Breanne Fahs

Compulsory Bisexuality?: The Challenges of Modern Sexual Fluidity

Although Adrienne Rich once posited that “compulsory heterosexuality” required women to identify as heterosexual to comply with implicit social norms, this study examined the possibility of compulsory bisexuality in light of increasing reports of heterosexual-identified women engaging in homoerotic behavior with other women, usually in front of men and in social settings like fraternity parties, bars and clubs. Forty qualitative interviews were conducted with women of diverse backgrounds to explore womens narratives about performative bisexuality. Although younger women reported more performative bisexual experiences in public, older women reported more pressure to perform as bisexual in private (e.g., pressure for group sex). Further, experiences with performative bisexuality did not consistently predict political attitudes that supported full civil rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer (LGBTQ) community, indicating a disconnect between behavior and attitudes. Implications of performative bisexuality as “compulsory,” as well as considerations about whether performative bisexuality indicates acceptance of bisexuality for women and/or exploitation of womens same-sex desires were explored.

Rural location and exposure to minority stress among sexual minorities in the United States

Recently, there has been an increase in the number of studies on minority stress among sexual minorities. Few of these studies have explored the ways in which regional or spatial factors influenced the amount of minority stress that lesbians, gay men and bisexuals (LGBs) endure. To see if living in rural and small towns creates stressful social environments for LGBs in the United States, this study analysed the associations between location and three distal minority stress outcomes, as well as feelings of connectedness to the LGB community. In a sample of self-identified LGBs (N = 285), this study found that rural contexts and small towns often presented harsher social climates for sexual minorities compared with urban locales. LGBs who resided in rural areas tended to feel less connected to LGB communities and experienced higher levels of felt stigma and enacted discrimination. Small town inhabitants displayed some similar patterns, but also reported lower levels of enacted discrimination than expected. Living in Southern states subjected LGBs to more discrimination and less satisfactory connections to LGB communities.

Breaking body hair boundaries: Classroom exercises for challenging social constructions of the body and sexuality

Courses in women’s studies and gender studies within US contexts have long prioritized content that critically examines the social construction of bodies and sexualities, consciousness-raising about how social identities interface with disciplinary and institutional practices, and the notion that ‘the personal is political.’ This article examines the social and pedagogical implications of an extra-credit assignment where I asked women to grow out their body hair and men to remove their body hair for 10 weeks in several upper-division women’s studies courses. Students’ response papers and weekly logs from 87 students over four semesters highlighted the social policing of gender and sexual identity, pervasive disgust and misinformation about body hair, raced and classed dimensions of students’ experiences, configurations of masculinity as agentic and powerful, and postexperiential reflections on challenging social norms. This assignment showed how temporary excursions into rebelling against body norms can generate sociopolitical awareness, particularly for living as Other (e.g. queerness, fatness, disability). I also consider implications for ‘ripple effect pedagogy’ and ‘peer generated pedagogy,’ along with pedagogical reflections about using the assignment as a consciousness-raising tool in feminist classrooms.

'Freedom to' and 'freedom from': A new vision for sex-positive politics

While the sex-positive movement has made a significant contribution to the advancement of womens sexuality, much of this work has emphasized ‘positive liberty,’ that is, womens freedom to expand sexual expression and sexual diversity. This work has largely ignored womens freedom from oppressive mandates and requirements about their sexuality, that is, ‘negative liberty.’ Drawing upon anarchist theories from the 19th and 20th centuries, political theories of positive and negative liberty, early radical feminist arguments, and the infamous ‘sex wars’ of the 1980s, the fundamental tension between womens freedom to do what they want, and freedom from doing what others require of them, proves a critical juncture in feminist understandings of sexual freedom. To illustrate this, I examine seven key examples where women are caught between joyous celebrations of sexual progress and disturbingly regressive attacks on their sexual empowerment: orgasm, sexual satisfaction, treatment for sexual dysfunction, rape and sexual coercion, body hair as ‘personal choice,’ same-sex eroticism, and sexual fantasy. Ultimately, I argue that the sex-positive movement must advance its politics to include a more serious consideration of the freedom from as it relates to the freedom to. In doing so, tensions around the ‘sex wars’ could evolve into a more cohesive and powerful feminist movement.

Coming to power: women's fake orgasms and best orgasm experiences illuminate the failures of (hetero)sex and the pleasures of connection

While some literature has explored womens sexual satisfaction and, to a lesser degree, womens faking orgasm experiences, little research has examined the context and conditions around womens best and most memorable orgasms. This paper utilised thematic analysis of qualitative data from a community sample of 20 women in the USA (mean age = 34 years, SD = 13.35 years) from a wide range of racial, socioeconomic, and sexual identity backgrounds to illuminate their experiences with fake or pretend orgasms, and with their best orgasms. While faking orgasm narratives reflected themes of wanting to reinforce a partners sexual skills, strategically ending sexual interactions, and suppressing feelings of abnormality and shame, best orgasm experiences showcased the power of interpersonal connection, the joys of masturbation and other non-penile-vaginal intercourse behaviours, and the significance of ‘transformative embodiment’. Implications for the relative failures of (hetero)sex, particularly in the context of gendered power imbalances, along with the importance of deconstructing the sexually ‘functional’ or ‘dysfunctional’ woman are explored.

Perilous Patches and Pitstaches: Imagined Versus Lived Experiences of Women’s Body Hair Growth

Although some research has examined men and women’s general attitudes toward women growing body hair, little research has engaged in a side-by-side examination of women’s imagined experiences of growing body hair with an experiential component of growing their own body hair. In the first of two studies, I asked a diverse community sample of women aged 18 to 59 to assess their impressions of women who grew body hair and to imagine their own, and others’, reactions to their hypothetical body hair growth. For the second study, I utilized response papers from 62 women from diverse backgrounds in an undergraduate women’s studies course, who grew their body hair for an assignment. Results showed overwhelming negativity toward women growing body hair in both studies, but they differed in perceptions of social control and individual agency. Women in Study 1, who merely imagined body hair growth, described it more nonchalantly and individualistically, citing personal choice and rarely acknowledging social pressures placed upon women even disgusted by other women’s body hair. Women in Study 2 regularly discussed unanticipated social pressures and norms, rarely discussed personal choice, and reported a constellation of difficulties, including homophobia, family and partner anger, and internalized disgust and “dirtiness.” These results on a seemingly “trivial” subject nuance the “rhetoric of choice” debate within feminist theories of the body while also illustrating a vivid experiential assignment that delves into women’s personal values, relationships, and social norms. Implications for assessing and changing attitudes about women’s bodies—particularly “abject” or “othered” bodies—are discussed.

Second shifts and political awakenings: Divorce and the political socialization of middle-aged women

Abstract Links between personal life events (e.g., divorce) and political socialization have been understudied, particularly in midlife populations. This study examined a longitudinal sample of 98 female graduates from the University of Michigan class of 1967. Participants were divided into two groups: divorced (N= 27) and married (N= 71). T-tests and Chi-Square analyses were used to examine differences between groups for political orientation, power discontent, system blame, feminist identity, common fate, social responsibility, and political participation. Results showed that divorced women, when compared with married women, had a more liberal/radical political orientation, more system blame for gender, active commitment to feminist identity, and a sense of common fate with other women. No significant differences were found for measures of past or current political involvement. Implications for normative life events to restructure political viewpoints and attitudes are discussed.

When sex and power collide: an argument for critical sexuality studies

Attentive to the collision of sex and power, we add momentum to the ongoing development of the subfield of critical sexuality studies. We argue that this body of work is defined by its critical orientation toward the study of sexuality, along with a clear allegiance to critical modalities of thought, particularly feminist thought. Critical sexuality studies takes its cues from several other critical moments in related fields, including critical psychology, critical race theory, critical public health, and critical youth studies. Across these varied critical stances is a shared investment in examining how power and privilege operate, understanding the role of historical and epistemological violence in research, and generating new models and paradigms to guide empirical and theoretical research. With this guiding framework, we propose three central characteristics of critical sexuality studies: (a) conceptual analysis, with particular attention to how we define key terms and conceptually organize our research (e.g., attraction, sexually active, consent, agency, embodiment, sexual subjectivity); (b) attention to the material qualities of abject bodies, particularly bodies that are ignored, overlooked, or pushed out of bounds (e.g., viscous bodies, fat bodies, bodies in pain); and (c) heteronormativity and heterosexual privilege, particularly how assumptions about heterosexuality and heteronormativity circulate in sexuality research. Through these three critical practices, we argue that critical sexuality studies showcases how sex and power collide and recognizes (and tries to subvert) the various power imbalances that are deployed and replicated in sex research.

Sex during menstruation: Race, sexual identity, and women’s accounts of pleasure and disgust

While much research has addressed negativity surrounding women’s menstruation, surprisingly little research has interrogated the relationship between menstruation and sexuality. This study used inductive thematic analysis of qualitative interviews with 40 women across a range of age, race and sexual orientation backgrounds to examine women’s experiences with sex during menstruation. Results showed that, while 25 women described negative reactions — and two described neutral reactions — 13 women described positive reactions to menstrual sex. Negative responses cohered around four themes: women’s discomfort and physical labor to clean ‘messes’, overt partner discomfort, negative self-perception and emotional labor to manage partner’s disgust. Positive responses cohered around two themes: physical and emotional pleasure from sex while menstruating, and rebellion against anti-menstrual attitudes. Notable race and sexual identity differences appeared, as white women and bisexual or lesbian-identified women described positive feelings about menstrual sex more than women of color or heterosexual women. Bisexual women with male partners described more positive reactions to menstrual sex than did heterosexual women with male partners, implying that heterosexual identity related to negative menstrual sex attitudes more than heterosexual behavior. Those with positive menstrual sex attitudes also enjoyed masturbation more than others. Implications for sexual identity and racial identity informing body practices, partner choice affecting women’s body affirmation, and women’s resistance against common cultural ideas about women’s bodies as ‘disgusting’ were addressed.

Radical refusals: On the anarchist politics of women choosing asexuality

This article examines how women consciously choosing asexuality might inform both radical feminist politics and anarchic concepts of positive and negative liberty. By resituating some of the lesser-known narratives of the 1960s’ and 1970s’ radical feminist movement (e.g. Valerie Solanas’ SCUM Manifesto and Boston’s Cell 16 and No More Fun and Games), asexuality is shown to disrupt key intersections between sexuality and the state, particularly institutions that control reproduction, pleasure, and women’s bodies. Using interview data with Cell 16 members, content analysis of early radical feminist writings, and theoretical and historical analyses of separatism, the piece argues that, by removing themselves from sexuality, women can take a more anarchic stance against the entire institution of sex, thereby working toward more nihilistic, anti-reproduction, anti-family goals that severely disrupt commonly held assumptions about sex, gender, and power.