Moral Panics, Sex Panics: Fear and the Fight over Sexual Rights

by Gilbert Herdt (Editor)

Overview

Finalist for 2010 LGBT Anthology Award from the Lambda Literary Awards
Unwed teen mothers, abortion, masturbation, pornography, gay marriage, sex trafficking, homosexuality, and HIV are just a few in a long line of issues that have erupted into panics. These sexual panics spark moral crusades and campaigns, defining and shaping how we think about sexual and reproductive rights. The essays in Moral Panics, Sex Panics focus on case studies ranging from sex education to AIDS to race and the "down low," to illustrate how sexuality is at the heart of many political controversies. The contributors also reveal how moral and sexual panics have become a mainstay of certain kinds of conservative efforts to win elections and gain power in moral, social, and political arenas. Moral Panics, Sex Panics provides new and important insights into the role that key moral panics have played in social processes, arguing forcefully against the political abuse of sex panics and for the need to defend full sexual and reproductive rights.
Contributors: Cathy J. Cohen, Diane DiMauro, Gary W. Dowsett, Janice M. Irvine, Carole Joffe, and Saskia Eleonora Wieringa.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814737323
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	06/01/2009
Series:	Intersections , #8
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Gilbert Herdt is Professor and Founder of the Department of Sexuality Studies at San Francisco State University and author of Guardians of the Flutes, Third Sex, Third Gender, and Secrecy and Cultural Reality.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 1. Introduction: Moral Panics, Sexual Rights, and Cultural Anger Gilbert Herdt 2. The Religious Right and the Reshaping of Sexuality: Reproductive Rights and Sexuality Education During the Bush Years Diane DiMauro & Carole Joffe 3. Black Sexuality, Indigenous Moral Panics, and Respectability: From Bill Cosby to the Down Low Cathy J. Cohen 4. The “Gay Plague” Revisited: AIDS and its Enduring Moral Panic Gary W. Dowsett 5. Gay Marriage: The Panic and the Right Gilbert Herdt 6. Postcolonial Amnesia: Sexual Moral Panics, Memory and Imperial Power Saskia Eleonora Wieringa 7. Transient Feelings: Sex Panics and the Politics of Emotions Janice M. Irvine Contributors Index 

Editorial Reviews

"Smart analysis and crucial advice in a timely academic call to arms."

Between the Lines

"The authors here provide thorough accounts of contemporary social and sexual issues that dominate social consciousness, media and politics . . . the book offers a modern synopsis of how sex and sexuality continue to be embedded in political, educational and social debates."

Social Anthropology - Lindsay Sprague

"Abortion, AIDS, non marital sex, homosexuality, pornography, contraception, sexual rights, and the rest have posed persistent threats and challenges across the world for some time. & Sex stands as a major political and moral symbol that marks boundaries and shapes change in cultures.Here an outstanding group of social scientists give a firm focus to the culture wars and moral panics that split cultures and speak to persistent and deep divides round the world. The essays in this timely volume provide critical insights to the battle lines that must be overcome for a new world to flourish."

Ken Plummer

"Individuals and activist groups committed to the progressive struggle for cultural and sexual freedoms will find smart analysis and crucial advice in a timely academic call to arms."

Gay and Lesbian Times

"Nowadays panic seems to be everywherefrom homeland security to economic crisisyet sexual topics seem to prompt the most extreme episodes of fear, loathing, indignation, and overreaction. How do sex panics unfold? How can defenders of sexual rights respond effectively? In this state-of-the-art volume, noted scholars of sexuality take a big step forward in addressing these questions while zooming in on crucial topics such as reproductive rights, sex education, AIDS, same-sex marriage, and the politics of race and empire."

Steven Epstein

"This is a very important book. If you want to understand the state of sexuality politics in this countryand have a hope of reversing moral panics and public liesyou need to read this book!"

Pepper Schwartz

"Moral Panics, Sex Panicsis a valuable interdisciplinary contribution to emotion, media, and gender studies."

H-Net Reviews

"In this six-essay collection, with an astute introduction from editor Herdt, social scientists and scholars of sexuality dissect where such loathing for personal freedoms originates, how maniacally it is deployed and whether there is an effective response to the fomented onslaught of anti-woman, anti-gay and anti-sexual moral Puritanism."

Pittsburghs Out

Smart analysis and crucial advice in a timely academic call to arms.”

- Between the Lines

“ Moral Panics, Sex Panics is a valuable interdisciplinary contribution to emotion, media, and gender studies.”- H-Net Reviews

From the Publisher