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Sexualities and Communication in Everyday Life
A Reader
Edited by:
- Karen E. Lovaas - San Francisco State University, USA
- Mercilee M. Jenkins - San Francisco State University, USA
August 2006 | 344 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
"There are more than twenty-five contributors to the Reader. The sheer pleasure that the contributors provide in the way they bring together brilliantly diverse perspectives to enlarge the limits of one's understanding is not easy to describe. Particularly stimulating among the collection are the pieces by Jeffrey Weeks and Patrick Johnson. The intellectual satisfaction derived from the study of the erotic self and the human struggle and search for meaning and means of communicating meaning is quare indeed A book to read and return from time to time."
—The Book Review
"This groundbreaking reader will spark the development of new courses in communication and sexuality. Students and teachers wanting to fully understand the constitutive and performative nature of communication will find few other books that meet their needs better than this one."
—R. Jeffrey Ringer, St. Cloud University
"Sexualities and Communication in Everyday Life provides readers with a useful typology for comprehending the various shifts in thinking about sexual identities and communication that have occurred across time while it also provides a deft synthesis of the major issues and themes. The text puts an excellent breadth of essays--some newly acquired for this book, some previously published and germinal—easily into students' and teachers' hands."
—Lesa Lockford, Bowling Green State University
Sexualities and Communication in Everyday Life: A Reader is a groundbreaking anthology on the role of communication in the construction and performance of sexualities in interpersonal contexts and in public discourses. Editors Karen E. Lovaas and Mercilee M. Jenkins bring together an interdisciplinary collection which include excerpts from foundational works, recent journal articles, and original pieces written specifically for this text.
Key Features:
—The Book Review
"This groundbreaking reader will spark the development of new courses in communication and sexuality. Students and teachers wanting to fully understand the constitutive and performative nature of communication will find few other books that meet their needs better than this one."
—R. Jeffrey Ringer, St. Cloud University
"Sexualities and Communication in Everyday Life provides readers with a useful typology for comprehending the various shifts in thinking about sexual identities and communication that have occurred across time while it also provides a deft synthesis of the major issues and themes. The text puts an excellent breadth of essays--some newly acquired for this book, some previously published and germinal—easily into students' and teachers' hands."
—Lesa Lockford, Bowling Green State University
Sexualities and Communication in Everyday Life: A Reader is a groundbreaking anthology on the role of communication in the construction and performance of sexualities in interpersonal contexts and in public discourses. Editors Karen E. Lovaas and Mercilee M. Jenkins bring together an interdisciplinary collection which include excerpts from foundational works, recent journal articles, and original pieces written specifically for this text.
Key Features:
- This collection (1) assists students in understanding the intersections of sexuality with other identity constructions; (2) introduces the concepts and implications of queer theory; (3) challenges students to move beyond stereotypical, dichotomous views of homosexual and heterosexual identities and communication styles; and, (4) facilitates students' awareness of and ability to recognize heteronormativity.
- While most of the readings are written by communication researchers, there are many by scholars from various disciplines including sociology, English, psychology, gender studies, and anthropology. These works also exemplify a variety of research methods, with an emphasis on qualitative research including critical, ethnographic, and performance.
- An introductory chapter providing a thorough review of literature to date on communication and sexualities is followed by sections on interpersonal contexts and public discourses. There is a logical flow from the foundational materials, to the examinations of sexuality in one's everyday vocabulary, interactions, and relationships, to wider social discourses, to interventions, praxis, and future visions. In addition, discussion questions follow each reading to spark personal reflection and application.
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Karen E. Lovaas and Mercilee M. Jenkins
Introduction: Setting the Stage
Part I: Foundations for Thinking About Sexualities and Communication
Jonathan Ned Katz
1. The Invention of Heterosexuality: The Debut of the Heterosexual
Jeffrey Weeks
2. Necessary Fictions: Sexual Identities and the Politics of Diversity
Sara Salih
3. On Judith Butler and Performantivity
E. Patrick Johnson
4. "Quare" Studies, or (Almost) Everything I Know About Queer Studies I Learned From My Grandmother [Part I]
Audre Lorde
5. The Use of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power
Part II: Performing and Disciplining Sexualities in Interpersonal Contexts
William Leap
6. Language, Socialization, and Silence in Gay Adolescence
Lisa M. Diamond
7. "Having a Girlfriend Without Knowing It": Intimate Friendships Among Adolescent Sexual-Minority Women
Michele J. Eliason
8. Accounts of Sexual Identity Formation in Heterosexual Students
Terry Tafoya
9. M. Dragonfly: Two-Spirit and the Tafoya Principle of Uncertainty
Myron Beasley
10. Migrancy and Homodesire
Elizabeth Bell
11. Performing "I Do": Wedding, Pornography, and Sex
Gust A. Yep, Karen E. Lovaas, and John P. Elia
12. A Critical Appraisal of Assimiliationist and Radical Ideologies Underlying Same-Sex Marriage in LGBT Communities in the United States
Part III: Performing and Disciplining Sexualities in Public Discourses
Paul Turpin
13. Performing the Rhetoric of Science: Dr. Laura's Portrayal of Homosexuality
John M. Sloop
14. Disciplining the Transgendered: Brandon Teena, Public Representation, and Normativity
Christopher Castiglia and Christopher Reed
15. "Ah, Yes, I Remember It Well": Memory and Queer Culture in Will and Grace
John T. Warren and Nicholas A. Zoffel
16. Living in the Middle: Performances Bi-Men
Jennifer Tuder
17. "Holly Kowalski": Sex Across the Curriculum
Cathy B. Glenn
18. Queering the (Sacred) Body Politic: Considering the Performative Cultural Politics of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence
Part IV: Transforming Sexualities and Communication: Visions and Praxis
Robert G. Westerfelhaus
19. The Spirituality of Sex and the Sexuality of Spirit: BDSM Erotic Play as Soulwork and Social Critique
Mercilee M. Jenkins
20. Menopause and Desire, or 452 Positions on Love
E. Patrick Johnson
21. "Quare" Studies, or (Almost) Everything I Know About Queer Studies I Learned From My Grandmother [Part II]
Wendy M. Thompson
22. Activism and Identity Through the Word: A Mixed-Race Woman Claims Her Space
Gloria E. Anzaldua
23. Making Alliances
About the Editors
"There are more than twenty-five contributors to the Reader. The sheer pleasure that the contributors provide in the way they bring together brilliantly diverse perspectives to enlarge the limits of one's understanding is not easy to describe. Particularly stimulating among the collection are the pieces by Jeffrey Weeks and Patrick Johnson. The intellectual satisfaction derived from the study of the erotic self and the human struggle and search for meaning and means of communicating meaning is quare indeed A book to read and return from time to time."
—The Book Review
The Book Review - December 2007
I will be adopting this book for my next Queer Sexualities course. I believe it addresses some of the common course themes and would be an enjoyable read for students.
Inst For Women'S Studies Svcs, Metropolitan St Univ Of Denver
March 12, 2015
It was a very helpful bool for my Gender and Communication class to include sexuality.
Communication Dept, University of Louisville
April 23, 2010
Sage College Publishing
