Anticlimax: A Feminist Perspective on the Sexual Revolution
A SPINIFEX FEMINIST CLASSIC
“A rigorous, savvy contemporary intellectual history … Read this book.” – Andrea Dworkin
The sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s is remembered as a time of great freedom for women. But did the sexual revolution have the same goals as the Women’s Liberation Movement? Was it truly liberation for women or just another insidious form of oppression?
In this provocative book, Sheila Jeffreys argues that sexual freedom sometimes directly opposed actual freedom for women. Anticlimax traces sexual mores and attitudes from the 1950s to the 1990s, exploring the nature of both straight and gay relationships and offering original and compelling commentary on Lolita, Naked Lunch,The Joy of Sex, the Masters/Johnson report, and other representations in the literature on sexuality.
At the root of sexual liberation, Sheila Jeffreys finds an increasing eroticisation of power differences within heterosexual, lesbian and gay communities. Her alternative vision of sexual relations based on equality is a major statement in the debates over sex and violence, that remain relevant in discussions over SlutWalk, sexualisation of girls and the pervasiveness of porn culture.
"Anticlimax…laid bare the myth of the 1960s sexual revolution." –Julie Bindel
2011 | ISBN 9781742198071 | Paperback | 200 x 125 mm | 360 pp
eBook Available
For more paperback copies, please visit IPG Book in the US or Gazelle Book Services in the UK
A SPINIFEX FEMINIST CLASSIC
“A rigorous, savvy contemporary intellectual history … Read this book.” – Andrea Dworkin
The sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s is remembered as a time of great freedom for women. But did the sexual revolution have the same goals as the Women’s Liberation Movement? Was it truly liberation for women or just another insidious form of oppression?
In this provocative book, Sheila Jeffreys argues that sexual freedom sometimes directly opposed actual freedom for women. Anticlimax traces sexual mores and attitudes from the 1950s to the 1990s, exploring the nature of both straight and gay relationships and offering original and compelling commentary on Lolita, Naked Lunch,The Joy of Sex, the Masters/Johnson report, and other representations in the literature on sexuality.
At the root of sexual liberation, Sheila Jeffreys finds an increasing eroticisation of power differences within heterosexual, lesbian and gay communities. Her alternative vision of sexual relations based on equality is a major statement in the debates over sex and violence, that remain relevant in discussions over SlutWalk, sexualisation of girls and the pervasiveness of porn culture.
"Anticlimax…laid bare the myth of the 1960s sexual revolution." –Julie Bindel
2011 | ISBN 9781742198071 | Paperback | 200 x 125 mm | 360 pp
eBook Available
For more paperback copies, please visit IPG Book in the US or Gazelle Book Services in the UK
A SPINIFEX FEMINIST CLASSIC
“A rigorous, savvy contemporary intellectual history … Read this book.” – Andrea Dworkin
The sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s is remembered as a time of great freedom for women. But did the sexual revolution have the same goals as the Women’s Liberation Movement? Was it truly liberation for women or just another insidious form of oppression?
In this provocative book, Sheila Jeffreys argues that sexual freedom sometimes directly opposed actual freedom for women. Anticlimax traces sexual mores and attitudes from the 1950s to the 1990s, exploring the nature of both straight and gay relationships and offering original and compelling commentary on Lolita, Naked Lunch,The Joy of Sex, the Masters/Johnson report, and other representations in the literature on sexuality.
At the root of sexual liberation, Sheila Jeffreys finds an increasing eroticisation of power differences within heterosexual, lesbian and gay communities. Her alternative vision of sexual relations based on equality is a major statement in the debates over sex and violence, that remain relevant in discussions over SlutWalk, sexualisation of girls and the pervasiveness of porn culture.
"Anticlimax…laid bare the myth of the 1960s sexual revolution." –Julie Bindel
2011 | ISBN 9781742198071 | Paperback | 200 x 125 mm | 360 pp
eBook Available
For more paperback copies, please visit IPG Book in the US or Gazelle Book Services in the UK
Reviews
“Clearly written, well-supported…A Major contribution to feminist theory and important no matter where you stand.”
—Feminist Bookstore News
Anticlimax is the most impressing and critical book that I have read in a long time. Jeffreys is clear, concise, smart, and critical and in all this incorporates a dark sense of humor that I truly appreciate. She delivers strong arguments that are difficult to disprove or argue against ... Anticlimax is a great book to use in classroom settings and I wish it would have been mandatory reading in my Women's Studies classes or in the classes I took that discussed sexuality.
—Elin Weiss, Metapsychology Online Reviews
Fluently argued … provides much food for thought.
—Gay Community News
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. The 1950s
Marriage Guidance
Women’s New Equality
The Eroticising of the Housewife
The Single Woman
Anti-Lesbianism
2. Decensorship
Literary Merit
The Naked Lunch
Lolita
3. The Sexual Revolution
The Joy of Sex
Swinging
Masters and Johnson and Sex Therapy
4. The Failure of Gay Liberation
A False Dawn
Transvestism, Transsexualism and Gay Liberation
Paedophilia
Sadomasochism
5. Feminism and Sexuality
The Days of Innocence
The Days of Experience
Pornography
The Backlash
6. Creating the Sexual Future
Heterosexuality as an Institution
Heterosexual Desire
Homosexual Desire
Notes
Recommended Reading
Works Cited
Index
