Sexual revolutions have transformed American culture, society, and politics-not to mention individual lives-throughout the twentieth century. Sex radicals challenged Victorian restraint and championed sexual liberation. In the process, they confronted a tightly knit web of legal restrictions on sexual expression and conduct designed to keep sex out of the public realm and to allow public officials to police sex in private spaces. The American Civil Liberties Union has stood at the center of these battles, using the Constitution to create an expansive body of sexual rights that helped lay the old order to rest. How Sex Became a Civil Liberty is the first book to show how ACLU leaders and attorneys forged legal principles that advanced the sexual revolution. It explains how, why, and to what effect ACLU activists developed and revised their own policies, adopted sexual expression and practice as civil liberties, persuaded courts to do the same, and joined with commercial media and others to promote these understandings of sexuality to a broader public. Through its influence over public discourse as well as law, the ACLU helped to establish a liberal, rights-based sexual ethos in the United States. It played a prominent role in nearly every major court decision related to sexuality and also reached beyond the courtroom to promote its agenda through grassroots activism, political action, advertising campaigns, and public education. Thanks to its work, abortion and birth control are legal, coerced sterilization is rare, sexually explicit material is readily available, and gay rights are becoming a reality. Using rich archival sources and interviews with major players, How Sex Became a Civil Liberty tells the story of the men and women who built the legal foundation for the sexual revolution. It explores how private lives shaped approaches to public policy and illuminates the importance of debates among activists-as well as between activists and their opponents-in shaping what we now consider to be our sexual rights. A story of tragedy as well as of triumph, How Sex Became a Civil Liberty shows how the ACLU helped to create our polarized sexual culture by collapsing old distinctions between public and private and privileging access to sexual expression over protection from it. Realizing how the result-a culture saturated with sex and a citizenry armed with sexual rights-liberates and also limits our sexual choices could help to transform fights over rights into productive conversations about how to shape the public world we share.

Shame, a powerful emotion, leads individuals to feel vulnerable, victimized, rejected. In Shameless, noted scholar and writer Arlene Stein explores American culture's attitudes toward shame and sexuality.

Some say that we live in a world without shame. But American culture is a curious mix of the shameless and the shamers, a seemingly endless parade of Pamela Andersons and Jerry Falwells strutting their stuff and wagging their fingers. With thoughtful analysis and wit, Shameless analyzes these clashing visions of sexual morality.

While conservatives have brought back sexual shame--by pushing for abstinence-only sex education, limitations on abortion, and prohibitions of gay/lesbian civil rights--progressives hold out for sexual liberalization and a society beyond "the closet." As these two Americas compete with one another, the future of family life, the right to privacy, and the very meaning of morality hang in the balance.

First published in 1981, this title takes a 'sociobiological' approach to the exploration of sexual habits, looking at the fundamental biological nature of humans. The book covers the spectrum of human sexuality, considering love and marriage, variant sexuality and social influences. This is a valuable reissue for any student of sexual psychology or cultural and evolutionary anthropology with an interest in the fundamental influences on human sexuality.

This ground-breaking volume explores the terrain of friendship against the historical backdrop of early modern Europe. In these thought-provoking essays the terms of friendship are explored - from the most intimate and erotically charged to the reciprocities of village life. This is a rich offering in social and cultural history that is attuned to the pervasive language of religion. A hidden history is revealed - of friendships that we have lost, and of friendships starkly, and movingly, familiar.

Richard Sipe, himself a former monk and priest, has made a lifelong venture of determining the reality and meaning of religious celibacy. Even an adequate operational definition of religious celibacy, he says, has been avoided and denied by Catholic hierarchy and scholars to preserve "the celibate myth." Having spent 25 years conducting a study of celibacy and sexual behavior among Roman Catholic priests, Sipe concluded that at any one time no more than 50 percent of priests were practicing celibacy. To more fully understand what celibacy is, how it is practiced, the effect it has on the humanness--the psychology and spirituality--of men and women, and the social effects it presents, Sipe says we can use the approach presented in this book. Specifically, we can analyze historic men who presented themselves or were perceived as living examples of celibacy--Gandhi, Coughlin, Sheen, and Greely--and also focus on the "most profound" truths of celibacy found in literary accounts, from Joyce and Hawthorne to Farrell and Powers. Psychology, religion, and literary criticism interface and are woven together in this book with minimal jargon. The Serpent and the Dove was written in the hope of exciting honest analysis of the essence of religious celibacy and to foster a recrudescence of authentic sexual vigor with all of its evolutionary potential. "Human sexuality is not going away; nor is it irrelevant to the wellbeing, progress and happiness of the human community," says Sipe. "And the practice of genuine celibacy is not going to disappear either. No question, the Catholic Church needs profound reformation. But in all my work I have chosen not to throw any babies out with the horrendously dirty'holy water' the church continues to treasure and disseminate. Here, as in all my work, I try to foster dialogue between religion and science, such as literary criticism. The Catholic Church (and religion) is at a Copernican Moment when it has to cede to science the nature of sexuality." The Serpent and the Dove is one more work among Sipe's many books and articles making the need for that clear.

The nineteenth century witnessed a discursive explosion around the subject of sex. Historical evidence indicates that the sexual behaviour which had always been punishable began to be spoken of, regulated, and policed in new ways. Prostitutes were no longer dragged through the town, dunked in lakes, whipped and branded. Medieval forms of punishment shifted from the emphasis on punishing the body to punishing the mind. Building on the work of Foucault, Walkowitz, and Mort, Linda Mahood traces and examines new approached emerging throughout the nineteenth century towards prostitution and looks at the apparatus and institutions created for its regulation and control. In particular, throughout the century, the bourgeoisie contributed regularly to the discourse on the prostitution problem, the debate focusing on the sexual and vocational behaviour of working class women. The thrust of the discourse, however, was not just repression or control but the moral reform - through religious training, moral education, and training in domestic service - of working class women. With her emphasis on Scottish 'magdalene' homes and a case study of the system of police repression used in Glasgow, Linda Mahood has written the first book of its kind dealing with these issues in Scotland. At the same time the book sets nineteenth-century treatment of prostitutes in Scotland into the longer run of British attempts to control 'drabs and harlots', and contributes to the wider discussion of 'dangerous female sexuality' in a male-dominated society.

At the heart of European literary modernism lies a concern with the erotic, and in particular with various forms of what Freud saw as 'sexual aberration', including sadism, masochism, homosexuality, fetishism and necrophilia. Modernist Eroticisms explores the impact of sexological and early psychoanalytic conceptions of sexual perversion on the representation of the erotic in modernist literature: writers whose work is discussed include Djuna Barnes, Georges Bataille, Edouard Dujardin, Hans Henny Jahnn, Henry James, James Joyce, Franz Kafka, D. H. Lawrence, Maurice Maeterlinck, Thomas Mann, Robert Musil, Marcel Proust, Rainer Maria Rilke, Paul Valery, Frank Wedekind and Oscar Wilde. Taken together, the essays in this volume explore not only the specificities of the modernist writing of the erotic, but also its decisive role in the shift from conceptions of sexual deviance to those of sexual difference.

Porno? Chic! examines the relationship between the proliferation of pornography and sexualised culture in the West and social and cultural trends which have advanced the rights of women and homosexuals. Brian McNair addresses this relationship with an analysis of trends in sexualised culture since 2002 linked to a transnational analysis of change in sexual politics and sex/gender relations in a range of societies, from the sexually liberalised societies of advanced capitalism to those in which women and homosexuals remain tightly controlled by authoritarian, patriarchal regimes. In this accessible, jargon-free book, Brian McNair examines why those societies in which sexualised culture is the most liberalised and pervasive are also those in which the socio-economic and political rights of women and homosexuals have advanced the most.

The essays collected in this volume reflect the upsurge of interest in the research and writing of feminist history in the 1970s/80s and illustrate the developments which have taken place - in the types of questions asked, the methodologies employed, and the scope and sophistication of the analytical approaches which have been adopted. Focusing on women in nineteenth-century Britain and America, this book includes work by scholars in both countries and takes its place in a long history of Anglo-American debate. The collection adopts 'the doubled vision of feminist theory', the view that it is the simultaneous operation of relations of class and of sex/gender that perpetuate both patriarchy and capitalism. This view informs a wide variety of contributions from 'Class and Gender in Victorian England', to 'Servants, Sexual Relations and the Risks of Illegitimacy', 'Free Black Women', 'The Power of Women's Networks', and 'Socialism, Feminism and Sexual Antagonism in the London Tailoring Trade'. Both the vigour and the urgency of scholarship infused with social aims can be clearly felt in the essays collected here.

Adventures in Kate Bush and Theory presents Kate Bush as you have never seen her before. Here is the polymorphously perverse Kate, the witchy Kate, the queer Kate; the Kate who moves beyond the mime.Drawing on cutting edge feminist philosophy, critical theory and queer studies, Adventures in Kate Bush and Theory makes theory accessible to new audiences. Through analysis of the music, film, video and dance of Kate Bush, it breaks down boundaries between the academic and popular, showing that theory can be sordid, funny and relevant - despite what most people think.

Contributors: Susan Coates, Claudio Laks Eizirik, Peter Fonagy, Richard C. Friedman, Andre E. Haynal, Rainer Krause, Marianne Leuzinger-Bohleber, Linda C. Mayes, Friedemann Pfafin, Anne-Marie Sandler, Sheila Spensley, Sverre Varvin, and Rudi Vermote."Sex has undoubtedly become more complex since Freud s original descriptions, yet in another way it has changed little. It is still there as the primary motor ensuring the survival of our species, the perpetuation of our genetic material. For all mammals the process of reproduction is at the centre of their behavioural systems. For mammals with minds, this is unlikely to be different. Sexual inhibition and dissatisfaction, conflicts and perversions, the sheer intensity of guilt, jealousy, and rage that sexuality entails, are indicators of how central sexual function remains for us. Psychoanalysis cannot shirk its traditional responsibility of casting light into the darkest recesses of our mental existence."--Peter Fonagy"All the contributors to this volume agree that understanding sexuality in its current manifestations, its normalities and pathologies, its relevance to illness and the process of recovery from trauma and failed developments within the therapeutic dyad and other relationships remains a central topic for future psychoanalytic research. Sexuality has to be rediscovered by psychoanalysis as its genuine field of research, which earns a high priority in our everyday clinical practice as well as in theorizing and research."--Marianne Leuzinger-Bohleber"

A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER BLACKWELL'S BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021 Essential lessons on the world we live in, from one of our greatest young thinkers - a guide to what everybody is talking about today 'Unparalleled and extraordinary . . . A bracing revivification of a crucial lineage in feminist writing' JIA TOLENTINO 'I believe Amia Srinivasan's work will change the world' KATHERINE RUNDELL 'Rigorously researched, but written with such spark and verve. The best non-fiction book I have read this year' PANDORA SYKES ------------------------- How should we talk about sex? It is a thing we have and also a thing we do; a supposedly private act laden with public meaning; a personal preference shaped by outside forces; a place where pleasure and ethics can pull wildly apart. To grasp sex in all its complexity - its deep ambivalences, its relationship to gender, class, race and power - we need to move beyond 'yes and no', wanted and unwanted. We need to rethink sex as a political phenomenon. Searching, trenchant and extraordinarily original, The Right to Sex is a landmark examination of the politics and ethics of sex in this world, animated by the hope of a different one. SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2022 LONGLISTED FOR THE POLARI FIRST BOOK PRIZE 2022 LONGLISTED FOR THE BRITISH ACADEMY BOOK PRIZE 2022

Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2015 Sex in China introduces readers to some of the dramatic shifts that have taken place in Chinese sexual behaviours and attitudes, and public discussions of sex, since the 1980s. The book explores what it means to talk about 'sex' in present-day China, where sex and sexuality are more and more visible in everyday life. Elaine Jeffreys and Haiqing Yu situate China's changing sexual culture, and how it is governed, in the socio-political history of the People's Republic of China. They demonstrate that Chinese governmental authorities and policies do not set out strictly to repress 'sex'; they also create spaces for the emergence of new sexual subjects and subjectivities. They discuss the complexities surrounding the ongoing explosion of commentary on sex and sexuality in the PRC, and the emergence of new sexual behaviours and mores. Sex in China offers clear, critical coverage of sex-related issues that are a focus of public concern and debate in China - chapters focus on sex studies; marriage and family planning; youth and sex(iness); gay, lesbian and queer discourses and identities; commercial sex; and HIV/AIDS. This book will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars both of modern China and of sex and sexualities, who wish to understand the role that 'sex' plays in contemporary China.

Expand your knowledgewith theories and concepts that may challenge your assumptions about sexual attraction Human sexuality can be better understood by knowing how sexual psychologies may have evolved throughout the ages. Handbook of the Evolution of Human Sexuality presents a detailed examination of human sexuality, the assumptions about concepts and terms pertaining to sexuality, and the latest theories on the evolution of human sexual attraction. Leading experts explore various aspects of evolutionary theory, with a focus on Evolutionary Psychology (EP). Discussions include mate preferences, mating behavior, mate signaling, pheromones, and same-sex attraction. This comprehensive source also presents three groundbreaking theories of the evolution of same-sex attraction. Handbook of the Evolution of Human Sexuality takes current assumptions about human sexuality, explains each in turn, and then offers fresh perspectives on conventional concepts of sexual orientation. This extensive resource provides ample evidence to argue that researchers should investigate sexual relationships based on a person's characteristics such as personal traits, complementary roles/status, sexual acts, or situational context rather than simply the sex of the partner. The book provides a discussion of evolutionary theory, evolution of human sexual culture, evolution of sexual pleasure, and detailed analysis of assumptions about sexual orientation. The text is carefully referenced. Some of the topics explored by Handbook of the Evolution of Human Sexuality include: links to non-human primate sexual behaviors and the emergence of human (sexual) nature EP research on consensual adult human sexual behaviors studies of evolved male and female mating strategies, mate preferences, and sexual psychologies a brief history of the theory of evolution ancient culture, archeology, and an overview of premodern human sexuality evolutionary history of sexual pleasure human mating strategies development of mate preferences sexual signals, such as distinctive physical features, material wealth, etc. theories of the evolution of same-sex sexual attraction and behavior Primatologist Paul Vasey's observations of female Japanese macaques and their female-female sexual encounterswith an examination of human male-male behavior evolutionary history of female-female affectional bonding with a new theory on the behavior evolutionary history of male-male sexual behaviorwith intriguing thoughts on why it happened evolutionary history of pheromones as chemical messengers much more Handbook of the Evolution of Human Sexuality is an important, thought-provoking resource perfect for evolutionary psychologists, sexologists, educators, researchers, scholars, and graduate students.

This timely volume ventures into the subject of sadomasochism in varied aspects of medieval life. Saint's Lives and mystical treatises provide evidence of failed sadism and empowering masochism. Literary culture in the form of epics and courtly tales preserve stories of eroticised power. These exciting chapters join together to form a picture of medieval culture that is kinky in its practice and deeply psychological at its core. -- .

Red Families v. Blue Families identifies a new family model geared for the post-industrial economy. Rooted in the urban middle class, the coasts and the "blue states" in the last three presidential elections, the Blue Family Paradigm emphasizes the importance of women's as well as men's workforce participation, egalitarian gender roles, and the delay of family formation until both parents are emotionally and financially ready. By contrast, the Red Family Paradigm--associated with the Bible Belt, the mountain west, and rural America--rejects these new family norms, viewing the change in moral and sexual values as a crisis. In this world, the prospect of teen childbirth is the necessary deterrent to premarital sex, marriage is a sacred undertaking between a man and a woman, and divorce is society's greatest moral challenge. Yet, the changing economy is rapidly eliminating the stable, blue collar jobs that have historically supported young families, and early marriage and childbearing derail the education needed to prosper. The result is that the areas of the country most committed to traditional values have the highest divorce and teen pregnancy rates, fueling greater calls to reinstill traditional values.
Featuring the groundbreaking research first hailed in The New Yorker, this penetrating book will transform our understanding of contemporary American culture and law. The authors show how the Red-Blue divide goes much deeper than this value system conflict--the Red States have increasingly said "no" to Blue State legal norms, and, as a result, family law has been rent in two. The authors close with a consideration of where these different family systems still overlap, and suggest solutions that permit rebuilding support for both types of families in changing economic circumstances.
Incorporating results from the 2008 election, Red Families v. Blue Families will reshape the debate surrounding the culture wars and the emergence of red and blue America.

This three-volume collection focuses on writings by and about cross-dressing women from the early nineteenth century up until the beginning of World War II. In so doing, it provides a new perspective on one of the most decisive periods in the history of feminism.

The anthology brings together for the first time key texts from the sexological and the literary realms, as well as newspaper articles, letters and photographs, which document the phenomenon of cross-dressing women in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century British culture. The collection also includes translations from European texts that impacted on British understandings of cross-dressing during this time.

A fascinating work, each of the volumes is introduced separately with a critical essay, and is divided thematically to include sections devoted to theories, fictions and fictionalisations, and lives. Together, these volumes make available important source material for the history of feminism.

Sexuality is the fifth revised and updated edition of the classic text for understanding human sexuality. This new edition brings the arguments and evidence fully up to date and explores their implication for many topical controversies, around LGBTQ+ rights, the trans experience and gender fluidity, same-sex marriage, sexual autonomy and consent, and the meanings of sexual choice. Since it was first published in the 1980s, Sexuality has been at the cutting edge of the study of the social and historical meanings of sexuality. Blending deep empirical knowledge with theoretical sophistication and an acute sensitivity to the politics of sexuality, the book offers an informed framework for understanding the complexities of sexual life. A key insight of the book is that the ways we think and speak about sexuality make a major contribution to the ways we live it. Sexuality may be rooted in biological possibilities, but it is shaped and experienced through languages and meanings which are inevitably historical and social in nature. The book explores with clarity and precision the invention and re-invention of sexual meanings, the question of what constitutes a true sex and the biological and social roots of sexual difference, the challenges of diversity, the re-making of sexuality as a highly divisive political subject and the implications of the transformation of intimate life in the past few generations. These are seen in the context of profound changes that are re-fashioning the world, especially globalisation, cyber-sex, and the rise of new forms of agency, including among women and LGBTQ+ people, which have fed into new claims for sexual human rights. This new edition of Sexuality will be an indispensable guide for students in the social sciences with an interest in the ever-changing worlds of sexuality.

Beginning in the early nineteenth century, Cubans migrated to New York City to organize and protest against Spanish colonial rule. While revolutionary wars raged in Cuba, expatriates envisioned, dissected, and redefined meanings of independence and nationhood. An underlying element was the concept of Cubanidad, a shared sense of what it meant to be Cuban. Deeply influenced by discussions of slavery, freedom, masculinity, and United States imperialism, the question of what and who constituted "being Cuban" remained in flux and often, suspect. The first book to explore Cuban racial and sexual politics in New York during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Suspect Freedoms chronicles the largely unexamined and often forgotten history of more than a hundred years of Cuban exile, migration, diaspora, and community formation. Nancy Raquel Mirabal delves into the rich cache of primary sources, archival documents, literary texts, club records, newspapers, photographs, and oral histories to write what Michel Rolph Trouillot has termed an "unthinkable history." Situating this pivotal era within larger theoretical discussions of potential, future, visibility, and belonging, Mirabal shows how these transformations complicated meanings of territoriality, gender, race, power, and labor. She argues that slavery, nation, and the fear that Cuba would become "another Haiti" were critical in the making of early diasporic Cubanidades, and documents how, by the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Afro-Cubans were authors of their own experiences; organizing movements, publishing texts, and establishing important political, revolutionary, and social clubs. Meticulously documented and deftly crafted, Suspect Freedoms unravels a nuanced and vital history.

A book that dispels the myths about those who prefer to go beyond vanilla sex Sadomasochism: Powerful Pleasures is a comprehensive exploration of the entire sexual subculture that lies on the cutting edge of society. The mental health professions and society have marginalized people who practice sadomasochism (SM).This interdisciplinary collection dispels myths surrounding SM, bringing together leading scholars from the fields of sexology, psychology, sociology, and medicine, alongside queer studies and sexual minority advocacy. Experts such as Thomas S. Weinberg, PhD, Susan Wright, MA, Margaret Nichols, PhD, Odd Reiersol, PhD, Svein Skeid, Rebecca F. Plante, PhD, Niklas Nordling, MPsych, and N. Kenneth Sandnabba, PhD, among other stellar authorities, reveal research findings, clinical data, and critical thinking about sexuality that lies beyond vanilla. To gain a broader understanding of human sexuality, the study of SM is crucial for what it reveals about us as sexual beings. The text discusses the results of research into practitioners' behaviors and perspectives, the prevalence of SM behaviors in today's culture, and stresses the need for greater tolerance and understanding. The realization of SM desires and their acceptance are explored in detail. This unflinching look at the world and the people of SM will guide scholars and lay people alike into a more sensitive, sex-friendly viewpoint of the people society calls kinky. Sadomasochism: Powerful Pleasures answers questions such as: What is the nature of SM relationships? What are the values and motives of SM participants? How do mental health professionals regard and treat SM practitioners? Should sadomasochism continue to be classified as a mental illness? What is the legal status of SM and what are the consequences of discrimination against SM practitioners? Does increasing visibility of SM imagery decrease stigma or create added problems? What can ordinary lovers learn from those we have marginalized about the farther reaches of human erotic potential? Sadomasochism: Powerful Pleasures is valuable, insightful reading for mental health professionals, students, sex educators, sex counselors, sex therapists, sex researchers, sexual health workers, sociologists, sexual minority groups, and anyone interested in learning more about the sexual pleasures that lie beyond the traditional.

aAt her best, Moore has a frank, breezy manner that may be partly due to her practical experience outside academe. . . . Sperm Counts is a lively, funny read.a
--Camille Paglia in "The Chronicle Review"

aWhile nearly every point she makes about the hidden significance of sperm is a home run, ultimately, this is an academic sociological study written in an appropriately starchy style. . . . [that] results in a fascinating read packed with conclusions.a -- "City Paper"

aSo fascinating and fresh. . . . Should be required reading for scholars in sexuality/queer studies, womenas and gender studies, social studies of science and cultural studies. . .. Essential.a--"Choice"

aSperm Counts is careful to include the history of semen research, as well as examining its role today. . . . [Moore] approach[es] the topic of semen with precision and diligence.a
--"Bitch"

aCartoon line-drawings of sperm wriggle over each page of text in this dissection of the ways societal views of sperm shape culture. A feminist account backed by sociological and scientific research, Mooreas academic tome is accessible to the masses.a
--"Bust"

Moore has analyzed religious, social, erotic and medical-scientifc investments in sperm, singular and plural.a--"Feminist Review"

aIn Sperm Counts, Moore's new book about the cultural meanings of sperm, she tells this story to illustrate her own childhood naivetA(c) about a substance that, as she now sees it, is far from simple. These days, according to Moore, sperm has tremendous cultural meaning--and looking at it in its many contexts, from children's books to pornography, can tell us a great deal about the skittish state of American masculinity. . . .Sperm Counts is a serious book, and the first on its subject. But it also includes anecdotes from Mooreas life, lending it a more conversational tone than most academic works. The bookas margins are even squiggled with sketches of sperm--flip the pages and they swim around. (This is a subject matter, after all, that requires a certain degree of levity.) Moore happily lists spermatic nicknames (ababy gravy, a agentlemenas relish, a apimp juicea) before skewering, in a later chapter, the burgeoning home sperm-test industry (sample ad slogan: aI donat know how that semen got in my underwear!a).a
--"Salon.com"

a[Moore] examines how sperm is seen through a variety of social lenses, including pornography, sperm banking, childrenas books on reproduction and criminal DNA evidence.a
--"Between the Lines Magazine"

aIrresistable. . . . A really rich read.a
--feministing.com

aIncredibly well researched and captivating read.a
--Girlwithpen.blogspot.com

aA clever yet comprehensive look at the asubstancea of manhood. Moore goes where few scholars dare to tread, and uses bodily fluids as a revealing window through which to observe the current nature of sexuality and gender relations.a
--Michael S. Kimmel, author of "Manhood in America: A Cultural Study"

aSperm Counts is a serious book, and the first on its subject. But it also includes anecdotes from Moore's life, lending it a more conversational tone than most academic works. The book's margins are even squiggled with sketches of sperm -- flip the pages and they swim around. (This is a subject matter, after all, that requires a certain degree of levity.) Moore happily lists spermatic nicknames ("baby gravy," "gentlemen'srelish," "pimp juice") before skewering, in a later chapter, the burgeoning home sperm-test industry (sample ad slogan: "I don't know how that semen got in my underwear!").a
--Salon.com

"In this intriguing feminist sociological account of sperm, Moore takes a subject we think we knew all about and proceeds to examine the multi-dimensional facets of its cultural subtexts. What is so unusual about this provocative book is the way Moore meshes history, technology, medicine, criminology, gender studies, children's books, and porn in her depiction of sperm as a manifestation of masculinity. Sperm Counts is witty, erudite, and informative-- a gem of social constructionist scholarship."
--Judith Lorber, author of "Paradoxes of Gender" and "Breaking the Bowls"

aMoore has crafted a smart and surprisingly funny book about semen. Original and refreshing, Sperm Counts follows the alittle guysa through laboratories, childrenas books, sex work, crime scenes, and bodies, illuminating varied meanings and representations of manhood and masculinity. This is engaged feminist scholarship at its best.a
--Monica J. Casper, author of "The Making of the Unborn Patient: A Social Anatomy of Fetal Surgery"

It has been called sperm, semen, seed, cum, jizz, spunk, gentlemen's relish, and splooge. But however the "tacky, opaque liquid that comes out of the penis" is described, the very act of defining "sperm" and "semen" depends on your point of view. For Lisa Jean Moore, how sperm comes to be known is based on who defines it (a scientist vs. a defense witness, for example), under what social circumstances it is found (a doctor's office vs. a crime scene), and for what purposes it will be used (invitro fertilization vs. DNA analysis). Examining semen historically, medically, and culturally, Sperm Counts is a penetrating exploration of its meaning and power.

Using a "follow that sperm" approach, Moore shows how representations of sperm and semen are always in flux, tracing their twisting journeys from male reproductive glands to headline news stories and presidential impeachment trials. Much like the fluid of semen itself can leak onto fabrics and into bodies, its meanings seep into our consciousness over time. Moore's analytic lens yields intriguing observations of how sperm is "spent" and "reabsorbed" as it spurts, swims, and careens through penises, vaginas, test tubes, labs, families, cultures, and politics.

Drawn from fifteen years of research, Sperm Counts examines historical and scientific documents, children's "facts of life" books, pornography, the Internet, forensic transcripts and sex worker narratives to explain how semen got so complicated. Among other things, understanding how we produce, represent, deploy and institutionalize semen-biomedically, socially and culturally-provides valuable new perspectives on the changing social position of men and the evolving meanings of masculinity. Ultimately, as Moore reveals, sperm is intimately involved in not only the physical reproduction of males and females, but in how we come to understand ourselves as men and women.

Globally, rates of sexual violence remain unacceptably high, with disproportionate effects on women and girls. While most scholars and practitioners uniformly concur about the scope of the problem, there is currently little agreement about how to prevent sexual violence before it occurs.Drawing on diverse disciplines such as criminology, education, health promotion, law, psychology, social work, socio-legal studies, sociology and women's studies, this book provides the first interdisciplinary collection on the primary prevention of sexual violence. The volume addresses the key causes or determinants of sexual violence, including cultural attitudes, values, beliefs and norms, as well as systemic gender-based inequalities that create the conditions underlying much violence against women. Including contributions from internationally renowned experts in the field, the volume critically investigates the theoretical underpinnings of prevention work, describing and analysing the limits and possibilities of primary prevention strategies 'on the ground'. The chapters collectively examine the role that structural violence and gender inequality play in fostering a 'culture' of sexual violence, and reflect on the relationship between macro and micro levels for understanding both sexual violence perpetration and prevention.This book will be a key resource for scholars, practitioners and policymakers involved in the fields of sexual violence prevention, education, law, family violence, and child sexual abuse.Including contributions from Victoria L. Banyard (University of New Hampshire, USA), Alison Cares (Assumption College, USA), Moira Carmody (University of Western Sydney, Australia), Gillian Fletcher (La Trobe Univeristy, Australia), Wendy Larcombe (University of Melbourne, Australia), Claire Maxwell (University of London, UK), Mary M. Moynihan (University of New Hampshire, USA), Bob Pease (Deakin University, Australia) and Antonia Quadara (Australian Institute of Family Studies, Australia).

One woman's secret journal completely changes her marriage in this hilarious and biting memoir--the inspiration for the Netflix Original Series SEX/LIFE. School psychologists aren't supposed to write books about sex. Doing so would be considered "unethical" and "a fireable offense." Lucky for you, ethics was never my strong suit. Sex/Life: 44 Chapters About 4 Men is a laugh-out-loud funny and brutally honest look at female sexuality, as told through the razor-sharp lens of domesticated bad girl BB Easton. No one and nothing is off limits as BB revisits the ex-boyfriends--a sadistic tattoo artist, a punk rock parolee, and a heavy metal bass player--that led her to finally find true love with a straight-laced, drop-dead-gorgeous . . . accountant. After settling down and starting a family with her perfectly vanilla "husbot," Ken, BB finds herself longing for the reckless passion she had in her youth. She begins to write about these escapades in a secret journal, just for fun, but when Ken starts to act out the words on the pages, BB realizes that she might have stumbled upon the holy grail of behavior modification techniques. The psychological dance that ensues is nothing short of hilarious as BB wields her journal like a blowtorch, trying to light a fire under her cold, distant partner. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but in the end, BB learns that the man she was trying so hard to change was perfect for her all along. To view a comprehensive content warning, please visit the author's website.

Sexual risk behaviors have inspired profound ideas and effective teamwork. But as the early history of AIDS demonstrates, when sexual practice is part of the equation, the same bold thinkers may be stymied, or just silent. Safe sex and monogamy have been proposed as answers to a gamut of social problems, but there is frequently little consensus on what these terms mean.

Sexual Partnering, Sexual Practices, and Health replaces myth and stereotype with meticulously documented findings on real people and their behaviors in their social, environmental, and individual contexts. Author Sana Loue examines the range of partnerships not only in the U.S. but also Europe and the developing world, focusing on both consenting relationships and exploitative sexual interactions:

- Varieties of monogamy between consenting adults

- Relationships involving multiple adult partners

- Incest, pedophilia, and child marriage

- Sex work, trafficking, and pornography

- Fetishes and related behaviors

All chapters cogently address the health issues that arise from these arrangements, concluding with implications for research, prevention, and intervention.

Throughout, Loue argues for a common language across disciplines and challenges her readersa "therapists, health care providers, and policymakers alikea "to rethink their assumptions about clients, their health needs, and the communities they represent.

"Dr. Loue's work is a truly significant scholarly contribution to a topic too often characterized by pseudo-science and ideological distortions. "Sexual Partnering, Sexual Practices, and Health" should prove an invaluable resource for researchers and community practitioners alike inhelping understand dimensions of sexual practice, and designing more effective approaches to sexual health and violence prevention."

-Earl Pike, Executive Director, AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland

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aIn this carefully crafted and highly readable history, Marilyn E. Hegarty reminds us of the multiple links between sexuality and war. She captures the contradictions and shows us how women's sexuality was both mobilized and policed.a
--Joanne Meyerowitz, author of "How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States"

aVictory Girls, Khaki-Wackies, and Patriotutes offers a substantive and complex narrative of the sweeping and multiple constraints on female sexuality during World War II. Hegarty's study is the best since Allan Brandt's epic work in its nuanced attention to the process by which female sexuality -- deemed both necessary and suspect -- was harnessed in service to the state, while female sexual desire and womenas choices to engage in heterosexual activity remained unspeakable and became critical targets for containment during and after the war. This is a provocative and compelling book.a
--Leisa D. Meyer, author of "Creating G. I. Jane: Sexuality and Power in the Womenas Army Corps During World War II"

aThe strength of Victory Girls, Khaki-Wackies, and Patriotutes is [Hegartyas] delving deep into bureaucratic files, piecing together the Federal and state US officialsa steps toward, and thinking behind, mobilizing and controlling American womenas sexuality.a
--Cynthia Enloe, author of "The Curious Feminist: Searching for Women in a New Age of Empire"

Victory Girls, Khaki-Wackies, and Patriotutes offers a counter-narrative to the story of Rosie the Riveter, the icon of female patriotism during World War II. With her fist defiantly raised and her shirtsleeves rolled up, Rosie was anasexual warrior on the homefront. But thousands of women supported the war effort not by working in heavy war industries, but by providing morale-boosting services to soldiers, ranging from dances at officersa clubs to more blatant forms of sexual services, such as prostitution.

While the de-sexualized Rosie was celebrated, women who used their sexuality -- either intentionally or inadvertently -- to serve their country encountered a contradictory morals campaign launched by government and social agencies, which shunned female sexuality while valorizing masculine sexuality. This double-standard was accurately summed up by a government official who dubbed these women apatriotutesa: part patriot, part prostitute.

Marilyn E. Hegarty explores the dual discourse on female sexual mobilization that emerged during the war, in which agencies of the state both required and feared womenas support for, and participation in, wartime services. The equation of female desire with deviance simultaneously over-sexualized and desexualized many women, who nonetheless made choices that not only challenged gender ideology but defended their right to remain in public spaces.