Sociology of Sexualities

Books on Sociology of Sexualities, Sociologyindex, Sociology Books 2009, Journals, Abstracts, Sociology of Sexualities Syllabus

The study of sexuality is a interdisciplinary field of social analysis. Sexuality is an individual, biological, psychological phenomena. The idea of sexuality is a social fact or construction.

Sociology of Sexualities should gain status as an ASA Section which would be very beneficial to all academics and practitioners who conduct and/or value research in the area of sexuality.

"Why, given the variety of sexual behaviors and relationships, do we speak of only two opposite sexes? Why don't transvestites, transsexuals, hermaphrodites, and the institutionalized third genders in some societies affect the conceptualization of two genders and two sexes?" -- Judith Lorber

"When examined closely, much of what we take for granted about gender and its causes and effects either does not hold up or can be explained differently. . . . Despite the evidence that women and men are more similar than different, the institution of gender continues to create and maintain socially significant differences between women and men. . . . The prime paradox of gender is that in order to dismantle the institution, you must first make it very visible." -- Judith Lorber

Sexuality Information Council of the United States (SIECUS) homepage:
siecus.org

The Society for the Study of Sexuality (SSSS) homepage:
ssc.wisc.edu:80/ssss

The Sociologist Lesbian and Gay Caucus (SLGC) homepage:
qrd.org/qrd/www/orgs/slgc/SLGC.html

Gender and Sexuality - This page publishes texts which address gender studies and queer studies, with a particular focus upon discussions of sex, gender, sexual identity and sexuality in cultural practices. - english-server.hss.cmu.edu/Gender.html

Abstracts

Sexualities: Identity, Behavior, and Society. Edited by Michael S. Kimmel and Rebecca F. Plante. Oxford University Press,
New York. 2004. ISBN: 0-19-515760-5 (paper) Retails to students for $44.95
Sexualities: Identity, Behavior, and Society focuses on gender, using multiple disciplines, international populations, and theories to explore sexualities. The readings—including several written specifically for this volume - will grab students' attention. Topics range from the motivations of X-rated movie stars to vibrator use to gendered sexual fantasies. Samesex orientation, people of color and global populations are considered throughout.
Sexualities: Identity, Behavior, and Society opens with classical and contemporary theories about sexualities, including selections by Freud, Kinsey, and Fausto-Sterling. Subsequent chapters explore the ways in which we learn about sexual activities and develop sexual identities, both heterosexual and same sex. The discussion expands to include sexual adaptations, sexual media, intersections with violence, and sex education. The text ends with a key question: How will the next generation be taught about sex?
With its synthesized focus on the psychological, social, ethical, and political discussions of sexualities, this book is ideal for courses in sociology, women's studies, anthropology, family studies, communication, and social work.

Baby Steps: How Lesbian Alternative Insemination Is Changing the World.
By Amy Agigian.
This book explores the controversial implications of lesbian insemination. Each year hundreds of children around the world are born to lesbian mothers who conceived through alternative insemination. This unique form of family- making creates families with no legal or psychological father, and challenges some of our most basic assumptions about what it means to be a family. How, and why, do lesbians use insemination to build their families? How could it best be protected by law? Is insemination the ultimate in lesbian liberation, or a sell-out to nuclear family norms? How are race, class, feminism, and human engineering involved? Drawing on legal findings and personal interviews, as well as medical and psychoanalytic research, sociologist Amy Agigian looks at the impact and potential of this form of reproduction. Baby Steps is the first in-depth discussion of the issues and questions raised by lesbian insemination, and the book has been designed to serve the interests of general readers and health care providers as well as teachers and students in women’s studies, gay and lesbian studies, sociology, legal studies, and bioethics.
“Baby Steps is a fascinating study of the world of lesbian alternative insemination. Agigian has taken the unique step of critiquing the institutions and society in which lesbian families exist, rather than the families and conception methods themselves. In doing so, she brings into focus the institutional discrimination that has been perpetrated against lesbian families, particularly within the medical and legal systems, and justly argues that such reactions require radical revision. She tracks the politicization of lesbian alternative insemination
from an invisible and largely autonomous practice to its commercialization and mainstreaming, which although medically safer, shifts the reproductive control and accessibility.”—Dr. Ruth McNair, Senior Lecturer, Department of General Practice, University of Melbourne
“Baby Steps presents a fascinating glance at our cultural and technological possibilities for a more gender- fluid and nurture-centered future.”—Robbie Davis-Floyd, author of Birth as an American Rite of Passage “Patriarchy is a longstanding, durable institution and this book exhilarates any reader - heterosexual or lesbian - who is weary of living under its mantle.” - Robbie Pfeufer Kahn, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of
Vermont and author of Bearing Meaning: The Language of Birth You may order Baby Steps through your local bookseller, or by calling University Press of New England at 1-800-421-1561.

Regulating Sex: The Politics of Intimacy and Identity Editors: Elizabeth Bernstein and Laurie Schaffner (Routledge: Fall 2004).

God, Sex and Politics: Homosexuality and Everyday Theologies. Dawne Moon (University of Chicago Press, 2004). God, Sex and Politics is an ethnographic study which draws from and contributes to theories in the sociology of religion and the sociology of sexuality, as it seeks to make sense of debates about homosexuality in two United Methodist congregations, one theologically liberal and the other conservative. In it, Moon seeks to discover what makes these debates so explosive, and finds that these debates threaten to expose incompatible beliefs about who or what God is and what God demands of people with regard to sexuality, sin, conflict and politics. She examines how emotion languages figure into these debates, allowing members to distance their concerns from what the y consider “politics” while positing gay men and lesbians as “pained.” Library Journal: While there have been plenty of books written about religion and gays, there is little ethnographic accounting of how particular religious communities grapple with the issues. Moon takes us to two Methodist congregations: one situated in a large urban environment, the other in a small town about 70 miles away. The congregations and the
individuals in them are portrayed pseudonymously, but Moon imbues the debates and conflicts with vivid realism. The urban congregation was in the midst of selfexamination about whether or not to join the "Reconciling Congregations Program," a movement with American Methodism to welcome sexual minorities explicitly. A substantial group of members of the other congregation were involved in another organization called "Transforming Congregations," which is more conservative in approach. Some of the core issues of Christianity are raised and contested: the nature of sin, the role of politics, and the relationship of Scripture and experience. The book shows how people put into effect their beliefs on a specific issue (in this case, homosexuality) when faced with the broader questions. Moon has an unusual ability to explain social science theory clearly and give a three-dimensional report on real people grappling with issues that are very important to them. Both general and academic readers will find much in this book to commend. -David Azzolina, Univ. of Pennsylvania Lib., Philadelphia Copyright 2004.

Journals

Sexualities News - Newsletter of the Sociology of Sexualities Section of the
American Sociological Association Volume 7, Issue 1 Summer - 2004