Sex Wars: Sexual Dissent and Political Culture

by Lisa Duggan, Nan Hunter

Sex Wars is a collection of writings by Duggan and Hunter that brings together the best of the important work they have done on sexual politics in America over the past decade. Sex Wars traces the development of this politics and its deployment in three different arenas--speech and representation, legal regulation, and scholarship.

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, Queer, Gender, Sexuality, Politics, History

288 pages, Paperback

First published October 5, 1995

About the author

Lisa Duggan is Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University. Duggan was president of the American Studies Association from 2014 to 2015, presiding over the annual conference on the theme of "The Fun and the Fury: New Dialectics of Pleasure and Pain in the Post-American Century."

Duggan earned her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Duggan is also one of the editors of queer commentary website, Bully Bloggers, developed with José Esteban Muñoz, Jack Halberstam, and Tavia Nyong’o. Duggan has described herself as a "commie pinko queer feminist". She was written on topics including feminist responses to pornography and homonormativity.

Reviews

[Maggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating read on the history of the anti-porn debates of the 1980s. This book gives interesting background on both the anti-porn and sex-positive camps on either side of the debate. The author discusses the decisions leading up to and eventual aftermath of anti-porn feminists like Andrea Dworkin partnering with right wing Conservative evangelicals in their crusade against pornography. Its interesting (and sad) to learn about the terrible repercussions the anti-porn movement had on women in the sex industry.

[Sunjay · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a bunch of essays written in the early 90s about the politics of sexuality, debates among feminists and queer theorists, and queer political activism. A lot of it sounded very familiar to today - even at thirty years old, a lot of these concerns remain relevant. This despite the massive strides in rights for at least some subsets of the LGBTQ+ community - Lawrence v Texas and Obergfell v Hodges legalizing gay sex and gay marriage, respectively, for example. Also, this book will help me win internet arguments and we know that's the real reason to read nonfiction.

[bower books · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only bought this recently, but it arrived at exactly the right moment. During the k-punk workshops we were hosting throiugh my bookstore, the host kept casually saying, "everything comes back to the sex wars," and I realised I knew the phrase far better than the history. SO when I was next in a bookstore I saw this and learnt a bit. If you're interested in feminism, queer politics, the internet, or contemporary cultural debates, you'll find the roots of an extraordinary amount of today's discourse here. Definitely just a taste though, you'll need to explore more to go deeper.

[Kapiszon · Rating 3 out of 5]

kawał historii ruchu

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting collection of essays about the political battles over pornography and the gay and lesbian movements. This was assigned for a class (History of Sexuality), and generated a great discussion.

[Jamia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned SO much from this book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Scott Neigh]

Reviewed here.