Sexual Landscapes

The power of love is (as the song says) a curious thing. Rock stars sing about it, comedians tell jokes about it, and just about every advice columnist writes about it. Scientifically, however, just how curious love is, is still an open question. "Love" is a four-letter word to many people—and "sex" is the shortest four-letter word of all. Society builds taboos around these words, but there's no denying that love and sex are spectacular. This is a book about sex: typical and atypical, loving and lustful, sensible and ridiculous. Sexual Landscapes takes on the most challenging puzzles of human sexuality and incorporates the latest scientific research, experts' theories, and the author's own work to explain them. Why are we attracted to the people we love? Why are we hetero-, homo-, bi-, or transsexual? Who's controlling the communication when a man and a woman meet for the first time? Why do there seem to be more gay men than gay women? More bisexual women than bisexual men? Why do men and women say they're aroused by different things, but when tested with actual erotica, appear to be aroused by the same things? Why are we afraid to educate our children about sex? Does homosexuality run in families? How do things as delightful as sex and love become intertwined with pain and violence? Dr. Weinrich challenges our assumptions and popular taboos as he presents the results of fascinating research and controversial theories about why we love and lust. Sexual Landscapes is a provocative, challenging guided tour of our sexual selves that will delight, inform, and instruct. BRIEF TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: The Power of Love — Introduction Chapter 2: Gender Transpositions — Erotic subtypes discussed in the book Chapter 3: Ten Unsolved Problems — about the science of sexual arousal Chapter 4: The S*x Taboo — and how it cripples our society Chapter 5: Reality or Social Construction? — Are things like 'homosexuality' real, or just constructed by society? Chapter 6: Limerence, Lust, Bisexuality — A new theory of types of attraction that explains how someone might 'fall in lust' with one sex but only 'fall in love' with the other sex Chapter 7: The Periodic-Table Model — How the gender transpositions can be arranged Chapter 8: Plethysmography — Direct genital measurement as an amazing and insightful scientific technique Chapter 9: Families of Origin — How sexual preferences are related to childhood personality traits and parental caring patterns Chapter 10: When Sex and Violence Mix — How can something as wonderful as love sometimes get connected to pain and suffering? Chapter 11: Courtship theory — The secret ways women attract men, and why men don't know about them Chapter 12: Homosexuality in Animals — Gay or bisexual animals? Why not?!?? Chapter 13: Sociobiology — How evolution explains sexual orientation Chapter 14: The Big Picture — Solving the ten problems posed in chapter 3 Chapter 15: Conclusions — Why responsible openness about sex is vital to society References Index — The index page numbers do point accurately to page numbers in this printed edition.

At first sight, to ask how sex has been influenced by technology over time may appear to be a perplexing question. There is no doubt about the current importance of the new technologies of reproduction, sex-change operations, and the passion that electronic chat-rooms incite. However, it might be argued that this is a recent phenomenon and the past has little to reveal about "techno-sexual" relations. This book draws on a number of examples of "productive" relations between technology and sexuality: the technical and sexual organization of medieval monasteries, the moral and erotic transgression afforded by the early wind and water mill, and the romances forged in the context of the train. The authors focus on three main eras: the medieval period (around the eleventh century with its monasteries as sites of technical innovation and heretical religious movements on the borders of Christianity); early modernity (from the time of the European "discoveries" and the creation of "others" including the natives of South America and the witch); and the present and the technologically-mediated future. What might be the connection between mills, navigation techniques and trains and the realm of sexuality? How does the government of sexuality and socio-economic relations in the sixteenth century across distances find resonance in cyberspace? Once the question of technology and sexuality has been placed in a long-term perspective, the reader is invited to reconsider relations often brushed aside, or devalued for their connection with "low", popular or quotidian culture, practices and spaces. Acknowledging the uncomfortable social fact of "techno-sexuality" as a quotidian experience allows us to recuperate a range of often discounted or forgotten social actors, movements and landscapes.

From the hotspots of commercial sex through to the suburbia of twitching curtains, urban life and sexualities appear inseparable. Cities are the source of our most familiar images of sexual practice, and are the spaces where new understandings of sexuality take shape. In an era of global business and tourism, cities are also the hubs around which a global sex trade is organised and where virtual sex content is obsessively produced and consumed. Detailing the relationships between sexed bodies, sexual subjectivities and forms of intimacy, Cities and Sexualities explores the role of the city in shaping our sexual lives. At the same time, it describes how the actions of urban governors, city planners, the police and judiciary combine to produce cities in which some sexual proclivities and tastes are normalised and others excluded. In so doing, it maps out the diverse sexual landscapes of the city - from spaces of courtship, coupling and cohabitation through to sites of adult entertainment, prostitution, and pornography. Considering both the normative geographies of heterosexuality and monogamy, as well as urban geographies of radical/queer sex, this book provides a unique perspective on the relationship between sex and the city. Cities and Sexualities offers a wide overview of the state-of-the-art in geographies and sociologies of sexuality, as well as an empirically-grounded account of the forms of desire that animate the erotic city. It describes the diverse sexual landscapes that characterise both the contemporary Western city as well as cities in the global South. The book features a wide range of boxed case studies as well as suggestions for further reading at the end each chapter. It will appeal to undergraduate students studying Geography, Urban Studies, Gender Studies and Sociology.

This is the first concise handbook on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) health in the past few years. It breaks the myths, breaks the silence, and breaks new ground on this subject. This resource offers a multidimensional picture of LGBT health across clinical and social disciplines to give readers a full and nuanced understanding of these diverse populations. It contains real-world matters of definition and self-definition, meticulous analyses of stressor and health outcomes, a extensive coverage of research methodology concerns, and critical insights into the sociopolitical context of LGBT individuals’ health and lives.

First Published in 1994. The purpose of an encyclopedia is to gather in one place information that otherwise would be difficult to find. Bring together a collection of articles that are authoritative and reflect a variety of viewpoints. The contributors come from a wide range of disciplines— from nursing to medicine, from biology to history— and include sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists, political scientists, literary specialists, academics and non-academics, clinicians and teachers, researchers and generalists.

Important new findings on sex and gender in the former Soviet Bloc! Sexuality and Gender in Postcommunist Eastern Europe and Russia is a groundbreaking look at the new sexual reality in Central, Eastern, and Southeast Europe after the fall of communism. The book presents the kind of candid discussion of sexual identities, sexual politics, and gender arrangements that was often censored and rarely discussed openly before the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1987. Authors from a variety of disciplines examine how the changes caused by rapid economic and social transformation have affected human sexuality and if those changes can generate the social tolerance necessary to produce a well-rooted democracy. The first theoretical and empirical body of work to sexuality in (post)transitional countries, Sexuality and Gender in Postcommunist Eastern Europe and Russia examines the effects of the profound social transformation taking place in the former Soviet Union. Through an interdisciplinary perspective, the book addresses vital issues of this transformation, including gender relations, gender roles and sex norms in transition, sexual representations in the media, patterns of adult sexual behavior, gay and lesbian issues, sex trafficking, health risks, and sex education. The book also presents a critical examination of whether the fall of communism has, in fact, induced changes in sexuality and gender relations. Sexuality and Gender in Postcommunist Eastern Europe and Russia examines the changes in sex and gender in countries in transition, including: the negative consequences of Serbia’s “state-directed non-development” during the 1990s the causes and consequences of trafficking in women from the Russian Federation the ongoing debate over human rights for sexual minorities in Romania the effects of two Yugoslavian films released in the 1990s that feature transgender characters sexualities in transition in Croatia problems created by changes in sexual behavior among urban Russian adolescents the social and legal state of lesbians in Slovenia Sexuality and Gender in Postcommunist Eastern Europe and Russia fills in the gap in the current knowledge and understanding of the effects of the profound social changes taking place in Central, Eastern, and Southeast Europe. The book is an essential read for academics and researchers working in gender studies, political science, and gay and lesbian studies. Handy tables and figures make the information easy to access and understand.