Theorising Sexuality

This book surveys and evaluates the sociological contribution to the study of sexuality. It not only maps major theoretical shifts and debates, but also offers a unique examination of the topic that emphasizes the sociality of sexuality. In particular, it considers the institutional, biographical and interactional contexts of our sexual lives as well as the cultural significance and everyday practice of sexuality. The authors contest not only popular understandings of sexuality as natural, but also psychoanalytic explanations and forms of analysis that privilege the cultural construction of sexuality over its everyday social accomplishment. In particular, they challenge the 'specialness' of sexuality within contemporary culture, arguing that sexuality is better understood as a routine part of everyday social life. The book confronts the anxieties associated with sexuality in the late modern, western world and engages with wider debates on social transformations in late modernity. As such, it provides both an overview of the field of sexuality as well as setting an agenda. "Theorizing Sexuality" is key reading for students, researchers and academics interested in theories of sexuality, gender and intimacy and anyone concerned with the social conditions that inform our sexual identities.

ISBN 0335218245   Pages 224 ISBN13 9780335218240 (What's this?)   Volumes 1 Publisher Open University Press   Weight (grammes) 340 Imprint Open University Press   Published in Milton Keynes Format Paperback   Height (mm) 231 Publication date 01 Nov 2007   Width (mm) 154 DEWEY 306.7   Spine width (mm) 17 DEWEY edition DC21   Academic level Tertiary education

		Series editor's foreword
		Acknowledgments
		Publishers' acknowledgments
		Introduction: the case for the sociality of sexuality		1
1		Conceptualizing sexuality: from Kinsey to queer and beyond		5
2		Feminist engagements: politicizing the personal and engendering theory		24
3		Modernity and its discontents		50
4		Is heterosexuality still compulsory?		74
5		Risk, governance and surveillance: the boundaries of childhood		101
6		The sexual self in late modernity		121
7		Embodied practices and sexual pleasure		139
8		Concluding thoughts on ordinary sexuality		161
		References		167
		Index		185

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