Sexual Cultures: Communities, Values and Intimacy

326 Pages·1996·41.183 MB·English

by  Jeffrey Weeks, Janet Holland (eds.)

EXPLORATIONS IN SOCIOLOGY
British Sociological Association conference volume series
Sami Zubaida (editor) I Race and Racism
Richard Brown (editor) 2 Knowledge, Education and
Cultural Exchange
Paul Rock and Mary Mcintosh (editors) 3 Deviance and Social Control
Emanuel de Kadt and Gavin Williams 4 Sociology and Development
(editors)
Frank Parkin (editor) S The Social Analysis of Class
Structure
Diana Leonard Barker and Sheila Allen 6 Sexual Divisions and Society:
(editors) Process and Change
Diana Leonard Barker and Sheila Allen 7 Dependence and Exploitation in
(editors) Work and Marriage
Richard Sease (editor) 8 Industrial Society: Class,
Cleavage and Control
Roben Dingwall, Christian Heath, Margaret 9 Health Care and Health
Reid and Margaret Stacey (editors) Knowledge
Robert Dingwall, Christian Heath, Margaret 10 Health and the Division of
Reid and Margaret Stacey (editors) Labour
Gary Littlejohn, Barry Sman, John II Power and the State
Wakeford and Nira Yuval-Davis (editors)
Michele Barrett, Philip Corrigan, Annette 12 Ideology and Cultural Production
Kuhn and Janet Wolff (editors)
Bob Fryer, Allan Hunt, Doreen MacBarnet 13 Law, State and Society
and Ben Moorhouse (editors)
Philip Abrams, Rosemary Deem, Janet 14 Practice and Progress: British
Finch and Paul Rock (editors) Sociology, 1950-1980
Graham Day, Lesley Caldwell, Karen IS Diversity and Decomposition in
Jones, David Robbins and Hilary Rose the Labour Market
(editors)
David Robbins, Lesley Caldwell, Graham 16 Rethinking Social Inequality
Day, Karen Jones and Hilary Rose
(editors)
Eva Gamarnikow, David Morgan, June 17 The Public and the Private
Purvis and Daphne Taylorson (editors)
Eva Gamarnikow, David Morgan, June 18 Gender, Class and Work
Purvis and Daphne Taylorson (editors)
*Gareth Rees, Janet Bujra, Paul Littlewood, 19 Political Action and Social
Howard Newby and Teresa L. Rees Identity: Class, Locality and
(editors) Ideology
Howard Newby, Janet Bujra, Paul 20 Restructuring Capital: Recession
Littlewood, Gareth Rees and Teresa L. and Reorganization in Industrial
Rees (editors) Society
*Sheila Allen, Kate Purcell, Alan Waton 21 The Experience of Unemployment
and Stephen Wood (editors)
*Kate Purcell, Stephen Wood, Alan Waton 22 The Changing Experience of
and Sheila Allen (editors) Employment: Restructuring and
Recession
*Jalna Hanmer and Mary Maynard (editors) 23 Women, Violence and Social
Control
*Colin Creighton and Martin Shaw (editors) 24 The Sociology of War and Peace
*Alan Bryman, Bill Bytheway, Patricia 25 Rethinking the Life Cycle
Allatt and Teresa Keil (editors)
*Patricia Allatt, Teresa Keil, Alan Bryman 26 Women and the Life Cycle
and Bill Bytheway (editors)
*Jan Varcoe, Maureen McNeil and Steven 27 Deciphering Science and
Yearley (editors) Technology
*Maureen McNeil, Jan Varcoe and Steven 28 The New Reproductive
Yearley (editors) Technologies
David McCrone, Stephen Kendrick and Pat 29 The Making of Scotland
Straw (editors)
Stephen Kendrick, Pat Straw and David 30 Interpreting the Past,
McCrone (editors) Understanding the Present
*Lynn Jamieson and Helen Corr (editors) 31 State, Private Life and Political
Change
*Helen Corr and Lynn Jamieson (editors) 32 Politics of Everyday Life:
Continuity and Change in Work
and the Family
Geoff Payne and Malcolm Cross (editors) 33 Sociology in Action: Applications
and Opportunities for the 1990s
Pamela Abbott and Claire Wallace 34 Gender, Power and Sexuality
(editors)
Robert Reiner and Malcolm Cross 35 Beyond Law and Order: Criminal
(editors) Justice Policy and Politics into
the 1990s
Pamela Abbott and Geoff Payne (editors) 36 New Directions in the Sociology
of Health and Illness
Claire Wallace and Malcolm Cross 37 Youth in Transition: The
(editors) Sociology of Youth and Youth
Policy
Malcolm Cross and Geoff Payne (editors) 38 Work and the Enterprise Culture
*Sara Arber and Nigel Gilbert (editors) 39 Women and Working Lives:
Divisions and Change
*Roger Burrows and Catherine Marsh 40 Consumption and Class:
(editors) Divisions and Change
*Nigel Gilbert, Roger Burrows and Anna 41 Fordism and Flexibility:
Pollen (editors) Divisions and Change
*Catherine Marsh and Sara Arber (editors) 42 Families and Households:
Divisions and Change
*Lydia Morris and E. Stina Lyon (editors) 43 Gender Relations in Public and
Private
*Colin Samson and Nigel South (editors) 44 The Social Construction of Social
Policy
Joan Busfield and E. Stina Lyon (editors) 45 Methodological Imaginations
*Janet Holland and Lisa Adkins (editors) 46 Sex, Sensibility and the Gendered
Body
*Lisa Adkins and Vicki Merchant (editors) 47 Sexualizing the Social
*Jeffrey Weeks and Janet Holland (editors) 48 Sexual Cultures
*From the same publishers
Sexual Cultures
Communities, Values and Intimacy
Edited by
Jeffrey Weeks
Professor of Sociology
South Bank University
London
and
Janet Holland
Senior Research Lecturer
Institute of Education
University of London
and
Lecturer in Education
The Open University
--
MACMillAN
@ British Sociological Association 1996
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1996 978-0-333-65003-5
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ISBN 978-0-333-65004-2 ISBN 978-1-349-24518-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-24518-5
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 96
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Notes on the Contributors viii
Introduction of
Jeft'rey Weeks and Janet Holland
PART I APPROACHES TO SEXUALITY
of From Sexual Divisions to Sexualities: Changing
Sociological Agendas 17
Sheila Allen and Diana Leonard
2 Intimate Citizenship and the Culture of Sexual
Story Telling 34
Ken Plummer
3 Gay Brains, Gay Genes and Feminist Science Theory 53
Hilary Rose
PART II HISTORICAL EXCURSIONS
4 The Shock of the Freewoman Journal: Feminists
Speaking on Heterosexuality in Early Twentieth-century
E~~~ ~
Lucy Bland
5 Mass Observation's 'Little Kinsey' and the British
Sex Survey Tradition 97
Liz Stanley
6 From 'Immorality' to 'Underclass': The Current and
Historical Context of IHegitimacy 115
Andrew Blaikie
v
VI Contents
PART III IDENTITIES, COMMUNITIES AND CONTROL
7 Medicalisation and Identity Formation: Identity and
Strategy in the Context of AIDS and HIV 139
Brian Heaphy
8 Community Responses to HIV and AIDS:
The 'De-Gaying' and 'Re-Gaying' of AIDS 161
Jeffrey Weeks, Peter Aggleton, Chris McKevitt,
Kay Parkinson and Austin Taylor-Laybourn
9 Prostitution and the Contours of Control 180
Julia O'Connell Davidson
PART IV INTIMACY
10 Intimacy, Altruism and the Loneliness of Moral Choice:
The Case of HIV Positive Health Workers 201
Neil Small
11 Whose Orgasm is this Anyway? 'Sex Work' in
Long-term Heterosexual Couple Relationships 220
Jean Duncombe and Dennis Marsden
12 Reputations: Journeying into Gendered Power Relations 239
Janet Holland, Caroline Ramazanoglu,
Sue Sharpe and Rachel Thomson
13 The Conundrum of Sex and Death: Some Issues in
Health Care Practice 261
David Clark and Julia Hirst
Index 284
Acknowledgements
This book consists of essays originally delivered as papers at the 1994
British Sociological Association (BSA) Annual Conference, on the theme
of 'Sexualities in Social Context', held at the University of Central
Lancashire, 28-31 March 1994. It is one of three volumes produced
from the papers given at that conference. The companion volumes are:
Sex, Sensibility and the Gendered Body, edited l?Y Janet Holland and
Lisa Adkins, and Sexualizing the Social: Power and the Organisation
of Sexuality, edited by Lisa Adkins and Vicki Merchant.
The conference itself was one of the largest ever held by the BSA,
and these three volumes offer a distillation of the 258 papers given at
the conference. The editors of all three volumes had great difficulty in
making a representative selection of the papers, and we would like to
thank the forbearance and patience of all the contributors while we
reviewed each paper and came to our often painful decisions concern
ing them. The editors of this volume would particularly like to thank
the contributors for the speed and efficiency with which they responded
to editorial comments and revisions. More broadly, we would also wish
to thank all the participants at the conference, both those who gave
papers, and those who participated in the various streams. We feel
that all who participated in the conference gained enormously from
the intellectual vitality and excitement that was apparent there. We
hope that this volume and its companions reflect some of that excite
ment, and contribute to the growing recognition of the significance of
sexuality in understanding the social dynamics of contemporary societies.
That the conference was such a success is due to the efforts of countless
people. We would like to thank members of the British Sociological
Association staff for their support throughout this venture. We are grateful
for the support given by staff at the University of Central Lancashire
both before and during the conference itself. The editors of this volume
owe a great debt of gratitude to their colleagues at the University of
the West of England, South Bank University, the Institute of Educa
tion, University of London and the Open University. We owe personal
debts to our immediate partners and friends; they know who they are.
We dedicate this volume to the many young sociologists who at
tended the BSA Conference, many for the first time. Their enthusiasm
for the subject, and for the theme of the conference, gave us great
hope for the future of our discipline.
vii
Notes on the Contributors
Peter Aggleton is a Professor at the Institute of Education, University
of London, and is co-director there of the Health and Education Re
search Unit. He is the author of numerous articles and several books,
and is editor of the Social Aspects of AIDS series of books. He was
co-director (with Jeffrey Weeks) of the ESRC-funded Voluntary Sec
tor Responses to HIV and AIDS project.
Sheila Allen is Research Professor of Sociology at the University of
Bradford and University Adviser on Equal Opportunities. She researches
and publishes in the areas of sociology of work, gender relations and
ethnic and race relations. She is currently engaged in writing a book
on feminist contributions to sociology.
Andrew Blaikie is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of
Aberdeen where he teaches courses on Sex and Gender, and The Body,
Self and Society. Recent publications include Illegitimacy, Sex and Society
(1993), and he is currently researching the connections between infant life
chances and unmarried motherhood in Scotland between 1845 and 1945.
Lucy Bland is a Senior Lecturer in Women's Studies at the University
of North London. She has written extensively on feminism and sexuality
in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including Banish
ing the Beast: English Feminism and Sexual Morality, 1885-1914 (1995).
David Clark currently holds the Chair of Medical Sociology at the
University of Sheffield, where he is actively involved in a wide-rang
ing programme of research relating to sociological and policy aspects
of palliative care.
Julia O'Connell Davidson is Lecturer in Sociology at the University
of Leicester. She is currently involved in research on prostitution in
Britain and sex tourism to economically underdeveloped countries.
Jean Duncombe works as Senior Research Officer at Essex Universi
ty on an ESRC-funded project (with Dennis Marsden) on 'The Role of
Ideologies of Love in the Social Construction of Coupledom'. She has
viii
Notes on the Contributors ix
previously been involved in research on extra-marital sexual relationships,
Alexandra Kollontai, YTS, women's work and Household Allocative
Systems.
Brian Heaphy is currently a Research Fellow on the 'Families of Choice'
project at South Bank University, London. His first degree was in cultural
studies, and he is currently completing a PhD in sociology on the theme
of medicalisation and identity in the context of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Julia Hirst is a Senior Lecturer in Health Promotion (HIVI AIDS) at
Sheffield Hallam University. She has extensive teaching and research
experience in sexuality and sexual health. She is author of Not in Front
of the Grown Ups (1994) and co-author of The Place and Meaning of
Drugs in the Lives of Young People (1994).
Janet Holland is Senior Research Officer in the Social Science Research
Unit, Institute of Education, University of London, and Lecturer in
Education at the Open University. Recent publications include: (with
C. Ramazanoglu) 'Coming to Conclusions: Power and Interpretation
in Researching Young Women's Sexuality', in J. Purvis and M. Maynard
(e ds ), Researching Women's Lives from a Feminist Perspective (1994)
and (with C. Ramazanoglu, S. Sharpe, R. Thomson) 'Power and Desire:
The Embodiment of Female Sexuality', Feminist Review, no. 46, 1994.
She was co-organiser of the 1994 BSA Annual Conference.
Diana Leonard is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology and head of the
Centre for Research and Education on Gender at the Institute of Edu
cation, University of London. Her publications include Sex and Gen
eration (1980}, and the A-level textbook Families (1988, with John
Hood Williams). She is co-editor with Sheila Allen of the BSA publi
cations Sexual Divisions and Society (1976) and Sexual Division Re
visited (1991). Her most recent book, written with Christine Delphy,
is a theoretical work, Familiar Exploitation: A New Analysis of Mar
riage in Contemporary Western Society (1992). She has just completed
translating and editing with Lisa Adkins a collection of papers by French
radical feminists, to be published by Taylor and Francis as Sex in
Question.
Dennis Marsden is a Professor in the Sociology Department at Essex
University. He has published Education and the Working Class (with
Brian Jackson, 1961}, Politicians, Equality and Comprehensives (1967),