Chicago Series on Sexuality, History, and Society – serie

In Sappho in Early Modern England, Harriette Andreadis examines public and private expressions of female same-sex sexuality in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. Before the language of modern sexual identities developed, a variety of discourses in both literary and extraliterary texts began to form a lexicon of female intimacy. Looking at accounts of non-normative female sexualities in travel narratives, anatomies, and even marital advice books, Andreadis outlines the vernacular through which a female same-sex erotics first entered verbal consciousness. She finds that "respectable" women of the middle classes and aristocracy who did not wish to identify themselves as sexually transgressive developed new vocabularies to describe their desires; women that we might call bisexual or lesbian, referred to in their day as tribades, fricatrices, or "rubsters," emerged in erotic discourses that allowed them to acknowledge their sexuality and still evade disapproval.

In Sappho in Early Modern England, Harriette Andreadis examines public and private expressions of female same-sex sexuality in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. Before the language of modern sexual identities developed, a variety of discourses in both literary and extraliterary texts began to form a lexicon of female intimacy. Looking at accounts of non-normative female sexualities in travel narratives, anatomies, and even marital advice books, Andreadis outlines the vernacular through which a female same-sex erotics first entered verbal consciousness. She finds that "respectable" women of the middle classes and aristocracy who did not wish to identify themselves as sexually transgressive developed new vocabularies to describe their desires; women that we might call bisexual or lesbian, referred to in their day as tribades, fricatrices, or "rubsters," emerged in erotic discourses that allowed them to acknowledge their sexuality and still evade disapproval.

Why is bisexuality the object of such scepticism? Why do sexologists steer clear of it in their research? Why has bisexuality, in stark contrast to homosexuality, only recently emerged as a nascent political and cultural identity? Bisexuality has been rendered as mostly irrelevant to the history, politics and theory of sexuality. With this text, Steven Angelides explores the reasons why and invites us to rethink our preconceptions about sexual identity. Retracing the evolution of sexology, and revisiting modern epistemological categories of sexuality in psychoanalysis, gay liberation, social constructionism, queer theory, biology, and human genetics, Angelides argues that bisexuality has historically functioned as the structural other to sexual identity itself, undermining assumptions about homosexuality and heterosexuality.

Why is bisexuality the object of such scepticism? Why do sexologists steer clear of it in their research? Why has bisexuality, in stark contrast to homosexuality, only recently emerged as a nascent political and cultural identity? Bisexuality has been rendered as mostly irrelevant to the history, politics and theory of sexuality. With this text, Steven Angelides explores the reasons why and invites us to rethink our preconceptions about sexual identity. Retracing the evolution of sexology, and revisiting modern epistemological categories of sexuality in psychoanalysis, gay liberation, social constructionism, queer theory, biology, and human genetics, Angelides argues that bisexuality has historically functioned as the structural other to sexual identity itself, undermining assumptions about homosexuality and heterosexuality.

This study brings together widely divergent discourses to fashion a comprehensive picture of sexual language and attitudes at a particular time and place in the medieval world. John Baldwin introduces five representative voices from the turn of the 12th century in northern France: Pierre the Chanter speaks for the theological doctrine of Augustine; the "Prose Salernitan Questions", for the medical theories of Galen; Andre the Chaplain, for the Ovidian literature of the schools; Jean Renart, for the contemporary romances; and Jean Bodel, for the emerging voices of the fabliaux. Baldwin juxtaposes their views on a range of essential subjects, including social position, the sexual body, desire and act, and procreation. The result is a dialogue of how they agreed or disagreed with, ignored, imitated, or responded to each other at a critical moment in the development of European ideas about sexual desire, fulfillment, morality and gender. These spokesmen allow us into the discussion of sexuality inside the church and schools of the clergy, in high and popular culture of the leity.This heterogeneous discussion also offers a startling glimpse into the construction of gender specific to this moment, when men and women enjoyed equal status in sexual matters, if nowhere else. Taken together, these voices extend their reach, encompass their subject, and point to a centre where social reality lies. By articulating reality at its varied depths, this study takes its place alongside works by James Brundage, John Boswell and Leah Otis in extending our understanding of sexuality and sexual behaviour in the Middle Ages.

This study brings together widely divergent discourses to fashion a comprehensive picture of sexual language and attitudes at a particular time and place in the medieval world. John Baldwin introduces five representative voices from the turn of the 12th century in northern France: Pierre the Chanter speaks for the theological doctrine of Augustine; the Prose Salernitan Questions, for the medical theories of Galen; Andre the Chaplain, for the Ovidian literature of the schools; Jean Renart, for the contemporary romances; and Jean Bodel, for the emerging voices of the fabliaux. Baldwin juxtaposes their views on a range of essential subjects, including social position, the sexual body, desire and act, and procreation. The result is a dialogue of how they agreed or disagreed with, ignored, imitated, or responded to each other at a critical moment in the development of European ideas about sexual desire, fulfillment, morality and gender. These spokesmen allow us into the discussion of sexuality inside the church and schools of the clergy, in high and popular culture of the leity.This heterogeneous discussion also offers a glimpse into the construction of gender specific to this moment, when men and women enjoyed equal status in sexual matters, if nowhere else. Taken together, these voices extend their reach, encompass their subject, and point to a centre where social reality lies. By articulating reality at its varied depths, this study takes its place alongside groundbreaking works by James Brundage, John Boswell, and Leah Otis in extending the understanding of sexuality and sexual behaviour in the Middle Ages.

In this text Bernadette Brooten examines female homoeroticism and the role of women in the ancient Roman world. Employing a range of cultural sources, from medical texts to astrological horoscopes, Brooten finds evidence of marriages between women, and discusses the surgical procedure of clitoridectomy as a method of controlling female homoeroticism. She establishes the fact that condemnations of female homoerotic practices were based on widespread awareness of sexual love between women. Contrary to the common scholarly notion that early Christian sexual ethics were fundamentally different from those of the surrounding culture, Brooten contends that early Christians and their Roman neighbours shared a view of the "natural order" of society.

Why do men rape women? This is a question for which there are many political, psychological, and sociological answers, but few historical ones. "Improper Advances" is a book exploring the history of sexual violence in a particular country. A study of women, men, and sexual crime in rural and Northern Ontario, it expands the terms of debates about sexuality and sexual violence. Karen Dubinsky relies on criminal case files, a revealing but largely untapped source for social historians, to retell individual stories of sexual danger - crimes such as rape, abortion, seduction, murder, and infanticide. Although her research supports many feminist analyses of sexual violence, Dubinsky differs from most feminist scholars by refusing to view women solely as victims and sex as a tool of oppression.

In August 1934, young Cyril L. wrote to his friend Billy about all the exciting men he had met, the swinging nightclubs he had visited, and the vibrant new life he had forged for himself in the big city. He wrote, "I have only been queer since I came to London about two years ago, before then I knew nothing about it." London, for Cyril, meant boundless opportunities to explore his newfound sexuality. But his freedom was limite: he was soon arrested, simply for being in a club frequented by queer men.Cyril's story is Matt Houlbrook's point of entry into the queer worlds of early twentieth-century London. Drawing on previously unknown sources, from police reports and newspaper exposés to personal letters, diaries, and the first queer guidebook ever written, Houlbrook here explores the relationship between queer sexualities and modern urban culture that we take for granted today. He revisits the diverse queer lives that took hold in London's parks and streets; its restaurants, pubs, and dancehalls; and its Turkish bathhouses and hotels—as well as attempts by municipal authorities to control and crack down on those worlds. He also describes how London shaped the culture and politics of queer life—and how London was in turn shaped by the lives of queer men. Ultimately, Houlbrook unveils the complex ways in which men made sense of their desires and who they were. In so doing, he mounts a sustained challenge to conventional understandings of the city as a place of sexual liberation and a unified queer culture. A history remarkable in its complexity yet intimate in its portraiture, Queer London is a landmark work that redefines queer urban life in England and beyond. “A ground-breaking work. While middle-class lives and writing have tended to compel the attention of most historians of homosexuality, Matt Houlbrook has looked more widely and found a rich seam of new evidence. It has allowed him to construct a complex, compelling account of interwar sexualities and to map a new, intimate geography of London.”—Matt Cook, The Times Higher Education Supplement Winner of History Today’s Book of the Year Award, 2006

This text explores the invention of sodomy in medieval Christendom, examining its conceptual foundations in theology and gauging its impact on Christian sexual ethics both then and now. It traces the historical genealogy of this enduring cultural construct through many of the idiosyncratic worldviews of the Middle Ages - worldviews at war with themselves in their attitudes toward sex, love and eroticism. Moving from poetic conceit through medieval treatise to confessor's manual and scholastic summa, the text demonstrates that the medieval notion of sodomy was fashioned out of conceptual instabilities and tensions.

In this history of manhood and masculinity, the author argues that modern formulations of masculinity, despite any sense of naturalness and constancy, are in fact, idealized cultural products of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He examines the process of social construction whereby this traditionalized model of the heterosexual male was selected, delineated, and maintained. The author focuses attention on two domains essential to the legitimation of Western cultural constructs - medicine and the law. Through court reports and newspaper accounts, McLaren shows how everyday people, not just the juridical elite, helped to define through their testimony, an ideal of manhood and proper masculine behaviour. He then considers the medical world: psychiatrists and sexologists emerged as arbiters of sexual and gender differences, devising new categories of deficient masculinity - homosexuals, sadists, exhibitionists, and transvestites. Forming such deviant types required the medical community, he argues, to further demarcate a particular form of preferred masculinity.

Between 1877 and 1892, Dr Thomas Neill Cream murdered seven women, all prostitutes or patients seeking abortions, in England and North America. Using press reports and police dossiers, this account of the killings investigates the links between crime and respectability to reveal a remarkable range of Victorian sexual tensions and fears. The author explores how the roles of murderer and victim were created, and how similar tensions might contribute to the increase in serial killing in modern society.

In the 14th century, a considerable number of men in Germany and Switzerland were executed for committing sodomy. In the 17th century, simply speaking of the act was cause for censorship. Here, in the first ever history of sodomy in these countries, Helmut Puff argues that accusations of sodomy in this era were actually crucial to the success of the Protestant Reformation. Drawing on both literary and historical evidence, Puff shows that speakers of German associated sodomy with Italy and, increasingly, the Catholic Church. As the Reformation gained momentum, the formerly unspeakable crime of sodomy gained a voice, as Martin Luther and others deployed accusations of sodomy to discredit the upper ranks of the Church and to create a sense of community among Protestant believers. During the 16th century, official reactions to this defamatory rhetoric, and fear that mere mention of sodomy would incite sinful acts, resulted in the suppression of court cases from public scrutiny. This eye-opening study should interest historians of gender, sexuality and religion, as well as scholars of mediaeval and early modern history and culture.

In the 14th century, a considerable number of men in Germany and Switzerland were executed for committing sodomy. In the 17th century, simply speaking of the act was cause for censorship. Here, in the first ever history of sodomy in these countries, Helmut Puff argues that accusations of sodomy in this era were actually crucial to the success of the Protestant Reformation. Drawing on both literary and historical evidence, Puff shows that speakers of German associated sodomy with Italy and, increasingly, the Catholic Church. As the Reformation gained momentum, the formerly unspeakable crime of sodomy gained a voice, as Martin Luther and others deployed accusations of sodomy to discredit the upper ranks of the Church and to create a sense of community among Protestant believers. During the 16th century, official reactions to this defamatory rhetoric, and fear that mere mention of sodomy would incite sinful acts, resulted in the suppression of court cases from public scrutiny. This eye-opening study should interest historians of gender, sexuality and religion, as well as scholars of mediaeval and early modern history and culture.

Few issues in American politics inspire such passion as that of civil rights for gays and lesbians. In this group of original essays, scholars and activists writing from a number of different perspectives provide a comprehensive overview of this heated debate. Contributors thoroughly investigate the politics of gay and lesbian movement, beginning with its political organizations and tactics. The essays also address the strategies and ideology of conservative opposition groups, such as the Christian Right. They focus on key issues for public policy, including gays and lesbians openly serving in the military, anti-discrimination laws and the ongoing crisis of AIDS. The book ends with chapters that discuss the ways in which the political struggle for gay rights has played out in various arenas - in Congress, in the courts, in state and local governments, and in electoral politics. Forcefully argued and accessibly written, this collection is an important contribution to the current discussion about civil rights for gays and lesbians.

Sinners and Citizens explores how sexual habits changed in Sweden during its development from an agrarian society into a modern welfare state. Jens Rydström examines the history of homosexuality and bestiality in that country to consider why these sexual practices have been so closely linked in virtually all Western societies. He limns sharply the distinctive experience of rural life, showing that to regularly witness farm animals stirred passions and sparked ideas, especially among young farmhands.Based on medical journals, psychiatric reports, and court records from the period, as well as testimonies from men in diaries, letters, and interviews, Sinners and Citizens reveals that bestiality was once a dreaded crime in Sweden. But in time, mention of the practice disappeared completely from legal and medical debates. This, Rydström contends, is because models of penetrative sodomy shifted from bestiality to homosexuality as Sweden transformed from a rural society into a more urban one. As the nation's economy and culture became less identified with the countryside, so too did its idea of deviant sexual behavior.