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9780230_220423_01_Pre 08/10/2012 14:57 Page i Proof Studying Sexualities 9780230_220423_01_Pre 08/10/2012 14:57 Page ii Proof 9780230_220423_01_Pre 08/10/2012 14:57 Page iii Proof Studying Sexualities Theories, Representations, Cultures Niall Richardson Sussex University Clarissa Smith Sunderland University Angela Werndly Sunderland University 9780230_220423_01_Pre 08/10/2012 14:57 Page iv Proof Niall Richardson, Clarissa Smith, Angela Werndly © 2013 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2013 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN: 978-0-230-22042-3 hardback ISBN: 978-0-230-22043-0 paperback This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 Printed in China 9780230_220423_01_Pre 08/10/2012 14:57 Page v Proof Contents Introduction 1 Part I: Why Theory? 15 Introduction to Part I 17 1 Michel Foucault and the ‘Invention’ of Sexuality 21 2 Psychoanalysis and Sexuality 33 3 Queer Theory and Postmodern Sexualities 43 Part II: Representations 55 Introduction to Part II 57 4 Representations of Homosexuality 61 Case Study: Will and Grace 5 Representations of Lesbians on Television 72 Case Study: The L Word 6 Representations of Heterosexuality 1 83 Case Study: Sex and the City 7 Representations of Heterosexuality 2 94 Case Study: Entourage 8 Representations of Teenage Sexuality 110 Case Study: Point Horror and Twilight Part III: Sexual Cultures 123 Introduction to Part III 125 9 Sexualization, Commodifying Sex and the Mainstreaming of Masturbation 129 10 Sadomasochism, Definitions and Legislation 141 11 Online Sexual Practices 154 Conclusion 169 Bibliography 171 Media 183 Fiction 185 Index 186 v 9780230_220423_01_Pre 08/10/2012 14:57 Page vi Proof 9780230_220423_02_Int 08/10/2012 14:58 Page 1 Proof Introduction Many commentators are agreed that Western culture is obsessed by sex, and that the media – television, cinema, magazines, music, books and the internet – are saturated with sexual content. It’s hard not to agree when you hear Rihanna extolling the virtues of whips and chains, and see advertising which suggests that a particular brand of shampoo can induce multiple orgasms in a woman completing her morning ablutions. The old adage ‘sex sells’ has never seemed more appropriate. Yet there is something fundamentally worry- ing in the assertion that sex is everywhere, and always persuasive. There’s a sense of something underhand being perpetrated by representations of sex, an implication that sex can only appeal to our baser natures, and a suggestion that sex is, at best, trivial and superficial. For some, we’d all be better off if sex weren’t mentioned or referenced so frequently in popular culture. Yet, it is precisely this idea that sex is an entirely private matter that renders sex and sexuality so important to studies of contemporary culture and society. Why should sex be so important? Well, read this comment from the Daily Mail’s self-styled right-wing columnist Richard Littlejohn. Take the latest episode of Torchwood, the Doctor Who spin-off. It began with a seven-minute gay sex scene, which outraged many viewers. Why? The BBC says: ‘We aim to depict relationships, whether heterosexual or homo- sexual, in an honest and realistic way.’ Fair enough. But what on earth has sex got to do with a science fiction show? Why does the lead character have to be a ‘pansexual’? They’ll be telling us next that the Daleks all wore bondage gear under their tinfoil armour. But this is what you get when you hire a proselytising homosexual like Russell T. Davies to write mainstream drama. Gifted writer he may be, but he comes with an agenda. There is a place for exploring gay themes on TV, but not at prime time on BBC1 in a programme watched by many children and their parents. (Littlejohn, 2011) Look at the ways in which Littlejohn expresses himself: defining ‘prime- time BBC1’ as not the place for gay themes and their exploration and not the place for pansexual heroes. Prime time is family time, family time is not a place for homosexuality or sex, nor is science fiction – Littlejohn clearly does- n’t know his science fiction very well: sex has been a key component of SciFi television, opening up visions of future sex in, for example, Star Trek (NBC: 1 9780230_220423_02_Int 08/10/2012 14:58 Page 2 Proof 2 Introduction 1966–69), Farscape (Nine Network: 1999–2003), The Outer Limits (Showtime: 1995–2002) and Stargate Atlantis (Sci-Fi Channel: 2004–09) (Garber and Paleo, 1990), themes which fans have eagerly taken up and worked into explicitly sexual ‘slash fictions’ (see Bacon-Smith, 1992; Jenkins, 1992). Yet here pansexuality supposedly contributes nothing to the characterizations of the protagonists. According to Littlejohn, to include any reference to homosexu- ality is to be proselytising – that is, attempting to persuade or convert others to your point of view. Torchwood didn’t just have a gay sex scene, it had a ‘seven-minute gay sex scene, which outraged many viewers’. Littlejohn suggests that there is simply no need for showing or mentioning gay sex in a prime- time series watched by children and adults, and that therefore Russell T. Davis is doing more than providing entertainment – he’s preaching homosexuality to that prime-time audience. ‘Sex’ is apparently unnecessary for a drama like Torchwood. But would Littlejohn express the same irritations if Captain Jack only flirted with, and seduced, young female sidekicks – like his friend Dr Who at an earlier time with an even larger audience of child viewers? What we could take to be a reasonable objection to ‘gratuitous’ sex on TV or in film could, on further inspection, turn out to be a political rejection of any expres- sion of sexual interests, possibilities or imaginings that do not fit with a very narrow sense of ‘proper’ sexuality. The demand to keep your private life private can often be a demand to keep quiet about sexual interests and iden- tities that don’t fit with ‘natural’ heterosexuality. How this book works Given the media’s increasing fascination with sexuality it is hardly surprising that university courses in media, film and cultural studies are now introduc- ing students to debates in sexuality studies. While discussions about sexuality had previously been tagged on at the end of a ‘feminism’ or ‘gender and representation’ module, university courses have now devised full modules, at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, to introduce students to the crit- ical study of sexuality. The problem, however, is that much critical writing in the area, especially the work often labelled ‘queer theory’, is written in dense academic jargon which can be off-putting to the new student. This book is intended to address this problem. Studying Sexualities is an introduction to the critical study of sexuality in a media, film and cultural studies context. It does not claim to provide all the answers or summarize all the relevant debates, but instead aims to provide some groundwork on the key topics in sexuality studies, mapping out the field and providing examples of further reading for the student. We hope that all of the writing in this book is accessible and as jargon free as we can possi- bly make it. When, on occasions, we have used terms specific to the disci- pline, we have always tried to explain and contextualize them. 9780230_220423_02_Int 08/10/2012 14:58 Page 3 Proof Introduction 3 Studying Sexualities is divided into three parts. The first part, entitled ‘Why Theory?’, aims to summarize some of the main theoretical paradigms employed in sexuality studies. The grandfather of sexuality studies, Michel Foucault, is addressed in Chapter 1, and his thesis is developed and expanded in a discussion of contemporary queer theory in Chapter 3. The other theo- retical paradigm that has much critical purchase within sexuality studies is psychoanalysis, and this is addressed in Chapter 2. Throughout the rest of the book we attempt to demonstrate the importance of these theories by applying them in the critical readings of popular cultural representations offered in the later chapters. It is important to stress, though, that we are introducing you to a set of complex arguments and we cannot reduce the entire works of these theorists into short chapters, and so we urge you to engage with the original writings.