The primary strategy was to
desexualize Poitier's onscreen presence as much as possible.
As Warren Chernaik has shown, the ancients focused on an older man's desire for a young girl; but, he adds, "more often than not, English poets reinterpret the tradition to
desexualize the relationship, placing greater emphasis on praise and on admonition and eliminating the idea of seduction."(37) In Waller's case, though, his precieux mannerisms can actually complicate our response.
Snyder charts their attempts to
desexualize her and turn her into a saint 'at her finest in submission' (Wilson Knight).
Previous research documents how organizations
desexualize, devalue, and confuse women at work.
The frequent recurrence of the talismanic word, onesto, emphasizes the licit, controlled aspect of women's sexuality, while the description of them as angels in/from paradise (44) attempts to
desexualize them altogether.
My sense is that school uniforms are designed to
desexualize the student population at the same time the hormones are going berserk and it's a bad idea.
Feminist theorists, on the other hand, have tended to
desexualize lesbian relationships, often romanticizing them as a form of maternal nurturance, a refuge from a threatening patriarchal world.
This and other changes that will be discussed later in this article suggest that Murdoch did indeed
desexualize the representation of homosexuality in her fiction.