HIST 399R ST: Sex and Sexuality in America
The history of and attitudes towards sex and sexuality in America is often contested grounds, illustrating deeper fears, anxieties, and debates about social relations, politics, economics, race, and gender. This course charts the changing nature of sex and sexuality in the United States from the colonial period to the present day, as students will examine how central these ideas and debates have been to American politics and culture. Major course themes include: gender roles and their impact on sexual relationships, courtship and marriage, birth control and abortion, medicine and politics in defining sexuality, LBGTQ+ identities throughout history, the social construction of sexuality, and changing concepts of supposed deviancy. Students will also document how societies and governments have tried to govern sexuality.