GWS 180 CC: MAKING SEX

Why does the topic of sexuality incite so much anxiety, fascination, social sanction, political regulation, and pharmaceutical attention? What is sexuality anyway? Is it a biological impulse? A choice? Is our sexuality inborn and stable over time or is it fluid? What are the connections and disconnections of sexual identity, sexual practices, and sexual desire? Our experiences of sexuality intersect with gender, race, class, nation, and ability. Over the course of the semester, we will explore the various ways individuals negotiate and make meaning of their sexuality in everyday life and how those meanings are shaped by biology, psychology, culture, power, positionality, identity, the media, and religion. We will draw on the disciplines of psychology, sociology, gender and sexuality studies, literature, psychoanalysis, history and communications to aid us in this endeavor. Using these frames to examine how sexuality is constructed in the media will be a large focus of our course. In addition to partaking in media literacy work, we will use digital storytelling techniques in assignments such as a student-created sex-positive public service announcement and will design a project aimed at changing sexual culture at Connecticut College.