Sexualities And Society: A Reader

Over the past generation there has been a revolution in our understanding of human sexualities. From being on the periphery of historical and scientific studies, sexuality has increasingly come to be seen as close to the heart of our understanding of contemporary societies. Since the 1960s there has been an explosion of new sexual knowledges which have re-shaped the ways in which the erotic is understood. A rich new literature has emerged, often produced by scholars influenced by feminism, lesbian and gay politics and other sexual movements.

Sexualities and Society: A Reader offers a selection of the best of recent scholarship, from a range of disciplinary perspectives. Addressing sexualities in global perspective, it introduces some of the most exciting texts in the field, bringing together a collection of compelling contemporary research which will be fascinating to readers worldwide. The chapters are grouped into five sections: social and historical approaches to sexualities; the gender of sexuality; sexual identities; globalization; power and resistance; and sexual values and life experiments.

Sexualities and Society will be a valuable resource for students of a range of courses addressing sexuality, including gender studies, feminist studies, the body, lesbian and gay studies and queer studies, aswell as sociology, cultural studies, politics, history and social policy.

Jeffrey Weeks and Janet Holland are at South Bank University. Matthew Waites is at Sheffield University.

The Contributors.

Preface and Acknowledgements.

Copyright Acknowledgements.

Publisher's Note.

Introduction (Jeffrey Weeks, Janet Holland and Matthew Waites).

Part I Social and Historical Approaches to Sexualities. .

1. Sex and the Gender Revolution (Randolph Trumbach).

2. The Postmodernization of Sex (William Simon).

3. Intimate Citizenship and the Culture of Sexual Story Telling (Ken Plummer).

Part II The Gender of Sexuality. .

4. The Big Picture: Masculinites in Recent World History (R.W. Connell).

5. A Passion for 'Sameness'? Sexuality and Gender Accountabilty (Gillian A. Dunne).

6. Heterosexuality, Heteronormativity and Gender Hierarchy;
Some Reflections on Recent Debates (Stevi Jackson).

7. When Bodies Come Together: Power, Control and Desire (Janet Holland, Caroline Ramazanoglu, Sue Sharpe and Rachel Thomson).

8. Only the Literal: the Contradictions of Anti-Pornography Feminism (Lynne Segal).

9. Anomalous Bodies:Transgenderings and Cultural Transformations (Mark Johnson).

Part III Sexual Identities. .

10. Necessary Fictions: Sexual Identities and the Politics of Diversity (Jeffrey Weeks).

11. Becoming Lesbian: Identity Work and the Performanance of Sexuality (Arlene Stein).

12. 'I Haven't Seen That in the Kama Sutra': the Sexual Stories of Disabled People (Tom Shakespeare).

13 Postmodern Bisexuality (Merl Storr).

14. Zimbabwean Law and the Production of a White Man's Disease (Oliver Phillips).

15. Not Just (Any) Body Can be a Citizen: the Politics of Law, Sexuality and Postcoloniality in Trinidad and Tobago and the Bahamas (M Jacqui Alexander).

Part IV Globalization, Power and Resistance. .

16. Globalization, Political Economy and HIV/AIDS (Dennis Altman).

17. The Land, the Blood and the Passion: the Hindu Far-Right (Chetan Bhatt).

18. Prostitution, Power and Freedom (Julia O'Connell Davidson).

19. Sex and the Open Market (Harriet Evans).

20. Negotiating Reproductive Rights (Rosalind Petchesky).

Part V Sexual Values and Life Experiments. .

21. Foucault: Aesthetics as Ethics (Lois McNay).

22. Intimacy as Democracy (Anthony Giddens).

23. The Couple: Intimate and Equal (Lynn Jamieson).

24. The Disappearance of the Modern Homosexual (Henning Bech).

Index.