Anal sex used to be policed mainly as a moral issue; however, it was later considered a medical issue and positioned as a public-health threat. In both of these instances, pleasure was left out. Pitagora states that anal sex became linked with words like dirty, immoral, gay and unnatural. The meaning has changed depending on who was defining it, which is similar to Margolin (2017). In both articles, experts defined "normal" sexuality and treated whoever fell out of it as a problem, showing that this is socially constructed. This makes me wonder why experts focus on danger and ignore the pleasure associated with anal sex?

The term "frigidity" was included in scholarly articles from 1940 to 1979; however, the term was no longer included after 1979. The fact that it had disappeared from scholarly writing supports the idea that "frigidity" was socially constructed and not a natural fact. Margolin (2017) states that the diagnosis rose as a result of Freudian theories and the postwar idea that a woman's place is in the home. It then fell as a result of scientists like Masters, Johnson and Kinsey, who objected to the evidence, and also because of second-wave feminism. This makes me question who gets to decide what counts as an illness and why.

Sheff (2020) notes that women who have multiple partners are labelled with insults such as "whores" or being called mentally ill. These labels are created by society to protect the idea that monogamy is the only normal way to live. In the Margolin reading, women are labelled as ill for wanting too little sex, and deviant for wanting too much (or too many partners) in this one. This suggests that women's sexuality gets policed whichever way it goes. Sheff says women have greater social power in poly communities but also notes that race and class still shape who has power. This makes me wonder whether polyamory frees women and if so, then which women?