The History of Sexuality



Sexuality in America

History 01:512:225

Fall 2011

Rutgers University

Professor: Dr. Johanna Schoen

This course is designed to present the history of sexuality both as an integral part of American history and as a distinct and exciting new subject of historical study. We will explore the history of sexuality within the family and its move into the marketplace. Our goal is to understand the factors that shaped people's sexual lives: social customs and taboos, methods of birth control and abortion, religion, medical and psychological writings, and state policies. The course is open to first year students and non majors.

Learning Goals

1. This course is designed to present the history of sexuality both as an integral part of American history and as a distinct and exciting new subject of historical study.

2. We will explore the history of sexuality within the family and its move into the marketplace.

3. Students will understand the factors that shaped people's sexual lives: social customs and taboos, methods of birth control and abortion, religion, medical and psychological writings, and state policies.

4. The course will take part in the Rutgers SAS Core curriculum; goals H and K.

Course Materials

John D'Emilio and Estelle Freedman, Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality

Elizabeth Reis (ed.), American Sexual Histories

Harriet Jacobs: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Diane Middlebrook, Suits Me: The Double Life of Billy Tipton

This course will address sexually explicit material.

Course Requirements

Reading Assignments

To guide your reading for this course, I will give you a short writing assignment to complete with your reading. These exercises will help you focus your thoughts and prepare you to participate in class discussion. Completion of these exercises is required. (They and participation in discussion make up 25% of your grade). I will give you the respective assignment during the class meeting before reading is due and you should turn them in at the class meeting for which the readings are due. The amount of reading is manageable, but only if you devote several hours a week to it, starting with the first week and continuing through the last. Recall that for every hour of class time, you should be spending two hours outside the class in preparation. That means six hours of preparation weekly for this three-hour course. Class meetings will be more enjoyable and more interesting if you are equipped, by your reading, to catch the more subtle points and to try out your own interpretations and questions. There are 16 writing assignments. You can miss no more than two of these over the course of the semester. If you miss more than two, I will count them as failed assignments.

Discussion

We will devote a great deal of time to discussion of common readings and continuing themes of the course. No specific days will be set aside for discussion; instead, we will routinely combine discussion and lecture during our class meetings. In order to be prepared for discussion, you should complete the reading on the day for which it is assigned.

Book Papers

You will write two 5-page papers, one on Harriet Jacobs and one on Suits Me. Each book paper counts for 25 percent of the grade.

Book Paper I

Reading Question: How did Dr. Flint try to control Jacob’s sexual life? In what ways did Harriet Jacobs try to regain control? How successful was she?

Book Paper II

Reading Question: How did Billy Tipton construct and reconstruct his sexual identity? According to what factors did others judge Billy a man or woman?

Exam. There will be a final exam on December 16 at 9:45 AM.

Lateness Policy All late assignments will be marked down. One-third of a grade will be deducted for every 24 hour period (or portion thereof) your paper is late. That is, a “B” paper will turn into a “B-” paper if it is up to 24 hours late, and into a “C+” paper if it is up to 48 hours late.

If you need to turn in a paper late, you will need to bring it to the departmental office at 280 Schaeffer Hall (open M-F 8:00-12:00 and 1:00-5:00) and have the secretary note the time and date you turned it in, or you will need to get it to me personally. If you slip it under my office door, I have no way of knowing when you turned it in, and I will grade it according to the time and date I find it. If you have a severe personal emergency that makes it impossible for you to meet the deadlines, please see me. Computer problems do not constitute personal emergencies!

You must complete all written assignments in order to receive credit for this course. I will not accept assignments via email or attachments. Only paper products, please. I will turn back all assignments in a timely manner. If I do not turn back your assignment, it is your job to bring this to my attention. If you believe I have not recorded a grade for an assignment you have turned in, you must clear this up during the semester. After the semester is over, I will not be able to consider claims that you turned in an assignment if I have no record of it.

24-3-7 Policy

If you have a question or complaint about a grade on a paper, you have to wait 24 hours before making an appointment to see me or one of the TAs about the matter. You need to make the appointment within 3 days and have met to discuss the matter within 7 days. Because of the size of the class, we cannot accommodate rewrites. You are, however, encouraged to give me or the teaching assistants a draft of your paper so that we can comment on it and make suggestions for revision before it is due.

Grading

Your grades will be calculated as follows:

Book Paper I 25%

Book Paper II 25%

Discussion and Discussion Papers 25%

Final 25%

Students with disabilities may require some modification of seating, testing, or other class requirements so that appropriate arrangements may be made. If you have a disability and require such modification, please contact me during my office hours.

The University also has resources for students experiencing non-academic difficulties, such as personal or emotional strain. The University Counseling Service offers confidential consultation for students. You may phone them at 335-7294 M-F 8-5. After hours, phone the Crisis Center at 351-0140.

I encourage you to take advantage of all academic and non-academic services offered by the University. Your tax and tuition dollars pay for them -- don’t feel shy about using them!

Class Schedule

Aug. 23 Introduction: What is the History of Sexuality?

25 Sexual Attitudes of the Old World

Readings: Intimate Matters, Introduction

Part 1: Sexuality in Preindustrial America, 1600-1800

27 Cultural Diversity in the Era of Settlement

Readings: Intimate Matters, chapters 1 and 2

Assignment: List the factors that shaped sexual relations in the New World.

30 Early Anglo-American Sexuality

Readings: “Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven, from 1638 to 1649,” in American Sexual Histories, pp. 37-44.

Assignment: What role does religion play in the case of Spencer and Hogg?

Sept. 01 Anglo-Indian Sexual Relations

Readings: Richard Godbeer, “Eroticizing the Middle Ground: Anglo-Indian Sexual Relations along the 18th Century Frontier,” in American Sexual Histories, pp. 46-64.

Assignment: What meaning did sexual relations between Native American women and white men hold for the Native women and white men respectively?

03 Sexed Bodies in the American South

08 Same Sex Relations in Colonial America

10 Colonial Sex and Racial Regulation

13 18th Century Courting and Reproduction

Readings: Ulrich and Stabler, “’Girling It’ in 18th Century New Hampshire,” in American Sexual Histories, pp. 72-85.

Part 2: Divided Passions: Sexuality between Family and Marketplace, 1780-1900

15 Seeds of Change

Readings: Intimate Matters, chapter 3

Assignment: List the developments that change colonial sexual culture in the late 18th century.

17 Victorian Sexual Ideals

Readings: Intimate Matters, chapter 4

Assignment: How do the experiences of men and women change in the 19th century?

20 Sexuality and Medicine: Men’s Bodies, Women’s Bodies

22 Courtship and Marriage

24 Race and Sexuality I

Readings: Intimate Matters, chapter 5

Harriet Jacobs: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, pp. 1-97

27 Race and Sexuality II

Readings: Harriett Jacobs: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl , pp. 98-205.

29 Outside the family

Readings: Intimate Matters, chapter 6

Assignment: What opportunities for sexual activity outside the family emerged in the course of the 19th century?

Oct. 1 Prostitution and Sexual Danger

Readings: Patricia Cline Cohen, “Ministerial Misdeeds,” in American Sexual Histories, pp. 117-144.

Assignment: What do the competing narratives of Bishop Onderdonk’s transgressions tell us about the narrators’ views of male and female sexual behavior?

4 Same Sex Victorian Relations

Paper on Harriet Jacobs Due

6 Self Control and Sex Reform

Readings: Intimate Matters, chapter 7

8 Free Love

Readings: Lawrence Foster, “The Psychology of Free Love,” in American Sexual Histories, pp. 72-85.

Assignment: What did free lovers see as the ills of Victorian sexual culture? How did they hope to abolish these ills?

Part 3: Toward A New Sexual Order, 1880-1930

11 “Civilized Morality” under Stress

Readings: Intimate Matters, chapter 8

Assignment: How did sexuality change at the turn of the century?

13 Prostitution Reform

15 Interracial Sex and Politics

Readings: Intimate Matters, chapter 9

Assignment: How did race influence the sexual lives and perceptions of African Americans?

18 Breaking with the Past

Readings: George Chauncey, “Christian Brotherhood or Sexual Perversion?” in American Sexual Histories, pp. 199-216.

20 Bohemian Life in the 1920s

22 Beyond Reproduction

Readings: Intimate Matters, chapter 11, Andrea Tone, “Contraceptive Consumers,” in American Sexual Histories, pp. 251-78.

Assignment: How did race and class influence women’s sexual experiences in the period under discussion?

25 Sexuality and Popular Culture in 1930s America

27 Eugenic Thought

29 When Abortion Was a Crime

Readings: Reagan, “About to Meet Her Maker,” in American Sexual Histories, pp. 228-49.

Assignment: How did the state seek to control those who participated in the termination of pregnancy while abortion was illegal?

Nov. 1 Sexual Identity in the 1930s

Readings: Suits Me: The Double Life of Billy Tipton, pp. 3-106

Part 4: The Rise and Fall of Sexual Liberalism, 1920 to the Present

3 Coming Out Under Fire: Gays and Lesbians in World War II

5 Gender Identity in Cold War America

8 Redrawing the Boundaries

Reading: Intimate Matters, chapter 12

Assignment: How did the boundaries drawn around acceptable sexual behavior change in the mid-20th century?

10 The Playboy Revolution

Readings: Suits Me: The Double Life of Billy Tipton, pp. 109-205

12 Library Day

15 The Impersonator – Billy Tipton in the 1940s and 50s

Readings: Suits Me: The Double Life of Billy Tipton, pp. 209-281

17 Transsexuality in the Cold War Era

Readings: Joanne Meyerowitz, “Sex Change and the Popular Press,” in American Sexual Histories, pp. 377-409

Assignment: How is gender constructed in Jorgensen’s transformation from George to Christine? What factors were important in establishing her image as Christine?

19. The Gay Liberation Movement

Paper on Suits Me Due

Thanksgiving Break

29 The Sexual Revolution

Readings: Intimate Matters, chapter 13, Rickie Solinger, “The Population Bomb and the Sexual Revolution,” in American Sexual Histories, pp. 343-64.

Assignment: Describe the different ways in which people challenged the established sexual order.

Dec. 1 Sex and Modern Society

Readings: Intimate Matters, chapter 14

Assignment: Describe the changes brought on by the sexual revolution.

3 Pornography and the Modern Marketplace

6 Sexual Identities and Families in Modern America

8 The Rise of Conservatism

Readings: Intimate Matters, chapter 15 and afterword

Assignment: What is the conservative critique of sexual culture of the last two decades? How have they successfully influenced the political and social arena?

10 Contemporary political crisis

16 Final Exam 9:45 AM

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