IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/socres/v12y2007i5p173-181.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Who are you Sleeping With? the Construction of Heteronormativity in Stories about Sleep in British Newspapers

Author

Listed:
  • Pam Lowe
  • Sharon Boden
  • Simon Williams
  • Clive Seale
  • Deborah Steinberg

Abstract

In popular British understanding the terms ‘sleeping’ or ‘slept’ are often used to mean sex, and (hetero)sex is seen as crucial to sustaining intimate relationships. This study of UK newspapers coverage shows that stories about sleep and sleeping arrangements can be seen to (re)produce heteronormativity through focusing on the (heterosexual) ‘marital bed’. The ‘marital bed’ is constructed as both the physical and symbolic centre of successful heterosexual relationships. Moreover, the maintenance of this symbolic space is gendered with women given primary responsibility. The focus on the ‘marital bed’ helps to exclude non-heterosexuals from the idea of intimate relationships, by effectively silencing their experiences of sleep and sleeping arrangements. Normative ideas about male and female (hetero)sexualities are drawn on to undermine women's right to refuse sex within the martial bed. In addition, the term ‘sleep-sex’ is used to reconceptualise stories of rape, minimising the victim's experiences and absolve the perpetrator from full responsibility for the assault. By exploring these articles we can see both how the representation of the organisation of sleep is produced through heteronormativity, as well as how heteronormativity determines whose accounts of sleeping are prioritised.

Suggested Citation

  • Pam Lowe & Sharon Boden & Simon Williams & Clive Seale & Deborah Steinberg, 2007. "Who are you Sleeping With? the Construction of Heteronormativity in Stories about Sleep in British Newspapers," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 12(5), pages 173-181, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:12:y:2007:i:5:p:173-181
    DOI: 10.5153/sro.1578
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.5153/sro.1578
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.5153/sro.1578?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jenny Hislop, 2007. "A Bed of Roses or a Bed of Thorns? Negotiating the Couple Relationship through Sleep," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 12(5), pages 146-158, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Allison Kirkman, 2010. "‘My Bed or Our Bed?’: Gendered Negotiations in the Sleep of Same-Sex Couples," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 15(2), pages 65-77, May.
    2. Jenny Hislop, 2007. "A Bed of Roses or a Bed of Thorns? Negotiating the Couple Relationship through Sleep," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 12(5), pages 146-158, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Allison Kirkman, 2010. "‘My Bed or Our Bed?’: Gendered Negotiations in the Sleep of Same-Sex Couples," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 15(2), pages 65-77, May.
    2. Henry, Doug & Rosenthal, Leon, 2013. "“Listening for his breath:” The significance of gender and partner reporting on the diagnosis, management, and treatment of obstructive sleep apnea," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 48-56.
    3. Eileen Fairhurst, 2007. "Theorising Sleep Practices and Later Life: Moving to Sheltered Housing," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 12(5), pages 214-224, September.
    4. Susan Venn, 2007. "‘It's Okay for a Man to Snore’: The Influence of Gender on Sleep Disruption in Couples," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 12(5), pages 159-172, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:12:y:2007:i:5:p:173-181. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.