Foucault
Sedgwick
Fausto-Sterling; Intersex
West & Zimmerman; Lorber
Stoltenberg

Foucault:
1. According to Foucault, how did discourse affect perceptions and understandings of sexuality? What was the role of desire?
2. Who was allowed to talk about sex and how was it allowed to be talked about? Where could these discussions take place? (Another way of asking this is: What major institutions and processes played roles in these
discourses, and what roles did they play?)
3. How did some sexualities became "contrary to nature" in the 19th century?
4. pp. 40-44: What are some of the power mechanisms that affected discourses of sexuality?
5. How was the concept "homosexuality" defined and interpreted?
6. pp. 45-end: How do power and pleasure interact or "spiral?"
For Thursday, think about how Foucault's model of discursive production of sexuality/identities could be applied to public perceptions of marriage -- gay marriage in particular.

Sedgwick:
1. Why is legal discourse of interest to Sedgwick?
2. What does Sedgwick say about ignorance and its uses?
3. What is the closet and how does Sedgwick see it operating socially?
4. What is the relationship between the personal and the political: a. according to Sedgwick and b. according to you?

West & Zimmerman and Lorber
What do West & Zimmerman (and Lorber) mean by "doing gender?"
What's the difference between transgender, transvestite and trans(s)exual? 74
How does Lorber describe gender as 1) an institution, 2) a process, 3) a stratification system, and 4) a structure? What purposes does gender serve in these various capacities?

Fausto-Sterling (along with the video & discussion on intersex)
To what does the term "intersex" refer?
What are the "five sexes?"
What are different estimates of the frequency of intersexuality?
What does "Emma" mean in saying her vagina is her "meal ticket?" (article p. 23)
According to Fausto-Sterling, how did early explanations and treatment of intersexed contribute to/exemplify Foucault's concept of "biopower?"
How many instances of psychosis and/or suicide were reported among intersex people between 1930 and 1960?

Stoltenberg
According to Stoltenberg, how does the way men are taught/conditioned to have sex relate to their masculinity/gender as men? What does he mean by: "sexuality does not have a gender, it creates a gender" (235)?