Sexual Politics: Power, Policy, and Pleasure

3 units

This course critically explores the cultural politics of gender, sexuality, and pleasure, focusing on their impact on social policy and change across diverse global contexts. Students will engage with key theoretical frameworks—including feminist and queer theories, social construction, and racialized genders and sexualities, and theories of gender—to analyze topics such as reproductive rights, marriage equality, LGBT rights, heteronormativity, sex work, pornography, desire, alternative gender and sexual cultures, HIV/AIDS, settler colonialism, racial capitalism, and social justice. Central questions include: What is sex? What is power? How are sex and power related? Why is sex political? How do sexual politics shape economies, labor, and our lives? Through interdisciplinary course materials, lectures, discussions, and group activities, students will: Identify complexities and differences between gender, sexuality, culture, and power. Analyze historical and contemporary relationships among gender, sexuality, culture, and politics. Examine the development of gender and sexual identities in various cultural contexts. Participate actively in informed discussions on gender and sexuality. Construct compelling arguments engaging with the cultural politics of gender and sexuality. By the end of the course, students will be equipped to apply these concepts to their own lives and critically engage with current debates in sexual politics.