SEX IN MODERN HISTORY

Sex is the vehicle that has literally (and perhaps figuratively) allowed us to go forth, multiply, and inhabit this beautiful blue and green planet. Yet sex is so much more to us than mere propagation. Sexual pleasure, sexual desire, and sexual identities - particularly in the period that we will examine in this course - have been central to repression, oppression, and conflict; dialogues of race, gender, religion, and society; and the ways that different cultures and nations organize themselves, their communities, and their members/citizens. In this course, we will tackle many issues and topics that you may find interesting and relevant to your own experience in this world, including (but not limited to): gay and lesbian identities; sexual reproduction, abortion, and birth control; fetishism and sex toys; and state, religious, and familial interference in policing of/assertion of "appropriate" sexual expression. The course engages with narratives in North America and Europe in the twentieth-century with the expectation that students will develop a sense of change over time and a comparative framework for thinking about sex.