ABSTRACT

As the field of sexuality studies has become a growth area in academia and classes on sexuality studies are incorporated into various disciplines, the expanding book market has been filled with specialist oriented texts which are often theoretically focused and contain too many summaries for an undergraduate audience. Addressing this imbalance, this key new volume presents the field of sexuality in an accessible and engaging way for undergraduates.

Breaking new ground, both substantively and stylistically, this book offers students, academics and researchers an accessible, engaging introduction and overview of this emerging field. Its central premise is to explore the social character of sexuality, the role of social differences such as race or nationality in creating sexual variation, and the ways sex is entangled in relations of power and inequality. Through this novel approach, the field of sexuality is considered, for the first time, in multicultural, global, and comparative terms and from a truly social perspective.

This important volume consists of over fifty short and original essays on the key topics and themes in sexuality studies, and interviews with twelve leading scholars in the field which convey some of the most innovative work being done. Each contribution clearly conveys the latest research with examples. Ideal for students of gender and sexuality studies, this topical and timely volume will be an invaluable resource to all those with an interest in sexuality studies.

part 1|28 pages

Sex as a social fact

chapter 1|12 pages

Theoretical perspectives

chapter 3|5 pages

Surveying sex

part 2|55 pages

Sexual meanings

chapter 4|7 pages

Sex and the family

The power of ideology

chapter 5|9 pages

Romantic love

chapter 6|7 pages

Sexual pleasure

chapter 7|8 pages

Purity and pollution

Sex as a moral discourse

chapter 8|5 pages

Sex and power

chapter 9|9 pages

Gay and straight rites of passage

chapter 10|7 pages

Coming out in Italy

part 3|57 pages

Sexual bodies and behaviors

chapter 12|6 pages

Sexualizing Asian male bodies

chapter 13|6 pages

Sex and the senior woman

chapter 14|5 pages

Polishing the pearl

Discoveries of the clitoris

chapter 15|7 pages

Orgasm

chapter 16|8 pages

Anal sex

Phallic and other meanings

chapter 17|6 pages

Sexual intercourse

chapter 18|7 pages

Viagra and the coital imperative

part 4|67 pages

Sexual identities

chapter 19|9 pages

Straight men

chapter 20|9 pages

Lesbians

chapter 21|6 pages

The disappearance of the homosexual

chapter 23|9 pages

Bisexualities in America

chapter 24|7 pages

Transgendering

Challenging the "normal"

chapter 26|8 pages

Multiple identities

Race, class, and gender in lesbian and gay affirming Protestant congregations

part 5|60 pages

Sexual institutions and sexual commerce

chapter 27|5 pages

One is not born a bride

How weddings regulate heterosexuality

chapter 29|10 pages

Shopping for love

Online dating and the making of a cyber culture of romance 1

chapter 30|7 pages

Conflicts at the tubs

Bathhouses and gay culture and politics in the United States

chapter 31|8 pages

Sexual tourism

chapter 32|8 pages

Sex sells, but what else does it do?

The American porn industry

chapter 33|8 pages

Sex workers

chapter 34|5 pages

Condoms in the global economy

part 6|68 pages

Sexual cultures

chapter 37|9 pages

Gay men dancing

Circuit parties

chapter 38|9 pages

The time of the sadomasochist

Hunting with(in) the "tribus"

chapter 40|5 pages

Sex and rock 'n' roll

chapter 42|7 pages

Wait ... hip hop sexualities

part 7|92 pages

Sexual regulation and inequality

chapter 44|8 pages

Sexuality, state, and nation

chapter 46|7 pages

The marriage contract

chapter 51|13 pages

Healing (disorderly) desire

Medical-therapeutic regulation of sexuality 1

chapter 52|5 pages

Therapeutic institutions

chapter 54|9 pages

Sexual politics in intimate relationships

Sexual coercion and harassment

chapter 55|7 pages

Sexual and racial violence and American masculinity

The James Byrd and Matthew Shepard murders

part 8|74 pages

Sexual politics

chapter 56|7 pages

Gay marriage. Why now? Why at all?

chapter 58|8 pages

Queering the family

chapter 59|8 pages

The pro-family movement

chapter 60|7 pages

Covenant marriage

Reflexivity and retrenchment in the politics of intimacy

chapter 61|8 pages

The politics of AIDS

Sexual pleasure and danger

chapter 63|5 pages

Gender and sexual politics

American gay rights and feminist movements

chapter 64|6 pages

Politics of sex education