Suchergebnisse

"This chapter traces the development of sexology since its foundation in the second part of the 19th century through today. It also gives an overview of social scientific and historical research on sexology. It stresses the transnational character of sexology and draws on examples from multiple cultural contexts, taking into consideration various aspects of the development of sexology. Firstly, in examining the relation between sexology and the state, it asks if sexology is a tool in the hands of power to manage its subjects, or if it could serve as a space of resistance against the state. Secondly, it traces the connection between sexology and the process of constructing the other, especially the racial other in the colonial context. Thirdly, it looks at the production of sexological knowledge and points to the agency of sexological patients in this process. Next, in showing ambivalence around sexology and progress, it asks if sexology brings sexual liberation, or if it is rather a conservative force. The chapter concludes with a discussion about new developments in sexology, namely the invention of Viagra and its consequences"--

Part 1. Sexology and society -- The development of sexology and sexual rights activism in Europe and the United States -- The Polish school of sexology -- Part 2. Pleasure: toward good sex -- Sexuality and scientific knowledge -- "Civilized" sex and gender relations under socialism -- Gender and pleasure in expert discourse today -- Part 3. Violence: expert discourse of rape -- Rape: definitions, legal understanding,and statistics -- The provocative victim and the male limits of self-restraint: stereotypes in expert literature -- In the courtroom -- Feminism: changes in expert discourse and in the courtroom.

Kirsten Leng restores the work of female sexologists to the forefront of the history of sexology. While male researchers who led the practice of early-twentieth-century sexology viewed women and their sexuality as objects to be studied, not as collaborators in scientific investigation, Leng pinpoints nine German and Austrian "women sexologists" and?female sexual theorists? to reveal how sex, gender, and sexuality influenced the field of sexology itself. Leng's book makes it plain that women not only played active roles in the creation of sexual scientific knowledge but also made significant and influential interventions in the field. Sexual Politics and Feminist Science provides readers with an opportunity to rediscover and engage with the work of these pioneers. Leng highlights sexology?s empowering potential for women, but also contends that in its intersection with eugenics, the narrative is not wholly celebratory. By detailing gendered efforts to understand and theorize sex through science, she reveals the cognitive biases and sociological prejudices that ultimately circumscribed the transformative potential of their ideas. Ultimately, Sexual Politics and Feminist Science helps readers to understand these women?s ideas in all their complexity in order to appreciate their unique place in the history of sexology.0