Sociology 370: Sex, Law, and American Society

Whenever sex is involved, efforts to control the public become more extensive and severe. From chastity belts to the latest in sex doll construction, American authorities have been keen to regulate, constrain, and control sex—especially acts that emphasize pleasure over reproduction. In this seminar-style course, students will explore the myriad ways that authorities use social controls to manage behaviors and communities with special attention paid to the ways sex has been socially constructed over the past four centuries. Topics will include reproduction, masturbation, sexual violence, sex work, sexual disease transmission, age of consent, queer sexualities, sex offender management, BDSM, and pornography. Students will engage with a range of theories during the course: sexual scripts, moral panics, Foucauldian theories of discourse, queer theory, necropolitics, and multiple feminist frameworks. This course will be reading, writing and discussion intensive, requiring all students to engage in class and regularly in written form. Students will be evaluated based on a combination of small and large writing assignments, classroom discussion, and oral presentations. Students should be advised that frank discussions of sexual behavior, sexual harm, and nonnormative sexuality will occur during the class; therefore, students should not take the class if they are unprepared to engage in such discussions.