ABSTRACT
The modern view of sexuality as a fundamental drive that is very individualized, deeply gendered, central to personality and intimate relationships, separate from reproduction, and lifelong would be quite unrecognizable to people living in different civilizations. Kenneth Plummer contrasted the popular drive-based view of human sexuality with the social constructionist dramaturgic metaphor of sexual script. Histories and anthropologies of sexuality are being revolutionized by the new constructionism. The major obstacle to a social constructionist approach to sexuality is the domination of theory and research by the biomedical model. Historical studies are dear to social constructionists because they can point the way to analyses of cultural meanings and changing personal experiences. The ideological support for medicalization is essentialist, naturalist, biological thinking. The privileged position of biology in sexual discourse is based on the assumption that the body dictates action, experience, and meaning. As sexual interest and adequacy gain in social importance, weaknesses in one's preparation become more significant.
