(GAS8b) Sociology of Sexualities II

This panel features presentations of research on any topic in the sociology of sexualities, broadly defined. This panel is sponsored by the Gender and Sexuality Research Cluster. Tags: Sexualities

Organizer: Tina Fetner, McMaster University; Chair: Lacey Bobier, University of Toronto

Presentations

Lacey Bobier, University of Toronto

Dress coded: How middle school dress codes compromise girls' sexual subjectivity and neglect agency

Clarifying everyday mechanisms of embodied inequality, this project shows how schools’ practices of body management sexualize and target female-bodied students, shaping their developing sexual subjectivity (i.e. the feeling of control over and pleasure in one’s sexuality). This study examines school dress codes for their pervasive, constant, everyday role in girls’ experiences with evolving bodies and gendered and sexualized experiences. Middle school is a pivotal time of identity development that coincides with a significant physiological transition and consequent shift in social expectations and experiences of embodiment. This is when girls exit a space of childhood innocence (or, at least, a space with fewer sexual overtones attributed to their bodies, clothing, and behaviors) and transition to a sexualized adult realm, accompanied by new expectations and interpretations of their bodies and behaviors. Merging in-depth interviews with 34 middle school students and 27 middle school educators with content analysis of 103 middle school handbooks, this study highlights the voices of those whose everyday experiences of embodiment are most shaped by school dress codes: girls. Educators and students demonstrated conflicting understandings of students’ dress code violations. When intentional, students offered three reasons for breaking the rules: a desire for physical comfort; self-expression through fashion; and/or to make statements about gender/sexual biases in dress codes. Meanwhile, educators focused on troublemaking, trends, and mistakes. In doing so, they failed to recognize: (1) the effort students, but especially girls, put into avoiding violations; (2) students’ agency in choosing comfort, fashion, and activism; and (3) students’ broader concerns about gender/sexual discrimination. Students were especially critical of how dress codes and their implementation sexualized girls by positioning their bodies as distractions and sites of risk. Girls learned their bodies could distract boys from classroom lessons and teachers from educating. At the same time, girls understood that their bodies were not just problematic because of the distraction they posed, but the potential danger they could bring to the girl should she make poor choices with her dress. Girls voiced frustration with these messages and the associated surveillance and punishment. They thoughtfully articulated how their developing sexual subjectivity and agency were compromised by policies that sexually objectified them and diminished their feelings of control over and pleasure in their bodies. In other words, girls’ experiences with dress coding emphasized how such policies resulted in their compulsory self-objectification (i.e. the internalization of an outsider’s view of one’s body, or judging bodily attractiveness and value through an external lens, and the resulting treatment of oneself as an object to be viewed and evaluated). Girls resisted and combated sexualizing discourses and policies through their accounts and actions, but nevertheless experienced an emotional toll because of the inescapable omnipresence of surveillance and its detrimental consequences.

Adri Prattas, Queen's University

The Surveillance of Deviant Sexuality: Analyzing the Surveillance of Online Sex Work under SESTA/FOSTA

The sex work industry has faced centuries of punitive measures, stigmatization, and surveillance. In this paper, I explore the contemporary challenges posed by technological advancements, specifically focusing on the online spaces that sex workers have turned to for safety. Through combining David Lyons concept of surveillances power of categorization with Michel Foucaults discourses of sexualities, I introduce the concept of the surveillance of deviant sexuality. I demonstrate this framework through analyzing the American legislation known as SESTA/FOSTA (Allow Victims and States to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act and Stop Enabling Sex Trafficking Act) and its material consequences for online sex work and sex workers. Lyons idea that the ability to monitor, classify, and categorize individuals is a form of power is foundational to the framework I invoke in this paper. The contemporary surveillance landscape enables the collection of vast amounts of information used to categorize individuals based on predetermined characteristics. The power of exclusion arising from these categorizations influences peoples life chances, as seen in practices such as post-9/11 categorization of individuals as "desirable" or "undesirable" based on arbitrary characteristics, such as country of origin, when travelling. I connect this concept to Foucault’s discourses of sexualities to highlight how categorization occurs based on the moral acceptability of one’s sexual life. Foucault challenges the repressive hypothesis, suggesting that power over sex is instead discursive. He argues that the acceptability of sex is determined by specific circumstances, actors, and contextual relationships, leading to multiple discourses on sexualities produced through different institutional mechanisms, such as the legal system’s criminalization of sex work. Foucaults insights are crucial for understanding how power operates within the realm of sexuality. I apply the combined framework to analyze SESTA/FOSTA, a 2018 legislation that amends the Communications Decency Act. I argue that this legislation, although ostensibly aimed at combatting online sex trafficking, exemplifies the surveillance of deviant sexuality through its conflation of sex trafficking and consensual sex work. The legislation’s conflationary definition of sex trafficking reflects a moralistic perspective, rooted in radical feminist views that deem the sex work industry inherently coercive and misogynistic. I suggest that SESTA/FOSTA arises from the legal system using its discursive power to shape the narrative surrounding sexuality and sex work through attempting to legislatively designate sex work as deviant. Furthermore, the legislations focus on online spaces facilitates the surveillance aspect, compelling platforms to monitor and categorize users based on the legislations defined categories of deviant or permissible. Following this, I highlight the allegedly ‘unintended’ material consequences of SESTA/FOSTA, such as platform censorship and sanitization. The removal of Craigslists "personals" section serves as a prime example of these consequences, illustrating the legislations impact on platforms that struggle to distinguish between sex trafficking and consensual sex work due to the conflationary definition provided. Lastly, I showcase how SESTA/FOSTA directly harms sex workers through pushing them towards riskier street-based work due to the elimination of safer online spaces. This guided shift to street-based sex work endangers sex workers and pressures them into compromising situations to earn a living. In conclusion, I not only advocate for the repeal of SESTA/FOSTA through emphasizing the dangerous consequences this legislation has on sex workers, but I also emphasize the need to recognize the broader implications of moral surveillance on evolving discourses surrounding sexual deviance that extend beyond sex work.  

Mathew Graham, University of British Columbia

Removing the gbMSM Demographic From Blood Donation Screening: Analysing News Coverage on Canada's Shift to Individualised Sexual Behaviour Screening

In 2021, Canada amended its blood donation laws to screen every potential donor’s sexual history rather than screen only gay and bisexual men who have sex with men (gbMSM). While scholars and LGBTQ+ community members have called on the Canadian and international governments to adjust this blood law for years, a research gap persists regarding how the general Canadian public and media view this policy change. Thus, this paper aims to fill this research gap by determining how Canadian newspapers portray the policy change leading up to, as well as following the amendment. Additionally, this paper uses post-gay theory to investigate the level of gay acceptance in Canadian society compared to past studies. Concerns for the theory’s validity have been questioned in recent years due to its historic perpetuation of homonormativity and/or limited view of queer identity and diversity. This study ensures that non-homonormative measures are incorporated. The data is based on an analysis of Canadian newspapers (n=109) consisting of national, provincial, and local newspapers, and omitting non-Canadian reports on the matter. Each article is qualitatively coded using a two-stage system: the first stage is reading 30% of the articles to develop common themes and a coding sheet, and the second stage using the coding sheet to ensure a consistent analysis of all the articles. Canadian views on gbMSM have been increasingly positive over time, and Canadian blood screening legislation has eased its deferral periods with little backlash in the past decade. Combining these factors, this study expects to find that most newspaper articles will first validate the amendment by highlighting blood science approving the change, and subsequently highlight the positive effect the amendment will have on the overall Canadian blood supply. To determine the validity of this hypothesis, several themes are incorporated into the coding sheet. 1) Views on the law change; with questions such as “Does the author highlight anyone celebrating the change? If so, who?”. 2) Focus of the story, with questions such as “What level of focus is given to the blood law change in the article?”. 3) Political implications and politician’s views, with questions such as “Does the article use the blood law controversy as an example of political inadequacy?”. 4) Risks of the law change portrayed in the story, with questions such as “Does the article discuss HIV stigma correlated with gbMSM?”. 5) Lasting effects on queer folk, with questions such as “Does the article mention damage to trust or other lasting effects on queer trust with Health Canada and blood donation as a whole?”. 6) Worries of complicity, with questions such as “Does the article mention worries about donors being complicit to the new screening criteria?”. 7) Patriotism related to the law change, with questions such as “Does the article highlight a phrase similar to ‘Canada has one of the safest blood supplies in the world’?”. 8) Civil citizenship and generosity, “Does the article describe blood donation as a way to feel ‘a part of the community’ or ‘giving back to the country’?”. The case of Canada’s historically homophobic blood donation deferral against gbMSM helps demonstrate Canada’s targeted homophobia against polygamous folk specifically. Post-gay theory lacks an analysis of how non-homonormative folk are positioned on a spectrum measuring gay acceptance, and this study aims to fill in the research gap that includes these historically neglected folk. This research will contribute to the growing literature on post-gay theory, but in a Canadian context. Furthermore demonstrating the current level of acceptance regarding gbMSM in Canada.