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The first compete edition of the Kamasutra. It contains a crisp introduction; the original Sanskrit; a new, accurate and readable English translation; fifty full-page illustrations using period clothing, jewelry, and settings; and a thorough index. Composed almost two thousand years ago, it is surprisingly modern in its depiction of human nature and sexual practices.

The first history of polyamory, this work examines the roots of sexual non-monogamy in political thought and countercultural spiritualism and traces its path to mainstream practice and cultural discussion today.Recent studies have found that as many as one in five Americans have experimented with some form of sexual non-monogamy, and approximately one in fifteen knows someone who was or is polyamorous. Although gathering statistics on polyamorous people is challenging, there has clearly been a g...

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. How might queer theory transform our interpretations of medieval Japanese literature and how might this literature reorient the assumptions, priorities, and critical practices of queer theory? Through a close reading of The Tale of Genji, an eleventh-century text that depicts the lifestyles of aristocrats during the Heian perio...

Representing Kink raises awareness about nonnormative texts and non-normative erotic practices and desires. It defines "kink" broadly, encompassing a range of "inappropriate" texts and practices and understanding it in frequent reference to nonnormative erotic fantasies and experiences. Kink is treated as both a set of practices as well as a category of texts at the nexus of subject and form. In addition to canonical texts that take up erotic and marginalized themes, the collection also studies...

This book surveys the growing field of Queer Criminology. It reflects on its origins, reviews its foundational research and scholarship, and offers suggestions for future directions. Moreover, this book emphasises the importance of Queer Criminology in the field and the need to move LGBTQ+ issues from the margins to the centre of criminological research. Core content includes: * Contested definitions of and conceptual frameworks for Queer Criminology; * The criminalisation of queerness and ge...

In this volume, Shannon Bell recovers the courtesan of ancient Greece as both sophistic philosopher and erotic teacher.

The only anthology devoted exclusively to the topic of pornography and censorship that is designed as a textbook. Its aim is threefold: To make students aware of (1) the vast scope of arguments concerning both the nature of pornography and what ought to be done about it; (2) the fact that there is more than one feminist position on pornography; and (3) the complexity of arguments about free speech. Balanced and up-to-date, the book is sensitive to the variety of feminist positions on pornography...

An anthropologist's view of the incest taboo through and across cultures, including a new interpretation of kinship that emphasizes the primacy of the symbolic.The sharing of a sexual partner between relatives has always been taboo. In this stunning work, anthropologist Francoise Heritier charts the incest prohibition throughout history, from the strict decrees of Leviticus to modern civil codes, and finds a secondary type of incest, which she calls the incest of two sisters. The term refers not...

A fascinating look at the changing role of wives in modern America After a half century of battling for gender equality, women have been freed from the necessity of securing a husband for economic stability, sexual fulfillment, or procreation. Marriage is a choice, and increasingly women (and men) are opting out. Yet despite these changes, the cultural power of marriage has burgeoned. What was once an obligation has become an exclusive club into which heterosexual women with the right amount o...

The first book to details the history and social implications of the little blue pill Since its introduction in 1998, Viagra has launched a new kind of sexual revolution. Quickly becoming one of the most sought after drugs in history, the little blue pill created a sea change within the pharmaceutical industry—from how drugs could be marketed to the types of drugs put into development—as well as the culture at large. Impotency is no longer an embarrassing male secret; now it is called “erectile...

As the first text to fully capture the excitement of today's research findings on couples, Intimate Relationships answers fascinating questions: How do relationships work? Why are they so hard sometimes? What are the principles that guide them? How can we use what we know to make them better?

2007 Choice Outstanding Academic Title Winner of the Passing the Torch Award from the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies It has been called sperm, semen, seed, cum, jizz, spunk, gentlemen's relish, and splooge. But however the “tacky, opaque liquid that comes out of the penis” is described, the very act of defining “sperm” and “semen” depends on your point of view. For Lisa Jean Moore, how sperm comes to be known is based on who defines it (a scientist vs. a defense witness, for example), under...

Paola Monzini's new book focuses on the experiences of migrant women and girls who have very little choice or control over their lives. They can be distinguished from those women who do work as prostitutes, with some autonomy, however limited. Rooting her analysis firmly within the context of neo-liberal globalization, Monzini views these women and girls as the new 'slaves' of the contemporary era. The annual worth of this global industry is now estimated to be in the region of USD7 billion, mak...

Queer Sites in Global Contexts showcases a variety of cross-cultural perspectives that foreground the physical and online experiences of LGBTQ+ people living in the Caribbean, South and North America, the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. The individual chapters—a collection of research-based texts by scholars around the world—provide twelve compelling case studies: queer sites that include buildings, digital networks, natural landscapes, urban spaces, and non-normative bodies. By prioritizing di...

Using a sample collected from Ashley Madison, this book is the result of a yearlong inquiry into women's extramarital experiences. Ultimately, these women reject the binary proposition of marriage that assumes that either we work on our marriages and remain monogamous within them, or we break up the relationship and take up other relationships. These women conceive of an alternate solution to a marriage that is not wholly working, where their own needs are ignored, unmet, and not prioritized. Th...

Impure thoughts is the first study of the twentieth-century Irish Catholic Bildungsroman. This comparative examination of six Irish novelists tracks the historical evolution of a literary genre and its significant role in Irish culture. With chapters on James Joyce and Kate O'Brien, along with studies of Maura Laverty, Patrick Kavanagh, Edna O'Brien and John McGahern, this book offers a fresh new approach to the study of twentieth-century Irish writing and of the twentieth-century novel.Combinin...

Western culture has long regarded black female sexuality with a strange mix of fascination and condemnation, associating it with everything from desirability, hypersexuality, and liberation to vulgarity, recklessness, and disease. Yet even as their bodies and sexualities have been the subject of countless public discourses, black women’s voices have been largely marginalized in these discussions. In this groundbreaking collection, feminist scholars from across the academy come together to correc...

Explore ways to reduce the rate of HIV infection in street prostitutes--and the inescapable connection between the heroin trade, prostitution, and HIV!This unique book draws on face-to-face interviews that the author conducted on the streets, with heroin-addicted street prostitutes in Southern California and their counterparts in four large Mexican cities. Author David James Bellis illustrates the significant--and surprising--differences in the risk of exposure to HIV and other STDs that exist b...

“As dangerous as if she stood on the corner of the street exploding gunpowder.” This was the view of ‘Miles’, a correspondent in the _Bedfordshire Mercury_, writing about the dangerousness of prostitutes in 1874\. They were considered a scourge by the Victorians; a menace to society and a threat to the moral and physical wellbeing of a nation. Carrying disease, committing crime, corrupting others; prostitutes were the most feared ‘social evil’. These women were the focus of controlling and inva...

According to reports of the World Health Organization, the prostitution of women and children is increasing dramatically throughout the world. The problem is particularly acute in the lower socioeconomic sectors of the population, including teen runaways, drug addicts, and victims of abuse. This survey focuses first on defining prostitution and then on the motivations of those who became prostitutes. In Part II the overall scope of the problem is examined, along with the various subcultures (e.g...

In a time when taboo erotica novels are replacing the books on our coffee tables, it's no wonder that couples are exploring the naughtiest sides of sex, from silk ties and whips to candle wax and ben wa balls. But what about kink's greatest predecessor, its founding father--the blow job? Oral sex has been one of the hottest ways to get off since the invention of the mouth, so what better way to get back to your roots and perfect your tantalizing techniques? This sexy how-to guide takes you th...