Critical Summary of "Justifying Sex: The Place of Women’s Sexuality on a Social Justice Agenda"

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Women's sexuality is an important aspect to be considered in assessing well-being. Individual sexual welfare has been marked insignificant by the society. However, when taken in a wider perspective, social injustices have sprung from tackling women’s sexuality in the milieu of social work.
Cultural norms and traditions are the origins of biases on gender, ethnicity, social class, and heteronormativity. All of these have significant oppressive consequences against women. The interplay of these factors renders women to be vulnerable to risks such as sexually-transmitted infections, unintended pregnancy, dysfunction, and coercion. The consequences are not entirely problems of sexuality but are results of oppressive norms and social inequality. As an example, evidence that suggests that racial discrimination jeopardizes sexuality is found in many studies done. One instance that illustrates this concept is the rising prevalence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) amongst African-American women. In fact, research has shown that women of color are eight times more predisposed to STIs as compared to White women (Bay-Cheng, 2010).
Regarding gender and heteronormativity, differentiation of sexual objectification and sexual subjectivity was discussed. There is a promotion of sexual subjectivity rather than sexual objectification because sexual subjectivity would enrich the sexual experiences and self-perceptions of women, unlike sexual objectification which treats a person as an "object" rather than a respected being with autonomy CITATION Bay10 \l 13321 (Bay-Cheng, 2010). Another issue discussed under the topic of gender would be on the subordination of women to men in terms of academic affairs as well as the division of household labor.
Stereotyping on class and race is also an issue that diminishes women's sexuality. Stereotypes think that being poor and flawed non-White women are underprivileged because often, they are disparaged secondary to their disfavored decision-making skills and risk tolerance when infected by the viruses, sexually assaulted, and impregnated. However, the White women are less accused of sexual promiscuities and carelessness. Moreover, they differently or with more reverence as compared to the non-Whites. White peers are not subjected to public scrutiny and critique, unlike non-White women. There was an instance when a college woman stated that to avoid being treated the same way, being careful in acting innoc...