Fahs - Performing Sex: The Making and Unmaking of Womens Erotic Lives

PERFORMING SEX

The Making and Unmaking
of Women's Erotic Lives

BREANNE FAHS

Cover art by Annie Buckley. Left image: Title: Shirt. Media: Altered shirt, black sharpie. Dimensions: 33 high.Year: 2003. Right image: Title: Slip.
Media: Altered slip. Dimensions: 42 high.Year: 2003.

Published by
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS, ALBANY

2011 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.com

Production Laurie Searl
Marketing, Fran Keneston

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Fahs, Breanne.

Performing sex: the making and unmaking of women's erotic lives /
Breanne Fahs.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4384-3782-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-1-4384-3781-1 (hardcover : alk. paper)

1. WomenSexual behavior. 2. Sex (Psychology) 3. Women and
erotica. I. Title.

HQ29.F34 2011

306.7082dc22

2011003225

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For my mother, Rebecca Elizabeth,
her mother, Rebecca Mae,
and her mother, Myrtle Elizabeth

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I OFFER THANKS to the many people who have helped to see this book through to completion. To paraphrase Judith Butler, political change is only possible when we undergo a radical shift in our understanding of the possible and the real. I have encountered many who have shifted my notions of the possible and the real and who have made contributions to this book. First and foremost, I thank the long line of women in my life who broke the rules about gender, prioritized each other, and expected a great deal more than tradition would allow. Thanks especially to my mother and my sister, as both have provided immeasurable amounts of support, love, and graciousness throughout the writing of this book.

I wholeheartedly thank my interview participants, each of whom was brave enough to speak truth to power and to share intimate parts of her life with me. I spent many provocative hours talking one-on-one with a group of articulate and compelling women who were sincere, generous, and wise. This book has only been possible to the extent that these forty women provided a window into their lives.

Thank you to SUNY Press, who has been lovely to work with, and to my editor, Larin McLaughlin, for believing in the book and extending such unwavering support. Thanks to Annie Buckley for the cover art and Clint Van Winkle for indexing.

I owe much recognition to my research assistants and students, who have provided innumerable hours of research support as well as collegial encouragement, passion, and interest in the project. Special thanks to Molly Armistead, Jennifer Bertagni, Kalen Brest, Mitchell Call, Emily Chaloner, Katie Courter, Natalie Das, Denise Delgado, Ashley Gohr, Alisha Herman, Christopher Liguori, Alyssa McAlister, Mary McCraw, Adrielle Munger, Jennifer Pryor, Maureen Rathkamp, April Sanford, Judith Sipes, Luke Slaeton, Jamie Starner, Cassandra Trevino, Jennifer Thompson, Theresa Williams, and Hilary Wolf. I have also benefitted from the enthusiasm, creativity, and feminist sensibilities of the students in the sexuality seminars I teach at Arizona State University, and though these students are too numerous to mention here, I thank them with gusto. My students have stood by this project from day one and have pushed me to constantly reimagine the problems young women face in their quest toward sexual liberation. I have benefitted enormously from our many conversations over the years.

I extend thanks to my fellow sex researchers who have provided mentorship, dialogued with me at conferences and meetings, conducted brave and cutting-edge research, and blazed forward in a field that continues to suffer from underfunding, underrecognition, and relentless attacks from conservative and regressive institutions. An extra special thanks to Sara McClelland, who, aside from being the most wickedly talented sex researcher I know, also happens to be a terrific friend, colleague, and confidant. Her comments added clarity, wisdom, and organization to early drafts of this book.

Many organizations have provided funding for parts of this research. This support facilitated the continued progress of the project and often arrived at precisely the right moment to ensure its continuation. I extend gratitude to the Foundation for the Scientific Study of Sexuality; Arizona State University's New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences; University of Michigan's Department of Women's Studies and Clinical Psychology; the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at the University of Michigan; and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Summer Institute for their support of this work.

As a junior scholar, I extend heartfelt gratitude for the outstanding mentorship, political support, and personal encouragement I received from more senior scholars while writing this book. Leonore Tiefer's frank and funny advice has helped fuel the project along. Abby Stewart has provided support in every sense of the word, from critical and editorial support to emotional, social, and institutional support. Love and thanks to Elmer Griffin, who taught me new ways to see and think and who never made excuses for men behaving badly. Certainly, this manuscript benefitted from the razor-sharp critical eye and radical feminist sensibilities of Eric Swank, who waded through several drafts in painstaking detail and offered countless keen insights, well-timed (and incredibly funny) pep talks, thoughtful suggestions, careful revisions to words and concepts, and rigorous strategies for improvement along the way. I deeply appreciate the support and solidarity of many other colleagues and mentors as well, particularly Deborah Martinson, Sarah Stage, Monica Casper, Alejandra Elenes, Michelle Tellez, Stephanie Fink De Backer, Mary Bjork, Bertha Manninen, Kelly Rafferty, Mary Margaret Fonow, Valerie Kemper, Karin Martin, Chris Peterson, Jayati Lal, Sandra Graham-Bermann, David Winter, and Carroll Smith-Rosenberg.

Truly, I could never exhaust the many ways I am grateful for my friends and fellow travelers, all of whom have positively impacted this book. Thanks especially to Lori Errico-Seaman, Sean Seaman, Jan Habarth, Steve Du Bois, Garyn Tsuru, Wendy D'Andrea, Marcy Winokur, Jennifer Taylor, Megan Moore, Denise Delgado, David Frost, Joanna Martori, and Devaki Ramalingam. I give a humble and heartfelt thank you to Toby Oshiro, for his contagious love of words and his astute insights on just about everything. Finally, love and gratitude to M. L., for being there at the beginning, and to E. S., for being there at the end.

An earlier version of chapter 2 appeared in Journal of Bisexuality in 2009.

INTRODUCTION

Bodies are not the brute effects of a pregiven nature, but are historically specific effects of forms of social and institutional production and inscription Whatever (historical) identity the body has, this is the result of a play of forces unifying and codifying the different organs, processes and functions which comprise it. These forces are never capable of completely subduing the bodies and bodily energies they thereby produce, for there is a resistance to the imposition of discipline, and a potential for revolt in the functioning of any regime of power.