Sociology Of Sexualities

Sociology of Sexualities takes a unique sociological approach to the study of sexualities and explores the ways sexuality operates in and through institutions. Drawing on the most up-to-date scientific research on sexuality, as well as the latest political developments on the issues, this core text helps students connect knowledge about sexuality with their broader understanding of society. The thoroughly revised Second Edition includes updated and expanded discussions of the latest sociological research and social justice movements regarding gender and sexuality, as well as a new chapter exploring sexuality and social class, space, and place. Included with this title: The password-protected Instructor Resource Site (formally known as SAGE Edge) offers access to all text-specific resources, including a test bank.

This volume provides researchers and scholars with a broad overview of the contributions of social psychologists and sociologists to the study of sexual relationships and sexual expression across the life course. These contributions include analyses of the dynamics of several types of contemporary sexual relationships – e.g., short-term, long-term non-exclusive, and committed. Chapters analyze the influence of major social institutions – e.g., religion, family and economy - on them. The content and scope of this volume have been carefully chosen to balance coverage of traditional emphases – dating, marriage, commercial sex work, sex education - with new and cutting edge materials – embodiment, Trans*, asexualities. Sections review major theoretical perspectives and the principal research methods. Coverage of sexual orientation is integrated throughout. This volume provides excellent resources for anyone interested in research on sexualities.

Sexualities and Society adopts a fresh, sociological perspective to explore the development of sexualities across both public and private spheres, giving thoughtful consideration to heterosexualities, cis, bi and trans identities. Divided into three parts, the book starts with an exploration into the history of sexuality, before covering the key theories, and how research into sexualities has been, and could be, conducted. Parts two and three examine how sexualities are framed by cultural factors and social institutions – including the media, religion, and politics – and considers the impact of how significant issues such as identity, age, health and violence relate to sexuality. Employing a range of international case studies, up to date policy developments, and engaging learning features such as ‘discussion points’ and ′fact file′ sections, this book is essential reading for students studying sexuality across sociology, social policy, social care, media, and politics.

Offering an anthology of original articles on sexuality from a sociological perspective, Selves, Symbols, and Sexualities: An Interactionist Anthology focuses on the diverse and multi-layered meanings of sexuality, sexual behaviors and sexual identities. Thomas S. Weinberg and Staci Newmahr bring you essays that explore sexuality as a social process. As a whole, the book takes the perspective that what each of us understands to be sexual is constructed through everyday social processes and interaction, situated in particular spaces and moments, identified through our social-sexual presentations, and symbolized through language, objects and practices. The book is organized around these four distinct but interrelated processes, and augmented by personal narratives around relevant issues. The authors’ goals for the book are to engage students in the sociological enterprise by providing interesting and insightful entries that emphasize the importance of meaning-making in human sexuality, and to provide them with conceptual tools to understand human sexuality in a complex and quickly changing sexual landscape.

In the late modern period, an unprecedented expansion of specialized erotic worlds has transformed the domain of intimate life. Organized by appetites and dispositions related to race, ethnicity, class, gender, and age, these erotic worlds are arenas of sexual exploration but, also, sites of stratification and dominion wherein actors vie for partners, social significance, and esteem. These are what Adam Isaiah Green calls sexual fields, which represent a semblance of social life for which he offers a groundbreaking new framework. To build on the sexual fields framework, Green has gathered a distinguished group of scholars who together make a strong case for sexual field theory as the first systematic theoretical innovation since queer theory in the sociology of sexuality. Expanding on the work of Bourdieu, Green and contributors develop this distinctively sociological approach for analyzing collective sexual life, where much of the sexual life of our society resides today. Coupling field theory with the ethnographic and theoretical expertise of some of the most important scholars of sexual life at work today, Sexual Fields offers a game-changing approach that will revolutionize how sociologists analyze and make sense of contemporary sexual life for years to come.

The new sociology of sexuality has a two-fold aim: to demonstrate how the social shapes the sexual; and to analyse how the sexual in turn becomes a focal point for personal identity, cultural anxiety value debates and political action. Drawing on papers from the 1994 British Sociological Association annual conference on 'Sexualities in Social Context', this volume brings together key contributors to this stimulating new approach. Topics covered include theoretical developments, the relationship between history and contemporary controversies, community and identity, especially in the context of AIDS, value conflicts and changes in the meanings of intimacy. The book as a whole offers a significant intervention into debates on sexuality, and a thoughtful contribution to the broadening of the sociological agenda.

Exploring sexuality in the twenty-first century, this unique book collects together more than fifty timely and accessible contributions to create a wide-ranging and compelling picture of contemporary American sexuality. Incorporating the latest cutting-edge controversies, theory and methodological material from the major domains of sexual education, sexual health, sexual rights, and globalization, this book includes a superb editorial overview that opens up the field for students and teachers alike. This anthology will be an invaluable supplement to all levels of students and researchers interested in sexuality across a range of disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, gender and sexuality studies and politics.

In a society where sexualized media has become background noise, we are frequently discouraged from frank and open discussions about sex and offered few tools for understanding sexual behaviors and sexualities that are perceived as being out of the norm. This book encourages readers to establish new ways of thinking about stigmatized peoples and behaviors, and to think critically about gender, sex, sexuality and sex crimes. Sexual Deviance and Society uses sociological theories of crime, deviance, gender and sexuality to construct a framework for understanding sexual deviance. This book is divided into four units: Unit I, Sociology of Deviance and Sexuality, lays the foundation for understanding sex and sexuality through sociological frameworks of deviance. Unit II, Sexual Deviance, provides an in depth dialogue to its readers about the sociological constructions of sexual deviance with a critical focus on contemporary and historical conceptualizations. Unit III, Deviant Sexual Acts, explores a variety of deviant sexual acts in detail, including sex in public, fetishes, and sex work. Unit IV, Sex Crimes and Criminals, examines rape and sexual assault, sex crimes against children, and societal responses to sex offenders and their treatment within the criminal justice system. Utilizing an integrative approach that creates a dialogue between the subjects of gender, criminology and deviance, this book is a key resource for students interested in crime and deviance, gender and sexuality, and the sociology of deviance.