Freshly Printed - allow 7 days lead
Couldn't load pickup availability
Mediated Intimacy
Sex Advice in Media Culture
Meg-John Barker (Author), Rosalind Gill (Author), Laura Harvey (Author)
9781509509119, Polity Press
Hardback, published 23 March 2018
312 pages
23.1 x 15.8 x 2.8 cm, 0.544 kg
"At a time when the field of sexual discourse is often characterized as unbounded we may fail to notice the structuring operations of new normativities. This exceptionally readable book tracks fraught concepts of intimacy as they arise in a range of media forms, and a period of more overt transactionalism and heavy cultural emphasis on production of the sexually desirable, sexually agentic self. The authors' meticulous and rigorous account of public discourses of sexual intimacy is a considerable achievement." "Investigating the varied dimensions of mediating our intimate lives, this brilliant book provides a far-reaching analysis of contemporary forms of sex advice, from sex television to sex apps and more. Importantly, Mediated Intimacy not only examines the contemporary media landscape, but it is also a guide for readers to create sex-critical advice on their own, using creative and thought-provoking examples for challenging conventional norms and practices about sexual intimacies."
—Diane Negra, University College Dublin
—Sarah Banet-Weiser, University of Southern California
Mediated Intimacy looks at contemporary sex and relationship advice, exploring how our intimate lives are shaped through different media, from manuals and magazines to television and Twitter. By exploring how intimacy is constructed through different media texts, the authors consider which ideas and practices these changing forms of 'sexpertise' open up, and which they close down. The book reveals the intimate operation of power in mediated advice, how words and images, stories and sound can work to shore up social injustice. It critically engages with the ideas of choice and responsibility in sex self-help, arguing that these can obscure and/or justify oppression, even if they're sometimes experienced as empowering and/or pleasurable. This bold and incisive book provides a radical challenge to the assumptions underlying the sex advice industry, and presents a critical, collaborative and consensual vision for sex advice of the future.
Acknowledgements vi 1 Mediated Intimacy: Sex Advice in Media Culture 1 2 History of Mediated Sex Advice 30 3 Gender, Sexuality and the Body in the Media 51 4 Being Normal 83 5 Work and Entrepreneurship 107 6 Pleasure 132 7 Safety and Risk 153 8 Communication and Consent 176 9 Conclusions 202 References 226 Index 261
Subject Areas: Society & culture: general [JF]
