The Pleasure's All Mine: A History of Perverse Sex

by Julie Peakman

Handcuffs, paddles, whips—the words alone are enough to make a person blush. Even by our society’s standards, the practice of things like BDSM is still very hush-hush, considered deviant sexual behavior that must be kept hidden. But the narrow view of what is thought of as “normal” sex—a vanilla act performed by one man and one woman—is more and more contested these days. And as Julie Peakman reveals, normal never really existed; for everyone, different kinds of sex have always offered myriad pleasures, and almost all sexual behaviors have traveled between acceptance and proscription. The Pleasure’s All Mine examines two millennia of letters, diaries, court records, erotic books, medical texts, and more to explore the gamut of “deviant” sexual activity.

Delving into the specialized cultures of pain, necrophilia, and bestiality and the social world of plushies, furries, and life-size sex dolls, Peakman considers the changing attitudes toward these, as well as masturbation, “golden showers,” sadomasochism, homosexuals, transvestites, and transsexuals. She follows the history of each behavior through its original reception to its interpretation by sexologists and how it is viewed today, showing how previously acceptable behaviors now provoke social outrage, or vice versa. In addition, she questions why people have been and remain intolerant of other people’s sexual preferences.

The first comprehensive history of sexual perversion and packed with both color and black and white images, The Pleasure’s All Mine is a fascinating and sometimes shocking look at the evolution of our views on sex. 

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Sexuality, Erotica, Adult, Psychology

472 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Pinko Palest · Rating 2 out of 5]

descriptive, without being pornographic. It reads more like a list, and a very incomplete one at that. Not just for things outseide Western Europe, but even about Europe. Rather legalistic, and not too literary, except for a couple of very well known figures like de Sade. Manages to avoid being judgemental, but all in all, barely scratches the surface

[Quinn Collard]

I couldn't finish reading this book. It made me too angry.

The first few chapters, about what constitutes "normal" sex, masturbation, and certain elements of queerness, were interesting enough (though as a bisexual I was bothered by the fact that gay men, lesbians, and crossdressers all got their own complete chapters but there was nary a single word about people like me).

But then I got up to the chapter on sadomasochism and I just wanted to throw the damn book across the room. As a kinky person, I was really looking forward to this chapter--it was actually the main reason I picked up the book. So you can imagine how upset I was when, instead of discussion of consensual BDSM, I found discussion of stuff like Romans feeding Christians to lions, medieval saints being tortured, Victorian men raping and mutilating and murdering little boys. There was NOTHING about BDSM being practiced in a consensual and healthy way until the very end, when there was a little thing about how oh yeh you can go to a sex shop and buy a whip or whatever, no big deal--THEN WHY WERE YOU ONLY TALKING ABOUT REALLY FUCKED UP THINGS FOR THE ENTIRE CHAPTER INSTEAD OF THAT?

It infuriated me, so much that I couldn't bring myself to read the rest of the book. It's as if the author was so busy writing chapters about things that are actually fucked up (e.g. pedophilia, incest) that she felt as if she had to bring that attitude to even things that, when practiced the right way, aren't problematic at all. I was very disappointed.

[Courts · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting history of "peverse" sex. I put it in quotation marks because at some point every kind of sex has been seen as perverse at some point. Some very much still are (mostly), such as pedophilia, bestiality, and necrophilia, which get their own chapters, but others like masturbation, sex between consenting heterosexual adults who are not married, and anal sex are no longer considered particularly perverse.

Obviously, I was particularly interested in the LGBT aspects of the book. Bisexuality isn't covered as its own thing unfortunately, which may have been due to it being absorbed into the other topics. Perhaps it was because of my familiarity with the topic that I felt that the gay, lesbian and trans chapters could have been a little more in depth. I am aware that the book is more of an overview of sexuality, a primer, and could not possibly be comprehensive, but I felt like the paragraph on Anne Lister was simply not enough. Lister recorded every aspect of her sexuality and sex life, and it seems a huge misjudgment to speak so briefly on her and focus only on her style and friendships with the Ladies of Llangollen. It felt like a big miss to not delve more into lesbian sexuality like that.

[Servabo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've arrived at this conclusion after intense suffering about Amy, but I shall never suffer again. Do what you will - be what you will and don't feel you must ever make me understand.

They had made a pact that if they should ever be separated they should kill each other.

Pain, pleasure, dopamine.

Bestiality, sadomasochism, necrophilia, exhibitionism, voyeurism. Golden showers, hot lunches. Leather, latex, fur, handcuffs, blind folds, feathers. Prince Albert piercing.

[Lance Grabmiller · Rating 2 out of 5]

Each of the chapters covers a different type of perversion and is a tidy summation of the history of each (limited to the West and only the last 2000 years). There are much better books written about any of the subjects individually, but not another I can think of that otherwise tries to cover so much.

[Noah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book would make de Sade smile. It is a brilliant, counterintutive, discomforting, taboo blasting work of cultural history. The chapters dealing with paedophilia stand out as both unnerving & genuinely enlightening. One person's perversion is indeed another person's normal.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything’s a thing, and most things have been a thing a lot longer than most people think.

Good overview, but marred by publication errors throughout and a very Euro/Anglo centric approach.

[R.J. Gilmour · Rating 1 out of 5]

A disapppointing historical study of "sexual perversion" that is too simplistic in how it presents non-heteronormative sexuality.

[Tiffany · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enlightening along with ridiculous and at times terrifying explanations as to of where past and current sexual prejudices came from.

[Tran · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting for a while, then becoming quite boring!