Week One - Sex, Sexuality, Power and Oppression - Discourse

DISCOURSE AND DEBATE – WEEK ONE – SEX, SEXUALITY, POWER AND OPPRESSION The age of consent in the UK is 16. This means that it's against the law for someone to have sex with someone under the age of 16. It wouldn't be illegal for someone who's 16 to have a relationship with someone who is 30 - unless that person is their teacher or in a position of authority. There are a lot of other things to consider, as well as the law. They also need to think about whether a relationship like this is right for them. It’s always important that both people: - consent to the relationship - are genuinely interested in each other - have similar interests and ideas - feel equal, safe and trust one another. The law recognises that young people aged 13 to 16 might be physically able to have sex but are not allowed to. This is because the law judges that young people cannot make informed decisions about sex, both physically and emotionally, even if they are physically able to have sex. The age of consent also exists to protect young people from being sexually exploited or abused by older people. However, Home Office guidance is clear that there is no intention to prosecute teenagers under the age of 16 where both mutually agree and where they are of a similar age. Home Office, Children and Families: Safer from Sexual Crime – The Sexual Offences Act 2003, London: Home Office Communications Directorate, 2004 The Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 2000. The provisions of the Act came into force throughout the UK on 8 January 2001, lowering the age of consent to 16. This Act also introduced, for the first time, an age of consent for lesbian sexual acts, as previously there had been no legislation concerning this. On 1 May 2004, the Sexual Offences Act 2003 entered into force, which swept away all the previous sex-specific legislation, including the 1967 Act, and introduced instead neutral offences. Thus, the previous conditions relating to privacy were removed, and sexual acts were viewed by the law without regard to the sex of the participants. Discourse and Foucault Foucault, M., & Hurley, Robert. (1979). The history of sexuality, vol. 1: An introduction. London: Allen Lane. DISCOURSE Ways of constituting knowledge, together with the social practices, forms of subjectivity and power relations which inhere in such knowledges and relations between them. Discourses are more than ways of thinking and producing meaning. They constitute the 'nature' of the body, unconscious and conscious mind, and emotional life of the subjects they seek to govern (Weedon, 1987, p. 108). 2 Discourse – ways of representing different bodies of knowledge/ ways of representing different understandings. What is important is the relationship between these different discourses - which ones hold the status and power and which ones do not. Foucault advanced important ideas about the relationship between power, ideology, and discourse in relation to modern organisational systems. According to Foucault, power works through discourse to shape popular attitudes towards phenomena such as crime, madness or sexuality. Expert discourses established by those with power or authority can often be countered only by competing expert discourses. Discourses are historically variable ways of specifying knowledge and truth and that through discourses we are encouraged to see what is and what is not ‘the truth’ ‘The point is not where discourses come from, nor what interests they represent, but what ‘effects of power and knowledge they ensure’ and what makes them necessary’. (Foucault, 1979: 102) ‘Discourses are not merely linguistic phenomena but are always shot through with power and are institutionalised practices.’ (Ramazanoglu. 1993: 123) Sexual deviance can be defined as sexual behaviours and identities perceived as deviant in a particular society. Almost any sexual behaviour can, and may, in some societies or cultures, be considered a forbidden act or one that deserves criminal sanction. 3 ‘What deviance is does not depend on the inner, intrinsic, or inherent properties an act (or, less often, a condition) might have – that is objective characteristics. Instead, what makes an act deviant is what certain people (or audiences) make of that act – what they think and how they react to it… what makes an action (or condition) deviant is the actual or potential condemnation that it would attract from observers or audiences. (E. Goode. 1996) We need to think about a range of different discourses operating: Dominant and authoritative discourses Competing and challenging discourses As well as the importance of the extra-discursive – the power of other social relations We must also remember that definitions of ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’, ‘natural’ and ‘unnatural’ are relative to time and space. The history of sexuality becomes, therefore a history of our discourses about sexuality. And the Western experience of sex… historically changing development of discourses on sex, and this ever-expanding discursive explosion is part of a complex growth of control over individuals through the apparatus of sexuality. (Weeks: 1981) 4