Gayle Rubin's Analysis

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Gayle Rubin connects the usage of sex with political agents such as racism, war, caste systems, and immigration that encourages repression, oppression, and produces assumed dominance in modern Western society. Rubin analyses today’s cultural stance on sexuality by exposing the hypocrisy that holds anyone of different sexual orientations or leanings as inferior. Rubin feels that it is time to address sexuality in a time where it is embellished and there is much debate over sexual evaluation as it relates to acts and religion. Her work can be best divided into the specific claims she argues for or against as they relate to feminism and western culture’s take on sexuality in the modern era.

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The use of Foucault and the theory about the discourse in sex and how its increased institutionalization over the course of time strengthen her arguments. Another noteworthy method is Rubin’s use of hypocrisies surrounding sexuality in western culture. An instance of this are laws that attempt to ban sexual activity and just sex in general for children and go so far as to prohibit what children see in movies and classrooms. Even the First Amendment rights do not cover one’s expression of sexual statements. There are numerous anti-obscenity laws that do not permit sexual commerce. Though both legally and culturally, no-one person can outright express sexuality without tyranny, yet these very same people can speak on religion or politics without penalty. However, there are no rules that address ones ability to bring pictures of war victims or genocide into classrooms. Rubin’s ability to showcase these double standards provides her argument with the ability to connect the various sexual orientations and genders of her audience. It also provides her audience with instances of oppression, even if they have yet to experience them personally. Her ability to express the inequalities of standards grants her argument a strong foundation Rubin says, “Like gender, sexuality is political. It is organized into systems of power, which reward and encourage some individuals and activities, while punishing and suppressing others. Like the capitalist organization of labor and its distribution of rewards and powers, the modern sexual system has been the object of political struggle since it emerged and as it has evolved. But if the disputes between labor and capital are mystified, sexual conflicts are completely camouflaged”. The writing expands on Rubin’s view of the roles sexuality plays in society and it’s

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