Nineteenth-century America saw numerous campaigns against masturbation; which was said to cause illness; insanity; and even death. Riotous Flesh explores women’s leadership of those movements; with a specific focus on their rhetorical; social; and political effects; showing how a desire to transform the politics of sex created unexpected alliances between groups that otherwise had very different goals. As April R. Haynes shows; the crusade against female masturbation was rooted in a generally shared agreement on some major points: that girls and women were as susceptible to masturbation as boys and men; that “self-abuse†was rooted in a lack of sexual information; and that sex education could empower women and girls to master their own bodies. Yet the groups who made this education their goal ranged widely; from “ultra†utopians and nascent feminists to black abolitionists. Riotous Flesh explains how and why diverse women came together to popularize; then institutionalize; the condemnation of masturbation; well before the advent of sexology or the professionalization of medicine.
#1632465 in Books 2016-10-19Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.00 x .90 x 6.00l; .0 #File Name: 022623231X232 pages
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