dynes, 1990 5, p, 683, 53, Stephen Donaldson , pp, 682- problematic or deviant and consequently regulated or , the man who brought the case 73, Quoted in Faderman , Lillian SIIIPassing the Lot'e of Men 24, Dynes, 1990, p. 222, , laws concerning the age against prisons ro the U, controlled. However of consent S, Supteme Court, who was London: The Women s Press , 1985, p, 36, 25, The histOry of sex research has been well doClimented gang taped in prison in 1973 after being jailed for have exiSted in Anglo-American contexts for centuries. 74, Brown, J.,Immodest Acts, Oxford: Oxford University by a number of recent critics, most norably the social 37, For it is girls who are primarily affected by the het- refusing on principle ro pay a $10 fine following a non- Press, 1986, p, 14, histOrian Jeffrey Weeks, See Weeks, 1981 , Ch, 8: and erosexual ageof consent. There are few cultures violent resistance action against the Vietnam wat, 75, Ibid" p, 19, Foucault, 1976, young boys are married ro older women, 54, It has repeatedly been demonstrated that power over 76, Monter, W" "Sodomy and Heresy in Modern 26, Sigmund Freud has, arguably, had the greatest impact weaket inmates is routinely maintained by otganized 38. As the risksof pregnancy and childbirth at such an Switzerland;' Jollmal of Homosexllality, 6(41), 1981. on OUt understanding of sexuality in the humanities early age were recognized bysome parents, it was gang rape in prison, 77. Ibid" p, 43, , " , ", ", " , " , " , " , " , " , " , " , " j.,

414 . INVESTIGATING POWER: KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION, POPULAR CULTURE , AND VIOLENCE SEXUAL SCIENCE AND THE LAW

78, See Ussher WolI/ens Madness: Misogyny or Mental time of writing, and Denmark, Sweden and Norway UO, Boyle Gender, Science and Sexual DysfunCtion , J. M" MiltOn Keynes: Open University Press, p. 277, I have l!!ness Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991. offeted limited legal recognition fot same-sex couples, in Constmcting the Social T. R, Sarbin & J. I. Kitzinger previously discussed this issue in Ussher, J. M, "The 79, This is not to say that Joan (eds,), London: Sage of Arc was a lesbian, but 101. This was because he did not condemn active female , 1994. Consttuction of Female Sexual Problems: Regulating her refusal ro dress and behave as a woman, and her sexuality or homosexuality, unlike many of his 131. I have discussed this issue in greatet detail elsewhere, Sex, Regulating Woman," in Ussher, J. M. & Baker refusal to take up her expeCted place within a hetero- colleagues. See Ussher, 1993, Psy,boiogical Perspectives on Sexual Problems, London: sexual relarionship were central to her being burned 102, Ellis, 1946, p, 26, 132, Benton , D, & Wastell, v. EffeCts of Androstenol on Routledge, 1993, at the stake. Human Sexual Arousal," 103, Ibid" p, 30, Biological Psychology 22 (2), 147, Kaplan , H, S. Tbe New Sex Therapy,New York: 80, Baroja, J. Tbe World ofWitcbes,Chicago: University 104, Ibid" p. 31. 1986, pp, 141- Brunner/Mazel, 1974, p, 291. Chicago Press 133, Beggs , V. E" Calhoun , 1973, 105, Ibid" p, 15, , K. S, & Wolchik, S, A. 148, Crabbe, Anthony, "Feature-Length Sex Films Sexual Anxiety and Female Sexual Arousal: A 81. Evans, A" Witchcraft and the Gay Counterculture 106, Ellis, Havelock Men and Women London: in Perspectives on Pornography: Sexllality in Fi/II/ and BostOn: Fag Rag Books, 1978 Compatison of Arousal duting Sexual Anxiety , p, 76, Contemporary Science Series, 1893, p. 448, Literatllre, Gary Day & Clive Bloom (eds,), London: 82, In 1991 , same-gender sexual contaCt was illegal i" 107, See Groneman, 1994, Stimuli and Sexual Pleasure Stimuli,"Arc;';ves of Macmillan, 1988, p, 64, twenty-four Ametican states, See Riveta in Gonsiorek 108, Quoted in Jeffreys, S" TbeSexllality Debates London: Sexllal Behaviour 16 (4), 1987, pp, 311-19, 149, Ibid" p, 64, & Weinrich 134. Alzate, H. & Londono , 1991 , p, 82, Rourledge & Kegan Paul, 1987, , M, 1.. Vaginal Erotic 150, Cole & Dryden, 1988, p, 9, 83. Sex with a girl under sixteen could fall under the gen- 109, Ellis, 1946, p, 263, Sensitivity," joll1"l1al of Sex and Marital Tlmapy 10 (1), 151. See HawtOn, K. Sex Therapy: A Practical Guide, erallaws protecting against child sexual abuse, 110, Krafft-Ebbing, 1886, Quoted in Groneman, 1994, p. 353, 1984, PP, 49-56, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985; and Cole, 84, Bernatd Talmey, quoted in Faderman , Lillian Odd Girls Ill. StOter, Horatio C3$es of Nymphomania," AII/erican 05, Hoon, p" Murphy, D, W" & Laughtet J. S" "Infrared Cole & Dryden, 1988. Vaginal PhotOplethysmography: Construction and Twiligbt Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentietb- journal of Medical Science, 32 (10), 1856, pp, 378-87, 152, See Jehu, D" " Impairment of Sexual Behaviour in Century America London: Penguin, 1992, p. 50. Quoted in Groneman, 1994, pp, 337- Calibration, and Sourcesof ArtifaCt," Behavioral Non-Human Primates," in The Psychology ofSexllal 85, See Edwatds, Susan Fell/ale Sexuality and tbe Law, 112, Wilson, Glenn D" "The Sociobiological Basis Assess1!1mt (6), 1984, pp, 141- , p, 141. Diversity, Howells (ed,), Oxford: Blackwell, 1984 Oxford: Martin Robertson , 1981 , p, 43. Sexual Dysfunction," inSex Therapy in Britain, Martin 136, Money, J., "Commentary: Current Starus of Sex p, 135, 86, Ibid" p, 44, Cole & Wendy Dryden (eds,), Milton Keynes: Open Research," journal of Psychology and Hllma1l Sexuality, 153, Pasini, W" "Unconsummated and Partially 87, Ibid., p, 44, (1), 1988, pp, 5-15, p. 5, QuOted in Tiefer University Press, 1988, , 1.. Consummated Matriage as Sources of Procreative 88, Quoted in Edwards , 1981 , p. 44, 113, Masters, W, H, & Johnson, V. E" Human Sexual Commentary on the Status of Sex Research: Failure " in Handbook of Sexology,J. Money & H. 89, Parliamentaty debates in the Houseof Commons, Response BostOn: Little Brown, 1966, Feminism , Sexuality andSexology,"journal of Musaph (eds,), Amsrerdam: Elsevier/North Holland, 1921 , vol. 145, 1977. Quoted in Jeffreys, 1985, p. 114, 114, Le Vay, 1993, p. 10. Psychology a1ldHu1!1an Sexuality, 43 (3), 1991 1977; and Catalan Bradley, M" Gallawey, J. & 90, Hyde, Montgomery, H" Tbe Other Love: An Historical 115, Wallen, Kim The Evolution of Female Sexual pp, 5-42, Hawron , K. Sexual Dysfunction and Psychiatric and Contell/porary Survey of Homosexuality in Britain Desire," in Abramson & PinkertOn, 1995, p. 57, 137, Byrne, D" " Introduction: The Studyof Sexual Morbidity in Patients Attending a Clinic for Sexually London: Mayflower Books, 1972, p, 200, 116, See Abtamson & PinkertOn , 1995, for examples of this Behaviour as a Multidisciplinary Venture," in Transmitted Diseases British jOttrnal of Psychiatry, 91. Parliamenraty debates in the Houseof Commons, research, Alternative Approaches to the Stlldy of Sexual Bebaviou~ 138, 1981 , pp. 292- 1921 , vol. 145, 1977. QuOted in Jeffreys, 1985. 117, Wilson, I.. 1988 D. Byrne & K. Kelley (eds, , p, 50. ), Hillsdale, N, J.: Etlbaum 154, Coopet, G, F" "The Psychological Methods of Sex 92, Gay News, 14 June 1978, p, 3. 118. Ibid" p, 51. Associates, 1986, p. 2. Quoted in Tiefer, 1991 , p. 5, Therapy," in Cole, 1988, p, 137, 93, Gardner v. Gardner 1947; and Spicer v, Spice~ 1945, 119, Symons, Donald Beauty is in the Adaptationsof the 138, Money, 1988 , p, 6, Quoted in Tiefer , 1991, p, 13, 155, See Ussher, 1993, for a full discussionof these issues Both cited in Edwards, 1981 , p, 45, Beholdet: The Evolutionaty Psychologyof Human 139, For example, the International Society for Sex and fot examples of stUdies suggesting these different Reseatch holds an annual conference which is open 94, See Smyth , Cherty, Lesbians Talk. Queer Notions, Female Sexual Atrtactiveness " in Abramson & aetiological roOts for women s sexual problems, LoDdon: Scarlett Press, 1992 , pp, 23- Pinketron, 1995, p, 91. only to members Ot those sponsored by membets. To 156, See Ussher & Baket, 1993, 95, Edwards, 1981 , p, 45. 120. Wilson, 1988 become a membet one must have published at least , p, 50, 157. See Bancroft, J. Hllman Sexllality and Its Pro/;/ems, 96, Dailey v, Dailey 635 SW2d 391 (Tenn, Ct App, 1981). 121. Ibid" p. 51. twenty papers in academic, Feet-reviewed journals, London: Churcbill Livingsrone, 1983, See Riveta in Gonsiorek & Weinrich, 1991 , p. 95, 122, See Social Trends London: Central Statistical Office, 1994, 140, Masters, W, H, & Johnson , V. J., Hllman Sexllal 158, Ibid, l11adequacy, BostOn: Little 97, Guardian 9 Septembet 1993, p. 11. 123, Wallen, 1995, p. 57, , Brown, 1970, p, 199, 159, One researchet, John Money, makes a distinction 98, Golombok, S" Spencet, A. & Rurter, M" "Children in 124, Personal communication. 141. Masters & Johnson, 1966, p. 69, between sexology and sexophosy (the latter being Lesbian and Single-Patent Households: Psychosexual 125, Wilson, 1988, p, 65, 142, Claimed by Hite in 1976 in a studyof 000 women, subjective," the former "objective and Psychiatric Appraisal journal ofCbild Psychology 126, Wilson, 1988, p, 65, 143. Reported in Gatde, K. & Lunde, I. Female Sexual 160, Altman, Meryl Everything They Always Wanted Behaviour: A Study in a Random Sample and Psychiatry, , 1983, pp. 551-72. See also Burns 127, Le Vay, 1993, p, 47, of 40-Year- You ro Know: The Ideology of Popular Sex Jan The Psychology of Lesbian Health Care " in 128, Ibid., p, 47, Old Women," Matll1'itas , 1980, pp, 225-40, in a Literature," in Vance, 1984, p, 118, Nicolson, p" & Usshet, J. M" The Psychology of Womens 129, For a feminist critiqueof popularized sex manu- sample of 225 women, 161. Doyle 1983, p, 205, Quoted in Tiefer, " In Pursuit 144, All quotes are from the Healtb Care, London: MacmillMl, 1992. als, see Altman, Meryl Everything They Always DSM.IIl- the Perfect Penis,"America1l Bebavioral Scientist 29, 5, 145. Saunders 99, Reported in the Gual'dian 30 June 1994, Wanted You to Know, The Ideology of Populat Sex , D. Tbe \%II/an s Book of Love and Sex 1986, pp 579-99, 100, Same-sex marriage was passed 3$ legal by the Dutch Literature," inPleasure and Danger: Exploring Fell/ale London: Sage, 1985, 162, DSMIII-R, p, 294, parliament in April 1996, The Ametican state of Sexuality, Carol Vance, (ed,), London: Routledge & 146, Cole, M. Sex Therapy fat Individuals," Sexin 163, Ibid" P, 295, Hawaii was also considering such legislation at the Kegan Paul, 1984, Tberapy in Britain M, Cole & W, Dryden (eds. 164, Ibid" p, 295, , " , " , " , " , "

416 INVESTIGATING POWER: KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION , POPULAR CULTURE, AND VIOLENCE

165, Tiefer, 1986, on Pregnancy," in Women, Health and Reprodttction 166, Melman, A" " Developmenr of Contemporary Surgical Roberts (ed,), London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981 Management for Erectile Impotence Sexuality and for an analysis of the derogatOry way in which medics Disability, 1978 , p. 272-81. converse with , or ignore, pregnant women, 167, Ibid, 187. Rich, Adrianne Of Woman Born London: Virago, 1986. 168. See Tiefer, 1986, 188, Berlin, F. , 1988, p. 191. 169. Ibid" p, 583, 189, Archer John, "EvolUtionaty Psychology," in Male Violence 170, Kokken , S" The Way to Married Love: A HaPPier Sex Life, J. Archet (ed,), London: Routledge, 1994, p, 265, London: Souvenir Press, 1967, p. 93, Quoted in Jeffreys 190, Ibid" p. 265, Sheila Anticlimax: A Feminist Perspectiveon the Sexual 191. Research on sexual attackers has shown that one third Revolution London: The Women s Press, 1990, p. J40, are married and having a sexual relationship with 171. Masters, W. & Johnson, V. E" Human Sexual their wives at the time of the attack, and the majority Inadequacy, Boston: Bantam Books, 1981 , p, 294. are in consenting relationships. Gordon, M, T. & Quoted in Jeffreys , 1990, p, 140, Riger, S. The Female Fear, Urbana: University of 172. The glaring absence of research on subjects such as Illinois Press, 1991. female ejaculation was made clear with the advent of 192. Archer, 1994, p, 269, AIDS, when it was noted that there was little research 193, Ibid" p, 269, information on the process of female ejaculation, let alone 194, Ibid" p. 269, on the risk of transmission of AIDS through this fluid. 195, Ibid., p, 270, 173. Ussher, 1989; Showalter, E" The Female Malady, 196, Ibid" p. 270, London: Virago, 1987, 197. Ibid" p. 270. 174, Maudsley, H" Body and Mind, London: Macmillan 198, Ibid. p. 274, 1873, p, 88. 199. Gallichan , W. M" Sexttal Apathy and Coldness in 175. Burrows, George Man Commmtaries on Insanity, Women London: T. Werner Laurie, 1927, p. 101. London, 1828, p. 147. 200. Chesser, E" Love Without Fear London: Rich & Cowen

176. Millar J., Hints on Insanity, London: Henry Renshaw. Medical Publications, 1941 , p. 66. 1861 , p. 13. 201. See Caputi , Jane The Age of Sex Crime, London: The 177, Porter, Roy, "Men s Hysteria in Corpore Hysrerico?" Women s Press, 1987, pp. 54- , for a discussion papet presented at the Wellcome InstitUte symposium the hunter metaphor to describe sex killers, on the HistOry of Medicine, History of Hysteria 202. Finkelhor, D. & Lewis, 1. A. An Epidemiological 6 April 1990 , London. Approach to the StUdy of Child Molestation" in 178, Sydenham, T. The Works of Thomas Sydenham Prenrky & Quinsey, 1988, pp, 64-78, R, G. Latham (trans.), with a Life of the AUthor, 1848, 203, See Frosh , Stephen Sexttal Difference: Masculinity 179,. Plato Timaeus, Quoted in Veith, I. Hysteria: the Psychoanalysis London: Rourledge, 1994, for an History of a Disease Chicago: University of Chicago lent discussion of masculinity and vulnerability. Press, 1965, p. 7, 204, Scully, D. Understanding Sexttal Violmce, A Stttdyof 180, Veith 1965:7. Convicted RaPists,London: Unwin Hyman, 1990, p. 181. Maddock, A" " The Education of Women," in 205. Ibid., p, 104, iHental and Nervous Disorders, London: Simpkin 206, Ibid., p, 150, Marshall, 1854, p. 177. 207, Kelly, Liz The Conrinuum of Sexual Violence 182, Ussher, 1989, p, 49, Hamner, J. & Maynard , M" Women, Violence and 183. Ibid. Control, London: Macmillan, 1987, pp. 46-60. 184, See Ussher, 1989: and Ussher, Jane Womens Madness: 208, For an excellent review of feminist arguments abo Misogyny or Mental Illness, Hemel Hempstead: rape, see Edwards, Anne Male Violence in Femin Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991 , for developments of Theory: An Analysis of the Changing Conceptions these arguments, ofSex/Gender Violence and Male Domination," in 185, Ehrenreich , B, & English, D" For Her Own Good: 150 Hamner & Maynard, 1987, pp. 13-29, Years of Experts ' Advice to Women New York: Anchor 209. Stiglmayer, Alexandra The Rapes in Bosnia Doubleday, 1978, Herzegovina," in Mass Rape: The War Against Wi 186, See Gtaham, H. & Oakley, A. Competing Ideologies Bosnia Herzegovina Alexandra Stiglmayer (ed, of Reproduction: Medical and Maternal Perspectives & London: University of Nebraska Press, 1994,