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The Boundaries of Desire: A Century of Good Sex, Bad Laws, and Changing Identities
The act of reproduction, and its variants, never change much, but our ideas about the meaning of sex are in constant flux. Switch a decade, cross a border, or traverse class lines and the harmless pleasures of one group become the gravest crimes in another.
Combining meticulous research and lively storytelling, The Boundaries of Desire traces the fast-moving bloodsport of sex law over the past century, and challenges our most cherished notions about family, power, gender, and identity.
Starting when courts censored birth control information as pornography and let men rape their wives, and continuing through the “sexual revolution” and into the present day (when rape, gay rights, sex trafficking, and sex on the internet saturate the news), Berkowitz shows how the law has remained out of synch with the convulsive changes in sexual morality.
By focusing on the stories of real people, Berkowitz adds a compelling human element to what might otherwise be faceless legal battles. The law is made by people, after all, and nothing sparks intolerance – on the left and right -- more than sex. Ultimately, Berkowitz shows the emptiness of sanctimonious condemnation, and argues that sexual questions are too subtle and volatile for simple, catch-all solutions.
Combining meticulous research and lively storytelling, The Boundaries of Desire traces the fast-moving bloodsport of sex law over the past century, and challenges our most cherished notions about family, power, gender, and identity.
Starting when courts censored birth control information as pornography and let men rape their wives, and continuing through the “sexual revolution” and into the present day (when rape, gay rights, sex trafficking, and sex on the internet saturate the news), Berkowitz shows how the law has remained out of synch with the convulsive changes in sexual morality.
By focusing on the stories of real people, Berkowitz adds a compelling human element to what might otherwise be faceless legal battles. The law is made by people, after all, and nothing sparks intolerance – on the left and right -- more than sex. Ultimately, Berkowitz shows the emptiness of sanctimonious condemnation, and argues that sexual questions are too subtle and volatile for simple, catch-all solutions.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2015
25 people are currently reading
739 people want to read
About the author
Eric Berkowitz
9 books34 followersEric Berkowitz is a writer, lawyer and journalist. He is the author of Sex and Punishment: Four Thousand Years of Judging Desire. He has a degree in print journalism from University of Southern California and has published in The Los Angeles Times and The Los Angeles Weekly, and for the Associated Press. He was an editor of the West Coast's premier daily legal publication, The Los Angeles Daily Journal. He lives in San Francisco.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 31, 2015
Berkowitz, a human rights lawyer, examines the evolution of sex and equal rights laws from the beginning of the 20th century to today. He follows how sex laws are shaped by cultural mores and shift from generation to generation. Based on a number of factors including bad science, religious interpretation, and cultural perception, sex laws can evolve to become inclusive and focus on human rights, or they can be restrictive and impact the rights of minorities. Covering topics including spousal rape, child molestation, human trafficking, workplace sexual harassment, prostitution, and race-induced panic, Berkowitz highlights key cases and analyzes their influence on sex, the legal system, and society.
Berkowitz identifies that although sex has been practiced the same way for thousands of years, our attitudes towards it continue to change. In most cases, it is not always for the better. “The Boundaries of Desire” is a follow-up to a previous book Berkowitz published focusing on 4,000 years of sex prior to the late 19th century. In the 20th century, sex and our acceptance of its many facets has undergone many changes. In this book, Berkowitz aims to normalize attitudes towards sex by highlighting historical precedents which can inspire modern day civilization to learn from previous sex laws.
Naturally, most of the laws governing sex were religiously motivated and often impacted women, the poor, and people of color. I was already aware about some parts of the book such as mores towards topics such as spousal abuse and pedophilia. However, there was a lot that was new and shocking to me. When analyzing the historical infrastructure for sex offender registries, Berkowitz identified many modern laws are built on incorrect (and even made-up) facts and the public misconception of the identity of a sex offender. Most people think of a sex offender as the creepy, mustached guy waiting in the alley looking for his next victim. While those people exist and are prosecuted, they only count for one third of people registered as sex offenders. Acts such as urinating in an alley can land one on a sex offender registry. Also, with the increased pervasiveness of technology, many minors are finding themselves prosecuted as adults and forced to become registered sex offenders for life. Many cases where teens sent sexts to each other (even if invited and consensual) resulted in them being prosecuted as adult sex offenders. While most judges recognize the effect that has on the rest of the child’s life, sex offender laws prevent very little wiggle room on the matter. Also, if you rob a teenager in the state of Georgia, that could land you on the state’s sex offender registry even if no sexual assault took place. The reason for this is that sex offender laws are designed to help children, and it is of no consequence to the state if a crime against a child was not sexual in nature.
Another shocking topic concerned prostitution and sex trafficking. In the book, Berkowitz identifies a number of different nonprofit organizations and laws that are designed to rescue women from being sex workers in foreign countries. With the driving philosophy being that any women working in sex is being coerced by a man, these organizations will work with international law enforcement agencies to “rescue” these women; most of the operations resulting in the women being detained for months and away from their families. In a lot of cases, these women return to their home country to continue their work because it is, to them, a better life than being detained by U.S. authorities and eventually working as cleaning women or migrant farmers for low pay. While hardly anyone will contest that sex trafficking is bad, the notion that any woman who is a sex worker and is one against her will is incorrect and that many sex trafficking laws, while built upon good intentions, have negative consequences.
This book was very interesting and really opened up a lot of doors for me when it comes to debates about sex. In many ways, we have seen a lot of progress including the recent Supreme Court ruling regarding same-sex marriage. However, there is a lot more work to be done to normalize sex. Most sex laws are draconian and have unreasonable consequences that are not immediately identifiable to the public. Sex is still weaponized and people are punished for it. I, for one, find it appalling that two consenting teenagers can be registered as sex offenders for life. Sex is still very much taboo and there are a lot of bad facts circulating about the topic. Let’s hope that gets resolved soon.
Berkowitz identifies that although sex has been practiced the same way for thousands of years, our attitudes towards it continue to change. In most cases, it is not always for the better. “The Boundaries of Desire” is a follow-up to a previous book Berkowitz published focusing on 4,000 years of sex prior to the late 19th century. In the 20th century, sex and our acceptance of its many facets has undergone many changes. In this book, Berkowitz aims to normalize attitudes towards sex by highlighting historical precedents which can inspire modern day civilization to learn from previous sex laws.
Naturally, most of the laws governing sex were religiously motivated and often impacted women, the poor, and people of color. I was already aware about some parts of the book such as mores towards topics such as spousal abuse and pedophilia. However, there was a lot that was new and shocking to me. When analyzing the historical infrastructure for sex offender registries, Berkowitz identified many modern laws are built on incorrect (and even made-up) facts and the public misconception of the identity of a sex offender. Most people think of a sex offender as the creepy, mustached guy waiting in the alley looking for his next victim. While those people exist and are prosecuted, they only count for one third of people registered as sex offenders. Acts such as urinating in an alley can land one on a sex offender registry. Also, with the increased pervasiveness of technology, many minors are finding themselves prosecuted as adults and forced to become registered sex offenders for life. Many cases where teens sent sexts to each other (even if invited and consensual) resulted in them being prosecuted as adult sex offenders. While most judges recognize the effect that has on the rest of the child’s life, sex offender laws prevent very little wiggle room on the matter. Also, if you rob a teenager in the state of Georgia, that could land you on the state’s sex offender registry even if no sexual assault took place. The reason for this is that sex offender laws are designed to help children, and it is of no consequence to the state if a crime against a child was not sexual in nature.
Another shocking topic concerned prostitution and sex trafficking. In the book, Berkowitz identifies a number of different nonprofit organizations and laws that are designed to rescue women from being sex workers in foreign countries. With the driving philosophy being that any women working in sex is being coerced by a man, these organizations will work with international law enforcement agencies to “rescue” these women; most of the operations resulting in the women being detained for months and away from their families. In a lot of cases, these women return to their home country to continue their work because it is, to them, a better life than being detained by U.S. authorities and eventually working as cleaning women or migrant farmers for low pay. While hardly anyone will contest that sex trafficking is bad, the notion that any woman who is a sex worker and is one against her will is incorrect and that many sex trafficking laws, while built upon good intentions, have negative consequences.
This book was very interesting and really opened up a lot of doors for me when it comes to debates about sex. In many ways, we have seen a lot of progress including the recent Supreme Court ruling regarding same-sex marriage. However, there is a lot more work to be done to normalize sex. Most sex laws are draconian and have unreasonable consequences that are not immediately identifiable to the public. Sex is still weaponized and people are punished for it. I, for one, find it appalling that two consenting teenagers can be registered as sex offenders for life. Sex is still very much taboo and there are a lot of bad facts circulating about the topic. Let’s hope that gets resolved soon.
September 30, 2021
A brilliant book. The amount of control governments have tried to exercise over private life show just how little "small-government" sentiment conservatives have when it comes to their own preconceptions. Highly enlightening
October 21, 2016
This book details the injustices women, children, and minorities have faced in America and the UK through the last several hundred years. It mostly just made me mad at the things the courts excused, and reminded me of the swimmer/rapist blasphemy that hit the headlines recently. My mouth was agape and/or shouting for half of it.
https://app.blinkist.com/en/reader/th...
https://app.blinkist.com/en/reader/th...
February 2, 2016
There is a lot of interesting stuff here but about midway I had to do a double check. Yep. It's written by a man. I wonder what it would have read like if it had been written by a male/female team.
October 19, 2015
Pretty dry. It's a collection of legal cases over the history. Quite an interesting read at places (like how porn became legal while prostitution still isn't) but for the most part, the book moves slow.
March 4, 2016
I did actually learn a few things I didn't already know, though the book was much more polemic than I would've liked. I was hoping for a bit more historical and social analysis and a bit less "this is how we should be doing things".
October 12, 2016
الكتاب هو تسجيل تاريخي للوحشية/ السلطة الذكورية التي أثرت كل التأثير على الثقافة الجنسية لدى الناس، وللأسف كان هذا التصوير بالغ السطحية، فلك يكن مدعما بالأسباب المقنعة لتلك النشأة ولا للحلول، بل كانت الكيفية أقرب لفشة خلق :(
November 30, 2015
It's not always perfect in its take on sexual consent (it tends toward that "objectivity" voice, which is problematic), but this is a great history of sex laws in America.
November 18, 2020
Fascinating exploration of our laws and mores. A great read for legal hawks and sociologists. A little dry but Berkowitz shows us how laws are a reflection of what society values and changes as those judgments on wrong and right change.
July 23, 2022
A book detailing the history behind sexual laws and norms between women and men, men and men, women and men, rape laws, prostitution, etc, etc detailing cases and historical events. A very interesting read although very depressing at times.
March 4, 2018
Every woman should have a copy of this book!
March 13, 2018
Excellent discussion of historical sex laws that is thoroughly and interestingly present. Personal opinions and insights are scattered throughout, but are not overbearing.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews