CARAS Webinar: Spectres of Sex Positivity/Negativity and the Law. Saturday, December 17, 2022
Spectres of Sex Positivity/Negativity and the Law
Presenter: Alexandra Fanghanel, Ph.D.
University of Greenwich, London, UK
Saturday, December 17, 2022, noon-1pm (U.S. Pacific)/3-4pm (U.S. Eastern) - one hour
(This webinar was originally scheduled for November 19, 2022 and has been rescheduled to December 17, 2022)
To register for this webinar, please visit: https://forms.gle/9jYazKNBxX4ddWpc6
Attendees may earn 1 Continuing Education (CE) credit
Cost: Attendance is free for all CARAS subscribers.
Attendance with CE credit is free for CARAS Professional and Student subscribers, and $35 for others.
Attendance without CE credit for non-subscribers is $25
Pre-registration is required. Registration will close at 3pm (U.S. Pacific)/6pm (U.S. Eastern) on Friday, December 16, 2022. Please register early!
Webinar Abstract
Recent years have seen an increase in calls for criminology, criminal justice, and the law more broadly to adopt a sex positive approach to understanding sexual practice, especially non-normative, deviant and potentially criminalizable sexual acts, including sadomasochism (Wodda and Panfill, 2020). Sex positivity posits that sexual difference and diversity should be approached with compassion and openness to learn. All too often legalistic approaches to cases in which sex is at stake adopt a strongly sex negative perspective. Sex positivity and negativity have their critics in scholarship about sexuality. In this session we will explore these. Alongside this, something that looks like sex positivity might be emerging in some of the ways that judges talk about sexual practice.
Examining the summing up of court transcripts of trials in which ‘sex games’ have allegedly ‘gone wrong’, this session explores how sex negative or sex positive approaches emerge in how non-normative sex is treated in court. Applying the theory of the spectacle to these cases, we explore what is being obscured, what is being assumed, and what is being foregrounded in these expressions about, or attitudes towards sexual practice (Debord, 1967/2014).
Learning Objectives
At the end of this webinar, participants will be able to:
Describe the differences between and critiques of sex positivity and negativity
Describe the theory of the spectacle and how it might be applied to analyses of sexuality and the law
Analyze how sex positivity/negativity emerges in court cases
Evaluate the politics of attitudes towards sex in criminal cases
Presentation Content Level: Intermediate (basic knowledge of alternative sexualities, including Kink/BDSM, is presupposed)
About the Presenter
Alexandra Fanghanel, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Criminology at the University of Greenwich, UK. She is co-lead of the Gender, Deviance and Society Research Group. She researches public space, securitisation, and sexuality. Dr. Fanghanel is also a member of the CARAS Institutional Review Board (IRB). Her recent book, Disrupting Rape Culture: Public Space, Sexuality and Revolt was published in paperback in 2020 by Bristol University Press.
References
Debord, G. (1967/2014). The Society of the Spectacle (Knabb, K., Trans.). Bureau of Public Secrets. https://files.libcom.org/files/The%20Society%20of%20the%20Spectacle%20Annotated%20Edition.pdf [Open Access]
Glick, E. (2000). Sex Positive: Feminism, Queer Theory, and the Politics of Transgression. Feminist Review, 64(1), 19-45. https://doi.org/10.1080/014177800338936
Glickman, C. (2000). The Language of Sex Positivity. The Electronic Journal of Human Sexuality, 3, 1-5. http://ejhs.org/volume3/sexpositive.htm [Open Access]
Ivanski, C., & Kohut, T. (2017). Exploring Definitions of Sex Positivity Through Thematic Analysis. The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 26(3), 216-225. https://doi.org/10.3138/cjhs.2017-0017 [Open Access]
Kaplan, M. (2014). Sex-Positive Law. New York University Law Review, 89(1), 89-164. https://www.nyulawreview.org/issues/volume-89-number-1/sex-positive-law/ [Open Access]
Sheff, E. (2021). Kinky Sex Gone Wrong: Legal Prosecutions Concerning Consent, Age Play, and Death via BDSM. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 50(3), 761-771. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01866-w
Wodda, A., & Panfil, V. R. (2020). Sex-Positive Criminology. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429053894
For information about this webinar, please visit (this page): https://www.carasresearch.org/latest-news/webinar-nov2022
About the CARAS Education Program
CARAS is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. CARAS maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
For more information about the CARAS Education Program, including CE policies and procedures, please visit https://www.carasresearch.org/apa-continuing-education