Sex Scene: Media and the Sexual Revolution

Open Access Published by Duke University Press 2014

Sex Scene

Media and the Sexual Revolution

Edited by: Eric Schaefer

Overview

About this book

Sex Scene suggests that what we have come to understand as the sexual revolution of the late 1960s and early 1970s was actually a media revolution. In lively essays, the contributors examine a range of mass media—film and television, recorded sound, and publishing—that provide evidence of the circulation of sex in the public sphere, from the mainstream to the fringe. They discuss art films such as I am Curious (Yellow), mainstream movies including Midnight Cowboy, sexploitation films such as Mantis in Lace, the emergence of erotic film festivals and of gay pornography, the use of multimedia in sex education, and the sexual innuendo of The Love Boat. Scholars of cultural studies, history, and media studies, the contributors bring shared concerns to their diverse topics. They highlight the increasingly fluid divide between public and private, the rise of consumer and therapeutic cultures, and the relationship between identity politics and individual rights. The provocative surveys and case studies in this nuanced cultural history reframe the "sexual revolution" as the mass sexualization of our mediated world.

Contributors. Joseph Lam Duong, Jeffrey Escoffier, Kevin M. Flanagan, Elena Gorfinkel, Raymond J. Haberski Jr., Joan Hawkins, Kevin Heffernan, Eithne Johnson, Arthur Knight, Elana Levine, Christie Milliken, Eric Schaefer, Jeffrey Sconce, Jacob Smith, Leigh Ann Wheeler, Linda Williams

Author / Editor information

Eric Schaefer is Associate Professor in the Department of Visual and Media Arts at Emerson College. He is the author of "Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!" A History of Exploitation Films, 1919–1959, also published by Duke University Press.

Reviews

"[Schaefer has] assembled a stellar lineup of academic authors who know their stuff. That their stuff includes everything from MPAA ratings flaps and 'party records' to the (ahem) rise of porn chic and how TV’s The Love Boat struggled to hint at cabin couplings, means the book is like a class you wish existed, just so you could audit the entire semester. Collectively, the text is the smartest person at the party without also being the snobbish dick at said soirée. . . ."

-- Rod Lott Bookgasm

“An important contribution to late 20th century history and will be of interest to scholars in media and cultural studies as well to historians.”

-- European Journal of Communication

“[A] remarkable collection of essays about the ways in which media disrupted and recalibrated assumptions about sex and sexuality in the US during the late 1960s and early 1970s. . . . An important collection for anyone interested in media history, sexual regulation, and political activism/social change. Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.”

-- T. E. Adams Choice

“The text is a strong contribution to the field of pop and media culture and is a great resource for those whose research interests explore the intersections of politics, media, and sex during the tumultuous period of the 1960s and 70s. But the book is also written in an accessible manner, engaging in thoughtful criticism without becoming bloated with jargon. For those who are a cineaste or have an interest in the provocateurs whose works have changed the landscape of film, Sex Scene is a great read.”

-- Rebecca Lynn Gavrila Journal of Popular Culture

"In providing a detailed history and analysis of media and sexual revolution in the middle of the twentieth century, Schaefer’s expansive book offers a timely reminder that our current concerns may be understood as an extension of longstanding debates around sexuality, visibility, privacy, and technology in American culture."

-- Andrea McDonnell Journal of American Culture

Topics

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 480
Illustrations
- Other: 58 photographs

eBook

Planned Publication: March 14, 2014
ISBN: 9781478093497