Seminars at AHRC Research Centre for Law, Gender and Sexuality, University of Kent
Summer Term 2007 Thursday 3 May 2007 2-5 pm Worshop: ‘Sociable Sex’ Antu Sorainen, PhD, Christina Institute for Women’s Studies, University of Helsinki: Queer Decency: Internet-pornography, paedophilia and child sex panic in Finland In 2004, the Ministry of Education in Finland published a memorandum that focused on the means to protect children from the media violence. In November 2006, a new law was passed on blocking the internet from the distribution of child-pornography. In two years time, from 2004 to 2006, the Finnish politics and public discussion on children’s protection shifted almost exclusively from violence to child-pornography and to pedophilia in the internet. In autumn 2006, the Finnish society faced “a child sex panic”: an internet-petition against the Dutch PNVD- party raised more than 165,000 names, of a total population of 5,2 million Finnish citizens. At the same time, an internet petition against the prohibition of the assisted insemination for self-reliant women and lesbian couples raised only 11 452 names. Lee Edelman has argued that “reproductive futurism” only permits one side and imposes an ideological limit on political discourse as such. How does this edelmanian “reproductive futurism” work in Finnish legislation and public discussions on paedophilia? John Binnie, Manchester University & David Bell, Leeds University Mundane Spaces of Social and Anti-social Sex Our focus in this paper is exploratory, and works around the idea of the mundane in relation to sexuality, asking whether transgression has become mundane and lost its impact, and discussing queer in relation to sociality and the ordinary. Queer has often been seen as being associated with spectacle.—as in pride events, or camp -- but here we want to reclaim the understated banality of geographical (and other) work on queer. The paper will critically review the theorizing of sex in relation to the social, sociality and sociability, arguing that sex now seems invisible in queer theory -- and that the turn to the social risks marginalizing it even further. At the same time, however, new alliances and debates (eg around transgender, or polyamory versus promiscuity) provide new ways to think the sexual, the social and the anti-social. We will explore the ‘despectacularizing’ or ‘mundanizing’ of spaces such as gay villages or pride events, questioning their continuing role and impact, before moving on to consider constructions of ‘anti-social spaces of sex’ and ‘queer banalities’. Sasha Roseneil, Leeds University Sociability, Sexuality, Self: Personal Life in the Early 21st Century In the West, at the start of the 21st century, more and more people are spending longer periods of their lives outside conventional family and heterosexual relations. The conjugal couple and the modern family formation are increasingly fragile, and the normative grip of the sexual and gender order which has underpinned these institutions is weakening. In this context, much that matters to people in their personal lives increasingly takes place beyond the boundaries of “the family”, within networks of friends, between partners who are not bound together “as family”, and in inner worlds of self-experience. This paper proposes a new way of understanding recent social change in personal life. Its focus is on three dimensions of personal life - sociability, sexuality and self - the relationship between them, and transformations in their social organization. Engaging with debates in contemporary European social theory, my argument is two-fold: ontological and socio-historical. Firstly, I suggest that an adequate understanding of intimacy and personal life must be psycho-social, not just psychological or sociological, as most work on the subject has been. Drawing on psychoanalysis and feminist philosophy, and contra recent sociological theorists of individualization, I propose a model of subjectivity as both fundamentally relational and individual. Secondly, on the basis of research carried out in the UK, I argue that a set of queer, or counter-heteronormative, relationship practices are emerging amongst those at the cutting edge of social change: the prioritization of friendship, the de-centring of sexual/ love relationships and the forming of non-conventional sexual partnerships. Wednesday 30 May 2007 3-5pm Queer Agency, State Agency: Bodily Discipline, Laws and Beyond Corie Hammers, Department of Criminal Justice, Social and Political Science & the Gender and Women’s Studies Program, Armstrong Atlantic State University, USA Making Space for an Agentic Sexuality: The Examination of Lesbian/ Queer Bathhouses This paper will briefly outline the history, philosophy and structure of two lesbian/queer bathhouses, both of which self-describe as feminist and queer projects. Using interview data, I examine bathhouse participants' experiences, focusing primarily on elements of spatial praxis, sexual agency and the ways in which the space works to hinder and "discipline" certain behaviors. Corporeal dimensions of agency and power are highlighted, in that many individuals discovered the necessary "tools" with which to navigate their own bodily boundaries, find bodily acceptance, navigate the bathhouse space and strive for sexual articulation, such that a more complicated depiction of "sexual agency" is provided. Finally, both feminist and queer theory will be utilized to make "sense of the space," and the ways in which such venues provide fertile grounds for illuminating the connections between feminism and queer pespectives when it comes to body issues and notions of empowerment. Dean Spade, Social Science Research Council Sexuality and Policy Fellow at the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, New York, USA Consolidating the Gendered Citizen: Trans Survival, Bureaucratic Power, and the War on Terror This paper examines the matrix of conflicting administrative policies that govern gender reclassification in the United States. Examining these policies in the context of the history of the use of identity documents for surveillance in the US and the increasing standardization of identity documentation practices stemming from the War on Terror, the paper highlights the significance of surveillance and identity documentation practices to trans survival. It argues that state administrative policies may be as significant a danger, although less discussed, as "hate crimes" against trans people, and suggests a broading of trans political agendas to more fully encompass concerns about various forms of state gender coercion. Julie Greenberg, Thomas Jefferson School of Law, San Diego, USA Sex Matters: Intersexuality, Transsexuality and the Law Professor Greenberg's book, "Sex Matters," which will be published by NYU Press in 2008, examines the critical life-altering effects of legal sex determination rulings on intersex and transsex persons. During her talk, Professor Greenberg will discuss these legal precedents and explore how intersex activists can best frame their arguments to accomplish their goal of ending state-sanctioned discriminatory practices. The intersex activist movement has reached a critical crossroads in its development and is in the process of determining whether to align itself with feminist, gay and lesbian identity movements or instead frame its claims based upon a disability rights model. Professor Greenberg will discuss these two approaches and explore the advantages and disadvantages of each approach on intersex persons and other sex and gender nonconformists. As we would like to have an idea of numbers attending, please email [EMAIL PROTECTED] if you would like to attend. For any changes, venue and directions, please check our website: http://www.kent.ac.uk/clgs/events/Kent.htm _______________________________________________ Netporn Mailing List Netporn-l@listcultures.org list: http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/netporn-l_listcultures.org links: http://del.icio.us/netporn
