As an aesthetic and ideological sociosexual interpretation, gender serves regulatory and oppressive functions such as shaping what is sexually acceptable, pushing towards hegemony, punishing subversion of the sexual and/or affective scripts, or regulating access to acts of self-love and self-affirmation – insofar as such practices could make room for new forms of understanding and/or spiritually connected pleasure outside of the boundaries of the system. We live in a time where flirting rituals have become more diverse, yet arguably simplistic. However, eternal questions remain unanswered. What is sexual subjectivity? What is needed to have (satisfactory) sex, both in terms of material objects and bodily artefacts/configurations? Which role is sex supposed to play in human lives and relationships?
Discursive studies and activism have placed sexuality and other areas of intimacy in a central position in debates around (dis)ability and (dys)function in ways that sometime end up in cynical positions eventually legitimating mainstream views on sexuality under masculinist, ableist, or ageist patterns of what constitutes normal or desirable sexual intercourse. Such views canonise genitality over other bodily dimensions, physicality over psychoemotional connectedness and spirituality, penetration over other kinds of physical intimacy, and traditional couple intercourse over other kinds of physical intimacy contexts, such as hugging or touching as signs of friendship or familial affection. A broader, more inclusive framework is required as it does potentially allow for new, revolutionary research questions on intersectional experiences of sexuality to emerge.
Feminist psychiatrist and psychologist Elisabet Tasa-Vinyals tackles some of the contemporary problematic points in the views on bodies, sexualities, and pleasures from an intersectional perspective considering key bodily prediscoursive facticities such as sex/gender, ethnicity, and (dis)ability, along with their links with processes that our cultures tend to problematise, such as aging or sickening. As the text brilliantly stretches the complexity of the conceptualisation of (dys)functionality within the medical mapping of healthiness and sickness, it carefully points out the potentialities and limitations of such interpretations of corporeality as tools intended to disentangle pleasure, particularly in non-normative bodies.
Inhaltsverzeichnis (Table of Contents)
- Sex in the stock market: The capitalist heteroandroeurocentrist view of sexuality and pleasure
- Body image
- Sex spectrum
- Pathologising intersexuality
- Functional spectrum
- Antropomorphological spectrum
Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)
This essay explores the problematic Western views on bodies, sexualities, and pleasures from an intersectional perspective, considering key bodily prediscursive facticities such as sex/gender, ethnicity, and (dis)ability. It also examines the links between these factors and processes that Western cultures tend to problematise, such as aging or sickening.
- The impact of capitalist ideologies and economic practices on Western discourses of sexuality
- The medicalisation of bodies and sexualities, particularly in relation to intersexuality and (dis)ability
- The limitations of Western medical and social models in understanding the functionality of pleasure in non-normative bodies
- The role of sociocultural categorisations and interpretations in shaping body image and sexuality
- The problematic conceptualisation of (dis)ability and the need for a more nuanced understanding of bodily functions and differences
Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)
- Sex in the stock market: The capitalist heteroandroeurocentrist view of sexuality and pleasure: This section introduces the topic of sexuality and its taboo nature in Western culture, highlighting the tendency to rationalize and purify discussions around it. It critiques the focus on Western, masculine, and heterosexual perspectives, contrasting them with Native American views that emphasize pleasure, spirituality, and interconnectedness.
- Body image: This chapter explores the concept of body image as a constructed interpretation of one's bodily configuration, influenced by sociocultural categorisations based on bodies. It discusses the three basic levels of body image - perceptual, cognitive-emotional, and behavioural - and the interplay between sociocultural and cognitive-behavioural factors.
- Sex spectrum: This section challenges the binary categorisation of sex/gender and argues for a more spectrum-based understanding of sexual difference. It highlights the limitations of assigning sex at birth in a categorical way and discusses the complexities of intersexuality and the lack of a consensual medical definition.
- Pathologising intersexuality: This section explores the medical discourse surrounding intersexuality and its implications for body image, sexuality, and pleasure. It critiques the use of technomedical interventions to "correct" intersex bodies and discusses the link between medicalization and market forces.
- Functional spectrum: This section examines the categorization of bodies based on functionality, particularly in relation to (dis)ability. It critiques the limitations of existing models and definitions of (dis)ability, highlighting the exclusion of certain conditions, such as cardiovascular, respiratory, and gynaecological diseases, as well as neuropsychological conditions and medicalised sexual and reproductive conditions.
- Antropomorphological spectrum: This chapter explores the categorisation of body size and morphology based on the Body Mass Index (BMI) measurement. It critiques the limitations of BMI as a measure of health and discusses the influence of biomedical culture on health narratives.
Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)
This work explores the complexities of bodies, sexualities, and pleasures through an intersectional lens, focusing on key concepts such as sex/gender, ethnicity, (dis)ability, medicalisation, capitalist ideologies, body image, intersexuality, and the functional spectrum. It examines the limitations of Western medical and social models in understanding and addressing non-normative bodies and experiences.
- Quote paper
- Elisabet Tasa-Vinyals (Author), 2017, Sex and Sensitivity. Body, Function, and Ability in the (Wonder)land of Medicalization, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1440789
