SOCIOL 3U03 Study Guide - Final Guide: Conditionality, Queer Theory, Deindustrialization

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOCIOL 3U03
• Professor: Rhona Shaw

Document Summary

There was a discursive explosion around sexuality: lots of talk about sexuality and what is ab/normal, rather than a repression of sexuality, sexuality was talked about, but in particular ways. Heterosexual monogamy now functioned as a norm because of its relationship to reproduction. Had particular meaning for foucault: discourses are the social, cultural, and political configurations of ideas and concepts through which the world is constructed and communicated. Discourses play a major role in constructing sexuality> define what sexuality is and isn"t . They are systems of representations and groups of statements> provide us with a language for talking about reality. Create the topic of sexuality in particular ways, shape how ideas are put into practice, are used to regulate the conduct of others. Discourses also restrict ways in which the topic is talked about. Foucault doesn"t try to describe what sexuality is, but what it does and its effects >how it plays out in society.