Kiss and Confide: A 20th Century Sexology Report

Author: Julia
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-05-01
Features: This book offers a fascinating and detailed narrative of a century of American sexual survey history. Erikson skillfully utilizes the ever-changing nature of sexual surveys to demonstrate the fundamental shifts in public and personal understandings of sex over time. Highly readable, it stands as an outstanding contribution to the field of sexology. Moreover, what is even more important is that it helps us understand the anxieties Americans have about sex. The book meticulously details a century of American sexual survey history, recording the fundamental changes in public and personal understandings of sex. The author reveals that while sexual surveys reflect the sexual values and assumptions of an era, they also powerfully shape the social reality of "normal" sexuality. It shows how sexual surveys reflect society's anxieties about puberty, adolescent sexual behavior, promiscuity, and AIDS, as well as how society strives to protect marriage and guide women's sexual desires. This is a must-read for understanding the diversity of human sexuality, and it also makes us realize how incomplete and malleable our actual sexual knowledge is.