26/1/07 - English Literature - A History of Sex

By sex we mean: The division of species into male or female Sexual instincts and desires Sexual intercourse. The definition of sex in terms of history is the one that relates to changing notions of sexual identity. This can affect the way we see Renaissance literature compared to the way that contemporary audiences saw it. The YMCA has a gay subtext. At the time of its release in 1978, the word 'gay' was contested. Mainstream Britain saw the song on surface value rather than in a gay context. Nowadays it is seen differently. People can now be visibly gay and the context of the song has changed along with this. This demonstrates how the sexual self changes, and so the history of sex shapes the meaning of art. The fact that cultural codes of sexuality have changed suggests that there is also a 'performance' aspect to sexual identity; sexual desire involves culture, not merely biology. Notions of masculinity and femininity differ geographically as well as historically. Donne's To His Mistress Going to Bed is about a sexual encounter with his lover. It is an erotic rhapsody. It expresses relations between conquest, colonialism, discovery, voyaging and erotic desire. It describes Donne's private experiences. It expresses erotic desire in terms of the possession and occupying of women. "Guiana is a country that hath yet her maidenhead, never sacked, turned, nor wrought, the face of the earth hath not been torn, nor the virtue and salt of the soil spoilt by manurance, the graves have not been opened for gold, the mines not broken with sledges, nor their images pulled down out of their temples. It hath never been entered by any army of strength, and never conquered or possessed by any Christian prince." [Sir Walter Raleigh, The discovery of the large, rich, and beautiful Empire of Guiana, with a relation of the great and golden city of Manoa (which the Spaniards call El Dorado)] Note Raleigh's use of language: "entered", "conquered", "possessed." It is sexually suggestive, unambiguous. He even talks about its "maidenhead" as it is a 'virgin' land. Antipholus of Syracuse. Then she bears some breadth? Dromio of Syracuse. No longer from head to foot than from hip to hip. She is spherical, like a globe. I could find out countries in her. Antipholus. In what part of her body stands Ireland? Dromio. Marry sir, in her buttocks. I found it out by the bogs. Antipholus. Where Scotland? Dromio. I found it by the barrenness, hard in the palm of the hand. Antipholus. Where France? Dromio. In her forehead, armed and reverted, making war against her heir. Antipholus. Where England? Dromio. I looked for the chalky cliffs, but I could find no whiteness in them. But I guess it stood in her chin, by the salt rheum that stand between France and it. Antipholus. Where Spain? Dromio. Faith, I saw it not, but I felt it hot in her breath. Antipholus. Where America, the Indies? Dromio. O, Sir, upon her nose, all o'er embellished with rubies, carbuncles, sapphires, declining their rich aspect to the hot breath of Spain, who sent whole armadoes of carracks to be ballast in her nose. Antipholus. Where stood Belgia, the Netherlands? Dromio. O, sir, I did not look so low. [William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors, Act 3, Scene 2, Lines 117-147] Notice the xenophobic and sexist language used in this passage. In all of the above examples, an association has been drawn between woman and the earth. Women are defined by their physicality, and men by their rationality. There is a fusion of politics and intimacy.