Recommended
Recommended
More Related Content
More from pooleavelina
More from pooleavelina (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Exploring Sexuality and Identity in College Party Scenes
- 1. how much per page / 500 words by Emma Schaefer-Whittall - (She/Her/Hers) Tuesday, April 21, 2020, 12:19 AM In this week's readings, I was drawn towards the overlapping themes that the analysis of “bicurious-ness” in Rupp & Taylor’s “Straight Girls Kissing” and str8 ads in Ward’s “Dude-Sex” contracted. Both sold similar narratives of the hyper- heterosexuality and embellishment of lesbian and gay sexualities. Through perverse discourse appropriated racial stereotypes into a white culture, Ward demonstrated that “‘gay’ as a chosen identity is not particularly linked to who is having sex...instead, being gay is about how sex is done” (Ward 2008; 420). The imagery of the black muscular man atop a changed scrawny white man bolsters the ingrained stereotypes and simultaneously renders the dominant-submissive dichotomy racially transposed. Additionally, race enters the scene again through the heightened use of African American vernacular in the attempt to appear hyper-heterosexual. Ward has shown links to the theory of invisible secret homosexuality in the black community as fetishized by “str8” white men. I believe this “secrecy” stereotype (another one!) coupled with the glamorized aggressive black man who sports a massive cock image enforces an inherent masculinity that becomes inseparable with heterosexuality, justifying the perverted language and racial appropriation abundant in these ads. In Rupp & Taylor’s interviews with students partying in Isla Vista, they touch upon this acceptability of residing in the “in-between”, as long as this “in-between” doesn’t result in homosexuality. Articulately put, “...while straight college students today can make out with women and call themselves “bicurious” without challenge to their heterosexual identity, the same kind of flexibility does not extend to lesbians” (Rupp & Taylor 2010: 31). In both readings,
- 2. space is established to allow exploration without dissociation from the normative and comfortable folds of heterosexuality. In Rupp & Taylor, this space is described as involving alcohol, parties, and maybe a three-some with a man that acts “as an extension of the safe hereosexual space.” For str8 guys, this space has been constructed in hyper-heterosexualized homophobia. For both of these situations, the people that benefit are white and heterosexual, while blacks, lesbians, and gays are forced to surrender their property to, essentially, the heteronormative society. See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249972653 Straight GirlsKissing ARTICLE in CONTEXTS · AUGUST 2010 DOI: 10.1525/ctx.2010.9.3.28 CITATIONS 11 READS 1,846 2 AUTHORS: LeilaJ. Rupp
- 3. University of California, Santa Barbara 66 PUBLICATIONS 638 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE Verta Taylor University of California, Santa Barbara 41 PUBLICATIONS 1,209 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE Available from: LeilaJ. Rupp Retrieved on: 22 March 2016 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249972653_Straight_ Girls_Kissing?enrichId=rgreq-636cc2d9-e1ff-4c9a-94d1- cc53df8ebf41&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzI0OTk3MjY1 MztBUzoxMDMwODg1Njg0MDYwMjlAMTQwMTU4OTYzOD M3NQ%3D%3D&el=1_x_2 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249972653_Straight_ Girls_Kissing?enrichId=rgreq-636cc2d9-e1ff-4c9a-94d1- cc53df8ebf41&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzI0OTk3MjY1 MztBUzoxMDMwODg1Njg0MDYwMjlAMTQwMTU4OTYzOD M3NQ%3D%3D&el=1_x_3 https://www.researchgate.net/?enrichId=rgreq-636cc2d9-e1ff- 4c9a-94d1- cc53df8ebf41&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzI0OTk3MjY1 MztBUzoxMDMwODg1Njg0MDYwMjlAMTQwMTU4OTYzOD M3NQ%3D%3D&el=1_x_1 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Leila_Rupp?enrichId=rgre
- 5. cc53df8ebf41&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzI0OTk3MjY1 MztBUzoxMDMwODg1Njg0MDYwMjlAMTQwMTU4OTYzOD M3NQ%3D%3D&el=1_x_7 28 contexts.org The phenomenon of presumably straight girls kissing and making out with other girls at college parties and at bars is everywhere in contemporary popular culture, from Katy Perry’s hit song, “I Kissed a Girl,” to a Tyra Banks online poll on attitudes toward girls who kiss girls in bars, to AskMen.com’s “Top 10: Chick Kissing Scenes.” Why dogirls who
- 6. aren’t lesbians kiss girls? by leila j. rupp and verta taylor girls 29summer 2010 contexts Contexts, Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 28-32. ISSN 1536-5042, electronic ISSN 1537-6052. © 2010 American Sociological Association. All rights reserved. For permission to photocopy or reproduce, see http://www.ucpressjournals.com/reprintinfo.asp. DOI: 10.1525/ctx.2010.9.3.28. Some think it’s just another example of “girls gone wild,” seek- ing to attract the boys who watch. Others, such as psycholo- gist Lisa Diamond, point to women’s “sexual fluidity,” suggesting that the behavior could be part of how women shape their sexual identities, even using a heterosexual social scene as a way to transition to a bisexual or lesbian identity. These speculations touch on a number of issues in the sociology of sexuality. The fact that young women on college campuses are engaging in new kinds of sexual behaviors brings home the fundamental concept of the social construction of sex-
- 7. uality—that whom we desire, what kinds of sexual acts we engage in, and how we identify sexually is profoundly shaped by the societies in which we live. Furthermore, boys enjoying the sight of girls making out recalls the feminist notion of the “male gaze,” calling attention to the power embodied in men as viewers and women as the viewed. The sexual fluidity that is potentially embodied in women’s intimate interactions in public reminds us that sexuality is gendered and that sexual desire, sexual behavior, and sexual identity do not always match. That is, men do not, at least in contemporary American cul- ture, experience the same kind of fluidity. Although they may identify as straight and have sex with other men, they certainly don’t make out at parties for the pleasure of women. The hookup culture on college campuses, as depicted in another article in this issue, facilitates casual sexual interac- tions (ranging from kissing and making out to oral sex and intercourse) between students who meet at parties or bars. Our campus is no exception. The University of California, Santa
- 8. Barbara, has a long-standing reputation as a party school (much to the administration’s relief, it’s declining in those rankings). In a student population of twenty thousand, more than half of the students are female and slightly under half are students of color, primarily Chicano/Latino and Asian American. About a third are first-generation college students. Out of over two thousand female UC Santa Barbara students who responded to sociologist Paula England’s online College and Social Life Survey on hooking-up practices on campus, just under one percent identified as homosexual, three percent as bisexual, and nearly two percent as “not sure.” National data on same-sex sexuality shows that far fewer people identify as lesbian or gay than are sexually attracted to the same sex or have engaged in same-sex sexual behavior. Sociologist Edward Laumann and his colleagues, in the National Health and Social Life Survey, found that less than two percent of women identified as lesbian or bisexual, but over eight per- cent had experienced same-sex desire or engaged in lesbian
- 9. sex. The opposite is true for men, who are more likely to have had sex with a man than to report finding men attractive. Across time and cultures (and, as sociologist Jane Ward has pointed out, even in the present among white straight-identi- fied men), sex with other men, as long as a man plays the insertive role in a sexual encounter, can bolster, rather than undermine, heterosexuality. Does the same work for women? The reigning assumption about girls kissing girls in the party scene is that they do it to attract the attention of men. But the concept of sexual fluidity and the lack of fit among desire, behavior, and identity suggest that there may be more going on than meets the male gaze. A series of formal and informal interviews with diverse female college students at our university, conducted by undergraduates as part of a class assignment, supports the sociological scholarship on the com- plexity of women’s sexuality. the college party scene What is most distinctive about UC Santa Barbara is the
- 10. adjacent community of Isla Vista, a densely populated area made up of two-thirds students and one-third primarily poor and working-class Mexican American families. House parties, fraternity and sorority parties, dance parties (often with, as one woman student put it, “some sort of slutty theme to them”), and random parties open to anyone who stops by flourish on the weekends. Women students describe Isla Vista as “unrealistic to the rest of the world… It’s a little wild,” “very promiscuous, a lot of experimenting and going crazy,” and “like a sovereign nation…a space where people feel really comfortable to let down their guards and to kind of let loose.” Alcohol flows freely, drugs are available, women sport skimpy clothing, and students engage in a lot of hooking up. One sorority member described parties as featuring “a lot of, you know, sexual dance. And some people, you know, like pretty much are fucking on the dance floor even though they’re really not. I feel like they just take it above and beyond.” Another student thinks “women have a little bit more free-
- 11. dom here.” But despite the unreality of life in Isla Vista, there’s no reason to think life here is fundamentally different than on other large campuses. At Isla Vista parties, the practice of presumably hetero- sexual women kissing and making out with other women is Actresses Scarlett Johansson and Sandra Bullock prepare to lock lips onstage at the 2010 MTV Movie Awards. Ph o to b y V in ce B u cc i/M TV /P ic tu re G ro u p vi
- 12. a A P Im ag es widespread. As one student reported, “It’s just normal for most people now, friends make out with each other.” The student newspaper sex columnist began her column in October 2008, “I kissed a girl and liked it,” recommending “if you’re a girl who hasn’t quite warmed up to a little experimentation with one of your own, then I suggest you grab a gal and get to it.” She posed the “burning question on every male spectator’s mind . . . Is it real or is it for show?” As it turns out, students offered three different explanations of why students do this: to get attention from men, to experiment with same-sex activity, and out of same-sex desire. getting attention Girls kissing other girls can be a turn-on for men in our cul- ture, as the girls who engage in it well know. A student told
- 13. us, “It’s usually for display for guys who are usually surround- ing them and like cheering them on. And it seems to be done in order to like, you know, for the guys, not like for their own pleasure or desire, but to like, I don’t know, entertain the guys.” Alcohol is usually involved: “It’s usually brought on by, I don’t know, like shots or drinking, or people kind of saying something to like cheer it on or whatever. And it’s usually done in order to turn guys on or to seek male attention in some way.” One student who admits to giving her friend what she calls “love pecks” and engaging in some “booby grabbing” says “I think it’s mainly for attention definitely. It’s usually girls that are super drunk that are trying to get attention from guys or are just really just having fun like when my roommate and I did it at our date party… It is alcohol and for show. Not experimentation at all.” Another student, who has had her friends kiss her, insists that “they do that for attention… kind of like a circle forms around them… egging them on or taking pictures.” One
- 14. woman admitted that she puckered up for the attention, but when asked if it had anything to do with experimentation, added “maybe with some people. I think for me it was a little bit, yeah.” experimentation Other women agree that experimentation is part of the story. One student who identifies as straight says “I have kissed girls on multiple occasions.” One night she and a friend were “hammered, walking down the street, and we’re getting really friendly and just started making out and taking pictures,” which they then posted on Facebook. “And then the last time, this is a little bit more personal, but was when I actually had a three- some. Which was at a party and obviously didn’t happen dur- ing the party.” She mentions “bisexual tendencies” as an explanation, in addition to getting attention: “I would actu- ally call it maybe more like experimentation.” Another student, who calls herself straight but “bi-curious,” says girls do it for attention, but also, “It’s a good time for them, something they
- 15. may not have the courage to express themselves otherwise, if they’re in a room alone, it makes them more comfortable with it because other people are receiving pleasure from them.” She told us about being drunk at a theme party (“Alice in Fuck- land”): “And me and ‘Maria’ just started going at it in the kitchen. And this dude, he whispers in my ear, ‘Everyone’s watching. People can see you.’ But me and ‘Maria’ just like to kiss. I don’t think it was like really a spectacle thing, like we weren’t teasing anybody. We just like to make out. So we might be an exception to the rule,” she giggled. In another interview, a student described a friend as liking “boys and girls when she’s drunk… But when she’s sober she’s starting to like girls.” And another student who called herself “technically” bisexual explained that she hates that term because in Isla Vista “it basically means that you make out with girls at parties.” Before her first
- 16. relationship with a woman, she never thought about bisexuality: “The closest I ever came to thinking that was, hey, I’d probably make out with a girl if I was drinking.” These stories make clear that exper- imentation in the heterosexual context of the hookup culture and college party scene provides a safe space for some women to explore non-heterosexual possibilities. same-sex desire Some women go beyond just liking to make out and admit to same-sex desire as the motivating factor. One student who defined her sexuality as liking sex with men but feeling “attracted more towards girls than guys” described her com- ing out process as realizing, “I really like girls and I really like kissing girls.” Said another student, “I’ve always considered myself straight, but since I’ve been living here I’ve had several sexual experiences with women. So I guess I would consider myself, like, bisexual at this point.” She at first identified as “one of those girls” who makes out at parties, but then admit-
- 17. ted that she also had sexual experiences with women in private. At this point she shifted her identification to bisexual: “I may have fallen into that trap of like kissing a girl to impress a guy, but I can’t really recollect doing that on purpose. It was more of just my own desire to be with, like to try that with a woman.” Another bisexual woman who sometimes makes out with one of her girlfriends in public thinks other women might “only do 30 contexts.org The reigning assumption about girls kissing girls in the party scene is that they do it to attract the attention of men, but there may be more going on than meets the male gaze. it in a public setting because they’re afraid of that side of their sexuality, because they were told to be heterosexual you know… So if they make out, it’s only for the show of it, even though they may like it they can’t admit that they do.” The ability to kiss and make out with girls in public with- out having to declare a lesbian or bisexual identity makes it possible for women with same-sex desires to be part of the
- 18. regular college party scene, and the act of making out in pub- lic has the potential to lead to more extensive sexual activity in private. One student described falling in love with her best friend in middle school, but being “too chicken shit to make the first move” because “I never know if they are queer or not.” Her first sexual relationship with a bisexual woman included the woman’s boyfriend as well. In this way, the fact that some women have their first same-sex sexual encounter in a threesome with a man is an extension of the safe hetero- sexual space for exploring same-sex desire. heteroflexibility Obviously, in at least some cases, more is going on here than drunken women making out for the pleasure of men. Sexual fluidity is certainly relevant; in Lisa Diamond’s ten-year study of young women who originally identified as lesbian or bisexual, she found a great deal of movement in sexual desire, intimate relationships, and sexual identities. The women moved in all directions, from lesbian to bisexual and heterosexual,
- 19. bisexual to lesbian and heterosexual, and, notably, from all identities to “unlabeled.” From a psychological perspective, Diamond argues for the importance of both biology and cul- ture in shaping women as sexually fluid, with a greater capac- ity for attractions to both female and male partners than men. Certainly the women who identify as heterosexual but into kissing other women fit her notion of sexual fluidity. Said one straight-identified student, “It’s not like they’re way different from anyone else. They’re just making out.” Mostly, though, students didn’t think that making out had any impact on one’s identity as heterosexual: “And yeah, I imagine a lot of the girls that you know just casually make out with their girlfriends would consider themselves straight. I con- sider myself straight.” Said another, “I would still think they’re straight girls. Unless I saw some, like level of like emotional and like attraction there.” A bisexual student, though, thought “they’re definitely bi-curious at the least… I think that a woman who actually does it for enjoyment and like knows that she
- 20. likes that and that she desires it again, I would say would be more leaning towards bisexual.” everybody but lesbians So, although girls who kiss girls are not “different from anyone else,” if they have an emotional reaction or really enjoy it or want to do it again, then they’ve apparently crossed the line of heterosexuality. Diamond found that lesbians in her study who had been exclusively attracted to and involved with other women were the only group that didn’t report changes in their sexual identities. Sociologist Arlene Stein, in her study of lesbian feminist communities in the 1980s, also painted a pic- ture of boundary struggles around the identity “lesbian.” Women who developed relationships with men but continued to identify as lesbians were called “ex-lesbians” or “fakers” by those who considered themselves “real lesbians.” And while straight college students today can make out with women and call themselves “bi-curious” without challenge to their hetero- sexual identity, the same kind of flexibility does not extend to
- 21. lesbians. A straight, bi-curious woman explained that she did- n’t think “the lesbian community would accept me right off because I like guys too much, you know.” And she didn’t think she had “enough sexual experience with the women to be considered bisexual.” Another student, who described herself as “a free flowing spirit” and has had multiple relationships with straight-identified women, rejected the label “lesbian” because “I like girls” but “guys are still totally attractive to me.” She stated that “to be a lesbian meant… you’d have to commit yourself to it one hundred percent. Like you’d have to be in it sexually, you’d have to be in it emotionally. And I think if you were you wouldn’t have that attraction for men… if you 31summer 2010 contexts Ph o to b y M ar co G o
- 22. m es vi a C re at iv e C o m m o n s 32 contexts.org were a lesbian.” In contrast to “heteroflexibility,” a term much in use by young women, stu- dents hold a much more rigid, if unarticu- lated, notion of lesbian identity. “It’s just like it’s okay because we’re both drunk and we’re friends. It’s not like we identify as les- bian in any way….” One woman who has
- 23. kissed her roommate is sure that she can tell the difference between straight women and lesbians: “I haven’t ever seen like an actual like lesbian couple enjoying them- selves.” Another commented, “I mean, it’s one thing if you are, if you do identify as gay and that you’re expressing something.” A bisexual woman is less sure, at first stating that eighty percent of the making out at parties is for men, then hesitating because “that totally excludes the queer commu- nity and my own viewing of like women who absolutely love other women, and they show that openly so, I think that it could be either context.” At that point she changed the per- centage to fifty percent: “Cause I guess I never know if a woman is like preferably into women or if it’s more of a social game.” A bisexual woman described kissing her girlfriend at a party “and some guy came up and poured beer on us and said
- 24. something like ‘stop kissing her you bitch,’” suggesting that any sign that women are kissing for their own pleasure puts them over the line. She went on to add that “we’ve gotten plenty of guys staring at us though, when we kiss or whatever, [and] they think that we’re doing it for them, or we want them to join or whatever. It gets pretty old.” So there is a lot of leeway for women’s same-sex behavior with a straight identity. But it is different than for straight men, who experience their same-sex interactions in a more private space, away from the gaze of women. Straight women can be “barsexual” or “bi-curious” or “mostly straight,” but too much physical attraction or emotional investment crosses over the line of heterosexuality. What this suggests is that heterosexual women’s options for physical intimacy are expanding, although such activity has little salience for identity, partner choice, or political allegiances. But the line between lesbian and non-les- bian, whether bisexual or straight, remains firmly intact.
- 25. recommended resources: Lisa M. Diamond. Sexual Fluidity: Understanding Women’s Love and Desire. (Harvard University Press, 2009). A longitudinal study of women’s shifting sexual behaviors and identities in the contem- porary United States. Laura Hamilton. “Trading on Heterosexuality: College Women’s Gender Strategies and Homophobia.” Gender & Society (2007), 21: 145-72. Looks at the sexual constructions adopted by college- aged women. Arlene Stein. Sex and Sensibility: Stories of a Lesbian Generation. (University of California Press, 1997). A sociological study of Amer- ican lesbian feminist communities in the 1980s. Elisabeth Morgan Thompson and Eliza- beth M. Morgan. “’Mostly Straight’ Young Women: Variations in Sexual Behavior and Identity Development.” Developmental Psychology (2008), 44/1:15-21. A psycho- logical study of U.S. college students’ shift- ing sexual behaviors and identities. Jane Ward. “Dude-Sex: White Masculini- ties and ‘Authentic’ Heterosexuality Among Dudes Who Have Sex With Dudes.” Sexualities (2008), 11:414-434. A sociological study that complicates the concept of “men who have sex with men.”
- 26. Leila J. Rupp is in the feminist studies department and Verta Taylor is in the soci- ology department at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Rupp is the author of Sapphistries: A Global History of Love between Women, andTaylor is the coauthor (with Rupp) of Drag Queens at the 801 Cabaret. Ph o to b y M at th ew B la ke vi a C re at iv e C o m m
- 27. o n s Attention or attraction? Either way, they’ve got an audience. Straight women can be “barsexual” or “bi-curious” or “mostly straight,” but too much physical attraction or emotional investment crosses over the line of heterosexuality.