Abstract
I have taught several introductory women and gender studies courses, and in my experience, students are quick to grasp the idea that gender is a social construct, but they resist the same notion applied to sexuality. This problematic centers the second edition of Introducing the New Sexuality Studies; unlike the “old” sexuality studies, which assumes sexual acts and identities are natural, the “new” sexuality studies presents sexuality from a constructivist position, inquiring into the social, cultural, and historical dimensions of sexuality. The anthology accomplishes its central task of exploring the role society plays in constructing sexuality from identities to behaviors and fantasies. It also illustrates the degree to which sexuality permeates society, showing up in unexpected places and intersecting with other social identities. This collection will provide students of sociology, gender, and sexuality with a rigorous and broad introduction to the social study of sexuality that they will find accessible and engaging.
Introducing the New Sexuality Studies includes more than 75 essays and more than a dozen interviews. Although the second edition expands on the first, Handbook of the New Sexuality Studies, published by the same editors in 2006, the new essays and sections included do not substantially increase the areas of inquiry previously explored. The second edition is divided into 11 sections, 3 of which are new: “Gender and Sexuality,” “Intimacies,” and “Global and Transnational Sexualities.” Although the new sections incorporate previously unpublished scholarship, they just as frequently feature articles published in the first edition under new headings. Key differences include work on adolescent sexuality, intersex bodies, and negotiations of masculinity found in “Gender and Sexuality.” “Intimacies” brings several essays and interviews found in the first edition under a new section title while including scholarship about interracial romance, lesbian and gay parenting, and transgender relationships. The third new section, “Global and Transnational Sexualities,” also incorporates several essays from the first edition while including a few new essays. This section was a missed opportunity to expand substantially on an existing weakness by incorporating scholarship that explores the meanings of sexual practices and identities in various global contexts.
Overall, the anthology is well structured; each loosely thematic section contains several essays and one or two interviews that deal with the subject matter from various perspectives. The first part, “Sex as a Social Fact,” is disappointing; it mirrors the first edition and is the shortest part of the anthology, including only two interviews and one essay. The new edition would have benefited from an expanded overview of key concepts enabling students with various degrees of familiarity with gender and sexuality to create a shared knowledge base.
The second part of the anthology, “Sexual Meanings,” opens with a thought-provoking interview with Joshua Gamson about his work on representations of sexuality in popular culture. The interview and several of the essays in this section appear in the first edition, including Nancy Fischer’s cogent analysis of the relationship between morality and sexuality and Kristen Barber’s less successful “Sex and Power.”
Part 3 of the anthology, “Sexual Bodies and Behaviors,” explores the ways social meanings congeal around specific body parts and sexual acts. This section includes scholarship published in the first edition about desexualized groups, including individuals with disabilities, senior women, and Asian men. These essays apply an intersectional framework to analyze the ways race, age, and ability influence perceptions of sexuality and as a readings cluster can prompt fruitful in-class discussion of representations of sexuality in popular media. I find that the engagement level of students skyrockets when I fold examples from everyday life into lectures and classroom activities.
Part 4, “Gender and Sexuality,” is new to this edition; it explores the social construction of a gender binary and the relationship between gender and sexuality. I would recommend assigning this section after the first part of the anthology, especially in sociology classes where students are likely to have varying understandings of gender and sexuality. Many of the essays and interviews included in this section are new to the second edition and are impressive in scope and accessibility; they will provoke lively classroom debate since they generally counter widely held assumptions about eclectic topics including teenage expressions of homophobia, unintended pregnancy, intersex bodies, and transgender identities.
The fifth part of the anthology, “Intimacies,” also new to this edition, explores the shifting social meanings of intimacy. Many of the articles highlight contemporary social phenomena that will interest students, including the politics of interracial intimacy and the normalization of online dating. Dwight Fee’s essay “Covenant Marriage: Reflexivity and Retrenchment in the Politics of Intimacy,” introduces the sophisticated and useful concept “reflexivity,” in an accessible way by demonstrating that shifting relationship norms position us to debate openly what we want in relationships instead of uncritically repeating entrenched relationship norms.
“Sexual Identities,” the sixth part of the anthology, illustrates the social dimension of sexual identities including heterosexual, gay, lesbian, and bisexual identities. Essays consider the ways sexuality is embodied and performed, narratives of desire, and the historical emergence of sexual identities. Although most of the essays in this section appear in the first edition, the admirable scope of the section on first publication did not warrant major changes.
Like the preceding section, part 7, “Sexual Institutions and Sexual Commerce,” does not stray far from the first edition. This section explores how various social institutions connected to the economy influence sexuality. Chrys Ingraham’s essay “One Is Not Born a Bride,” provides a thoughtful critique of the naturalization of heterosexual marriage through commodity consumption. Equally provocative are a cluster of interviews and essays on sex work and pornography.
Part 8, “Sexual Cultures,” explores the proliferation of sexual cultures. Dana Kaplan’s essay “Sexual Liberation and the Creative Class in Israel” is new to this edition and illustrates the influence of class on the formation of sexual cultures by considering the use of sexuality as a form of self-expression and a networking tool by Israel’s emerging middle class. Other sexual cultures explored include cybersex, sadomasochism, and down low, all of which are reprinted from first edition.
“Sexual Regulation and Inequality,” the ninth part of the collection, explores the social control of sexuality through various social institutions. The section begins with an informative essay by Jyoti Puri, “Sexuality, State and Nation,” which demonstrates the influence of nations and states on sexuality. Institutions that regulate sexuality that are highlighted in this section include marriage, medicine, school, and law. Most of these articles appear in the first edition, but the section is admirably inclusive and will provide a productive foundation for class discussions about the regulation of sexuality through social institutions.
The 10th section, “Sexual Politics,” further highlights issues of power at play in regulating sexuality. This section focuses heavily on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues including same-sex marriage and the profamily movement but includes diverse topics like sex education and the politics of sexual violence during war. Most of the scholarship appears in the first edition, and this would have been a useful place to expand on the politics of sexuality, for instance, incorporating current scholarship on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the Employment Non-discrimination Act, or school bullying policies.
The anthology concludes with a new section, “Global and Transnational Sexualities.” Several of these articles are new to this edition, including scholarship about Filipina women and Mexican immigrants. It would have been beneficial to expand this section, providing a more substantial understanding of how globalization as an economic and social phenomenon shapes sexual understandings in various global contexts.
Introducing the New Sexuality Studies will work well as a core text in introductory undergraduate courses, particularly courses that highlight discussion. The sustained focus on social dimensions of sexuality as it intersects with other identities makes this anthology a good textbook choice for courses including Sexuality and Society, Sexuality and Culture, Introduction to Sexuality Studies, and Introduction to Women and Gender Studies. The scholarship collected in this anthology draws on many key concepts in sociology and will provide students within the discipline with a broad foundation of the sociological study of sexuality. Although the second edition of Introducing the New Sexuality Studies misses some opportunities to expand on weaknesses found in the first, it is a comprehensive anthology, like its predecessor. Students exposed to the diverse scholarship found in this anthology will leave the classroom understanding that sexuality is the product of human activity, intrinsically social and historical.