Kiss and Confide: A 20th Century Report on Sexuality

Author: Julia A. Erickson, Sally A. Stephen, translated by Ma Yongbo
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-05-01
Features: This book offers a fascinating and detailed account of a century of American sexual survey history. Erickson skillfully utilizes the evolving nature of sexual surveys to demonstrate the fundamental changes in public and personal understandings of sex over time. Highly readable, it stands as an outstanding contribution to the field of sexology. Moreover, it helps us understand the anxieties Americans have about sex. The book meticulously narrates a century of American sexual survey history, documenting the profound shifts in public and personal perceptions of sex. The authors reveal 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 adolescent development, teenage 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 aware of how incomplete and malleable our actual sexual knowledge is.