Sexuality and Its Discontents

Sexuality and Its Discontents: Meanings, Myths, and Modern Sexualities
Cover of the first edition
Author Jeffrey Weeks
Cover artist Marsha Lebon
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Subject Philosophy of sex
Publisher Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd
Publication date
 1985
Media type Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages 324
ISBN 0-415-04503-7

Sexuality and Its Discontents: Meanings, Myths, and Modern Sexualities is a 1985 book about the politics and philosophy of sex by the sociologist Jeffrey Weeks. The book received positive reviews, crediting Weeks with explaining the theories of sexologists and usefully discussing various controversial sexual issues. However, Weeks has been criticized for his treatment of subjects such as feminism and sado-masochism.

Summary

Weeks aims to "show the historical, theoretical and political forces" behind a contemporary "crisis of sexual values ... rooted in a sexual and sexological tradition which has ascribed an inflated importance to sexuality". He discusses the views of scientists and philosophers on sex, provides a "critical examination of the tradition of psychoanalysis", considers the theories and practices of the feminist and gay rights movements, and tries to "question the neutrality of sexual science". He writes that Sexuality and Its Discontents could be considered the third volume of a trilogy of books on related themes, following Coming Out: Homosexual Politics in Britain from the Nineteenth Century to the Present (1977) and Sex, Politics and Society: The Regulation of Sexuality Since 1800 (1981).[1]

Authors Weeks discusses include the biologist Charles Darwin, the psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing, the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, the anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski, the biologist Alfred Kinsey, the psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich, the philosopher Herbert Marcuse, the psychoanalyst Erich Fromm, the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, the anthropologist Margaret Mead, the philosopher Michel Foucault, the biologist Edward O. Wilson, the psychologist Alan P. Bell, the sociologist Martin S. Weinberg, the anthropologist Donald Symons, the philosopher Roger Scruton, the activist Tom O'Carroll, the anthropologist Gayle Rubin, and the writer Pat Califia.[2] He examines various issues including homosexuality, pedophilia, pornography, prostitution, and sado-masochism.[3]

Publication history

Sexuality and Its Discontents was first published by Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd in 1985. It was reprinted several times by Routledge.[4]

Reception

Mainstream media

Sexuality and Its Discontents received positive reviews from Christopher Meade in New Statesman and N. W. Bell in Choice.[5][6] The book was also reviewed by Lisa Davis in Psychology Today and discussed by the sociologist Ray Pahl in New Statesman & Society.[7][8]

Meade described the book as a "sensitive study" that "succeeds in locating many widely felt uncertainties, sharpening them up into pointed and timely questions for the future". However, he noted that Weeks included little discussion of fertility and child care and avoided "tackling the full extent of feminism's critique of male defined society".[5] Bell credited Weeks with explaining the "underlying assumptions, modes of expression, and political implications of writings as diverse as scientific-sex research, psychoanalysis, lesbian feminism, and the advocacy of rights for sadomasochists and pedofiliacs." He concluded that, "No serious student of sexuality can afford to miss this book."[6]

Gay media

Sexuality and Its Discontents received a positive review from Jim Monk in The Body Politic.[9] The book was also reviewed by the gay rights activist Dennis Altman in The Advocate.[10]

Monk described the book as a "scholarly work that is enjoyable to read and highly instructive." However, he wrote that the position on sexual morality advocated by Weeks, "radical pluralism", was described only in general terms. He also criticized Weeks's discussion of sado-masochism, writing that Weeks's view that "a powerful argument against S/M's playful use of the symbols of power and domination is the existence of real oppression and exploitation" had "emotional strength" but was dubiously logical. He was also dissatisfied by Weeks's discussion of the age of consent, arguing that it contradicted views Weeks had expressed in other places of his book and left various issues unresolved.[9]

Academic journals

Sexuality and Its Discontents received a positive review from Michael-Roy Kingham in The Sociological Review.[11] The book was also reviewed by the sociologist Michael Messner in The Social Science Journal,[12] the sociologist Barry D. Adam in the American Journal of Sociology,[13] the sociologist William Simon in Contemporary Sociology,[14] the sociologist Stephen O. Murray in the Journal of Homosexuality,[15] and Peter F. Murphy in Feminist Studies,[16] and discussed by the art historian Simon Watney in Screen.[17]

Kingham considered Weeks's aim of explaining the contemporary crisis of sexual values ambitious and only partly successful. However, he found Weeks's project promising, and credited him with providing "a valuable analysis and critique of the arguments used by those who see sex as govemed by natural forces" and with exposing the "naturalistic basis" of the theories of early sexologists. He praised Weeks's discussions of Darwin, Krafft-Ebing, Freud, Ellis, Kinsey, and Wilson, writing that Weeks showed "the key ideas embedded in their discourses", including their use of metaphor, but he added that Weeks perhaps "does less than justice to the anthropological position" and should have drawn on more recent anthropological and ethological evidence. He also complimented Weeks's discussions of other authors such as Malinowski and Mead, his examination of the work of Fromm, Marcuse, Reich, and Lacan, to see what they can contribute to "an adequate explanation of human desire", and his examination of controversial issues such as public sex, intergenerational sex, pornography, and sado-masochism, though he noted that other reviewers had been more critical of Weeks's views. He compared the book to Scruton's Sexual Desire (1986), noting that while his conclusions were different, Scruton addressed the same range of issues. He also considered the two books similar in structure and content.[11]

Evaluations in books

Altman, writing in AIDS and the New Puritanism (1986), argued that Weeks was correct to maintain that AIDS had been surrounded by "moral panic" of a kind typical of societies in a process of rapid change.[18] The economist Richard Posner, writing in Sex and Reason (1992), described Sexuality and Its Discontents as a "polemical" but readable work.[19] The political scientist Sheila Jeffreys, writing in Anticlimax (2011), noted that in his discussion of sado-masochism, Weeks "quotes lesbian rather than male gay theorists" and mentions "only lesbian sadomasochism". She criticized Weeks for approving of the work of Califia and Rubin, questioning whether they deserved to be considered feminists. She also criticized him for neglecting writers she considered more genuinely feminist and expressing a negative view of the work of radical feminists opposed to sado-masochism.[20] Robert R. Reilly, writing in Making Gay Okay (2014), credited Weeks with correctly observing that the American Psychiatric Association declassified homosexuality because of gay activism.[21]

References

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Weeks 1993, pp. ix–x, 5–6.
  2. ↑ Weeks 1993, pp. 11–12, 15, 61–69, 82–85, 100–120, 161–173, 176–177, 186, 197, 209, 225.
  3. ↑ Weeks 1993, pp. 22–24, 45–53, 225–231, 236–241.
  4. ↑ Weeks 1993, p. iv.
  5. 1 2 Meade 1985, p. 28.
  6. 1 2 Bell 1986, p. 897.
  7. ↑ Davis 1986, pp. 76-78.
  8. ↑ Pahl 1993, p. 31.
  9. 1 2 Monk 1986, pp. 31-32.
  10. ↑ Altman 1986, p. 110.
  11. 1 2 Kingham 1986, pp. 913-918.
  12. ↑ Messner 1987, pp. 351-352.
  13. ↑ Adam 1987, p. 1035.
  14. ↑ Simon 1987, p. 53.
  15. ↑ Murray 1988, pp. 183-186.
  16. ↑ Murphy 1989, pp. 351-361.
  17. ↑ Watney 1986, pp. 72-85.
  18. ↑ Altman 1988, p. 187.
  19. ↑ Posner 1992, p. 13.
  20. ↑ Jeffreys 2011, pp. 207-208.
  21. ↑ Reilly 2015, p. 125.

Bibliography

Books

  • Altman, Dennis (1988). AIDS and the New Puritanism. London: Pluto Press. ISBN 0 7453 0012 X.
  • Jeffreys, Sheila (2011). Anticlimax: A feminist perspective on the sexual revolution. North Melbourne: Spinifex Press. ISBN 978-1-74219-807-1.
  • Posner, Richard (1992). Sex and Reason. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-80279-9.
  • Reilly, Robert R. (2015). Making Gay Okay: How Rationalizing Homosexual Behavior Is Changing Everything. San Francisco: Ignatius Press. ISBN 978-1-62164-086-8.
  • Weeks, Jeffrey (1993). Sexuality and its discontents: Meanings, myths & modern sexualities. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-04503-7.
Journals

  • Adam, Barry D. (1987). "Sexuality and its discontents (Book Review)". American Journal of Sociology. 92. doi:10.1086/228618.  – via EBSCO's Academic Search Complete (subscription required)
  • Altman, Dennis (1986). "In's and out's of sexuality". The Advocate (438).  – via EBSCO's Academic Search Complete (subscription required)
  • Bell, N. W. (1986). "Sexuality and its discontents (Book Review)". Choice. 23.  – via EBSCO's Academic Search Complete (subscription required)
  • Davis, Lisa (1986). "Sexuality and its discontents (Book Review)". Psychology Today. 20.  – via EBSCO's Academic Search Complete (subscription required)
  • Kingham, Michael-Roy (1986). "Sexuality and its discontents (Book Review)". The Sociological Review. 34 (4): 855–918. doi:10.1111/j.1467-954X.1986.tb00701.x.  – via EBSCO's Academic Search Complete (subscription required)
  • Meade, Christopher (1985). "Sexuality and its discontents (Book Review)". New Statesman. 110 (July 19, 1985).  – via EBSCO's Academic Search Complete (subscription required)
  • Messner, Michael (1987). "Sexuality and its discontents (Book Review)". The Social Science Journal. 24 (3).  – via EBSCO's Academic Search Complete (subscription required)
  • Monk, Jim (1986). "Another way of thinking". The Body Politic (126).  – via EBSCO's Academic Search Complete (subscription required)
  • Murphy, Peter F. (1989). "Sexuality and its discontents (Book Review)". Feminist Studies. 15.  – via EBSCO's Academic Search Complete (subscription required)
  • Murray, Stephen O. (1988). "Sexuality and its discontents (Book)". Journal of Homosexuality. 15 (3/4).  – via EBSCO's Academic Search Complete (subscription required)
  • Pahl, Ray (1993). "What price that old black magic now?". New Statesman & Society. 6 (239).  – via EBSCO's Academic Search Complete (subscription required)
  • Simon, William (1987). "Sexuality and its discontents (Book Review)". Contemporary Sociology. 16.  – via EBSCO's Academic Search Complete (subscription required)
  • Watney, Simon (1986). "The Rhetoric of AIDS". Screen. 27.  – via EBSCO's Academic Search Complete (subscription required)
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