Culture, Society and Sexuality A Reader

Brings together some of the most important and influential readings in the area of sexuality and culture written in the last two decades.

This new and revised edition of Culture, Society and Sexuality brings together and makes accessible a broad and international selection of readings to provide insights into the social, cultural, political and economic dimensions of sexuality and relationships, and emerging discourses around sexual and reproductive rights. Clearly structured and presented, the book makes an extremely useful reference for students and researchers. Section one focuses on the social and cultural construction of sexuality as an emerging field of inquiry over the course of recent decades, and examines some of the most important theoretical insights and areas of investigation that have emerged as this field has developed. Section two links research on the construction of sexuality to a growing body of work on gender and sexuality in relation to a wide range of practical issues and contemporary social policy debates. It is an essential reader not only for students and researchers in these areas, but also for activists, health workers and service providers, who daily confront practical and policy issues related to sexuality, sexual health and sexual rights.

1. Introduction Section 1: Culture, Society and Sexuality Part 1: Conceptual Frameworks 2. Sexual Matters: On Conceptualizing Sexuality in History 3. Sexual Scripts 4. Anthropology Rediscovers Sexuality: A Theoretical Comment Part 2: Gender and Power 5. Gender as a Useful Category of Historical Analysis 6. ‘Gender’ for a Marxist Dictionary: The Sexual Politics of a Word 7. ‘That We Should All Turn Queer?’: Homosexual Stigma in the Making of Manhood and the Breaking of a Revolution in Nicaragua Part 3: From Gender to Sexuality 8. Discourse, Desire and Sexual Deviance: Some Problems in a History of Homosexuality 9. Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality 10. ‘The Unclean Motion of the Generative Parts’: Frameworks in Western Thought on Sexuality Part 4: Sexual Identities/Sexual Communities 11. Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence 12. The Hijras of India: Cultural and Individual Dimensions of an Institutionalized Third Gender Role 13. Capitalism and Gay Identity Section 2: Sexual Meanings, Health, and Rights Part 5: Gender, Power and Rights 14. Masculinities and Globalization 15. Violence, Sexuality, and Women’s Lives 16. Reproductive and Sexual Rights: A Feminist PerspectivePart 6: Sexual Categories and Classification 17. HIV, Heroin and Heterosexual Relations 18. An Explosion of Thai Identities: Global Queering and Re-Imaging Queer Theory 19. Bhai-behen, True Love, Time Pass: Friendships and Sexual Partnerships among Youth in an Indian Metropolis Part 7: Sexual Negotiations and Transactions 20. Masculinity and Urban Men: Perceived Scripts for Courtship, Romantic, and Sexual Interactions with Women 21. Some Traditional Methods are More Modern than Others: Rhythm, Withdrawal and the Changing Meanings of Sexual Intimacy in Mexican Companionate Marriage 22. Mobility, Sexual Networks and Exchange among Bodabodamen in Southwest Uganda Part 8: Contemporary and Future Challenges 23. Gendered Scripts and the Sexual Scene: Promoting Sexual Subjects among Brazilian Teenagers24. HIV and AIDS-related Stigma and Discrimination: A Conceptual Framework and Implications for Action 25. Bracketing Sexuality: Human Rights and Sexual Orientation – A Decade of Development and Denial at the UN

Richard Parker is Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociomedical Sciences and Director of the Center for Gender, Sexuality and Health in the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, and Director and President of the Brazilian Interdisciplinary AIDS Association (ABIA) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Peter Aggleton is Professor of Education and Health and holds a UNSW Strategic Chair at the National Centre in HIV Social Research, University of New South Wales, Australia.