Mouthrules and the Construction of Sexual Identities

Abstract

The current work on the sociology of the body has shown it to be a key site of both the production of meaning and of regulation. There has however been little attention given to particular `body parts'. The research presented here suggests that mouths are particularly symbolic and that our oral hygiene habits are not just disciplinary techniques, but are one way in which our particular sexual and gender identities are constituted. This article, drawing on a series of in-depth interviews with lesbians and heterosexual men and women, explores how our `mouthrules', that is, what we do and more particularly don't do, with our mouths, construct, through the notion of intimacy, the contours of sexuality and gender. Differences are apparent between the groups. Developing Douglas's (1966) theory of `grid' and `group', it is suggested that adherence to mouthrules takes place along two axes: the level of personal `strictness' with which rules are applied (grid) and the rigidity of the gender/sex boundaries within which mouthrules are organized (group). The conclusion is drawn that, through the performance of these apparently trivial aspects of daily life we are performing aspects of our gender and sexual identities.