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What is the Study of Sexualities? Sexual practices and attitudes have had an impact on politics, social arrangements, artistic creation, and conceptions of the self. Human sexuality, in turn, has been shaped by medical and scientific discourse, economic imperatives, philosophy, religion, law, politics, art, visual culture, and literature. Although most people would consider sexuality a basic aspect of human life, much disagreement exists regarding its nature. Attitudes toward and perceptions of sexuality have varied historically and geographically. During the European age of overseas exploration from 1470 to 1520 the discovery that the world did not share the same conventions and taboos regarding gender identities and sexuality produced wonder, anxieties, and conflicts that persist today. The study of sexualities itself has its own turbulent history. European sexologists coined the words “homosexual” and “heterosexual” in the late nineteenth century. Michel Foucault’s La Volonté de savoir, which appeared in America in 1978 as The History of Sexuality, argued that this coinage served to pathologize and in some cases criminalize persons who practiced sexual activities not associated with procreation. Indeed, during the greater part of the twentieth century, attempts even to study sexuality met with repression. The Institute for Sex Research in Berlin became the site of the Nazi’s first book-burning in 1933. The Kinsey Institute for Sex Research in Indiana had its funding revoked in the 1950s after it reported a higher incidence of homosexual behavior in America than politicians of the McCarthy era wished to hear. The civil rights and feminist movements of the 1960s and 70s launched an assault against the subjugation of racial minorities and women. The confrontation against entrenched prejudices challenged sexual oppression as well. The Stonewall Riot of 1969 then set in motion a national gay rights movement. The political activism it generated broke down censorship and allowed sexuality to emerge as a field of academic enquiry that continues to enhance our understanding of human diversity.
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