"Is sex more like dancing or digestion? Unpacking the medicalization of sexuality"
5 Maio, 14.00h-19.00 horas, no Anfiteatro da Maternidade Alfredo da Costa
"Is sex more like dancing or digestion? Unpacking the medicalization of sexuality"
My presentation will examine the ongoing tension between competing models of sexuality including a “dancing” (cultural diversity) model and a “digestion” (medicalization) model. The current dominance of a function-based model of sexual desire, conduct and experience that emphasizes the centrality of orgasm results from many converging social, political, economic, demographic and intellectual trends. Initially attractive because it seemed to promise gender equality, physical pleasure, and freedom from taboo, the biological function model has become its own source of oppression and insecurity and led to an overuse of surgeries and medications to "treat" so-called sexual dysfunctions. How do commercial and political forces affect our personal sexual lives and values? How have they hijacked academic and clinical work? How can we construct a model of sexuality that will support humanistic goals?