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Modesty as a Feminist Sexual Virtue

Anne Barnhill

in Out from the Shadows: Analytical Feminist Contributions to Traditional Philosophy

Sexual modesty is a feminist sexual virtue—in one sense, but not another. There are at least two distinct kinds of feminist sexual virtues: first, character traits that allow individual sexual ... More

Sexual modesty is a feminist sexual virtue—in one sense, but not another. There are at least two distinct kinds of feminist sexual virtues: first, character traits that allow individual sexual flourishing given the realities of sexism within a specific social context; second, character traits related to sex that encourage feminist change. Modesty is a feminist sexual virtue in the second sense—it encourages feminist change, however minimally. More precisely, modesty is a feminist sexual virtue for those women whose sexuality is overvalued, though not for those women whose sexuality is undervalued. Regrettably, I doubt that sexual modesty is a feminist sexual virtue in the first sense; given the realities of sexism, being modest doesn’t necessarily allow individual women to flourish sexually, but might in fact put a damper on their sex lives. In identifying sexual modesty as a feminist sexual virtue for women, I find a surprising point of agreement with conservative and feminist critic Roger Scruton, though we disagree about why sexual modesty is a virtue for women. However, I put myself at odds with those feminist writers who consider women’s sexually provocative display of their bodies and their sexuality to be a feminist act.Less

Sexual Offenses

Jonathan Burnside

in God, Justice, and Society: Aspects of Law and Legality in the Bible

This chapter focuses on Leviticus 20, which considers a range of sexual behaviors, including rape, adultery, incest, homosexual sex, and bestiality. It argues that biblical law does not have a ... More

This chapter focuses on Leviticus 20, which considers a range of sexual behaviors, including rape, adultery, incest, homosexual sex, and bestiality. It argues that biblical law does not have a category of sexual offences as such: instead prohibited sexual relationships are understood in terms of pre-existing categories of idolatry and dishonoring parents, as well as adultery. In this way, Leviticus 20 echoes the sequence of taboos found in the Decalogue. Adultery and forms of adultery are presented schematically in biblical law as a series of binary oppositions to the norm of marriage. As a result, biblical sexual ethics is structured around a clear understanding of harm and family. Comparison with an analysis of recent sexual offences reform in England and Wales suggests that biblical law actually defines questions of consent, equality and protection, in relation to sexual behavior, differently and more broadly than modern law.Less

Crafting Eros through the Stoic Logos of Nature

Kathy L. Gaca

in The Making of Fornication: Eros, Ethics, and Political Reform in Greek Philosophy and Early Christianity

This chapter describes the recent scholarship on early Stoic sexual ethics. It also examines the salient features of the Greek erotic tradition that Zeno and Chrysippus found so problematic. The ... More

This chapter describes the recent scholarship on early Stoic sexual ethics. It also examines the salient features of the Greek erotic tradition that Zeno and Chrysippus found so problematic. The sexual principles that the early Stoics formulate in response to the Greek tradition are then elaborated. The chapter evaluates the later Stoics Antipater, Hierocles, and Musonius as one group and then Seneca and Epictetus as another. The friendship-building sexual relations facilitate the progress toward wisdom and virtue for members of the early Stoic city as a whole. Antipater, Musonius, and Hierocles argue that it is patriotic for men to marry and raise a family. The ideas of Zeno and Chrysippus offer an ethical advance in major respects over ancient Greek sexual mores. Stoic sexual ethics overall maintains that sexual relations are justified and conducive to virtue, so long as they are directed toward mutual friendship.Less

Why Marriage Matters

Stephen Macedo

in Just Married: Same-Sex Couples, Monogamy, and the Future of Marriage

This book offers arguments in defense of same-sex marriage, marriage (as a distinctive relationship defined by law), and monogamy. It considers the acrimonious debate over same-sex marriage and two ... More

This book offers arguments in defense of same-sex marriage, marriage (as a distinctive relationship defined by law), and monogamy. It considers the acrimonious debate over same-sex marriage and two sets of issues that arise from this debate and that are closely intertwined with marriage: sexual ethics and children's wellbeing. It also examines the ramifications of same-sex marriage for the meaning and future of marriage and asks whether the recognition of same-sex marriage will end marriage as we have known it, or whether civil marriage and monogamy are still justifiable and viable. Finally, the book explores the wider and deeper questions raised by the debate over marriage concerning liberalism as public philosophy. Parts 1 and 2 of the book make the cases for same-sex wedlock and marriage as a special status in civil law, whereas Part 3 focuses on the intersection of polygamy, monogamy, and democracy. The introduction provides an overview of the chapters that follow.Less

Feminist Sexual Futures

Amanda H. Littauer

in Bad Girls: Young Women, Sex, and Rebellion before the Sixties

This concluding chapter argues that the 1940s and 1950s gave rise to two alternative norms, both of which have exerted powerful historical influence in distinct ways. The first is ... More

This concluding chapter argues that the 1940s and 1950s gave rise to two alternative norms, both of which have exerted powerful historical influence in distinct ways. The first is relationship-oriented sexual ethics, or the belief that sexual activity is socially and culturally valid when it enables the members of a monogamous couple to express love and affection for one another. The second is individual sexual autonomy, understood to mean that individuals have the right to sexual self-expression and that sexuality need not be tethered either to interpersonal relationships or to state institutions. Each of these ethical standards had different implications for women than it did for men, and both of them stemmed from the actions of straight and queer women and girls. The chapter also describes how women continue to resist oppressive social forces that limit sexual autonomy in twenty-first century.Less

Prophylactic Grace in Clement’s Emergent Church Sexual Ethic

Kathy L. Gaca

in The Making of Fornication: Eros, Ethics, and Political Reform in Greek Philosophy and Early Christianity

This chapter argues that Clement of Alexandria completes Philo's paradigm shift, for in response to Philo he identifies any deviation from God's procreationist law as sexually hedonistic rebellion ... More

This chapter argues that Clement of Alexandria completes Philo's paradigm shift, for in response to Philo he identifies any deviation from God's procreationist law as sexually hedonistic rebellion against God. Clement upholds a Christian norm of biblical endogamy for the perceived safety and salvation of all Christians. Clement supports the procreationist rule in its later Pythagorean form. Clement uses Philo's trope of soul fornication to identify sexual desire with the whorish worship of the Greek gods of eros. He situates Paul's problem of spiritual adultery in a procreationist framework and links procreationism with Paul's marital poetics. Clement's argument for doing away entirely with sexual desire forms an unforgettable aspect of his sexual ethic, combining as it does the strictures of Plato and biblical scripture. Clement allows Christians to grow and multiply within marriage, but they must populate a land that is devoid of eros.Less

Exploitation, Regulation, and Restructuring: Managing Slave Sexuality

Chris L. de Wet

in Preaching Bondage: John Chrysostom and the Discourse of Slavery in Early Christianity

This chapter examines John Chrysostom's views on the sexual exploitation, regulation, and restructuring of slaves. In particular, it considers Chrysostom's argument that slaves were not bodies to be ... More

This chapter examines John Chrysostom's views on the sexual exploitation, regulation, and restructuring of slaves. In particular, it considers Chrysostom's argument that slaves were not bodies to be used and abused by their owners, especially sexually. It also explores Chrysostom's restructuring of the concept of slave sexuality in relation to the pastoralization of the household and in the context of his universal sexual ethics related to marriage, adultery, and sexual dishonor. Finally, it looks at the problem of prostitution and the discourse of eunuchism and castration in Chrysostom. It suggests that Chrysostom was less concerned about the forced castration of slaves than he was about the eunuch as a sign of decadence.Less

Philo’s Reproductive City of God

Kathy L. Gaca

in The Making of Fornication: Eros, Ethics, and Political Reform in Greek Philosophy and Early Christianity

This chapter argues that Philo's religious sexual ethic is an innovative synthesis which combines the Pentateuchal laws and sexual poetics of spiritual fornication with the sexual-reform plans of the ... More

This chapter argues that Philo's religious sexual ethic is an innovative synthesis which combines the Pentateuchal laws and sexual poetics of spiritual fornication with the sexual-reform plans of the Pythagoreans and Plato. Despite the differences in the specific laws of Plato and Moses, Philo and the Christian Platonists such as Clement found it irresistible to regard Moses' Law and Plato's Laws as part one and part two of the same dispensation. Philo appropriates the Stoic terminology of the passions to recast the biblical danger of spiritual fornication in psychological terms. The chapter indicates that Philo develops a forceful new program against sexual desire through his synthesis of Hellenistic Jewish and Platonic ideas about wrongful desire. Philo's limited synthesis of his criteria of impermissible sexual activity is covered. Philo also lays the ground for a paradigm shift in biblical sexual norms, but he remains relatively conservative himself.Less

Was It Good for You Too? The New Natural Law Theory and the Paradoxical Good of Sexbots

Joshua D. Goldstein

in Robot Sex: Social and Ethical Implications

We normally think of the so-called new natural law theory (NNLT) for its as a relentlessly conservative sexual ethic, one which argues both for the rightness only of “reproductive-type” sex (and that ... More

We normally think of the so-called new natural law theory (NNLT) for its as a relentlessly conservative sexual ethic, one which argues both for the rightness only of “reproductive-type” sex (and that only within a different-sex marriage) as well as the moral impossibility of masturbation, sex outside of marriage, and sex of a non-reproductive-type. On the face of it, the human intent behind the creation of sexbots, let alone with the act of having sex with them, would seem to be wrong on all these counts. However, this chapter argues that matters are not so simple. NNLT can reveal the intrinsic moral importance of sexbots. If sexbots and human each are beings capable of choosing and remaining committed to complete friendship, and of loving, then the embodied union that we do achieve will not be morally objectionable even according to NNLT properly understood.Less

Transformation in America’s Largest Church

Timothy Matovina

in Latino Catholicism: Transformation in America's Largest Church

This concluding chapter considers how Latinos present a distinct agenda of core concerns within U.S. Catholicism. Many Euro-American Catholics have emphasized concerns such as liturgical reform, the ... More

This concluding chapter considers how Latinos present a distinct agenda of core concerns within U.S. Catholicism. Many Euro-American Catholics have emphasized concerns such as liturgical reform, the role of the laity, dissent or obedience to sexual ethics and other church teaching, the proper exercise of authority, and the question of who is called to ordination. Conversely, Latinos have been more inclined to accentuate concerns such as funding for Hispanic ministry offices, youth initiatives, outreach efforts, and leadership training and formation programs. Although these efforts encompass attempts at reform in areas such as liturgy and participation in church leadership, they are primarily intended to equip the church to serve and accompany its Latino members in their faith and daily struggles.Less

The Erotics of Racial Regeneration: Eugenics, Maternity, and Sexual Agency

Kirsten Leng

in Sexual Politics and Feminist Science: Women Sexologists in Germany, 1900-1933

This chapter explores the attraction of racial thinking, and particularly eugenics, for women sexologists. It argues that eugenics’ appeal lay not only in its stress on women’s critical role in ... More

This chapter explores the attraction of racial thinking, and particularly eugenics, for women sexologists. It argues that eugenics’ appeal lay not only in its stress on women’s critical role in racial regeneration, but also in the fact that many eugenicists conceived of sexual ethics in ways similar to many of the female sexual theorists examined in this book. This chapter further demonstrates that eugenics produced more than one kind of sexual politics. Through an in-depth exploration of the work of Grete Meisel-Hess, I show how eugenics, when combined with new understandings of the female sex drive, enabled theorists like Meisel-Hess to argue that women had a right to self-determined sexual experiences, regardless of marital status; to broach a sweeping critique of sexual ethics and arrangements under capitalist patriarchy; and to demand a comprehensive range of reforms to marriage, family law, and the welfare state.Less

Conservative Christians in the “Sexual Revolution”

in The Truth about Conservative Christians: What They Think and What They Believe

This chapter addresses two questions: (1) Are the sexual attitudes and behaviors of Conservative Protestants significantly different from those of other Americans, especially Mainline Protestants? ... More

This chapter addresses two questions: (1) Are the sexual attitudes and behaviors of Conservative Protestants significantly different from those of other Americans, especially Mainline Protestants? Have they retained the stern sexual ethic of their Puritan predecessors? (2) To what extent have the changes in the larger culture affected the sexual ethics and behavior of Conservative Protestants? It is argued that in some matters Conservative Protestants do have stricter ethical norms than do other Christians and that, also to some extent, they have been affected by the changes in the norms of the larger society but not as much as have other groups.Less

Sexuality, Self-Formation, and the State

Amy T. Schalet

in Not Under My Roof: Parents, Teens, and the Culture of Sex

This chapter begins by deepening our understanding of a paradox: the dramatization of adolescent sexuality is predicated on—and stands in service of—an ideal of freedom from social restrictions, ... More

This chapter begins by deepening our understanding of a paradox: the dramatization of adolescent sexuality is predicated on—and stands in service of—an ideal of freedom from social restrictions, while the normalization of adolescent sexuality is predicated on—and produces—a deep disciplinary structure and interconnectedness within a web of social ties and obligations. This is done by applying four questions drawn from Michel Foucault's work on sexual ethics. Doing so brings to fore how dramatization and normalization involve different exercises of power, induce different techniques of self-formation, and produce different individuals. Comparing dramatization and normalization and the different individualisms in which they are based shows, in turn, how Foucault's argument about the effectiveness of modern power misses critical pieces of the puzzle, namely connection, support, and self-mastery.Less

Revising Jezebel Politics: Toward a New Black Sexual Ethic

Jennifer S. Leath

in Black Intersectionalities: A Critique for the 21st Century

“Jezebel” as trope, representation, and narrative has been zealously deployed against women of the African Diaspora since the advent of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. However, Jezebel’s image has ... More

“Jezebel” as trope, representation, and narrative has been zealously deployed against women of the African Diaspora since the advent of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. However, Jezebel’s image has also been constructed and reconstructed within dominant Biblical narratives over centuries — often signifying sexual immorality and political treachery. This essay takes up the dual task of destabilizing both the oppressive representations of women of the African Diaspora according to Jezebel stereotypes and dismantling the dominant Judeo-Christian treatment of Jezebel as an infamous actor. Specifically, this essay uncovers the relationship between Jezebel’s historical and contemporary cartography of sexualized politics and politicized sexuality — including the transformation of desire. It also outlines the nature of Jezebel’s religious pluralism in relation to her sexuality and politics. It also yields a unique mapping of “Jezebel’s” radical deployment of sexuality, politics, and spirituality and an account of innovative social ethics made possible through the integration of sexual, political, and spiritual resources.Less

A Noise of War in the Camp: Human Rights, Gender, and Sexuality

Brian Stanley

in Christianity in the Twentieth Century: A World History

This chapter discusses the ramifications for Christian belief and practice of the application of human rights ideology to questions of gender and sexuality. It was only in the course of the twentieth ... More

This chapter discusses the ramifications for Christian belief and practice of the application of human rights ideology to questions of gender and sexuality. It was only in the course of the twentieth century that rights ideology crossed the gender divide, giving rise to the women's suffrage movement and the substantial erosion of previously unquestioned assumptions about the God-given roles and hierarchical relationship of the sexes. From the second decade of the century in North America and Europe, inherited Christian convictions about the theological and ethical legitimacy of restricting ordained leadership in the churches to men began to be questioned. In Protestant and Anglican churches, these convictions were slowly and unevenly abandoned as the century proceeded. The chapter then considers the shifts in popular attitudes to sexual ethics. By the final decade of the century, some of the global denominational forums had become the arena for heated debate between conservatives and liberals. Churches or individuals could be “liberal” on an issue such as the ordination of women and “conservative” on homosexuality.Less

Female Sex and Sexuality

Celene Ibrahim

in Women and Gender in the Qur'an

This chapter discusses Qur’anic concepts related to sex and sexuality and considers how sex, as a feature of embodiment and as an act of intimacy, factors into Qur’anic narratives. It delineates ... More

This chapter discusses Qur’anic concepts related to sex and sexuality and considers how sex, as a feature of embodiment and as an act of intimacy, factors into Qur’anic narratives. It delineates concepts such as “female,” “woman,” and “wife,” and gives attention to Qur’anic notions of virginity and beauty. The chapter points out the many provocative juxtapositions between female figures, the situations that they navigate, and the moral valences of their actions and intentions. It demonstrates how the issue of illicit sex is a major human dilemma in the Qur’anic worldview, both for the chaste who are unjustly accused of illicit sex and for immoral people who create havoc for themselves and others through their profligacy and moral bankruptcy. On the other hand, the Qur’an does not emphasize the trope of the seductress; of the dozens of female figures mentioned in the Qur’an, only one plays this role, and even she can be directly contrasted to women in similar, potentially compromising situations who take the morally sound course of action. Qur’anic terminology for paradisal beings and the possibility of sex in paradise is also discussed.Less

Sexual Desire, Inequality, and the Possibility of Transformation

Ann J. Cahill

in Body Aesthetics

Although most contemporary theories of sexuality have tended to approach sexual desires as exempt from ethical judgment, this chapter argues that there are at least some sexual desires that can ... More

Although most contemporary theories of sexuality have tended to approach sexual desires as exempt from ethical judgment, this chapter argues that there are at least some sexual desires that can appropriately be the object of ethical analysis. The discussion focuses primarily on examples of sexual desire that seem to be directly implicated in entrenched and structural inequalities, such as racism, ageism, and ableism. By adopting a more fluid and broad understanding of sexual orientation than is usually utilized, and by addressing the habitual nature of oppressive actions and preferences, the chapter concludes that a sexual subject can coherently undertake the transformation of at least some sorts of sexual desires on the basis of ethical commitments.Less

Religious Perspectives on Sex with Robots

Noreen Herzfeld

in Robot Sex: Social and Ethical Implications

This chapter looks at the question of sex robots from a religious, primarily Judeo-Christian perspective. It addresses four basic questions: What is the purpose of sex? What in our nature might ... More

This chapter looks at the question of sex robots from a religious, primarily Judeo-Christian perspective. It addresses four basic questions: What is the purpose of sex? What in our nature might predispose us to a relationship with a robot? Could we have an authentic loving relationship with a robot? And, finally, would such a choice aid or hinder our spiritual growth? It concludes that while sex robots might make interesting, even desirable sexual partners, in the end it is God and each other with whom we must be in relationship. Replacing relationship with one another with relationship to a machine is ultimately a form of idolatry, a substitution for the living with something made, and thus controlled, by our own hands.Less

The Dignity of Marriage

Christopher Tollefsen

in Understanding Human Dignity

Contemporary Catholic magisterial documents frequently use of the word ‘dignity’ to describe the institution of marriage. In this chapter, I argue that the language of dignity is meant and should be ... More

Contemporary Catholic magisterial documents frequently use of the word ‘dignity’ to describe the institution of marriage. In this chapter, I argue that the language of dignity is meant and should be taken here quite seriously; ‘dignity’ is predicated of marriage by analogy with its predication of persons, but not merely by a metaphorical extension. We are meant to understand some quite specific points about marriage by the language of dignity, as to its nature, its origins, its end, and its role in ethical and political life.Less