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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social institutions > Family & relationships > Sexual relations
Sexidemic is the first real cultural history of sexuality in the United States since the end of World War II. For a people who supposedly love sex, the author argues, Americans have had no shortage of problems with it. Since the end of World War II, in fact, we've had a contentious relationship with sexuality, the subject a source of considerable tension and controversy on both an individual and societal level. Rather than being a simple pleasure of life, something to be enjoyed, sex has served as a challenging and disruptive force in many Americans' everyday lives for the last two-thirds of a century. Our love affair with sex has thus been a rocky one, filled with bumps in the road that have caused major instability across our cultural landscape. Our individualistic, competitive, consumerist, and anxious national character is both reflected in and reinforced by this "sexidemic," something few have recognized or perhaps want to admit. By charting the cultural trajectory of sex in America since the end of World War II, Sexidemic reveals how the nation's continual woes with sexuality helped make us an anxious, insecure people. The sex lives of many, perhaps most Americans have been in a perpetual state of crisis, a constant source of concern. We've fretted over every dimension of it, with problems in both quality and quantity. With this unhealthy view of sexuality, it was not surprising that we felt we needed a variety of potions and gadgets to make it happen or be pleasurable. In tracing the cultural trajectory of sex in our society, Samuel illustrates our bipolar approach to sexuality: low libido and sex addiction emerged as common disorders, and sex scandal after sex scandal has made headlines, especially over the last couple of years. Only money has surpassed sex as a source of stress for Americans; indeed, sex has come to be seen and treated as a commodity. In this timely work, the author traces the role sex plays in our society, how it shapes us and the world around us, and how we got where we are today in our views, treatment, and practice of sex and sexuality in our everyday lives.
Public and academic debate about 'porn culture' is proliferating. Ironically, what is often lost in these debates is a sense of what is specific about pornography. By focusing on pornography's mainstream - contemporary commercial products for a heterosexual male audience - Everyday Pornography offers the opportunity to reconsider what it is that makes pornography a specific form of industrial practice and genre of representation. Everyday Pornography presents original work from scholars from a range of academic disciplines (Media Studies, Law, Sociology, Psychology, Women's Studies, Political Science), introducing new methodologies and approaches whilst reflecting on the ongoing value of older approaches. Among the topics explored are:
This collection places a particular emphasis on anti-pornography feminism, a movement which has been experiencing a revival since the mid-2000s. Drawing on the experiences of activists alongside academics, Everyday Pornography offers an opportunity to explore the intellectual and political challenges of anti-pornography feminism and consider its relevance for contemporary academic debate.
Public and academic debate about porn culture is proliferating. Ironically, what is often lost in these debates is a sense of what is specific about pornography. By focusing on pornography s mainstream contemporary commercial products for a heterosexual male audience Everyday Pornography offers the opportunity to reconsider what it is that makes pornography a specific form of industrial practice and genre of representation. Everyday Pornography presents original work from scholars from a range of academic disciplines (Media Studies, Law, Sociology, Psychology, Women s Studies, Political Science), introducing new methodologies and approaches whilst reflecting on the ongoing value of older approaches. Among the topics explored are:
This collection places a particular emphasis on anti-pornography feminism, a movement which has been experiencing a revival since the mid-2000s. Drawing on the experiences of activists alongside academics, Everyday Pornography offers an opportunity to explore the intellectual and political challenges of anti-pornography feminism and consider its relevance for contemporary academic debate.
Janet Afary is a native of Iran and a leading historian. Her work focuses on gender and sexuality and draws on her experience of growing up in Iran and her involvement with Iranian women of different ages and social strata. These observations, and a wealth of historical documents, form the kernel of this book, which charts the history of the nation's sexual revolution from the nineteenth century to today. What comes across is the extraordinary resilience of the Iranian people, who have drawn on a rich social and cultural heritage to defy the repression and hardship of the Islamist state and its predecessors. It is this resilience, the author concludes, which forms the basis of a sexual revolution taking place in Iran today, one that is promoting reforms in marriage and family laws, and demanding more egalitarian gender and sexual relations.
Politicians, interest groups, and the mass media often answer questions about how AIDS is sexually transmitted as if heterosexual vaginal intercourse is a high-risk activity. When it comes to understanding how AIDS is transmitted, and formulating effective policy to deal with the spread of AIDS, America remains confused. What. Brody calls ideological knowledge about AIDS is fat more likely to filter through society than scientific knowledge.Sex at Risk Is a comprehensive review of the scientific literature dealing with. the transmission of AIDS. Like Michael Fumento's The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS, it exposes the mythology surrounding vaginal intercourse and AIDS transmission, Brody also looks deeply at reasons that fear of AIDS transmission from vaginal intercourse has spread so widely and profoundly, He addresses serious methodological problems in AIDS/HIV behavioral research, as well as tendentious political correctness that has done a disservice to science.Sex at Risk also comprehensively reviews the international research literature on correlates of lifetime number of sexual partners and frequency of sexual intercourse. Among topics covered are: relationships between lifetime number of sexual partners and mental health, explanations for important differences between intercourse and masturbation, the possible association of frequency with healthy functioning, and correlations between frequency and national development.Brody concludes by discussing what AIDS reveals about how politically correct thought impedes scientific progress, when taboo themes, regardless of their validity, cannot be pursued, Sex at Risk is factually grounded, yet controversial; . Brody raises critical questions about much of what we have learned about AIDS from popular and professional publications, "soft scientists," and public health campaigns. It will be of interest to medical doctors, clinicians, and those interested in the sociology and psychology of knowledge,
Winner of the MLA's 2016 Alan Bray Prize for Best Book in GLBTQ Studies How BDSM can be used as a metaphor for black female sexuality. The Color of Kink explores black women's representations and performances within American pornography and BDSM (bondage and discipline, domination and submission, and sadism and masochism) from the 1930s to the present, revealing the ways in which they illustrate a complex and contradictory negotiation of pain, pleasure, and power for black women. Based on personal interviews conducted with pornography performers, producers, and professional dominatrices, visual and textual analysis, and extensive archival research, Ariane Cruz reveals BDSM and pornography as critical sites from which to rethink the formative links between Black female sexuality and violence. She explores how violence becomes not just a vehicle of pleasure but also a mode of accessing and contesting power. Drawing on feminist and queer theory, critical race theory, and media studies, Cruz argues that BDSM is a productive space from which to consider the complexity and diverseness of black women's sexual practice and the mutability of black female sexuality. Illuminating the cross-pollination of black sexuality and BDSM, The Color of Kink makes a unique contribution to the growing scholarship on racialized sexuality.
Recent years have seen a dramatic upsurge of interest in the connections between sexualities, space and place. Drawing established and 'founding' figures of the field together with emerging authors, this innovative volume offers a broad, interdisciplinary and international overview of the geographies of sexualities. Incorporating a discussion of queer geographies, Geographies of Sexualities engages with cutting edge agendas and challenges the orthodoxies within geography regarding spatialities and sexualities. It contains original and previously unpublished material that spans the often separated areas of theory, practices and politics. This innovative volume offers a trans-disciplinary engagement with the spatialities of sexualities, intersecting discussions of sexualities with issues such as development, race, gender and other forms of social difference.
Elaine Jeffreys explores the issues of sex and sexuality in a non-Western context by examining debates surrounding the emergence of new sexual behaviours, and the appropriate nature of their regulation, in the People's Republic of China. Commissioned from Western and mainland Chinese scholars of sex and sexuality in China, the chapters in this volume are marked by a diversity of subject material and theoretical perspectives, but turn on three related concerns. First, the book situates China s changing sexual culture and the nature of its governance in the socio-political history of the PRC. Second, it shows how China s shift to a rule of law has generated conflicting conceptions of citizenship and the associated rights of individuals as sexual citizens. Finally, the book demonstrates that the Chinese state does not operate strictly to repress sex; it also is implicated in the creation of new spaces for sexual entrepreneurship, expertise and consumption. This comprehensive study is a valuable resource for scholars in the fields of sexuality studies and post-socialist societies and culture, directly appealing to both East Asia and China specialists.
Reading Sexualities confronts the reigning practices, priorities, and preoccupations of queer theory and sexuality studies. Looking at a range of texts, from novels to travel narratives to internet porn, Donald E. Hall deftly weaves the theoretical with the literary in order to:
Reading Sexualities shows how our sexual desires and bases for identification are being widely challenged and changed. Drawing on hermeneutic theory and the work of Hans-Georg Gadamer, Hall argues that by approaching sexual diversity with openness and humility, we become active participants in the politically urgent process of reading the self through the perspective of the other.
Focusing on cases of extramarital sex, Johanna Rickman investigates fornication, adultery and bastard bearing among the English nobility during the Elizabethan and early Stuart period. Since members of the nobility were not generally brought before the ecclesiastical courts, which had jurisdiction over other citizens' sexual offences, Rickman's sources include collections of family papers (primarily letters), state papers, and literary texts (prescriptive manuals, love sonnets, satirical verse, and prose romances), as well as legal documents. Rickman explores how attitudes towards illicit sex varied greatly throughout the period of study, roughly 1560 - 1630. Whole some viewed it as a minor infraction, others, directed by a religious moral code, viewed it as a serious sin. seeks to illuminate the place of noblewomenin early modern aristocratic culture, both as historical subjects (considering personal circumstances) and as a social group (considering social position and status).She argues that two different gender ideals were in operation simultaneously: one primarily religious ideal, which lauded female silence, obedience, and chastity, and another, more secular ideal, which required noblewomen to be beautiful, witty, brave, and receptive to the games of courtly love.
The past decade has seen dramatic growth in every area of the prison enterprise. Yet knowledge of the inner life of the prison remains limited. This book redresses this research gap by providing insight into various aspects of the daily life of prison staff. The book provides a serious exploration of their work and, in doing so, draws attention to the variety, value, and complexity of work within prisons. Understanding Prison Staff provides information on relevant research studies, key debates, and on operational and procedural matters. It includes reflective material which academic staff can adopt for core or specialist modules which focus on prison management, prison officer training, and the occupational cultures of prison staff.
A thoroughly researched pioneering work based on personal interviews with inmates and prison personnel and on data compiled from questionnaires and inmate record files, Women's Prison reveals that homosexual liaisons are the primary foundation of the social structure of female inmates; shows that homosexual behavior can be a superficial kind of adjustment to particular situational privations; amplifies and broadens the application of earlier findings on men's prisons; opens the way for future studies involving the delineation of homosexual roles in the free community. This study began with both of the authors' interest in gathering data on women in prison to see whether there were female prisoner types consistent with the reported characteristics of male prisoners. Early in the course of this study it became apparent that the most salient distinction to be made among the female inmates was between those who were and those who were not engaged in homosexual behavior in prison, and further, of those who were so involved, between the incumbents of "masculine" and "feminine" roles. It has become increasingly apparent that prison behavior is rooted in more than just the conditions of confinement. Unlike their male counterparts who establish the so-called inmate code, women prisoners suffer intensely from the loss of affectional relationships and form homosexual liaisons as the primary foundation of their social organization. The great majority of homosexually involved inmates have their first affair in prison, returning to heterosexual roles outside prison. Women's Prison is a revealing study of social structure and homosexuality for sociologists; of vital interest to social workers, parole officers and chaplains dealing with female inmates as well as penologists and criminologists; and provocative reading for the non-specialist. David A. Ward is professor of sociology, University of Minnesota. Gene G. Kassebaum is professor of sociology at the American University, Cairo. Both have published widely in professional journals.
Scholars have increasingly been investigating human sexu- ality as an important field of social history in particular national cultures. This volume examines both continuities and changing patterns of sexual behavior in Austria. "Sexuality in Austria" reflects the broad variety of such recent research. Maria Mesner surveys the growing number of sex counseling organizations in interwar Vienna, some driven by eugenics, others by social concerns. Ties with Margaret Sanger's birth control movement in the U.S. are also documented. Ingrid Bauer and Renate Huber are the first scholars to treat the "foreign encounters" between Austrian women and occupation soldiers during the postwar quadripartite Austrian occupation regime in a comparative framework. Franz Eder traces the growing presence of sexual issues in post-World War II popular media and suggests parallels with the German case. Marcel Scheffknecht shows how Austria was not spared the changes in sexual mores during the "sexual revolution" of the 1960s and 1970s. Matti Bunzl analyses the legal penalties for homosexuality in postwar Austria and the liberation of the gay movement as a result of EU pressures after Austria joined the European Union in 1995. Peter Judson analyzes the major influence of the Catholic Church on Austrian sexuality through the lens of a recent gay and sex abuse scandals in the church hierarchy. In "romancing the foreigner" Julia Woesthoff analyzes the growing presence of foreign workers (gastarbeiter) in postwar Austria and their sexual contacts with natives. In a "non-topical essay" Katharina Wegan views the Austrian historical memory of the Austrian State Treaty through the fiftieth anniversary celebrations in 2005. Review essays and book reviews and the annual review of Austrian politics complete this volume. "Sexuality in Austria" will be of interest to cultural studies specialists, historians, psychologists, and sociologists.
Sexuality in Adolescence considers the latest theory and research on adolescent development, focusing on sexuality as a vital aspect of normal, healthy maturation. Biological changes are discussed within a social context, and the latest research is presented on key issues of our time, including changes in teenage sexual behaviours and beliefs, sexual risk-taking, body dissatisfaction, sex education, teen pregnancy and abortion. Susan Moore and Doreen Rosenthal explore the roles of parents, peers, the media, social institutions and youth culture in adolescent sexual adjustment. This volume covers topical issues ranging from the role of the internet in adolescent romance to the pros and cons of abstinence education versus harm minimization. Issues, such as whether there are male-female differences in desire, sexuality, motives for sex, and beliefs about romance are examined, along with the question of whether a sexual double standard still exists. Maladaptive aspects of sexual development, including sexual risk-taking, disease, unplanned pregnancy, and sexual coercion are also covered. This fully revised and updated second edition also addresses the crucial issues of: sexual minority adolescents the social determinants of adolescent sexuality sexual health as opposed to sexual illness. This book aims to promote sexual well-being, and argues for the importance of the adolescent period as a time for engendering healthy sexual attitudes and practices. It will be valuable reading for students in the social and behavioural sciences interested in adolescent development and the topic of sexuality, and for professionals working with young people.
Sexuality in Adolescence considers the latest theory and research on adolescent development, focusing on sexuality as a vital aspect of normal, healthy maturation. Biological changes are discussed within a social context, and the latest research is presented on key issues of our time, including changes in teenage sexual behaviours and beliefs, sexual risk-taking, body dissatisfaction, sex education, teen pregnancy and abortion. Susan Moore and Doreen Rosenthal explore the roles of parents, peers, the media, social institutions and youth culture in adolescent sexual adjustment. This volume covers topical issues ranging from the role of the internet in adolescent romance to the pros and cons of abstinence education versus harm minimization. Issues, such as whether there are male-female differences in desire, sexuality, motives for sex, and beliefs about romance are examined, along with the question of whether a sexual double standard still exists. Maladaptive aspects of sexual development, including sexual risk-taking, disease, unplanned pregnancy, and sexual coercion are also covered. This fully revised and updated second edition also addresses the crucial issues of: sexual minority adolescents the social determinants of adolescent sexuality sexual health as opposed to sexual illness. This book aims to promote sexual well-being, and argues for the importance of the adolescent period as a time for engendering healthy sexual attitudes and practices. It will be valuable reading for students in the social and behavioural sciences interested in adolescent development and the topic of sexuality, and for professionals working with young people.
"Sex and Sexuality in China" explores the issues of sex and
sexuality in a non-Western context by examining debates surrounding
the emergence of new sexual behaviors, and the appropriate nature
of their regulation, in the People's Republic of China.
Commissioned from Western and mainland Chinese scholars of sex and
sexuality in China, the chapters in this volume are marked by a
diversity of subject material and theoretical perspectives, but
turn on three related concerns. First, the book situates Chinas
changing sexual culture, and the nature of its governance, in the
socio-political history of the PRC. Second, it shows how Chinas
shift to a rule of law has generated conflicting conceptions of
citizenship and the associated rights of individuals as sexual
citizens. Finally, the book demonstrates that the Chinese state
does not operate strictly to repress sex; it also is implicated in
the creation of new spaces for sexual entrepreneurship, expertise
and consumption.
This book bridges the gap between the counsellor and the specialist sex therapist, by providing answers to questions raised by patients or clients about sex, gender and sexuality. It covers physiological information about genitalia, variations on sexuality, the differences between men and women in genital sexual arousal and sexual dysfunctions, an understanding of developmental sexuality and information as to whether the sex discussed is normal or pathological. By having a clearer understanding of usual sexual practices, counsellors can be readily equipped to reassure their clients, or refer to an appropriate person for specialist referral. Topics covered include physiological difficulties like erectile problems, ejaculatory difficulties, vaginismus and dyspareunia, and loss of sexual desire; gender problems including cross-dressing, transsexualism and intersex; and psychological problems include sexual addiction, fetishism and unusual sexual practices. These are discussed in the context of individual clients and in couple dynamics, and provide a comprehensive reference for the non-specialist mental health professional.
Winner of the MLA's 2016 Alan Bray Prize for Best Book in GLBTQ Studies How BDSM can be used as a metaphor for black female sexuality. The Color of Kink explores black women's representations and performances within American pornography and BDSM (bondage and discipline, domination and submission, and sadism and masochism) from the 1930s to the present, revealing the ways in which they illustrate a complex and contradictory negotiation of pain, pleasure, and power for black women. Based on personal interviews conducted with pornography performers, producers, and professional dominatrices, visual and textual analysis, and extensive archival research, Ariane Cruz reveals BDSM and pornography as critical sites from which to rethink the formative links between Black female sexuality and violence. She explores how violence becomes not just a vehicle of pleasure but also a mode of accessing and contesting power. Drawing on feminist and queer theory, critical race theory, and media studies, Cruz argues that BDSM is a productive space from which to consider the complexity and diverseness of black women's sexual practice and the mutability of black female sexuality. Illuminating the cross-pollination of black sexuality and BDSM, The Color of Kink makes a unique contribution to the growing scholarship on racialized sexuality.
In this volume, Romance and Sex in Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: Risks and Opportunities, top scholars in the field of family research examine the nature and origin of adolescents' contemporary patterns of sexual and romantic relationships, spanning such diverse topics as the evolutionary roots of these behaviors, as well as policies and programs that represent best practices for addressing these issues in schools and communities. The text offers interdisciplinary expertise from scholars of psychology, social work, sociology, demography, economics, human development and family studies, and public policy. Adolescents and young adults today face very different choices about family formation than did their parents' generation, given such societal changes as the rise in cohabitation, the increase in divorce rates, and families having fewer children. These demographic trends are linked in important ways and provide a backdrop against which adolescents and emerging adults form and maintain romantic and sexual relationships. Editors Crouter and Booth address such questions as: *What are the ways in which early family and peer relationships give rise to romantic relationships in the late adolescent and early adult years? *How do early romantic and sexual relationships influence individuals' subsequent development and life choices, including family formation? *To what extent are current trends in romantic and sexual relationships in adolescence and emerging adulthood problematic for individuals, families, and communities, and what are the most effective ways to address these issues at the level of practice, program, and policy? Romance and Sex in Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: Risks and Opportunities is an enlightening compilation of essays for academicians and upper-lever undergraduate and graduate students in the fields of human development and family studies, sociology, and psychology, as well as for practitioners in those fields who work with families and adolescents. The chapters are accessible to a wide variety of audiences.
"Sex in Consumer Culture: The Erotic Content of Media and
Marketing" considers the use of sex to promote brands, magazines,
video games, TV programming, music, and movies. Offering both
quantitative and qualitative perspectives from leading scholars in
a variety of disciplines, this volume addresses a range of integral
issues such as media promotion, racial representations, appeals to
gay and lesbian communities, content analyses, and case studies.
Chapters represent diverse perspectives, addressing such questions
as:
Studying a broader period than its contemporaries, this comprehensive study reveals a neglected tradition of British women 's writing from the Victorian era to the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Outspoken Women brings together the many and varied non-fictional writings of British women on sexual attitudes and behaviour, beginning nearly a hundred years prior to the second wave of feminism. Commentators cover a broad range of perspectives and include Darwinists, sexologists, and campaigners against the spread of VD, as well as women writing about their own lives and experiences. Covering all aspects of the debate from marriage, female desire and pleasure, to lesbianism, prostitution, STDs, and sexual ignorance, Lesley A. Hall studies how the works of this era didn t just criticise male-defined mores and the dark side of sex, but how they increasingly promoted the possibility of a brighter view and an informed understanding of the sexual life. Hall 's remarkable anthology is an engaging examination of this
fascinating subject and it provides students and scholars with an
invaluable source of primary material.
"Sex in Consumer Culture: The Erotic Content of Media and
Marketing" considers the use of sex to promote brands, magazines,
video games, TV programming, music, and movies. Offering both
quantitative and qualitative perspectives from leading scholars in
a variety of disciplines, this volume addresses a range of integral
issues such as media promotion, racial representations, appeals to
gay and lesbian communities, content analyses, and case studies.
Chapters represent diverse perspectives, addressing such questions
as:
This collection brings together cutting-edge work by established and emerging scholars focusing on key societies in the East Asian region: China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, North and South Korea, Mongolia and Vietnam. This scope enables the collection to reflect on the nature of the transformations in constructions of sexuality in highly developed, developing and emerging societies and economies. Both Japan and China have established traditions of 'sexuality' studies reflecting longstanding indigenous understandings of sex as well as more recent developments which interface with Euro-American medical and psychological understandings. Authors reflect upon the complex colonial and economic interactions and cultural flows which have affected the East Asian region over the last two centuries. They trace local flows of ideas instead of defaulting to Euro-American paradigms for sexuality studies. Through looking at regional and global exchanges of ideas about sexuality, this volume adds considerably to our understanding of the East Asian region and contributes to wider discussions of social transformation, modernisation and globalisation. It will be essential reading in undergraduate and graduate programs in sexuality studies, gender studies, women's studies and masculinity studies, as well as in anthropology, sociology, history, cultural studies, area studies and health sciences.
This collection of original essays will unravel the current heterosexual scene in two parts: one on rights and privileges, the other on popular culture. Topics covered include weddings, proms, citizenship, marriage penalties, cartoons, mermaids and myth.
"Regulating Sex" is an anthology that presents debates over the
role of the state in constructing and controlling erotic practice,
intimacy, and identity. The purpose of this edited volume is to
address sexual dilemmas in law and the state in substantive areas
such as same-sex domestic partnerships, sexual economies, and
childhood sexuality via a series of spirited dialogues between
socio-legal scholars from diverse disciplinary, national, and
political perspectives. |
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