This Thing We Call Sex: A Radically Sensible Look at Sex in America - Softcover

Steinberg, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0914906070 ISBN 13: 9780914906070

Publisher: Red Alder Books, 2016

Synopsis

In this long-anticipated collection, columnist, photographer, critic, and sexual explorer David Steinberg has gathered the best of his essays, anecdotes, and photographs into a uniquely insightful, engaging overview of sex in America. For 25 years, Steinberg has documented the American sexual landscape from teenage sexuality to Viagra, swingers’ parties to erotic spirituality, lap dancing to women’s sexual liberation, fine art sexual photography to pornography, homophobia to BDSM. He calls on readers to question their sexual assumptions and fears, and to embrace sex as an opportunity for intimacy, self-understanding, and psychic adventure. Rejecting sensationalized rhetoric rooted in shame and fear, Steinberg offers an emotionally grounded understanding of a topic that is endlessly debated but rarely approached with depth and calm awareness. Whimsical, philosophical, unapologetically political, and revealingly personal, This Thing We Call Sex will take you into sexual worlds that include Marco Vassi, the Marquis de Sade, 19th-century feminist Victoria Woodhull, erotic photographer Jan Saudek, and porn producer Kink.com, exploring the spectrum of human sexuality with an unflinching eye, a compassionate heart, and a keen mind. After reading this book, you will find yourself doing the same.

About this title

About the Author

David Steinberg has been writing about sex and gender since 1989. His monthly Comes Naturally columns appeared in Spectator magazine from 1992 through 2004, and continued for online audiences until 2006. He was a City Brights blogger for the San Francisco Chronicle from 2009 to 2010. His writing has also appeared in such journals as Salon, Playboy, Boston Phoenix, LA Weekly, SF Weekly, Arts and Opinion, Cupido, The Sun, Libido, The Gay and Lesbian Review, The Realist, Transgender Tapestry, Journal of Gender Studies, Changing Men, and Issues in Radical Therapy. He is co-creator of Celebration of Eros, a multimedia erotic theatre presentation, Associate Editor of Sexuality and Culture magazine, and an editor of Cupido magazine (Norway). Since 1999, he has photographed over 160 couples being sexual at home, as well as a series of portraits of transsexual women, and participants in Public Disgrace filmings of Kink.com. His photography has appeared in such journals as Cupido, Libido, Spectator, 7x7, On Our Backs, SF Weekly, Gerontology, and the Santa Cruz Sentinel. He was named Erotic Photographer of the Year in 2010 by the Leydig Trust in London, and a Master of Erotic Art by the Seattle Erotic Art Festival in 2011.

Review

These beautiful, sensitive essays, photos, poems, and stories portray some of the most honest and frank representations of human sex in all its wide range, with joy, ecstasy, and even pain. Inspiring. --Susie Bright, author of The Sexual State of the Union; editor of the Best American Erotica series

This Thing We Call Sex is a fascinating exploration of sexuality, and a profoundly honest, open look at one man's life experience. This is a highly readable, provocative, and eloquent book for anyone exploring their sexuality.--Eli Coleman, Director, Program in Human Sexuality, University of Minnesota Medical School

David Steinberg's edgy, educational, compassionate, and fascinating book is for searchers--people who want to know the full range of sexuality and emotion.--Pepper Schwartz, PhD, Professor of Sociology, coauthor of 50 Great Myths of Human Sexuality

Steinberg's witty, candid, and deeply intelligent essays leave no doubt that his heart is as open as his mind. The shameless sensibility of Steinberg's work is to be treasured, shared, and emulate--Christopher Ryan, co-author of Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern Relationships

David Steinberg's magnum opus helps shift the conversation away from fear and shame, toward a radical embrace of sexual complexity and diversity. David brings thoughtful and wise dispatches from sexual arenas many of us will never visit. This Thing We Call Sex takes you on a journey that brings you home to your sexual self with new comfort and a deeper sense of who you are. Some of my best conversations about sex have been with David. Open this book and you'll see why! --Carol Queen, PhD, Founding Director, Center for Sex and Culture; author of Real Live Nude Girl and Exhibitionism for the Shy

Edition details

• Publisher: Red Alder Books
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0914906070
• ISBN 13: 9780914906070
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 322