Deviant and Normal Sexuality: Social Construction, Regulation, and Power

Deviant and Normal Sexuality: Social Construction, Regulation, and Power

Big Picture: Social Construction of Sexuality

This chapter explores how the concepts of "deviant" and "normal" sexuality are not fixed or purely biological, but are socially constructed and change across cultures, historical periods, and power structures. The process of social typing—description, evaluation, and prescription—frames how certain sexualities are labeled, judged, and regulated.

• Social Construction: What is considered "deviant" or "normal" sexuality varies by culture, time, and social hierarchies (race, class, gender).

• Social Typing Process:

  1. Description: Assigning a label (e.g., "deviant").

  2. Evaluation: Judging based on the label.

  3. Prescription: Regulating or controlling (laws, stigma, punishment).

Indigenous vs Settler/Colonial Sexual Cultures

Elite Discourses and Sexual Norms

Elite discourses are the narratives and boundaries set by powerful institutions (science, law, religion, media) that define what is acceptable or possible in terms of sexuality and gender.

• These discourses shape social norms and influence public perceptions of sexuality.

Indigenous Sexual Cultures at Contact

• Many Indigenous societies recognized more than two genders and a broader range of sexualities as normal.

• Examples of gender diversity:

  • Inuit: sipiniq (biological male with female essence)

  • Anishinaabe: okitcitakwe (biological female with male essence)

  • Diné: nádleehí (third gender)

• People outside colonial binaries were often accepted, given specialized social roles, and associated with spiritual power.

• Sexuality was integrated into life (physical, emotional, spiritual), less shame-based, and included in stories and teachings.

Two-Spirit Identity

• Two-Spirited is an umbrella term (coined in 1990) for Indigenous people with diverse gender and sexual identities.

• Some contest the term for not capturing the full complexity of Indigenous gender/sexual/spiritual roles.

Settler/Colonial Sexual Culture

• Based on Christian, patriarchal, and heteronormative values.

• Assumed strict binaries: sex (male/female), gender (masculine/feminine), sexuality (heterosexual/homosexual).

• Sex was seen as morally risky, acceptable only in marriage, and ideally for reproduction; pleasure, especially for women, was discouraged.

• Women's sexuality was tightly controlled to ensure "purity" and paternity certainty.

• Same-sex sexuality was condemned and sanctioned.

Colonization and Regulation of Indigenous Sexuality

• Regulation of Indigenous sex/gender/sexuality was part of coercive assimilation.

• Missionaries and authorities tried to erase polygamy, gender diversity, and non-heteronormative relationships.

• Indigenous sexuality was socially typed as hypersexualized and "out of control." This justified control and assimilation policies.

• Controlling sexuality helped break Indigenous governance and landholding systems, supporting settler legal and social structures.

• Indigenous women were especially targeted due to patriarchal control mechanisms.

Historical Shift: Early Unions vs Later Prohibition

• Early colonization: Unions between white men and Indigenous women were common and encouraged for practical reasons (fur trade).

• Later: As agriculture rose and mixed-race populations grew, regulations discouraged such unions, and Indigenous sexuality was increasingly treated as deviant.

Historical Regulation of Sexuality (17th–20th Century)

Core Historical Argument

North American meanings of sexuality shifted over time, reflecting broader social changes:

1. 17th century: Reproduction within marriage, regulated by kin, church, and community.

2. 18th/19th centuries: Intimacy within marriage, more privacy and emotion.

3. 20th/21st centuries: Personal fulfillment, with sex more accepted outside marriage.

Why Meanings Change

• Economic shifts (fur trade to industrial capitalism)

• Urbanization (more anonymity)

• Religious changes (individual salvation vs church authority)

• Family structure (rise of the nuclear family)

• Science/medicine (new labels like "disease")

• Culture industry (mass media, pornography, advertising)

17th Century: Reproduction and Social Control

• Regulators: Church, courts, family/kin, community surveillance.

• Deviance seen as bad behavior, not a bad person; punishment aimed at correction and reintegration (whipping, stocks, excommunication).

• Hierarchies reinforced:

  • Class: Higher status = less severe punishment.

  • Gender: Women punished more harshly; property ownership mattered.

  • Race: Rape laws applied unevenly; Black men punished harshly for accusations involving white women, while white men often not punished for assaulting Black or Indigenous women.

  • Slavery: Sexuality of enslaved people directly controlled by owners; consent disregarded.

19th Century: Intimacy, Self-Control, and Moral Entrepreneurs

• Wage labor and urban anonymity reduced kin/community surveillance.

• Marriage became more about love; Enlightenment ideas made sexuality more "natural."

• Women used contraception and abstinence to reduce pregnancy risks.

• New regulators: Medical profession (defining deviance scientifically), social purity movement, sex hygiene campaigns.

• Culture industry expanded the sex industry and spread "warning narratives" to control youth sexuality.

• Race and immigration panics: Black and Chinese men portrayed as sexual threats; used to justify discriminatory policies.

20th Century: Personal Fulfillment and Media Dominance

• Sex increasingly accepted outside marriage.

• Criminal code regulated boundaries (sexual assault, indecency).

• Media normalized sexual imagery and became a battleground for moral entrepreneurs and activists.

Contemporary Criteria for Judging "Deviant" vs "Normal" Sexuality

Today, judgments about sexuality often focus on three main criteria: consent, the nature of the partner, and the nature of the act.

A) Consent

• Consent is the major dividing line between acceptable and deviant sexuality.

• In law, lack of consent constitutes sexual assault (criminal deviance).

• Consent is debated in "date rape" cases, especially with the use of drugs that impair memory or ability to agree.

• Consent has been historically denied to enslaved, racialized, and Indigenous women.

• Law treats consent as binary, but research suggests a spectrum (active, passive, nonconsensual, rape).

B) Nature of the Partner

• Legally unacceptable partners: children (under age of consent), close family (incest), animals, people in relationships of trust/authority/dependency.

• Socially unacceptable partners: professor/student, cousins (taboo but not always illegal).

• Same-sex partner acceptance has increased due to activism and legal change, but stigma and discrimination persist.

• Key milestones in Canada:

  • 1969: Decriminalization of consensual same-sex activity

  • 1996: Sexual orientation added to Human Rights Act

  • 2005: Same-sex marriage legalized nationwide

C) Nature of the Act

• What counts as "kinky" or deviant changes over time and across cultures.

• Example: Masturbation was once seen as medically dangerous, now largely normalized.

• Modern "privacy ideology" reduces formal regulation (consenting adults in private), but informal judgment persists.

The "Deviance Dance": Sex Industry Debates

The "deviance dance" refers to the ongoing contestation over what counts as deviant sexuality, especially in the sex industry. Multiple actors (moral entrepreneurs, media, lawmakers, activists, industries, researchers) compete to define and regulate sexuality.

A) Exotic Dancing

• Main debate: Exploitation/victimization vs agency/choice.

• Power operates at three levels:

  1. Individual: Dancer-customer interactions involve selling fantasy and emotional manipulation; boundaries shift over time.

  2. Organizational: Club rules can both constrain and be used strategically by dancers; tipping systems create informal economies.

  3. Institutional: Capitalism, beauty ideals, and gender norms shape the industry ("McDonaldization"/"McSexy": efficiency, predictability, control, calculability).

• Takeaway: Exotic dancing illustrates how "deviance" is shaped by layered power structures, with dancers both constrained and strategic.

B) Pornography

• Definitions:

  1. Functional: Anything used for sexual arousal.

  2. Genre: Content produced to arouse.

  3. Labelling: What community standards label as obscene.

• Canadian law defines obscenity as "undue exploitation of sex" (with exceptions for artistic, literary, educational, or medical merit).

• Supreme Court trends toward harm-based reasoning rather than community standards.

• Child pornography is clearly illegal, with some exceptions for private, self-created images kept private.

• Effects debate: Research links porn use to more permissive sexual attitudes, traditional gender roles, increased sexual activity, and possible links to aggression. Youth may feel ambivalent, noticing both arousal and discomfort.

C) Prostitution

• Debates about prostitution often reflect broader social concerns (morality, public health, victimization, worker rights).

• Modern debate frames:

  1. Oppression paradigm: Prostitution as male violence; sex workers as victims.

  2. Polymorphous paradigm: Sex work varies by context; warns against generalizations; highlights "bounded choice" under economic constraint.

• Canadian legal context: Prostitution itself is not illegal, but related activities have been criminalized. Recent court rulings and Bill C-36 (2014) frame sex work as exploitation, with debate over safety and effectiveness.

• Intersectionality: Marginalized women (poor, racialized, Indigenous) are disproportionately affected; colonial stereotypes persist.

• Some scholars argue sex work can also involve entrepreneurship and resistance.

Key Concepts and Review

Sex, Gender, and Sexuality

• Sex: Biological traits, often treated as binary in settler discourse.

• Gender: Social roles and traits tied to sex.

• Sexuality: Acts, attractions, and identities, expected to align with sex and gender in settler norms.

Indigenous vs Settler Discourses

• Indigenous: More gender diversity, sexuality integrated with spiritual/social roles.

• Settler: Binary, patriarchal, heteronormative; sex controlled for reproduction and purity.

• Controlling sexuality enforced assimilation and supported settler governance.

Changing Meanings and Regulation

• 17th century: Reproduction, kin/church/courts/community control.

• 18th/19th centuries: Intimacy, privacy, self-control, medicine, reformers.

• 20th century+: Fulfillment, media dominance, law regulates consent/public indecency/assault.

• Hierarchies reinforced through differential punishment by class, gender, and race.

Consent, Partner, and Act

• Consent is the key boundary (no consent = deviant/criminal).

• Partner choices regulated legally and socially (age, family, authority, same-sex stigma).

• Acts judged through cultural norms; privacy ideology reduces formal control.

• Consent is contested: legal binary vs lived spectrum.

Stonewall and Modern Activism

• Stonewall (1969) was a major catalyst for the modern gay rights movement and activism.

Deviance Dance Examples

• Strip clubs: Exploitation vs agency.

• Porn: Definitions and harm debates.

• Prostitution: Violence/victimization vs work/rights; intersectionality.

• Power in exotic dancing: Individual (fantasy/manipulation), organizational (rules), institutional (capitalism/beauty standards).

Summary Table: Criteria for Judging Sexual Deviance

Criterion	Legal Boundary	Social Boundary	Examples
Consent	No consent = sexual assault	Debated in "grey areas" (e.g., passive consent)	Date rape, marital rape, youth research on consent
Partner	Age, family, authority, animals	Taboos (e.g., professor/student, cousins)	Same-sex relationships, incest, bestiality
Act	Criminal code (indecency, assault)	"Kinky" acts judged by culture	Masturbation, BDSM, pornography

Conclusion

"Deviant" and "normal" sexuality are socially constructed, varying across cultures and time, and deeply tied to power structures. Regulation of sexuality has shifted from religious and community control to medical, legal, and media influences. Contemporary debates—especially in the sex industry—demonstrate the ongoing contestation and complexity of sexual norms.