This course examines the various roles of sex and sexuality in our daily lives. In order to do this, we’ll spend time exploring the interconnections between sex, gender, sexuality, and sexual interactions.

The first half of the course focuses on identity, and the constructions of sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, and romantic attraction identities. We will start off by examining the complex ways components of identity are constructed through scientific understandings, social norms, and individual self-definitions. Here, we’ll look at traditional conceptions of masculinity and femininity, biological sex differences, gender identities, and sexual identities, and how these identities are both constructed by and play out within our daily lives.