Readings for next week:

Sex and the Citadel:  Chapters 2 and 3.

In light of the horror that struck our campus, on Wednesday, we will organize the course around the recent murders.  I will also a smaller reading from the final book.

Roger Friedland

Readings for remainder of class:

Ahmed, A Quiet Revolution,  1-191.

El Feki, Sex and the Citadel, whole book

Reading assignments for Love, Sex and God

For Fisher book, read Chs. 1, 2 and 4

For Mernissi for Wed., read introduction and Ch. 1

Final Exam News:

You will NOT be responsible for the Kintz reading for the final examination.

Midterm Grading Explanation

Hi students,

Please refer to this guide to understand how your exam was graded. If you have additional questions please feel free to e-mail me or visit me in my office hours (T/TH 9:45-10:45 in SSMS 3021).

-Katelynn

Sociology 150: Sex, Love and God

Mid-Term Examination

Professor Roger Friedland

Winter, 2013

True/False (3 points each)

1. According to lecture, unattractive women are less likely to find love.  F
2. In Sharon Thompson’s ethnography, popular high school girls are very likely to orgasm.  F
3. According to the UCSB survey, most romantic relationships begin as hook-ups? F
4. In surveys of UCSB students, it was found that the more likely women were to say that separating sex and love was easy, the more likely they were to be drunk when having sex.  T
5. Greek citizens believed that it was a virtue for men to be able to control their sexual desires.  T
6. Men and women are equally able to separate sexuality and emotional attachment.  F
7. Alcibiades protected Socrates on the battlefield.  F

8.   According to Aristophanes account, heterosexuals are beings who were both male and female in a prehistoric life.  T

9.   Frats boys are much less likely to have romantic relationships than others.  F

Short Answer (5 points each):

1. According to Diotima, Eros was the child of whom?  Why was Eros created?

*To receive full credit, you had to include that Eros was the child of Penia, a poor human woman, and Poros, the god of resource, and that Eros was conceived so that Penia could escape poverty.

*4 points were awarded if you were missing one of these: the names Poros and Penia; that Poros was a god and Penia was a human woman; that Eros was conceived so that Penia could escape poverty

*3 points were awarded if you were missing 2 of the above

1. According to Diotima, what is the object of every love.

*The correct answer is “to have the good forever.” I awarded full points for responses that made some reference to immortality, as well as the good/beautiful.

*I awarded 3 points if you mentioned reproduction and beauty, but did not connect this to the idea of immortality. (You are correct that reproduction is significant, but consider why reproduction is important--because it allows you to achieve immortality).

*I awarded 2 points if you mentioned the good or the beautiful, but did not mention immortality/forever, or if you mentioned immortality without referencing the good/beautiful.

*I awarded 3 points if you mentioned the idea of desiring what you do not have; you are correct that this is discussed in Diotima and Socrates’s dialogue, but the significant part of the definition (and the one discussed in lecture) is the idea of having the good forever.

*I also awarded 2 points if you mentioned wisdom/knowledge; again, this is mentioned in the dialogue but not the main point.

1. In Going All The Way, the author recounts that lesbian girls are highly likely to orgasm.  Why might this be so?

*There were several possible reasons you could give here, and I gave 5 points if you mentioned 3 of these: they know each other’s bodies/understand female anatomy; they have sex in the context of relationships; there is no danger of pregnancy; there are no gendered power dynamics, including the likelihood of physical coercion; they are more likely to communicate about their desires; they are more likely to care about pleasing their partner

*I gave 4 points if you had 2 of these 3, and 3 points if you had 1 of these 3

*I gave 3 points if your answer considered only the idea that they have sex in relationships which is associated with higher rates of orgasm, but did not include anything that would explain why *lesbians* in particular might have higher rates of orgasm (these answers tend to demonstrate that you got some of the ideas from lecture about the relationship between love and orgasm, but not necessarily that you got the ideas from the reading).

1. Based on your reading of Hooking Up, which gender is most likely to decide what kind of sex to have and the emotional intensity of the relationship?

*The correct answer is that females decide on the sex; males decide on the emotional. I awarded full credit for this answer, and 0 points if you had the relationship reversed.

*In a few cases, I gave 3 points if you wrote that males decide on both or females decide on both, but demonstrated some understanding of the power dynamics of hook-ups, as discussed in the reading.

1. Is there a double standard in terms of sexual expectations about females and males and what might this have to do with women’s greater desire to form relationships?

*The correct answer is that there is a double standard, and that women who desire sex without emotional conditions/expectations are stigmatized and are assumed to have lesser sexual drives than men.  Women would have a greater interest in having a relationship to protect themselves from stigma. I awarded full credit for answers that gave a correct explanation of the double standard, and included something about women wanting to protect their reputations, avoid stigma, avoid being labelled as a slut, etc.

*I awarded 3 points if you gave a correct explanation of the double standard, but included nothing about women having sex in relationships to protect their reputations.

1. After college, why do young men and women start to date again, according to Bogle?

*There were 3 reasons discussed: the logistics become more difficult (i.e., in college students concentrated in small area; this changes after college); people are looking for relationship in order to marry after college; and there is not the same protection and social control after college (i.e., in college people are familiar with each other, rapes can be reported to campus authorities, etc.). I awarded full credit to answers that included these 3 reasons.

*I awarded 4 points to answers that mentioned 2 of these reasons, and 3 points to answers that mentioned 1 of these reasons. 

*I awarded 2 points to answers that described that after college, the hook-up scene disappears, and dating precedes sex, rather than the reverse. This is correct, but it is really just a re-statement of the question, not an explanation for *why* this change occurs. 

7. According to England et al essay on hooking-up, there is a difference between the way women judge men after they have hooked up with them and the way they feel judged by men afterwards.  What is the difference?

*I awarded full credit if you wrote that women are much more likely to feel that their partners did not respect them compared to not respecting their partners. 

*I awarded 4 points if your answer did not consider how women *feel* judged by men (you may have wrote that men disrespect women following hook-ups, but this does not get at the question of how women perceive men to be judging them).

*I awarded 3 points if you mentioned that women felt unsatisfied or used; you are starting to get at it, but the question is focusing on how women feel judged. 

*I also awarded 3 points for some answers that discussed that women hope relationships will come from hook-ups, whereas men don’t feel the same way; this is true, but not quite getting at what the question is asking.

8. How is love imagined to be a feminine act for men by Diotima in Plato’s Symposium.

*The correct answer is that Diotima says love is “to give birth in beauty”; it is imagined to be a feminine act because giving birth is a feminine act. I awarded full credit if you had something about birth, reproduction, fertility, or pregnancy. 

9. How do we know from lecture that the relationship between loving somebody and orgasm is not just due to the fact that people, particularly women, often prefer to confine sexual intercourse to romantic relationships, and that men are more likely to orally pleasure their female partners in romantic relationships? In other words, what evidence was shown that the effect of love on orgasm is not simply due to the fact that love is correlated with particular sex acts?

*The correct answer is that we ran regressions of orgasm on love, controlling for sexual acts. I awarded full credit for this answer. I also awarded full credit for answers that demonstrated some *other* reason for which love might be correlated with orgasm (i.e., that love is also associated w/ familiarity with partner, which is correlated with orgasm, or that people perform a greater variety of sex acts in relationships, which is correlated w/ orgasm).

*I awarded 4 points for answers that were getting at the idea that it’s not just b/c love associated w/ particular sex acts that it leads to orgasm, but didn’t get at the logic of trying to show this is not a spurious relationship.

*Some answers simply stated that surveys show that women are more likely to orgasm in romantic relationships/with partners they love, or included specific statistics for how much more likely men and women who love their partner are to orgasm. I awarded 2 points for these answers. You are correct, but the question is getting at the reason for this relationship.

10.  What is a daimon?

*The correct answer is that a daimon is an intermediary between humans and the gods. I awarded full credit if you said anything about humans/gods, mortals/immortals, etc.

*I awarded 2 points if you mentioned something about a daimon being a spirit, but nothing about the connection between the human and divine.

If you could change one thing....

If you could change one thing about the way in which intimate couplings are organized at UCSB what would it be?