sexology: scientific, medicalized study of attraction
contemporary understanding of homosexuality is founded on sexology
Michel Foucault, 1978, History of Sexuality: sexology created new categories of mental illnes and identities based on sexuality; instead of condemnation, it was personified by pathologization
historical context
end of 19thc
growing urbanization, middle class, industrialization, imperialism and colonialism
emergence of capitalism
“in a capitalist culture, it can be helpful to have distinct categories of individuals to whom to market goods and services”
scientific renaissance
changes in family structures; smaller familial units, romantic friendships
women’s rights
increased interaction with prostitution and “sexual underground” in urban environments
1890, George Chauncey: “a highly visisble, remarkably complex, and continually changing gay male world”
visibility of sex and contraceptives
changes in 19thc led to birth of sexology
“silent sin” of male homosexuality persisted
1885: british criminal law amendment act
“sexual inversion” was an illness; described as “gross indecency”
female sexual desire was pathological and damaging;
“nymphomaniac” behavior
paroxysm (orgasm) effectively treated hysteria
history of sexology
1869, Karl Westphal (1833–1890, physician): “contrary sexual feeling”, later renamed to “invert”
inverts believed to be more feminine or masculine than societal norms; “gender confusion”
“The supposed link between deviation from sex and gender norms and homosexuality continues as a fundamental assumption underlying many studies throughout the 20th century and into the 21st”
1869, Karl Maria Kertbeny (writer): invention of homosexual term for same-sex interest
1886, Dr. Richard von Krafft-Ebing (1840–1902, psychiatrist): Psychopathia Sexualis — “sexual perversions”, “abnormal congenital manifestations”; same-sex manifestations occur from desire of sexual sensibility for opposite sex
later invention of masochism, fetishism, and sadism
homosexuality was congenital or caused through other etiologies
homosexuality was avoided or pitied; mental illness
use of heterosexual as opposite-sex relations that did not aim to cause reproduction
1864–1880, Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825–1895, law/theology student): “third sex” of homosexuals: Urnings
urnings result from heredity, not abnormal; attempted normalization of condition, or “reverse discourse”
before 1903: final edition of Psychopathia Sexualis; homosexuality manifested from sexual desire, not mental illness
Havelock Ellis
1859–1939, physician on the 20thc
Sexual Inversion, 1897: “a fair and scientific representation of homosexuality”
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, 1937: various sexual practices: inversion and homosexuality
male inversion: primarily focused on same-sex attraction
female inversion: same frequency; continued theory of inversion (“gender confusion”)
homosexuality may be created by “accidental absences” (boarding schools)
heterosexuality is “natural”, though “homoerotic attraction” is a phenomenon that occurs in many animals
homosexuality is another variation in behavior
various myths related to inverts rejected and supposed
“mannish” female inverts have naturally large sexual organs; produces paroxysm
childlike faces
female: good whistlers
male: green garments
“all avocations are represented among invertss”
masturbation had poor side effects, especially for women
homoerotic sexual attraction caused by “accidental absences”, disappointment in opposite sex relationships, and same-sex seduction
“Interestingly, this passage prefigures the “nature versus nurture” debates that would become so important in academic circles throughout the 20th century: are complex behaviors and feelings, such as sexual attraction, biologically innate or the product of social influences or forces”
“no cure” for inversion or homosexuality; no need to legislate against it
Sigmund Freud
theories on sexuality guided 20th century sexology and sex studies which followed historical sexology
same cultural and intellectual grounds as early sexology
“healthy” psychosexual development vs. “arrested development”
arrested development was normal; resolution of each psychosexual development stage was difficult to achieve successfully
Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, 1905: “polymorphous perversity” had to be morphed by society to create reproductive heterosexuality
natural orientation towards pleasure and erotic satisfaction
innate inversion was crude; had to be socially developed