Riotous Flesh : Women, Physiology, and the Solitary Vice in Nineteenth-Century America / April R. Haynes.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Haynes, April R., Author.

Series:

American beginnings, 1500-1900.

American Beginnings, 1500-1900

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women--Sexual behavior--Social aspects--United States--History--19th century.

Women.

Female masturbation--Social aspects--United States--History--19th century.

Female masturbation.

Women--United States--Attitudes--History--19th century.

Feminism--United States--History--19th century.

Feminism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (251 p.)

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, [2015]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Nineteenth-century America saw numerous campaigns against masturbation, which was said to cause illness, insanity, and even death. Riotous Flesh explores women's leadership of those movements, with a specific focus on their rhetorical, social, and political effects, showing how a desire to transform the politics of sex created unexpected alliances between groups that otherwise had very different goals. As April R. Haynes shows, the crusade against female masturbation was rooted in a generally shared agreement on some major points: that girls and women were as susceptible to masturbation as boys and men; that "self-abuse" was rooted in a lack of sexual information; and that sex education could empower women and girls to master their own bodies. Yet the groups who made this education their goal ranged widely, from "ultra" utopians and nascent feminists to black abolitionists. Riotous Flesh explains how and why diverse women came together to popularize, then institutionalize, the condemnation of masturbation, well before the advent of sexology or the professionalization of medicine.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Introduction

1. The Gender of Solitary Vice

2. Licentiousness in All Its Forms

3. Making the Conversation General

4. A Philosophy of Amative Indulgence

5. Flesh and Bones

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

Notes

Index

Notes:

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9780226284767

022628476X

OCLC:

922581722