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Cover -- Half Title -- Series -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Preface to the fifth edition: writing Sexuality -- Acknowledgements -- 1 Introduction: languages of sex -- The significance of sexuality -- Words and meanings -- Sexualities in history and society -- 2 The invention of sexuality -- A brief history of the history of sexuality -- A subject in constant flux -- The 'social construction' of sexuality -- The organisation of sexuality -- Why sexuality is important -- Intersections -- 3 The meanings of sexual difference -- A true sex? -- The biological imperative -- Evolutionary diversions -- Biological modes of argument -- Sexuality and social relations -- Multiple realities and diverse social worlds -- Performing identities -- Sexuality and the unconscious -- Affect and the structuring of emotions -- Phobias and norms -- 4 The challenge of diversity -- The language of perversity -- Categorising sexualities -- The discourse of diversity -- Deconstructing the categories -- Making choices -- 5 Sexuality, intimacy and politics -- Sexuality on the front line -- Beyond tradition -- Living with uncertainty: HIV/AIDS -- Sexual and intimate citizenship -- Globalisation and human sexual rights -- 6 Private pleasures and public policies -- The limits of science -- The ethical dilemma -- Towards sexual democracy -- The human gesture -- Suggestions for further reading -- Index.

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Editor's foreword to the first edition -- Author's preface to the second edition -- Author's preface to the third edition -- Author's preface to fourth edition -- Acknowledgements to the first edition -- Acknowledgements to the second edition -- Acknowledgements to the third edition -- Acknowledgements to the fourth edition -- 1 Introduction: Languages of sex -- The significance of sexuality -- Words and meanings -- Sexualities in history and society -- 2 The invention of sexuality -- A brief history of the history of sexuality -- A subject in constant flux -- The 'social construction' of sexuality -- The organization of sexuality -- Why sexuality is important -- Intersections -- 3 The meanings of sexual difference -- A true sex? -- The biological imperative -- Evolutionary diversions -- Biological modes of argument -- Sexuality and social relations -- Multiple realities and diverse social worlds -- Performing identities -- Sexuality and the unconscious -- Affect, and the structuring of emotions -- Phobias and norms -- 4 The challenge of diversity -- The language of perversity -- The discourse of diversity -- Deconstructing the categories -- Making choices -- 5 Sexuality, intimacy and politics -- Sexuality on the front line -- Beyond tradition -- Living with uncertainty: HIV/AIDS -- Sexual and intimate citizenship -- Globalization and human sexual rights -- 6 Private pleasures and public policies -- The limits of science -- The ethical dilemma -- Towards sexual democracy -- The human gesture -- Suggestions for further reading -- Bibliography -- Index

"Sexuality is the fifth revised and up-dated edition of the classic text for understanding human sexuality. This new edition brings the arguments and evidence fully up to date, and explores their implication for many topical controversies, around LGBTQ+ rights, the trans experience and gender fluidity, same-sex marriage, sexual autonomy and consent, and the meanings of sexual choice. Since it was first published in the 1980s, Sexuality has been at the cutting edge of the study of the social and historical meanings of sexuality. Blending deep empirical knowledge with theoretical sophistication and an acute sensitivity to the politics of sexuality, the book offers an acutely informed framework for understanding the complexities of sexual life. A key insight of the book is that the ways we think and speak about sexuality make a major contribution to the ways we live it. Sexuality may be rooted in biological possibilities, but it is shaped and experienced through languages and meanings which are inevitably historical and social in nature. The book explores with clarity and precision the invention and re-invention of sexual meanings, the question of what constitutes a true sex and the biological and social roots of sexual difference, the challenges of diversity, the re-making of sexuality as a highly divisive political subject, and the implications of the transformation of intimate life in the past few generations. These are seen in the context of profound changes that are re-fashioningmaking the world, especially globalization, and cyber-sex, and the rise of new forms of agency, including amongst women and LGBTQ+ peoples, which have fed into new claims for sexual human rights. This new edition of Sexuality will be an indispensable guide for students in the social sciences with an interest in the ever-changing worlds of sexuality"--

A roundtable discussion on sexuality took place at the Institute for Women's Studies in the Arab World, Lebanese American University (LAU). Among theparticipants were undergraduate and graduate students from various Lebanese universities. It was moderated by Dr. Marie Therese Kheir Badawi.