On American University’s campus, sex is studied directly and indirectly, anthropologically, legally, psychologically, and literarily. Though it is fundamentally a biological topic, sex is more an issue of culture, diversity, gender, and law in AU’s course catalog.

SEX, GENDER AND CULTURE (ANTH-215), PROF. WILLIAM LEAP

A second-level general education requirement, this course was invented in the early 1980s and revitalized by Leap when AU formed its current general education program in 1985.

“In this course we ask, what can we say about the uniqueness of human sexuality and gender?” Leap said. “How do gender and sex coincide with [society and culture]?”

Apparently it’s a popular question. This semester, there are three sections of 40 students each. “We fill as many sections as we offer,” Leap said, noting that students take the class to fulfill a general education requirement or investigate a new perspective on sexuality.

“I get people who want to be there because they want an unconventional conversation about sexuality and gender,” Leap said, adding that his section in particular focuses on gay and lesbian issues, maintains a commitment to the study of gender diversity and fosters class discussion.

“This course does not assume that sex is male versus female,” he said. “I get people to call into question the thought that sex is this neat dichotomy and you’re either one or the other.”

Though some students might find these discussions radical, negative student reaction to Sex, Gender and Culture is rare. Students who object to the material drop the class early and only once has a student complained to the university about the course content. “This course really self-selects,” Leap said.

Two sections of Sex, Gender and Culture will be offered in the spring.

HUMAN SEXUAL BEHAVIOR (PSYC-430), PROF. BARRY McCARTHY

McCarthy has been at AU since 1969 and teaches Human Sexual Behavior (PSYC-430) every fall semester. A year after he joined the faculty, the department of psychology had a mini-session program to develop Human Sexual Behavior, then one of around 10 college courses in the country that dealt with the topic.

“Thirty years ago there weren’t any textbooks,” McCarthy said of the study of human sexuality. “Now there’s all kinds of textbooks.”

Human Sexual Behavior is the only sex class in the psychology department. The first part of the course covers major issues in human sexuality while the second part is a study of psychosocial patterns. The course also concerns gay and lesbian issues, sex therapy, sex and aging, the physiology of sex, myths, and premarital and marital behavior.

“[In the classroom,] we talk much more about class differences, cultural differences,” McCarthy said. “I talk about clinical issues, about healthy and unhealthy sexuality.”

The course, which McCarthy said is not conducive to large classes, is a combination of lecture, small group discussion and simulations. Guest speakers in the class include representatives from Planned Parenthood, the Whitman-Walker clinic, and various clergy.

There are 50 students in the section. “It’s interesting that some of the students who have taken it in the past have done some unusual work in the field,” McCarthy said. He noted that one alum of the class is now a director of the Masters and Johnson Institute, a pioneering sexual research and treatment center, and that another is now a lawyer in a class action suit against a diaphragm maker.

The class is popular; it usually fills up each fall semester with a mix of psychology, SOC, and SIS majors.

Though an array of majors are represented, McCarthy said, “One of the problems with the class is that is has a lousy gender split.” There are four times as many women enrolled as men.

GENDER AND THE LAW (JLS-535), JUDGE LEE SISLEN

The gender split is proportionally the same in Gender and the Law—there are four men in the class of 20.

Despite this proportion and the small class size, many different viewpoints are represented. In Gender and the Law, there are conservatives, feminists, non-feminists, and traditionalists, said Sislen.

“The challenge is to teach in the middle and bring out those opinions,” Sislen, an adjunct professor who has taught at AU for five years, said. “This course is really interesting, fascinating to teach, with a lot of class participation.”

Gender and the Law analyzes the role gender plays in sexual assault and domestic violence, and it examines racial, cultural and religious gender bias. The course also asks legally charged questions, like should gender be considered in the laws affecting human reproduction? Should gender be a factor in laws affecting marriage and divorce? Should pornography and prostitution be outlawed because of their application to a specific gender?

Brooke Kline, a senior justice major, recommends the class to any undergraduate or graduate student, specifically those majoring in Women’s and Gender Studies or Law and Society.

“It really helps you bring into context our modern society,” she said.

NON-RECURRING COURSES

These three courses are the only recurring courses that deal exclusively with issues of sex and gender. Occasionally, AU offers special courses that deal with the topic.

Sex and Literature, a non-recurring honors colloquium that was offered last year, explored how various writers and philosophers, from Plato to the Marquis de Sade to Sharon Olds, interpreted and responded to concepts of sexuality in their respective eras.

Assistant Professor Richard Sha of the literature department is planning on teaching the course again.

“I will be teaching this in the future as an upper level literature course,” Sha said. “We begin with Plato’s Symposium, move to Freud’s Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality and then consider Foucault's History of Sexuality. Using the theoretical concepts gleaned form these three, we explore a host of literature.”

Selections in the planned course include literature from Boccaccio, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Mary Shelley and William Blake.

“It was really eye-opening to learn how what we view as sexual norms and the status quo isn't really permanent,” Alanna Schubach, an SOC sophomore who took the class, said. “Sexuality is something that has changed drastically over time, as far as what we find appropriate, healthy, and good...I think the class was beneficial in that it exposed me to some really fascinating ideas about sexuality.”

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