Sexual Contact

Newsletter of the Sexual Behavior, Politics, and Communities Division, SSSP

                 October 2003

 

Kathleen Asbury, Division Chair Sandra Schroer, Newsletter Editor

Notes from the Chair

Due to an illness the chair of our division, Kathleen Asbury, was unable to attend the annual conference in Atlanta. She is recovering, however, I have offered to assist until she is able to resume the full demands of the position. In addition, I would like to thank Lloyd Klein and PJ McGann for their assistance during this time.

To begin with I would like to thank all members for their support of the 2003 annual meeting. The Sexual Behavior, Politics and Communities division sponsored (or co-sponsored) six sessions. Each session experienced record numbers in attendance, as did all conference sessions in general. It was truly a remarkable event, one which overcame obstacles such as our nations largest blackout, closed airports and a bad economy.

While working at the registration table I noticed the outstanding level of interest in our division. Past issues of all division newsletters were available on a table in the registration area. Ours were the first to disappear (and they donâ??t even have pictures). As new members joined SSSP they often checked our division as one they would like to be affiliated with. However, these new members are too often remaining invisible.

There are a number of active roles in the division suitable for new members. It is a great way to get introduced to others and to contribute to the continued success of the division. We welcome your ideas, submissions to the newsletter, and your participation. Please consider some of the following ways you can become involved: submit proposals for presentation at the 2004 annual meeting, submit a paper to the student paper competition, send information on websites, current events, job postings and funding to the newsletter editor, attend the division business meeting at the 2004 conference, consider serving on a committee within the division. Send me an e-mail and lets discuss ways you can be involved.

At the present time we are actively seeking nominations for the Division Chair. The election will take place in December and will determine the Chair Elect. The Chair Elect will begin his/her role at the 2004 annual meeting in San Francisco. If you know of someone you believe would make a good nominee for Division Chair, forward their name and e-mail address to me by November 15th.

Speaking of San Francisco... there is perhaps no better location for our division to gather together and celebrate the human diversity in human sexuality. I hope each of you will plan to attend the meeting and contribute your research. If members are interested we could compile a list of unique and perhaps alternative entertainment venues. If you know of such places or have a favorite you would like to tell others about, submit the information to the division entertainment guide. But alas, we require someone to organize such a guide....any new volunteers?

Naturally,

Sandra E. Schroer, Newsletter Editor

Those Were the Days:
A Personal Perspective on the Sexual Behavior Division

Lloyd Klein

Department of Criminal Justice, Bemidji State University

The fall 2002 division newsletter article on the history of the sexual behavior division gave me pause to continue thinking about the past. Having been a former division chair and more currently contemplating still another birthday gives a person some perspective on the last few decades. I had the idea that a personal reflection on the Sexual Behavior Division would provide current members with a more incisive view of how my professional perspective was shaped through active participation over these many years.

It seems like yesterday (really 1979) when this neophyte sociologist met Joan Luxenburg at the Society for the Study of Social Problems meeting in Boston. A discussion about common interests in criminology and deviance research set in motion a continuous series of events prompting development of my professional career. An introduction to the division and the presentation of a paper on CB radio prostitution stimulated continuing professional involvement. My own enthusiasm was ignited by the work of such researchers as the late sociologists Laud Humphreys and Martin Levine. The early division founders were paving new ground in exploring taboo topics that the public generally viewed as scandalous. Hanging out in tearooms or writing about sexual addiction were not exactly mainstream sociological topics. The conversation was lively and our experiences were self validating as we went where no sociologist (or probably many persons) had gone before.

One paper led to another and soon a whole series of papers on CB radio prostitution were written and presented at the SSSP and other professional conferences. I cannot say enough about how Joan Luxenburg was an influential mentor and friend during the early part of my career. The papers we did together and her dedication to research and teaching continue to shape my own professional view of the discipline. The CB radio papers tapered off by 1984 and paved the way for a substantive examination of pornography. The Meese Commission on Pornography in 1986 and their crediting my submission of material on telephone sex was an interesting development during that period.

Interesting events were yet to come. Joan Luxenburg made the transition from division newsletter editor to division chair by 1988. I became newsletter during Joanâ??s 1988-90 term as division chair and remained in that post until 1992 before relinquishing the assignment to concentrate on completing work on a doctoral thesis. Numerous active division members submitted essays and other materials to the newsletter during the late 1980s-early 1990s. The memory of those exact contributions fades but the hard work, satisfaction, and appreciation of other division members and SSSP sexual behavior division session participants echoes today. Some ideas never did bear fruition. A chance meeting with adult film star Nina Hartley at a Socialist Scholars Conference in NYC gave hope that she would write a short article on feminism and pornography. The material never materialized but the fun was contained in chasing such leads. Our newsletters starting with the early 1980s through the mid-1990s set standards later emulated by other division newsletter editors. We gave the division members more than a one page listing of sessions. The content reflected the state of sexual behavior research.

As documented in the Fall 2002 division newsletter article, division activists passed on or simply chose to focus on other phases of their careers. The former division chairs seemed to disappear after their terms of office expired. The years went by quickly as issues of sexuality and society were replaced by discussions of the AIDS epidemic (as prompted by William Darrow) or policy issues with the more recent culmination in focusing on sexual identity issues. Val Jenness, Paula Rust, PJ McGann, Henry Rubin, and others focused on the development of identity research. Kate Asbury, the current division chair, continues the same tradition.

My 1996-98 tenure as division chair was situated in the middle of these important changes in sexual behavior research. We ran approximately seven or eight division panels during the 1997

SSSP meeting, and at least six the following year. I remember a former program chair remarking about my proclivity toward organizing numerous panels. One special memory consists of meeting a SSSP meeting attendee at a 1997 ASA where he passed me a note offering compliments about my professional efforts. The copywriters for the Mastercard campaign would call those moments priceless.

The Sexual Behavior Division is a microcasm for an association built by the enthusiasm of the late Al Lee, the continuing encouragement of Doris Wilkinson, and the memories of Herb and Rebecca Auerbachâ??s leadership followed by Tom Hood and the erstwhile Michele Koontz. More directly, division participation by Michael Kimmel, the late Levi Kamel, Martin Weinberg, and so many others set the standards we still follow today,

How did serving the Sexual Behavior Division impact on my own career? Five years as newsletter editor followed later with a stint as chair of the Sexual Behavior Division provided the background to serve as chair of the Crime and Juvenile Delinquency division. I have worked on diverse SSSP Committees and contemplate serving in other capacities in future years.

In a major session reflecting on the influence of the SSSP, Doris Wilkinson once proclaimed that the SSSP would always serve as her intellectual home. I reiterate her sentiments. But the story is not over. As a storied song lyric intones, "the best is yet to come." Stay tuned, stay active, and make your own contribution to this continuing story of the upstart sexual behavior division that thrived and made a difference in many professional lives.

Call for Papers

Graduate student paper competition

Sponsored by the Sexual Behavior, Politics, and Communities Division of the SSSP

The Sexual Behavior, Politics, and Communities Division of the Society for the Study of Social Problems announces its 2004 graduate student paper competition. Papers may be empirical and/or theoretical, and they may be on any aspect of sexuality, including sexual behavior, sexual identity, sexual politics, sex law, political activism, or sexual communities.

The winner will receive a stipend of $100, payment of the winner's SSSP registration fee for the 2004 SSSP meeting (to help the winner attend the meeting), and a ticket to the Banquet. The winner will be expected to present their winning paper at one of the SBPC sessions being held as part of the 2004 SSSP meeting.

To be eligible, a paper must meet the following criteria:

1) The paper must have been written between January 2003 and March 2004;

2) The paper may not have been submitted or accepted for publication (papers that have been presented at a professional meeting or that have been submitted for presentation at a professional meeting are eligible);

3) The paper must be authored by one or more students, and not co-authored with a faculty member or colleague who is not a student;

4) The paper must be 25 pages or less, including notes, references, and tables; and,

5) The paper must be accompanied by a letter from a faculty member at the student's college or university nominating the paper for the Sexual Behavior, Politics, and Communities Division Student Paper Competition.

Students should send five copies of their paper, accompanied by a letter of nomination from a faculty member to:

PJ McGann, Ph.D.

Department of Sociology, University of Michigan

1225 South University

Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2590

(734) 764-6321 (o); (734) 763-6887

Sexual Contact

Newsletter of the Sexual Behavior, Politics, and Communities Division, SSSP

                 October 2003

 

Kathleen Asbury, Division Chair Sandra Schroer, Newsletter Editor

Notes from the Chair

Due to an illness the chair of our division, Kathleen Asbury, was unable to attend the annual conference in Atlanta. She is recovering, however, I have offered to assist until she is able to resume the full demands of the position. In addition, I would like to thank Lloyd Klein and PJ McGann for their assistance during this time.

To begin with I would like to thank all members for their support of the 2003 annual meeting. The Sexual Behavior, Politics and Communities division sponsored (or co-sponsored) six sessions. Each session experienced record numbers in attendance, as did all conference sessions in general. It was truly a remarkable event, one which overcame obstacles such as our nations largest blackout, closed airports and a bad economy.

While working at the registration table I noticed the outstanding level of interest in our division. Past issues of all division newsletters were available on a table in the registration area. Ours were the first to disappear (and they donâ??t even have pictures). As new members joined SSSP they often checked our division as one they would like to be affiliated with. However, these new members are too often remaining invisible.

There are a number of active roles in the division suitable for new members. It is a great way to get introduced to others and to contribute to the continued success of the division. We welcome your ideas, submissions to the newsletter, and your participation. Please consider some of the following ways you can become involved: submit proposals for presentation at the 2004 annual meeting, submit a paper to the student paper competition, send information on websites, current events, job postings and funding to the newsletter editor, attend the division business meeting at the 2004 conference, consider serving on a committee within the division. Send me an e-mail and lets discuss ways you can be involved.

At the present time we are actively seeking nominations for the Division Chair. The election will take place in December and will determine the Chair Elect. The Chair Elect will begin his/her role at the 2004 annual meeting in San Francisco. If you know of someone you believe would make a good nominee for Division Chair, forward their name and e-mail address to me by November 15th.

Speaking of San Francisco... there is perhaps no better location for our division to gather together and celebrate the human diversity in human sexuality. I hope each of you will plan to attend the meeting and contribute your research. If members are interested we could compile a list of unique and perhaps alternative entertainment venues. If you know of such places or have a favorite you would like to tell others about, submit the information to the division entertainment guide. But alas, we require someone to organize such a guide....any new volunteers?

Naturally,

Sandra E. Schroer, Newsletter Editor

Those Were the Days:
A Personal Perspective on the Sexual Behavior Division

Lloyd Klein

Department of Criminal Justice, Bemidji State University

The fall 2002 division newsletter article on the history of the sexual behavior division gave me pause to continue thinking about the past. Having been a former division chair and more currently contemplating still another birthday gives a person some perspective on the last few decades. I had the idea that a personal reflection on the Sexual Behavior Division would provide current members with a more incisive view of how my professional perspective was shaped through active participation over these many years.

It seems like yesterday (really 1979) when this neophyte sociologist met Joan Luxenburg at the Society for the Study of Social Problems meeting in Boston. A discussion about common interests in criminology and deviance research set in motion a continuous series of events prompting development of my professional career. An introduction to the division and the presentation of a paper on CB radio prostitution stimulated continuing professional involvement. My own enthusiasm was ignited by the work of such researchers as the late sociologists Laud Humphreys and Martin Levine. The early division founders were paving new ground in exploring taboo topics that the public generally viewed as scandalous. Hanging out in tearooms or writing about sexual addiction were not exactly mainstream sociological topics. The conversation was lively and our experiences were self validating as we went where no sociologist (or probably many persons) had gone before.

One paper led to another and soon a whole series of papers on CB radio prostitution were written and presented at the SSSP and other professional conferences. I cannot say enough about how Joan Luxenburg was an influential mentor and friend during the early part of my career. The papers we did together and her dedication to research and teaching continue to shape my own professional view of the discipline. The CB radio papers tapered off by 1984 and paved the way for a substantive examination of pornography. The Meese Commission on Pornography in 1986 and their crediting my submission of material on telephone sex was an interesting development during that period.

Interesting events were yet to come. Joan Luxenburg made the transition from division newsletter editor to division chair by 1988. I became newsletter during Joanâ??s 1988-90 term as division chair and remained in that post until 1992 before relinquishing the assignment to concentrate on completing work on a doctoral thesis. Numerous active division members submitted essays and other materials to the newsletter during the late 1980s-early 1990s. The memory of those exact contributions fades but the hard work, satisfaction, and appreciation of other division members and SSSP sexual behavior division session participants echoes today. Some ideas never did bear fruition. A chance meeting with adult film star Nina Hartley at a Socialist Scholars Conference in NYC gave hope that she would write a short article on feminism and pornography. The material never materialized but the fun was contained in chasing such leads. Our newsletters starting with the early 1980s through the mid-1990s set standards later emulated by other division newsletter editors. We gave the division members more than a one page listing of sessions. The content reflected the state of sexual behavior research.

As documented in the Fall 2002 division newsletter article, division activists passed on or simply chose to focus on other phases of their careers. The former division chairs seemed to disappear after their terms of office expired. The years went by quickly as issues of sexuality and society were replaced by discussions of the AIDS epidemic (as prompted by William Darrow) or policy issues with the more recent culmination in focusing on sexual identity issues. Val Jenness, Paula Rust, PJ McGann, Henry Rubin, and others focused on the development of identity research. Kate Asbury, the current division chair, continues the same tradition.

My 1996-98 tenure as division chair was situated in the middle of these important changes in sexual behavior research. We ran approximately seven or eight division panels during the 1997

SSSP meeting, and at least six the following year. I remember a former program chair remarking about my proclivity toward organizing numerous panels. One special memory consists of meeting a SSSP meeting attendee at a 1997 ASA where he passed me a note offering compliments about my professional efforts. The copywriters for the Mastercard campaign would call those moments priceless.

The Sexual Behavior Division is a microcasm for an association built by the enthusiasm of the late Al Lee, the continuing encouragement of Doris Wilkinson, and the memories of Herb and Rebecca Auerbachâ??s leadership followed by Tom Hood and the erstwhile Michele Koontz. More directly, division participation by Michael Kimmel, the late Levi Kamel, Martin Weinberg, and so many others set the standards we still follow today,

How did serving the Sexual Behavior Division impact on my own career? Five years as newsletter editor followed later with a stint as chair of the Sexual Behavior Division provided the background to serve as chair of the Crime and Juvenile Delinquency division. I have worked on diverse SSSP Committees and contemplate serving in other capacities in future years.

In a major session reflecting on the influence of the SSSP, Doris Wilkinson once proclaimed that the SSSP would always serve as her intellectual home. I reiterate her sentiments. But the story is not over. As a storied song lyric intones, "the best is yet to come." Stay tuned, stay active, and make your own contribution to this continuing story of the upstart sexual behavior division that thrived and made a difference in many professional lives.

Call for Papers

Graduate student paper competition

Sponsored by the Sexual Behavior, Politics, and Communities Division of the SSSP

The Sexual Behavior, Politics, and Communities Division of the Society for the Study of Social Problems announces its 2004 graduate student paper competition. Papers may be empirical and/or theoretical, and they may be on any aspect of sexuality, including sexual behavior, sexual identity, sexual politics, sex law, political activism, or sexual communities.

The winner will receive a stipend of $100, payment of the winner's SSSP registration fee for the 2004 SSSP meeting (to help the winner attend the meeting), and a ticket to the Banquet. The winner will be expected to present their winning paper at one of the SBPC sessions being held as part of the 2004 SSSP meeting.

To be eligible, a paper must meet the following criteria:

1) The paper must have been written between January 2003 and March 2004;

2) The paper may not have been submitted or accepted for publication (papers that have been presented at a professional meeting or that have been submitted for presentation at a professional meeting are eligible);

3) The paper must be authored by one or more students, and not co-authored with a faculty member or colleague who is not a student;

4) The paper must be 25 pages or less, including notes, references, and tables; and,

5) The paper must be accompanied by a letter from a faculty member at the student's college or university nominating the paper for the Sexual Behavior, Politics, and Communities Division Student Paper Competition.

Students should send five copies of their paper, accompanied by a letter of nomination from a faculty member to:

PJ McGann, Ph.D.

Department of Sociology, University of Michigan

1225 South University

Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2590

(734) 764-6321 (o); (734) 763-6887

pjmcgann@umich.edu

Submission Deadline is February 1, 2004.

 

The Society for the Study of Social Problems

54th Annual Meeting August 13-15, 2004

Cathedral Hill Hotel, 1101 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, CA

The Culture of Social Problems: Power, People, and History

Sexual Behavior, Politics and Communities Division Sessions

Submissions for presentations are now being accepted

1. "Sexuality on the Edge"

Organizer and Chair- Kathleen Asbury

8217 Rowland Ave Philadelphia, PA 19136 (215) 331-3445

2. "Sex, Media and the State"

Organizer and Chair - Lloyd Klein

Department of Criminal Justice, Bemidji State University

1500 Birchmont Drive, Bemidji, MN 56601 lklein@bemidjistate.edu

Office: 218-755-2841

3. "Sex, Violence, Theory, History"

Organizer and Chair - John Hollister

Temple University 437 Ridgeview Rd. Princeton, NJ, 08540 johnhollister@mindspring.com

4. "Sex Education in Performance and Art"

Organizer and Chair - Sandra Schroer

Western Michigan University, Department of Sociology

3201 Sangren Hall Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5308

S9schro3@wmich.edu

(269) 969-0899

5. "Lifestyles of Activism"

(a joint session with the Conflict, Social Action and Change Division)

Organizer and Chair - Edie Fisher

Western Michigan University, Womenâ??s Studies program

336 Moore Hall Kalamazoo MI, 49008

Edith.fisher@wmich.edu (269) 387-2510

WIRED! (compliments of SSSS)

Sexuality Related Websites of Interest . . .

The Transgender ASIA Research Center seeks to bring together psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, as well as medical and legal experts who share a desire to better understand the phenomenon of transgender, as well as the circumstances in which transgenders live, in Asia. This website aims to promote and disseminate research and understanding of, as well as contributing toward efforts to effect social change in regard to, transgender in Asia. TransgenderASIA is entering its second year online.

TransgenderASIA website:

http://web.hku.hk/~sjwinter/TransgenderASIA/index.htm

The International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE), founded in 1987, is a leading advocate and educational organization for promoting the self-definition and free expression of individual gender identity. IFGE is not a support group, it is an information provider and clearinghouse for referrals about all things which are transgressive of established social gender norms. IFGE maintains the most complete bookstore on the subject of transgenderism available anywhere. It also publishes the leading magazine providing reasoned discussion of issues of gender expression and identity, including crossdressing, transsexualism, FTM and MTF issues spanning health, family, medical, legal, workplace issues and more.

International Foundation for Gender Education website:

www.ifge.org

Stephen L. Braveman is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Certified Diplomate of Sex Therapy with a Private Practice specializing in sexuality, sexual abuse and gender related therapies in Monterey, California. His site contains a plethora of interesting links on sexual abuse, psychology, laughter therapy, disability, gender, etc.

Stephen Bravemanâ??s website:

www.bravemantherapy.com

The Spring/Summer issue of Sexual Science is now posted on the SSSS website.

SSSS is a great resource. Check it out.  http://www.sexscience.org/uploads/media/sex_sci44-1.htm

Division Contact Information

Kathleen Asbury, Division Chair
8217 Rowland Ave Philadelphia, PA 19136
(215) 331-3445  e-mail: Asburykathy@aol.com

Sandra Schroer, Newsletter Editor
Student Assistant: Robin Rathje
Departments of Sociology & Women's Studies
Western Michigan University
Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5189
Fax: (269) 387-2882
e-mail: s9schro3@wmich.edu
Or sandra.schroer@wmich.edu

We encourage your ideas and submissions to this newsletter. Please share your resources and discoveries by contacting the newsletter editor, Sandra Schroer.