Medicalization of sexuality
Thea Cacchioni, SFU Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies, 604.649.5116, rwwp@sfu.ca
Leonore Tiefer, ltiefer@mindspring.com
Wrenna Robertson, wrenna@showoffbooks.com
Liz Canner, elizabethcanner@yahoo.ca
Richard Overgaard, SFU Arts & Social Sciences, 778.782.8985, rovergaa@sfu.ca
Dixon Tam, SFU PAMR, 778.782.8742, dixont@sfu.ca
International experts will discuss how science, medicine, and the pharmaceutical industry shape sexual normalcy, deviancy, function and dysfunction at a conference April 28-30 at Simon Fraser University.
The Medicalization of Sex, hosted at SFU’s Vancouver campus by the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, will feature more than 60 speakers. The keynote speakers are Leonore Tiefer, a leading medicalization scholar, critic and activist from New York University, and Jennifer Terry from University of California, Santa Cruz, the author of An American Obsession: Science, Medicine, and Homosexuality in Modern Society.
Event organizers say the medicalization of sex occurs at the intersection of technology, culture, medicine, gender, sexuality, global capitalism, and rapid social change. The conference will critically examine historical and recent developments associated with the medical diagnosis, treatment, and surveillance of sex.
SFU professor Thea Cacchioni researches the phenomenon from a sociological, feminist perspective. Last year, she successfully testified against the approval of flibanserin, an anti-depressant drug proposed to treat low sexual desire in women, at last year’s U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory hearing.
“With low efficacy and several unsexy side effects, the risk-to-benefit ratio did not measure up,” Cacchioni explains. “Do we need a pill to raise women’s sexual desire? Norms of sexual desire vary from era to era and culture to culture and sexual desire is shaped by a range of socio-political and interpersonal factors.
“At the conference, we will look at issues beyond the search for the ‘pink Viagra’ as well. For example: the rise of cosmetic genital surgery, the development and promotion of the HPV vaccine, science and medicine’s involvement in ‘ex-gay’ movements, and the question of informed consent in the surgical alteration of intersex infants.”
A few events that will be open to the public include:
- Orgasm Inc: The Strange Science of Female Sexual Pleasure: screening of the critically acclaimed documentary with special introduction and Q&A by director Liz Canner and reception to follow.
- Tickets: $15 at http://bit.ly/eZ6mQm
- Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema at Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, 149 West Hastings, entrance at the West Cordova Street courtyard
- The Antidote reception celebrating bodily diversity and resistance to the medicalization of sex. Features artwork and the images from I’ll Show You Mine, a photography book by Wrenna Robertson, exotic dancer, academic, and activist author, created in response to the rising trend of cosmetic vaginal surgery.
- Admission: free, cash bar
- The Gallery Gachet, 88 East Cordova Street
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