LIBS651

This seminar course will explore the interrelationships between our constructed views of sexuality, society and feminism. The exploration will undertake a deconstruction of the manner in which these topics are experienced in our society as well as cross culturally. We will attempt, "to transform our understanding of sexuality: how it is negotiated, developed, and evoked; and what it means in a contemporary social framework." "Specifically, sexuality is a meaning system that organizes interactions and governs access to power and resources. Sexuality is not so much an attribute of persons, but rather exists in transactions between people." "The arena of the body (masculine or feminine) is often a battlefield where a variety of struggles, not all having to do with gender or sexuality, are played out and that body reflects the matrices of power at all levels." (Travis & White, 2000, p. 4-5)." Our approach will establish the existence of a contextual frame of reference that focuses on the impact of "privilege, power and difference" with resultant oppression of the expression of our sexualities.