Sexual Myths Of Modernity

The notion of sexual sadism emerged from nineteenth-century alienist attempts to imagine the pleasure of the torturer or mass killer. This was a time in which sexuality was mapped to social progress, so that perversions were always related either to degeneration or decadence. These ideas were internalized in later Freudian views of the drives within the self, and of their repression under the demands of modern European civilization. Sadism was always presented as the barbarous past that lurked within each of us, ready to burst forth into murderous violence, crime, anti-Semitism, and finally genocide. This idea maintained its currency in European thought after the Second World War as Freudian-influenced accounts of the history of philosophy configured the Marquis de Sade as a kind of Kantian “superego” in a framework that viewed the Western Enlightenment as unraveled by its own inner demons. In this way, a straight line was imagined from the late eighteenth century to the Holocaust. These ideas have had an ongoing legacy in debates about sexual perversion, feminism, genocide representation, and historical memory of Nazism. However, recent genocide research has massively debunked assumptions that perpetrators of mass violence are especially sexually motivated in their cruelty. This book considers how the late twentieth-century imagination eroticized Nazism for its own ends, but also how it has been informed by nineteenth-century formulations of the idea of mass violence as a sexual problem.

Few topics evoke so much anxiety and pleasure, pain and hope, discussion and silence as sexuality. Throughout the Christian era it has been a major moral preoccupation. Since the eighteenth century it has also been the focus of 'scientific' exploration and political activity. But, despite this obsessive concern, we are still as baffled as our predecessors about the 'true' meaning of sex. In this book Jeffrey Weeks unravels the dense web of historical, theoretical and political forces that have culminated in the contemporary crisis of sexual meanings and values. The book begins with a powerful evocation of our present discontents and their potent signs: the rise of the New Right, the retreat of progressive forces and a wave of moral panics around sex. It argues that this crisis is rooted in a tradition which has ascribed an inflated importance to sexuality, whilst claiming a privileged access to truth. The author then examines radical debates of recent years, and asks whether they contain the potentiality for taking us beyond the existing boundaries of sexuality. From this analysis emerges a controversial 'radical pluralist' approach to sexuality built on an acceptance of diversity and choice. By linking our present discontents to a clear understanding of the past, Jeffrey Weeks presents a rational, optimistic and challenging vision of a realizable future.

Few topics evoke so much anxiety and pleasure, pain and hope, discussion and silence as sexuality. Throughout the Christian era it has been a major moral preoccupation. Since the eighteenth century it has also been the focus of 'scientific' exploration and political activity. But, despite this obsessive concern, we are still as baffled as our predecessors about the 'true' meaning of sex. In this book Jeffrey Weeks unravels the dense web of historical, theoretical and political forces that have culminated in the contemporary crisis of sexual meanings and values. The book begins with a powerful evocation of our present discontents and their potent signs: the rise of the New Right, the retreat of progressive forces and a wave of moral panics around sex. It argues that this crisis is rooted in a tradition which has ascribed an inflated importance to sexuality, whilst claiming a privileged access to truth. The author then examines radical debates of recent years, and asks whether they contain the potentiality for taking us beyond the existing boundaries of sexuality. From this analysis emerges a controversial 'radical pluralist' approach to sexuality built on an acceptance of diversity and choice. - from Google Books.

The Mythology of Sex explores the ways in which cultural myths reflect attitudes toward sexuality and how these attitudes have changed over time. Drawing on the lore and history of ancient civilizations, recent empires, secret societies, and religions old and new, this handsome guide provides a fascinating approach to understanding the origins of our behaviors, our ideas about the world, and our sexual selves. You'll learn the origins of the virgin/whore dichotomy; find out what the Kama Sutra is really all about; discover the original sexual significance of many of today's traditions (including those surrounding Saint Valentine's Day, Christmas, and Easter); and even take a glimpse into a secret society whose initiation ceremony involved the kissing of animals.

"This new series by Salem Press explores the genre of myths, folktales, legends, and other traditional literature. The first title in the series, drawing upon the most dramatic and fantastical stories of human relations, is Love, Sexuality, and Desire. Each title offers familiar and unfamiliar myths, from a diverse range of countries and cultures, as well as important retellings in the modern tradition. Fairy tales, myths, legends and folktales written from 5000 B.C.E. to the modern era are covered. Those analyzed include Cupid & Psyche, Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere, Aphrodite and Adonis, Pyramus and Thisbe, Beauty and the Beast, Little Red Riding Hood, and The Snake Maiden. What's more, the countries and cultures from which these myths come are worldwide. Included are Greek, Mesopotamian, Iraqi, African, Roman, North American, Indian, Afghani, Japanese, European, South American, Serbian, Irish, Chinese, and Egyptian myths and folktales. Articles begin with a contextual overview of the important cultural and social currents surrounding the myth and the life of the author. A summary offers readers the major actions and characters in a myth followed by an in-depth analysis drawing upon scholarship in the field." -- Publisher's description.

This ground-breaking work provides the first history of ideas about the sexual child in modernity. Beginning with twenty-first century panics about sexualization, the authors address why the sexual child excites such powerful emotions in the Anglophone west.