Sexual Stigmas

Photo taken from photolic.com
By:Chris Valletta

In An Interpretation of Desire by John Gagnon, he dives into society's views of "risky sex" (unplanned pregnancies or transmission of HIV). Society simply views the act of "risky sex" performed only by individuals who do not behave appropriately. License given to theories regarding "risky sex" is limited because certain constituencies believe that if the current policies are actually followed, then there will be no need since that would eliminate moral consequences of their actions. The use of the word moral is important to note here because it shows that the stigma of sex, especially so called "risky" sex is pleasurable, therefore it must not be moral. In addition, these constituencies believe that sexuality should not even be the object of scientific study. Here again, we see people not even acknowledging the act of sex as a result of fear of its pleasure, which somehow leads to the conclusion that its not worthy for scientific study.

Gagnon identifies two sets of constituencies in the United States: one of which is primarily secular and look to theory-constructing procedures of social science disciplines for social policies, whereas the other one is primarily religious and pressures the state to conform to their views on sexual matters by way of their sacred text. One of the biggest debates in the sciences related to sexuality is that of theories on sexual life between either nature or nature, meaning the biology of the organism or the social and cultural environment. As Gagnon reports, "This debate has theoretical aspects, but it is primarily about the historical role of biology and medicine in supporting the repression of sexual diversity and in constituting most aspects of sexuality as illnesses" (Gagnon 203). This was interesting because I had never thought of this debate in regards to repression, but essentially those on the side of nature are in effect supporting repression of sexual experiences and implying society's impact is by default immoral.

Gagnon then turns to understand the question: "Why do individuals vary in their propensities to engage in risky sex" (Gagnon 209)? In his response, he concludes that first this question must raise other questions, such as: Why do we want to explain this in the first place? What has brought our attention to this topic? What is everyone's interesting in finding these things out? These are all interesting questions and is an excellent follow-up to the main question, which I feel need to be addressed first prior to even figuring out the main answer. I feel that once the subsequent questions are answered by people on an individual basis, they will conclude the reason why there is so much variety in responses to risky sex behavior. Sex is always mysterious and almost a an enchanting act that represents immorality due to its pleasure, which is often seen exposed negatively through strip clubs, pornography, prostitutes, and the media in general.

"America is a culture which treats many forms of conduct, most commonly those that are stigmatized, as matters of successes or failures in individual self-control" (Gagnon 218). This line from Gagnon had a significant impact on the text and stood out to me as the most important throughout the entirety of the reading. It is a bold statement but none-the-less it is true. Our society attaches a stigma to people who have certain desires that are considered to be not normal. Since they may not have the same desires as the majority of the people, they assume that these people are unable to control themselves and have somehow fallen victim to forbidden desires that are considered to be immoral. Gagnon compares the analogy of different classes believing different stories regarding the origin of Canada, with that of risk and sexuality. People view things differently based on their perspective and there will always be diverse reactions.

In conclusion, the practice of scientifically theorizing sexuality is quite challenging since the topic is always so volatile. The conflict between science and non-science has a big impact on the debate of certain theories and is always a power struggle back and forth. The people themselves who are subject to these actions are always moving and changing their actions and views as well, as it is a field that is always evolving as humans remain alive and reproduce. One thing that will always remain the same however, is the debate between repression of desire and accepting of this desire. The morality vs immorality view of sexuality was a topic of discussion in nearly every aspect of Gagnon's analysis and is something that our society will always debate. The stigma of pleasure will never fully be seen as moral, for nothing too pleasurable in our society could be for our own good, or can it?