Sex Positives?: Cultural Politics of Dissident Sexualities: 7 (Genders) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0814726631 ISBN 13: 9780814726631

Publisher: NYU Press, 1997

Synopsis

The feminist pornography debates are centered around the opposition between pro-censorship factions and the pro-sex radicals or sex positives. But what exactly is the relationship between these debates and postmodern theories of reading and performativity? What happens to these debates when they are placed in the context of colonial or U.S. racial histories? What is the history behind today's sexual radicalism? How radical is it?

In the first section of Sex Positives?, Nicola Pitchford, Naomi Morgenstern, Victoria L. Smith, and Gabrielle N. Dean focus on the recent sex wars in U.S. feminism, especially within lesbian culture. Elissa J. Rashkin, Gaurav Desai, and James Smalls broaden the terms of the sex wars debates in the second section to include sexualized racial and colonial representations, from Chicana, African, and African-American perspectives. Finally, Sander L. Gilman, Laura Ciolkowski, and Laura Frost explore a variety of historical contexts for understanding contemporary forms of sexual representation and the repression of such representations.

About this title

Review:

"Wiggins captures voices normally taken for granted: the voices of African American female laity. Based on fieldwork, surveys, and semistructured interviews, the book reveals a complex representation of thirty-eight African American churchwomen from two congregations (one Baptist and one Church of God in Christ.)"
-"Journal of Religion",

"Offers laity, clergy and scholars a fresh angle of vision on the black church. Wiggins interviews contemporary black lay women and provides an empathetic description and incisive analysis of why black women are loyal to the black church. Taking seriously the women's theological reasons as well as sociological factors, her analysis is evenhanded yet provocative. Daphne Wiggins challenges scholars and members of the black church to move in new directions in this new millennium. The book has value for both the classroom and the pew."
-Marcia Y. Riggs, J. Erskine Love Professor of Christian Ethics, Columbia Theological Seminary

"Wiggins is offering us a legacy, something to help us understand in historical reflection why women are where they are, despite and because of the internal workings of black churches. . . . I am grateful for this important intervention into the study of black women's religious experiences. It offers us yet another opportunity to interpret the religious worlds of women whose lives are often unexamined."
-"The North Star",

"This highly-readable book will be a valuable addition to library collections."
-"Choice", /p>,

"Daphne Wiggins has made a major contribution to our understanding of the religion, wisdom, and social power of African American women. This book should be required reading for church leaders, seminary professors, and sociologists of American religion who often take Black women's religiosity for granted. Wiggins offers us that rare gift found in the finest ethnographic studies, a vivid sense of the inner world of the people in their own voices. I learned something new on every page. A tour de force of insight and lively writing chock full of practical suggestions for improving church life."
-Robert M. Franklin, author of "Another Day's Journey: Black Churches Confronting the American Crisis"

About the Author:

Thomas Foster is Professor of English at the University of Washington.

About this edition

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0814726631
• ISBN 13: 9780814726631
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 278
• Editor: Foster Thomas, Siegel Carol, Berry Ellen E.