Books On Sociology of Sexualities

Sociologyindex, Sociology Books 2012, Sociology of Sexualities

Sexual Citizenship: The Material Construction of Sexualities Book by David T. Evans

Sexuality and Its Discontents: Meanings, Myths, and Modern Sexualities Jeffrey Weeks

Sexualities: Identities, Behaviors, and Society Book by Michael S. Kimmel, Rebecca F. Plante

A Courtship After Marriage: Sexuality and Love in Mexican Transnational Families Book by Jennifer S. Hirsch

Colonizing Sex: Sexology and Social Control in Modern Japan Book by Sabine Fruhstuck

Sexuality and Gender (Blackwell Readers in Sociology)
Book by Christine L. Williams (Editor), Arlene Stein (Editor)

Sexuality and Holy Longing : Embracing Intimacy in a Broken World Lisa Graham McMinn

The Gender/Sexuality Reader: Culture, History, Political Economy
Book by Roger N. Lancaster (Editor), Micaela Di Leonardo (Editor)

The Language of Sex : Five Voices from Northern France around 1200 (The Chicago Series on Sexuality, History, and Society) Book by John W. Baldwin

Telling Sexual Stories: Power, Change and Social Worlds Book by Ken Plummer

Queer Theory/Sociology (Twentieth-Century Social Theory) Book by Steven Seidman

The Politics of Women's Bodies: Sexuality, Appearance, & Behavior
Book by Rose Weitz (Editor)

Evolution of Human Sexuality Book by Donald Symons

Liberty and Sexuality: The Right to Privacy and the Making of Roe V. Wade
Book by David J. Garrow

Sexual Nature/Sexual Culture (The Chicago Series on Sexuality, History, and Society) Book by Paul R. Abramson (Editor), Steven D. Pinkerton (Editor)

Out in Force : Sexual Orientation and the Military (Worlds of Desire: The Chicago Series on Sexuality, Gender, and Culture)

Sexualities In Health and Social Care Book by Wilton

Reviews:

Sexual Citizenship: The Material Construction of Sexualities Book by David T. Evans
In Sexual Citizenship, David Evans argues that analyses of the social construction of sexualities too often ignore the material contexts in which gender construction occurs, resulting in the detachment of the sexual from mainstream power relations. Building on Foucauldian and Interactionist perspectives, Evans maintains that the progressive sexualization of modern capitalist societies is shaped primarily by the complex, interrelated material interests of market and state. After a detailed discussion of related theatrical issues, Evans develops his argument through specific instances of male homosexuality, bisexuality, transvestism, transsexualism, pedophilia and children's sexuality.

Sexuality and Its Discontents: Meanings, Myths, and Modern Sexualities Book by Jeffrey Weeks
Sexuality is as much about words, images, ritual and fantasy as it is about the body: the way we think about sex fashions the way we live it.

Sexualities: Identities, Behaviors, and Society Book by Michael S. Kimmel (Editor), Rebecca F. Plante (Editor) -

How are sexualities socially constructed?

Why are sexualities more than just natural "urges" or "drives"? and

How are sexualities personal, social, and political?

Sexualities: Identities, Behaviors, and Society focuses on gender, using multiple disciplines, international populations, and theories to explore sexualities. Topics range from the motivations of X-rated movie stars to vibrator use to gendered sexual fantasies. Same-sex orientation, people of color, and global populations are considered throughout. Sexualities: Identities, Behaviors, and Society opens with classical and contemporary theories about sexualities, including selections by Freud, Kinsey, and Fausto-Sterling. Subsequent chapters explore the ways in which we learn about sexual activities and develop sexual identities, both heterosexual and same-sex. The discussion expands to include sexual adaptations, sexual media, intersections with violence, and sexual education. The text ends with a key question: How will the next generation be taught about sex? With its synthesized focus on the psychological, social, ethical, and political dimensions of sexualities, Sexualities: Identities, Behaviors, and Society is ideal for courses in sociology, women's studies, anthropology, family studies, communication, and social work.

A Courtship After Marriage: Sexuality and Love in Mexican Transnational Families Book by Jennifer S. Hirsch
A richly detailed ethnographic study of generational and migration-related redefinitions of gender, marriage, and sexuality in rural Mexico and among Mexicans in Atlanta.

Colonizing Sex: Sexology and Social Control in Modern Japan Book by Sabine Fruhstuck
A sweeping study of sex, power, and knowledge in modern Japan, this ambitious work provides the first full-scale, detailed history of the formation and application of a science of sex from Meiji through mid-twentieth century Japan. Tracing the different uses made of sexual knowledge, the book brings to light the complex and subtle interplay between sexuality, scientific expertise, social control, and empire building.
Drawing on a wide variety of sources, Fruhstuck analyzes the conflicts and negotiations that aimed at producing a normative sexuality. She shows how the "colonization" of sex was enacted through debates over several issues: the necessity of sex education; the prevention of venereal diseases; the problem of masturbation and its alleged consequences; the legalization of birth control; the fight against prostitution; the emergence of eugenics; and, eventually, the implementation of "racial hygiene" policies. In Colonizing Sex we see how these struggles were driven by rhetoric consisting of cries for defense, liberation, and truth--emphasizing in every historical moment how the sexual body has been, and is, part of much broader currents in political, cultural, and social life.

Sexuality and Gender (Blackwell Readers in Sociology)
Book by Christine L. Williams (Editor), Arlene Stein (Editor)
As society shapes the expression of sexual desire through cultural images and social institutions, sociologists examine how sexual behavior shapes, and is shaped by, social norms. Several of the most eminent and readable social theorists drive this important new line of sociological thought. Gathered here are thirty-two of the best essays on the sociology of sex and gender.
The essays included here reflect differences in race, gender, and class and demonstrate how different social groups experience different sets of social norms. Topics include gender and sex theory, identity, childhood and adolescent sexuality, the objectification of women, sexuality and religion, leisure and recreation, politics and social change, and the possible future of sexual relationships.

Sexuality and Holy Longing : Embracing Intimacy in a Broken World Book by Lisa Graham McMinn
In this excellent examination of sexuality from an evangelical Christian perspective, McMinn (Growing Strong Daughters), a sociology professor at Wheaton College, provides a refreshing perspective on sexuality in general and on the specific uses and misuses of sex in, as she describes it, a "broken world." Covering topics such as rites of passage for men and women, adolescent sexual awakening, singleness, marital sex, "birthing babies" and cultural attitudes toward sexuality.

The Gender/Sexuality Reader: Culture, History, Political Economy
Book by Roger N. Lancaster (Editor), Micaela Di Leonardo (Editor)
Gender, sexuality, race, and class are somehow "connected" or "interconnected." This big book shows, convincingly, how they're connected--both historically, and in the present. The text includes stimulating essays on the history of colonialism and modern medicine; well-wrought ethnographic case studies on gender, race, and sexuality; and content-based theory (i.e., theory based on some empirical evidence). An indespensible resource for courses in gender, sexuality, lesbigay studies, and critical race studies.

The Language of Sex : Five Voices from Northern France around 1200 (The Chicago Series on Sexuality, History, and Society) Book by John W. Baldwin
This study brings together widely divergent discourses to fashion a comprehensive picture of sexual language and attitudes at a particular time and place in the medieval world.
Baldwin juxtaposes views on a range of essential subjects, including social position, the sexual body, desire and act, and procreation. Sexuality inside the church and schools of the clergy, in high and popular culture of the leity. This heterogeneous discussion also offers a startling glimpse into the construction of gender specific to this moment, when men and women enjoyed equal status in sexual matters, if nowhere else.
By articulating reality at its varied depths, this study takes its place alongside groundbreaking works by James Brundage, John Boswell, and Leah Otis in extending our understanding of sexuality and sexual behavior in the Middle Ages.

Telling Sexual Stories: Power, Change and Social Worlds Book by Ken Plummer
Telling Sexual Stories explores the rites of a sexual storytelling culture. Taking three major examples--rape stories, coming-out stories, recovery stories--it examines the nature of these newly emerging narratives and the socio-historical conditions which give rise to them. It looks at the rise of the women's movement, the lesbian and gay movement and the ``recovery'' movement as harbingers of significant social change that encourage the telling of new stories. In a powerful concluding section the book turns out to the wider concern of how story telling may be changing in a postmodern culture and how central such storytelling may be in the creation of a participatory democratic political culture.
Journal of the History of Sexuality
"...this book offers a rich synthesis of narrative theory, cultural studies, and symbolic interactionism..."

Queer Theory/Sociology (Twentieth-Century Social Theory) Book by Steven Seidman
Steven Seidman is one of the best sociologists and social theorists writing on queer themes. Sociologists actually make the best analysts of gay and lesbian thought, life, culture, behavior, identity, etc. The so-called "queer theorists" working in English and Comparative Literature departments never seem to get it right.

The Politics of Women's Bodies: Sexuality, Appearance, & Behavior
Book by Rose Weitz (Editor)
This anthology describes three themes: the social construction of ideas about women's bodies, the impact of these ideas on women's lives, and the potential for and limitations on women's resistance to these ideas. Wide range of topics and disciplines were selected for their accessibility and for their attention to issues of class, ethnicity, age, and sexual orientation.

Evolution of Human Sexuality Book by Donald Symons
Reviewer: R. Charleson.
The understanding of human sexuality may be one of the most important issues in understanding ourselves as humans. Despite the fact that it provides a simple answer, beautiful and falsable in scientific terms, for the differences in the male and female sexuality, it has not entered in the mainstream of the human sciences as an accepted hypothesis in the arsenal of scientific theories. Sociobiology, and now the Evolutionary Psychology are sciences which cope with a strong resistance to be accepted by the scientific community.
Sprinkled with nicely chosen literary references that not only satisfy literary readers, but serve as an important and neglected source of data on human sexuality.
In the book "The Evolution of Human Sexuality" differences are explained in these terms:
If evolution existed, then successful sexual strategies had to be different for men and women.
Women openly acknowledge that they are attracted to men of wealth and power, with age a very distant secondary consideration if power and wealth are not to be had.

Liberty and Sexuality: The Right to Privacy and the Making of Roe V. Wade
Book by David J. Garrow
In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in America. The decision drew together social struggles; the rights of women, physicians, and the state; and a slew of earlier cases on birth control and sexuality that had crafted a right to privacy never written into the Constitution. The vast size of David J. Garrow's Liberty and Sexuality allows him to tease out the miniscule fibers that would eventually be woven into Roe. Over the years, a veritable army of legal scholars, law clerks, judges, and regular citizens took part in an acrimonious debate over reproductive rights and free expression of sexuality.
Behind the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v . Wade decision guaranteeing a woman's right to abortion lay 50 years of legal struggle. In this massively detailed, stirring chronicle, Garrow, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of Martin Luther King Jr. ( Bearing the Cross ), shows how the courage and initiative of ordinary women and men made a crucial difference in establishing that right. He begins with Katharine Houghton Hepburn, an outspoken Connecticut activist who opened birth control clinics in the 1930s in defiance of a state law. Following in Hepburn's footsteps, Estelle Griswold, executive director of Connecticut Planned Parenthood, succeeded in having her own criminal conviction reversed by the Supreme Court: the 1965 Griswold v . Connecticut decision, which declared unconstitutional an 1879 statute criminalizing the use or counseling of birth control, paved the way for challenges to anti-abortion statutes across the U.S.

Sexual Nature/Sexual Culture (The Chicago Series on Sexuality, History, and Society) Book by Paul R. Abramson (Editor), Steven D. Pinkerton (Editor)
In this study of human sexuality, an international team of scholars looks at the influences of nature and nurture, biology and culture, and sex and gender in the sexual experiences of humans and other primates.
Using as its center the idea that sexual pleasure is the primary motivational force behind human sexuality and that reproduction is simply a byproduct of the pleasurability of sex, this book examines sexuality at the individual, societal, and cultural levels. Beginning with a look at the evolution of sexuality in humans and other primates, the essays in the first section examine the sexual ingenuity of primates, the dominant theories of sexual behavior, the differences in male and female sexual interest and behavior, and the role of physical attractiveness in mate selection. The focus then shifts to biological approaches to sexuality, especially the genetic and hormonal origins of sexual orientation, gender, and pleasure.
The essays go on to look at the role of pleasure in different cultures. Included are essays on love among the tribespeople of the Brazilian rain forest and the regulation of adolescent sexuality in India. Finally, several contributors look at the methodological issues in the study of human sexuality, paying particular attention to the problems with research that relies on people's memories of their sexual experiences.
Spanning the chasm of the nature versus nurture debate, Sexual Nature/Sexual Culture is a look at human sexuality as a complex interaction of genetic potentials and cultural influences. This book will be of interest to a wide range of readers and others seeking to understand the many dimensions of sexuality.
"If we ever expect to solve the sexually based problems that modern societies face, we must encourage investigations of human sexual behavior. Moreover, those investigations should employ a broad range of disciplines--looking at sex from all angles, which is precisely what Sexual Nature, Sexual Culture does."--Mike May, American Scientist
For those who are involved in teaching human sexuality to medical students and other health care professionals, this book is highly recommended.--Gerald Wiviortt, M.D., Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease
"This volume contains much to stimulate, inform, and amuse, in varying proportions. What more can one ask?"--Pierre L. van den Berghe, Journal of the History of Sexuality
"...the book succeeds in bring together some of the sharpest thinkers in the field of human sexuality, and goes a long way toward clarifying the diverse perspectives that currently exist."--David M. Buss and Todd K. Shackelford, Quarterly Review of Biology.

Out in Force : Sexual Orientation and the Military (Worlds of Desire: The Chicago Series on Sexuality, Gender, and Culture)
Book by Gregory M. Herek (Editor), Jared B. Jobe (Editor), Ralph M. Carney (Editor)
Can the U.S. military integrate gay personnel into its ranks and still accomplish its mission? In 1993, this question became the center of a heated debate when President Clinton attempted to lift the long-standing ban on gays in the military. This debate persists because the compromise policy "Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Pursue," faces serious legal challenges, and is likely to go to the Supreme Court before the end of the decade. Just below the surface of this debate rages a more general argument about the status of gay people in America.
Out in Force refutes the notions that homosexuality is incompatible with military service and that gay personnel would undermine order and discipline. Leading social science scholars of sexual orientation and the military offer reasoned and comprehensive discussions about military organizations, human sexuality, and attitudes toward individuals and groups. They demonstrate forcefully that the debate is really about the military as an institution, and how that institution will adapt to larger social changes. The contributors show that the ban could be successfully eliminated, and set forth a program for implementation. In sorting opinion from fact, myth from reality, Out in Force stands as an invaluable guide for the military, lawmakers, and the courts as they continue to grapple with this question of institutional and societal change.

Sexualities In Health and Social Care Book by Wilton
"An exciting new text that is essential reading for all nurses and social workers who take their own and their clients' sexuality seriously." - Lesley Doyal, Professor in Health & Social Care, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol
Sexualities in Health and Social Care addresses the issues so long neglected in textbooks for health care professionals. Tamsin Wilton thoroughly challenges unquestioned norms about sexuality in an accessible style allowing the reader to begin on their own path of deconstruction.
"Firmly based on research drawn from a wide and fascinating range of sources, this innovative text challenges readers to confront their own beliefs, assumptions and prejudices about sexuality, while clearly demonstrating the destructive effect these can have on client care." - Mary Stewart, Editor, MIDIRS Midwifery Digest
This lively and informative book offers a unique introduction to human sexuality in the context of health and social care practice. Drawing on research in the social sciences, cultural studies and social policy it presents a concise summary of current theories of sexual orientation, discusses the growth of contemporary lesbian and gay communities, and reveals the prejudice and discrimination which still exist.
Tamsin Wilton is Reader in the Sociology of Sex and Sexualities at the University of the West of England, and has been teaching and writing about sexuality and health since 1988. Her recent books include Good for You: a handbook on lesbian health and wellbeing, and Engendering AIDS: deconstructing sex, texts, epidemic. She is presently researching narratives of sexual orientation.

Books, E-Books Great Discounts