CONTEXTUAL STUDIES: SEX AND SEXUALITY

What is sexuality?

- This is where you distinct from gender or biology.
- Heterosexual, Homosexual, Bisexual, asexual, etc.
- The expression of sexual identity through internal feelings and external behaviour

- Visual presentations of sexual expression (eroticism and pornography)
- Identity representations of sexual expression (LGBT, asexualism, pansexualism)

Visual representation
- Eroticism
(erotica) - aesthetic depiction of sexuality; may not involve nudity

- Pornography - Explicit depiction of sexuality; usually via nudity and graphic sexual activity

Media censorship
- Depictions of sex & sexuality in media traditionally mediated by external censors
- UK Broadcasting legislation, watchdogs (Ofcom)
- US FFC (Federal Communications Commission)
- Broadcast networks also have individual editorial guidelines
- 'Moral Majority' also act as external watchdogs (Mary Whitehouse, national press)

Sexual representation
- Sexual representation in TV and Film historically tightly controlled until 70's liberalisation
- First portrayals of nudity and gay characters

Stereotypes
- Libertine
- Camp
- 'Butch'
- Asexual

Ellen (The Puppy Episode, 1997)
- Ellen DeGeneres sitcom persona 'onscreen outing' towards the end of the 4th season
- Right-wing Christian groups pressured to drop; advertisers pulled out
- Drew 42m viewers. Series dropped after 5th season but paved way for other shows

Freud and sexual theory
- 'The Unconscious' repressed or sublimated sexual desire expressed through 'subtext'
- Polymorphism - existing in different forms (sexual deviancy outside herero-normative)
- Scopohillia/voyeurism
- Oedipal and Electra complex

Girls (2012-2017)
- Sitcom (?) written and directed by Lena Dunham
- Female-centric depiction of sexuality
- HBO Series