This exciting new text is a collection of over 50 readings from contemporary scholarly literature, discussing the dual forces of social construction and social control of sexuality. By also including selections from mainstream media, such as The New York Times Magazine and trade books, the authors make controversial and complex topics more approachable for students.

Sex Matters: The Sexuality and Society Reader

Self-Help

Stombler, Mindy

Baunach, Dawn M.

Burgess, Elisabeth O.

Donnelly, Denise

Simonds, Wendy

Baunach, Dawn Michelle

Allyn&Bacon

This anthology of almost 70 readings--from contemporary scholarly literature, trade books, popular media, as well as contributed articles-- examines the many ways in which human sexuality is socially constructed and regulated behavior, and how it is studied by social scientists.

Sex Matters: The Sexuality and Society Reader (2nd Edition)

Politics & Social Sciences

Sociology

This anthology of almost 60 readings--from contemporary scholarly literature, trade books, popular media, as well as contributed articles-- examines the many ways in which human sexuality is socially constructed and regulated behavior, and how it is studied by social scientists.

Windsor, Elroi J.

Pearson College Div

Hospital Land USA

In Hospital Land USA, Wendy Simonds analyzes the wide-reaching powers of medicalization: the dynamic processes by which medical authorities, institutions, and ideologies impact our everyday experiences, culture, and social life. Simonds documents her own Hospital Land adventures and draws on a wide range of U.S. cultural representations ― from memoirs to medical mail, from hospital signs to disaster movies ― in order to urge critical thinking about conventional notions of care, health, embodiment, identity, suffering, and mortality.   This book is intended for general readers, medical practitioners, undergraduate and graduate students in courses on medical sociology, medicine, medical ethics, nursing, public health, carework, visual culture, cultural studies, and gerontology.

Hospital Land USA: Sociological Adventures in Medicalization

Routledge

In Hospital Land USA, Wendy Simonds analyzes the wide-reaching powers of medicalization: the dynamic processes by which medical authorities, institutions, and ideologies impact our everyday experiences, culture, and social life. Simonds documents her own Hospital Land adventures and draws on a wide range of U.S. cultural representations ― from memoirs to medical mail, from hospital signs to disaster movies ― in order to urge critical thinking about conventional notions of care, health, embodiment, identity, suffering, and mortality. This book is intended for general readers, medical practitioners, undergraduate and graduate students in courses on medical sociology, medicine, medical ethics, nursing, public health, carework, visual culture, cultural studies, and gerontology.

Laboring On: Birth in Transition in the United States (Perspectives on Gender)

Facing the polar forces of an epidemic of Cesarean sections and epidurals and home-like labor rooms, American birth is in transition. Caught between the most extreme medicalization ― best seen in a Cesarean section rate of nearly 30 percent ― and a rhetoric of women’s "choices" and "the natural," women and their midwives, doulas, obstetricians, and nurses labor on. Laboring On offers the voices of all of these practitioners, all women trying to help women, as they struggle with this increasingly split vision of birth.   Updating Barbara Katz Rothman's now-classic In Labor, the first feminist sociological analysis of birth in the United States, Laboring On gives a comprehensive picture of the ever-changing American birth practices and often conflicting visions of birth practitioners. The authors deftly weave compelling accounts of birth work, by midwives, doulas, obstetricians, and nurses, into the larger sociohistorical context of health care practices and activism and offer provocative arguments about the current state of affairs and the future of birth in America.

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Rothman, Barbara Katz

Meltzer Norman, Bari

Women's Health

Simonds writes about women's approach to self-help reading. She is most interested in self-help books directed primarily toward women. These books offer advice about managing relationships, enhancing sexuality, developing self-esteem, becoming assertive, and improving our spiritual lives. Simonds looks at hundreds of books, including such well-known ones as Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, Robin Norwood's Women Who Love Too Much, Harold Kushner's When Bad Things Happen to Good People, and Alexander Comfort's The Joy of Sex. Even though many critics see these books as anti-feminist drivel, their continued success says something about American women's search for meaning. Simonds examines the social construction, cultural consumption, and transmission of ideas about gender and the self. She wants to know why such books are appealing and what their readers are doing with them. Readers' own responses to self-help books, though varied, do fall into patterns. A few readers reject the messages found in these books but most affirm the content. They look for validation of how they already feel and for answers to their problems. Traditionally women care for others; reading self-help books gives them a chance to nurture themselves.   Simonds explores the cultural messages offered by self-help books. What do the books preach about blame, feminism, and individualism?  She looks at sex manuals which advise their readers not only to learn techniques but also to improve their self-identities. She looks at self-help books that deal with the larger arena of relationships between men and women. Authors see such relationships as plagued by nearly insurmountable problems. Men are obstacles that women must work around as they attempt to forge meaningful relationships in what is characterized as a war zone.Simonds discusses the place of self-help books in relation to other forms of culture.  She views self-help books as an example of the didacticism that pervades women's experiences. In her words, "self-help culture is our culture."  The same therapeutic culture that characterizes self-help books can also be found in magazines, soap operas, and talk shows. These books are buyable therapy. In a sense, self-help books commodify readers by urging them to make themselves into objects of analysis and improvement. Such books try to give their readers an understanding of existing problems, but they also help create the problems.Are self-help books politically conservative or liberating?  There is no easy answer. The authors of self-help books seek answers through individual change, not social change.  They reinforce the traditional dependence of women on authority. But at the same time Simonds argues that self-help books can validate caring, and serve as a form of women caring for women. These books shift the emphasis of caring, as they encourage their readers to care less about their involvements with others and more about their own personal development, but for the ultimate goal of achieving better connections with others.

Women and Self-Help Culture: Reading Between the Lines

Social Sciences

Rutgers University Press

Simonds writes about women's approach to self-help reading. She is most interested in self-help books directed primarily toward women. These books offer advice about managing relationships, enhancing sexuality, developing self-esteem, becoming assertive, and improving our spiritual lives. Simonds looks at hundreds of books, including such well-known ones as Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, Robin Norwood's Women Who Love Too Much, Harold Kushner's When Bad Things Happen to Good People, and Alexander Comfort's The Joy of Sex. Even though many critics see these books as anti-feminist drivel, their continued success says something about American women's search for meaning. Simonds examines the social construction, cultural consumption, and transmission of ideas about gender and the self. She wants to know why such books are appealing and what their readers are doing with them. 
Readers' own responses to self-help books, though varied, do fall into patterns. A few readers reject the messages found in these books but most affirm the content. They look for validation of how they already feel and for answers to their problems. Traditionally women care for others; reading self-help books gives them a chance to nurture themselves. 
Simonds explores the cultural messages offered by self-help books. What do the books preach about blame, feminism, and individualism? She looks at sex manuals which advise their readers not only to learn techniques but also to improve their self-identities. She looks at self-help books that deal with the larger arena of relationships between men and women. Authors see such relationships as plagued by nearly insurmountable problems. Men are obstacles that women must work around as they attempt to forge meaningful relationships in what is characterized as a war zone. 
Simonds discusses the place of self-help books in relation to other forms of culture. She views self-help books as an example of the didacticism that pervades women's experiences. In her words, "self-help culture is our culture." The same therapeutic culture that characterizes self-help books can also be found in magazines, soap operas, and talk shows. These books are buyable therapy. In a sense, self-help books commodify readers by urging them to make themselves into objects of analysis and improvement. Such books try to give their readers an understanding of existing problems, but they also help create the problems. 
Are self-help books politically conservative or liberating? There is no easy answer. The authors of self-help books seek answers through individual change, not social change. They reinforce the traditional dependence of women on authority. But at the same time Simonds argues that self-help books can validate caring, and serve as a form of women caring for women. These books shift the emphasis of caring, as they encourage their readers to care less about their involvements with others and more about their own personal development, but for the ultimate goal of achieving better connections with others.

Abortion at Work: Ideology and Practice in a Feminist Clinic

How do feminist identity and abortion politics intersect? Specifically, what does feminism mean to women working to feminist health care and abortion services in the late 1980s and early 1990s? What are the ideological consequences and emotional tolls of doing such work in a hostile socio-cultural environment? Can feminism and bureaucracy coexist productively? How do feminists confront the anti-feminist opposition, from anti-abortion protesters outside to racism within feminist organizations? These are the questions that drive Wendy Simonds' Abortion at Work. Simonds documents the ways in which workers at a feminist clinic construct compelling feminist visions, and also watch their ideals fall short in practice. Simonds interprets these women's narratives to get at how abortion works on feminism, and to show what feminism can gain by rethinking abortion utilizing these activists' terms. In thoroughly engaging prose, Simonds frames her analysis with a moving account of her own personal understanding of the issues.

How do feminist identity and abortion politics intersect? Specifically, what does feminism mean to women working to feminist health care and abortion services in the late 1980s and early 1990s? What are the ideological consequences and emotional tolls of doing such work in a hostile socio-cultural environment? Can feminism and bureaucracy coexist productively? How do feminists confront the anti-feminist opposition, from anti-abortion protesters outside to racism within feminist organizations? These are the questions that drive Wendy Simonds' Abortion at Work. Simonds documents the ways in which workers at a feminist clinic construct compelling feminist visions, and also watch their ideals fall short in practice. Simonds interprets these women's narratives to get at how abortion works on feminism, and to show what feminism can gain by rethinking abortion utilizing these activists' terms. In thoroughly engaging prose, Simonds frames her analysis with a moving account of her own personal understanding of the issues.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Simonds, Wendy. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Simonds, Wendy

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Simonds, Wendy. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Sex Matters: The Sexuality and Society Reader

Sex Matters: The Sexuality and Society Reader (2nd Edition)

Sex Matters: The Sexuality and Society Reader

Hospital Land USA: Sociological Adventures in Medicalization

Hospital Land USA

Laboring On: Birth in Transition in the United States (Perspectives on Gender)

Women and Self-Help Culture: Reading Between the Lines

Women and Self-Help Culture: Reading Between the Lines

Abortion at Work: Ideology and Practice in a Feminist Clinic

Abortion at Work: Ideology and Practice in a Feminist Clinic