Sexuality and Modern Western Culture (TWAYNE'S STUDIES IN INTELLECTUAL AND CULTURAL HISTORY)

Feminist Impact on the Arts and Sciences SeriesIn this study, Carolyn Dean focuses on the transformation of sexuality and its changing role in gender relations, politics and culture. In Deans view, a history of sexuality is a history of the changing relationship between sex and gender, and she examines how turn-of-the-century concerns about deviant sexual behavior and the changing role of women in society led to a radical restructuring of sex-gender connections in the early part of the twentieth century. Through review of debates on pornography, obscenity, homosexuality, and the role of women, Dean demonstrates how many of the pressing issues from the beginning of this century continue to haunt us at its end.A comprehensive and provocative analysis of the changing place of sexuality in modern societies.Lynn Hunt, University of PennsylvaniaAn impressive overview. Such connections will challenge students to think differently about history and should make for lively classroom discussions.Bonnie G. Smith, Rutgers University