Within group sexual differences present another challenge to the traditional biological perspective. Feminist wisdom has begun to benefit from the recognition that knowledge is pluralistic and that women do not constitute a homogeneous class. Expectations, resources, and the experience of oppression can and do vary depending on age, culture, class, ethnicity, physical ability, and sexual preference. Attention to diversity throughout feminist scholarship has been promoted by feminists (Landrine, 1995; Reid & Kelly, 1994; Pamela Reid offers a variety of new viewpoints with respect to ethnicity, social class, and sexuality in chapter 6, this volume). Some of the possible complexities are highlighted by findings that although African American women may hold more permissive attitudes about sexual behavior than their Anglo counterparts, they may be less likely to engage in sexual intercourse, especially middle-class African American women (Robinson, Ruch-Ross, & Watkins-Ferrell, 1993). Understanding something of these subtleties can lead to a model of sexuality that is more likely to include distinctions between permissive attitudes and promiscuous behavior. Failure to take these variations into account can result in inadequate translations for interventions. The notes of Michele Fine (1989) on the interaction of social class and ethnicity on women’s reactions to public systems designed to help rape victims is a clear example of just how critical it is to include diversity.
Issues surrounding class and ethnicity are expressed in a variety of ways in traditional models of sexuality. The sexual discourse was a way to distinguish classes and justify racial privilege. European settlers in North America defined Native Americans as sexual savages. European Americans described African Americans as possessing an animal sexuality, and the 19th-century European American middle class defined working-class men and women as promiscuous and morally depraved. In each case, the definition of sexuality justified the superiority of the middle class and facilitated oppressive public policies toward Native Americans, African Americans, and working-class people. The changing sexual discourse that moved the focus from reproduction to pleasure also reinforced hierarchies between classes (D’Emilio & Freedman, 1988).