Rethinking Sexual Citizenship

Jyl J. Josephson

Description

Public policy often assumes there is one correct way to be a family. Rethinking Sexual Citizenship argues that policies that enforce this idea hurt all of us and harm our democracy. Jyl J. Josephson uses the concept of "sexual citizenship" (a criticism of the assumption that all families have a heterosexual at their center) to show how government policies are made to punish or reward particular groups of people. This analysis applies sexual citizenship not only to policies that impact LGBTQ families, but also to other groups, including young people affected by abstinence-only public policies and single-parent families affected by welfare policy. The book also addresses the idea that the "normal" family in the United States is white. It concludes with a discussion of how scholars and activists can help create a more inclusive democracy by challenging this narrow view of public life.
List of Tables
Acknowledgments

1. Sexual Citizenship

2. Welfare Policy and the Politics of Sexual Deviance

3. The Politics of Sexual Shaming: Abstinence-Only Sex Education

4. Defense of Marriage Acts and the Politics of Sexual Regulation

5. Sexual Citizenship after the White Hegemonic Heteronormative Family

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• Sexualité
• sexualité
• Sexualité

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 mai 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438460499
• Langue: English

Extrait

Rethinking Sexual Citizenship
SUNY series in Queer Politics and Cultures

Cynthia Burack and Jyl J. Josephson, editors
Rethinking Sexual Citizenship
JYL J. JOSEPHSON
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2016 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Production, Eileen Nizer
Marketing, Michael Campochiaro
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Josephson, Jyl J., 1960–
Rethinking sexual citizenship / Jyl J. Josephson.
pages cm. — (SUNY series in queer politics and cultures)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4384-6047-5 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4384-6049-9 (e-book)
1. Sex role—Political aspects—United States. 2. Gender identity—Political aspects—United States. 3. United States—Politics and government. I. Title. HQ1075.5.U6J67 2015 305.30973—dc23 2015019478
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
L IST OF T ABLES
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
C HAPTER O NE
Sexual Citizenship
C HAPTER T WO
Welfare Policy and the Politics of Sexual Deviance
C HAPTER T HREE
The Politics of Sexual Shaming: Abstinence-Only Sex Education
C HAPTER F OUR
Defense of Marriage Acts and the Politics of Sexual Regulation
C HAPTER F IVE
Sexual Citizenship after the White Hegemonic Heteronormative Family
N OTES
B IBLIOGRAPHY
I NDEX
List of Tables Table 1.1 Social Constructions and Political Power in Sexual Regulatory Policy Table 3.1 Federal Definition of Abstinence-Only Sex Education Table 4.1 Text of the Federal Defense of Marriage Act Table 4.2 Arguments Used in Support of Federal DOMA and of Proposition 8
Acknowledgments
Writing a book is a collaborative activity, filled with conversations and professional and personal relationships. It is a great pleasure to acknowledge the ways that this book has been shaped and nurtured.
Conversations with many colleagues over the time that I have been working on this project have shaped my ideas in both subtle and obvious ways. Janie Leatherman and Julie Webber provided an early audience for some of the ideas that became chapter 2 . Cynthia Burack provided constant encouragement even when I doubted the project was worth pursuing. Our conversations over many years and many different projects, in addition to being a great intellectual and personal pleasure, have shaped my thinking in many ways. Collaboration with Cynthia, and with Diana Zoelle helped to shape the arguments here. Other friends and colleagues have provided encouragement, including Sue Tolleson-Rinehart, Stacy VanDeveer, and Michael Harding.
Many colleagues have provided opportunities to present this work while it was in progress, including Sally McWilliams at Montclair University and Mary Hawkesworth at Rutgers University–New Brunswick. Participation in the Rutgers University Institute for Research on Women seminar, facilitated by Nancy Hewitt and Beth Hutchison, and by Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel and Sarah Tobias, helped me to flesh out some of the arguments that became chapters 1 and 5 . Parts of this book were presented in many different forms at a number of political science association meetings, and the helpful comments and suggestions from numerous colleagues have contributed to enriching the ideas here. Joan Tronto was particularly helpful in commenting on these arguments as they appeared in a conference paper at the Western Political Science Association (WPSA) meeting. An opportunity to present some of this material at the feminist theory workshop at the WPSA, organized by Kathleen Jones and Janni Aragon, provided a supportive forum to try out some of this material. I have tried to acknowledge the sources of ideas when a specific comment or conversation provided insight. SUNY editor Beth Bouloukos has provided excellent guidance, and I am very grateful for the anonymous reviewers who have at each stage provided constructive and very useful ideas for improving the manuscript.
I am grateful to have such a conducive and interesting place to teach and learn as Rutgers University–Newark. Many graduate and undergraduate students have helped me to hone some of the ideas in this book through their engagement with the materials herein, but I am particularly grateful to Kehinde Togun, whose senior thesis project formed the beginning of the research that is now in chapter 3 . A Rutgers University Research Council grant has provided support for the publication of this book.
More recently, the advent of a new university structure, and the presence of new leaders and a renewed mission at Rutgers University–Newark have provided me with opportunities to think about my scholarly work in broader terms, in relation to the role of higher education and of public universities in a democratic polity. I am grateful to Chancellor Nancy Cantor and to Provost Todd Clear for these opportunities and for renewing my faith in the importance of public universities. I am also grateful to Jan Lewis and to Sherri-Ann Butterfield and Gretchen Van de Walle for the example they set of engaged academic leadership and for their ongoing support. I am also very grateful for and encouraged by the students at Rutgers University–Newark, who have helped renew my ideas, and my hope for the future of democracy.
Rutgers University–Newark also provided a sabbatical leave during which this project expanded into a book draft. My colleagues at Rutgers University–Newark in the political science department, the women’s and gender studies program, and the graduate program in American Studies have created a sustaining intellectual community, for which I am very grateful. I particularly thank Fran Bartkowski, Belinda Edmondson, Frank Fischer, Alison Howell, Lisa Hull, Gabriela Kütting, Keesha Middlemass, Eduardo Moncada, Mara Sidney, Mary Segers, Whit Strub, Heidi Swarts, and Antonio Vazquez-Arroyo for many conversations and opportunities to discuss my work.
During the spring semester of 2011, I had the opportunity to spend a lecturing Fulbright in Iceland, and the many joys of a change of intellectual and cultural context have shaped not just this project, but my worldview as a scholar. I am grateful to RIKK (the Centre for Gender Research) and particularly to Irma Erlingsdóttir, Hildur Fjóla Antonsdóttir, and Annadís Rúdólfsdóttir for facilitating my time in Iceland and providing an intellectual community and a place to do my work while at the University of Iceland. My time in Iceland also led me to collaboration and friendship with Þorgerður Einarsdóttir, Svandís Anna Sigurðardóttir, Kristín Loftsdóttir, and Gyða Pétursdóttir, and this in turn has led to a new research project. An opportunity to speak provided by MARK, helped to develop some of the ideas in chapter 3 . Our time in Iceland was greatly enriched by our friend and host Jytte Marcher. I had the pleasure of teaching a women’s and gender studies class at the University of Iceland, and we read some of the sexual citizenship literature that I cite in this book. My students challenged my understanding of the sexual citizenship literature and this book would have taken a different form without their engaged and passionate discussion of gender, sexuality, and citizenship.
I also want to thank several colleagues who formed the global academic writing team for their support and encouragement in the final writing stages of this project. We have not met in person, but have spent many hours writing together: Annick T.R. Wibben, Danielle Arigo, and Ayla Göl. I thank them all for the academic writing company.
I have been given much in the way of friendship by Jessica Lambert, Nathan Ritter, Lois Spanton, and Nancy Przymus. The women’s fellowship at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church has provided encouragement and sustaining grace.
Families are crucial to all of us. This book criticizes the idea that there is only one correct form of family life. One reason that I know this is that my families, none of which have conformed to the normative ideal critiqued in this book, have richly nurtured me in many ways. My parents, David and Betty Josephson, always encouraged me to develop my own voice, even when what I said was not what they expected. My parents saw the beginning, though not the end, of this project; their encouragement, love, and faith in me remain. Although he did not read this book, and likely would have disagreed with it, my father read and discussed my scholarly work with me on many occasions, and for this I am very thankful. The memory of his kind and gentle spirit, his courage, and his sparkling sense of humor inspire me every day. My siblings and their families provide many examples of the joys of family life. My sons give me hope for the future. David Foster read and commented on parts of this book and encouraged me throughout. It has been a great joy to all of us that his husband Brandon Charles has joined our family. Young Aksel blesses my life every day. My husband Jim Nelson sustains me, always. Many thanks to all of you, my family.
1
Sexual Citizenship
Sooner or later, happily or unhappily, almost everyone fails to control his or her sex life. Perhaps as compensatio