CHANGES IN GENDER AND SEXUALITY

Changes in Gender and Sexuality

Changes in Gender and Sexuality

Introduction

Sexological ideas about gender similarity and difference have changed dramatically over the course of the last one hundred years. In the nineteenth century, sexologists, like other scientists, focused on the differences between women and men. Modern sexology since the Blum era has shifted to the ideology of similarity. Sexual scientists, most notably Andrews, emphasize how alike men and women are in sexual response and functioning. This change in emphasis was related to both socio-political influences and to the quest by sexual scientists for cultural legitimacy. In addition, the ideology of similarity raises complex questions about scientific methodology and political considerations.

For the last one hundred years, as sexology has aspired to cultural authority over issues of sexuality and gender, ideas about similarity and difference have comprised a central research trajectory. Principle concerns have been comparisons of men with women, and of heterosexuals with lesbians and gay men to determine the similarities of sexual behavior and functioning. Conclusions about the extent of difference between groups have changed historically, and a closer examination of these data reveal that, while cast in the dispassionate language of biomedicine, sexual science is inextricably linked to sexual politics.

Questions about similarity and difference have been central not only to the scientific discourse on gender and sexuality, but to issues of social justice. Arguments, for example, that distinguish or liken women and men, or gay people and heterosexuals, are not wholly theoretical but can play an important part in political strategy. Civil rights battles often hinge on the perceived differences of the group in question from those in positions of power. Yet the complexity of socio-sexual identity and the tensions inherent in questions about difference have allowed for no clear theoretical or strategic answers. Bland et. al (1998, 112-130) has discussed how the women's movement, for example, has been deeply divided between those who would emphasize and extol women's differences from men as opposed to those who assert sameness. Not surprisingly, in some instances science has become the arbiter of questions about difference or similarity. Scientific truth for liberatory purposes.

Complexity of Female

The complexity of female sexual response was a direct result of what he viewed as the intricate system of the clitoris, vagina, and other internal reproductive organs. Female anatomy, then, dictated that women's sexual expression would be more complex and laborious. These biological differences necessitated courtship patterns of male aggression in order to overcome female reticence. As historian Paul Robinson notes, "In sexual relations, as in life as a whole, seemed to imply, biology had assigned man the more creative role."

Further, this instinct, if left to naturally unfold, formed the social fabric of harmonious and complementary male and female roles. Since Ellis foregrounded differences between men and women, he argued that certain cultural arrangements must be developed in light of unique physiological distinctions. Although in the late nineteenth century Ellis was a staunch advocate of women's legal and sexual equality, he later revised ...