Budin, Stephanie. "The Fads the Drive Us: From Frazer, Freud, and Foucault to Butler and Connell." Paper presented at the Shaking the Tree, Breaking the Bough: Frazer’s Golden Bough at 100, Melbourne, Australia, February 12, 2023. In New Age Movements, Occultism, and Spiritualism Research Library. Archives and Special Collections. Valdosta State University. Valdosta, GA.

This presentation is a look at the various fads that have driven and skewed research in the Humanities in the past century, with a particular focus on how these fads have affected the study of human sexuality. Each case study focuses on the work of a specific scholar and how that scholar’s work has influenced the academy, even into the present day. I begin with the work of James Frazer and his Golden Bough to show how the concepts of sex and fertility have been hopelessly intertwined for the past century. Next on the docket is Sigmund Freud and his insistence (and our acceptance) of the idea that females are (sexually) passive. Jumping ahead we consider Michel Foucault’s work on sexuality, and specifically the idea that sexual intercourse is inherently hierarchical, forcing all discussions of ancient homosexuality into a “who’s on top?” paradigm. From here we turn to Judith Butler and the increasingly accepted notion in Ancient Studies that “biological” sex is a modern, Western invention and that the ancients were non-binary. Finally, we consider the work of Raewyn Connell and how her theories of hegemonic masculinity are taking over gender studies. In the end, we shall see that even when we realize that the works of past (and present) scholars are dated, wrong, or simply not applicable to the past, we continue to be unduly influenced by their theories, often merely out of habit. This does not stop us from making the same mistakes in present time.

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