Product Overview
Handcuffs, paddles, whipsthe words alone are enough to make a person blush. Even by our societys standards, the practice of things like BDSM is still very hush-hush, considered deviant sexual behavior that must be kept hidden. But the narrow view of what is thought of as normal sexa vanilla act performed by one man and one womanis more and more contested these days. And as Julie Peakman reveals, normal never really existed; for everyone, different kinds of sex have always offered myriad pleasures, and almost all sexual behaviors have traveled between acceptance and proscription.The Pleasures All Mineexamines two millennia of letters, diaries, court records, erotic books, medical texts, and more to explore the gamut of deviant sexual activity.
Delving into the specialized cultures of pain, necrophilia, and bestiality and the social world of plushies, furries, and life-size sex dolls, Peakman considers the changing attitudes toward these, as well as masturbation, golden showers, sadomasochism, homosexuals, transvestites, and transsexuals. She follows the history of each behavior through its original reception to its interpretation by sexologists and how it is viewed today, showing how previously acceptable behaviors now provoke social outrage, or vice versa. In addition, she questions why people have been and remain intolerant of other peoples sexual preferences.
The first comprehensive history of sexual perversion and packed with both color and black and white images,The Pleasures All Mineis a fascinating and sometimes shocking look at the evolution of our views on sex.
