Sexualization: Have sexualization processes changed direction?

Abstract

In its present use, the connotations of ‘sexualization’ as a concept are mainly negative. They were strengthened and reinforced in 2007 by the publication of a research report by the American Psychological Association. In this article, the findings of the APA Report and its use of a morally loaded negative concept of sexualization are contested. In contrast, this article presents sexualization as a long-term social process that was preceded by a long-term process of desexualization, in which taboos on sexuality gained strength. This perspective is broadened by integrating long-term changes in sexuality into long-term processes of formalization and informalization. Desexualization was part of the formalization of manners and the disciplining of people, which occurred from the Renaissance to the last quarter of the 19th century. The process of informalization occurred from then onwards, when the regime of manners and emotions allowed for more lenient and informal manners, and for an ‘emancipation of emotions’: emotions that had been denied and repressed, including all those related to sexuality, regained access to consciousness and wider acceptance in more informal social codes. Thus, informalization refers to a process that entails sexualization. From this perspective this article concludes that present attempts to counter the process of sexualization are largely counterproductive: they propel the emancipation of sexuality and its integration into everyday life.