CONTEXTUAL STUDIES: Sex and Sexuality

"Sexuality"
- Distinct from gender or biology

- Express sexual identity through inner feelings and external behaviour

- Can also refer to it as sexual activity

- Visual presentations of sexual expression (eroticism/pornography)

- Identify representations of sexual expression (LGBT, asexualism, pansexualism)

Visual representation

Eroticism (erotica) Aesthetic depiction of sexuality, may not involve nudity

Pornography - Explicit depiction of sexuality, usually via nudity and graphic sexual activity

Media censorship

Depictions of sex and sexuality in media traditionally mediated by external censors

UK - broadcasting legislation, watchdogs and ofcom

US - FCC Federal communications commisions

Broadcast networks also have individual editorial guidelines

Moral majority also act as watchdogs

Sexual representation in TV and film historically tightly controlled until 1970's

First portrayals of nudity and gay characters

Stereotypes:

Libertine (Very open in her sexuality)
Camp (Gay stereotype)
Butch
Asexual (Don't have a defined gender)

Queer Theory
Theorists such as Judith Butler argue gender and sexuality are social constructs informed by media and representation.
Alternative to gay and lesbian critical theory which places sexuality in history, social and political contexts
Queer theory allows for re-interpretations

Freud and sexual theory
The unconscious - repressed or sublimated sexual desire expressed through subtext.
Polymorphism - existing in different forms (Sexual deviency)
Scopophilia/Voyeurism
Oedipal and Electra Complex

Agency has become new criterion for analysing representation