The Pleasure Principle

Sex, Backlash, and the Struggle for Gay Freedom

1st ed.
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Last edited by ImportBot
July 28, 2022 | History

The Pleasure Principle

Sex, Backlash, and the Struggle for Gay Freedom

1st ed.
  • 2 Want to read
  • 0 Currently reading
  • 0 Have read

While pleasure is antithetical to the moral and governance constructions of the dominant culture, that dominant culture also cannot resist the allure of alternative cultures and sexualities. As gays and lesbians pushed for greater cultural, political and human rights in the 1970s-1990s, there was both acceptance and a rise in anti-gay rhetoric and action in American media, politics and society.

Publish Date
Language
English
Pages
394

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Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: The Pleasure Principle
The Pleasure Principle: Sex, Backlash, and the Struggle for Gay Freedom
February 23, 2000, Stonewall Inn Editions
Paperback in English - New Ed edition
Cover of: The Pleasure Principle
The Pleasure Principle: Sex, Backlash, and the Struggle for Gay Freedom
August, 1998, St. Martinʼs Press, St. Martin's Press
Hardcover in English - 1st ed.

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Book Details


Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Page vii
Introduction
Page 1
One. The Making of Americans
Page 5
Two. The Pleasure Principle
Page 15
Three. Popular Culture
Page 26
1. Pleasure and Culture
Page 26
2. Gay Sensibility
Page 28
3. Repression and Reaction
Page 32
Four. Subculture and Dominant Culture: The Limits of Assimilation
Page 37
Five. Gay Culture
Page 54
Six. Gay Freedom, Gay Movement, Backlash
Page 64
Seven. The Eroticized Male Body
Page 81
1. In His Own Image
Page 81
2. Brave New World: New Bodies, New Visions
Page 88
3. A Crisis of Transfigured Bodies
Page 99
Eight. Suffer the Little Children
Page 109
1. The Innocent Child
Page 111
2. Father Ritter
Page 115
3. Pee-wee Herman and the Gay Playhouse
Page 121
4. The Molestation Libel
Page 125
5. The Family "Reinvented"
Page 125
6. Recruitment
Page 132
Nine. The Construction of a Pleasure Class and the Marketing of Homosexuality
Page 138
1. Special Rights of the Pleasure Class
Page 138
2. From Gay Rights to "Gay Lifestyle"
Page 140
3. The Gay Market
Page 144
4. The Gay Constituent
Page 146
5. False Images and the Burdens of Heterosexuality
Page 148
6. The Gay Moment
Page 154
Ten. Pleasure and the Failure of Privacy
Page 158
1. Privacy: The Regulation of Pleasure
Page 158
2. Privacy and Homosexuality
Page 160
3. Hardwick: The Failure of Privacy
Page 165
4. Outing: The Regulation of Public Identity
Page 170
Eleven. The Gay Ghetto and the Creation of Culture
Page 183
1. Being Visible and Being Public
Page 183
2. The Ghetto
Page 185
3. Public Gay Spaces: The Invisible Map
Page 190
4. Ghettos and Roots: Homosexual Statelessness, or a Crisis in Public Space
Page 204
5. Gay Ghettos as Crucibles of Culture, Change, and Pleasure
Page 213
6. From Ghetto to Neighborhood: The Transformation of Public Space and the Homosexual Refugee
Page 220
Conclusion. The world turned upside down
Page 226
1. Pleasure and Misrule
Page 226
2. Pleasure Envy
Page 235
Notes
Page 250
Bibliography
Page 271
Index
Page 283

Edition Notes

Includes bibliographical references (p. 271-282) and index.

Published in
New York, USA
Copyright Date
1998

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
306.76/6
Library of Congress
HQ76.8.U5 B76 1998, HQ76.8.U5B76 1998, HQ76.8.U5 B76 2000

The Physical Object

Format
Hardcover
Pagination
ix, 294 p. ;
Number of pages
394
Dimensions
24.0 x 16.3 x 2.8 centimeters
Weight
408 grams

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL662494M
Internet Archive
pleasureprincipl0000bron
ISBN 10
0312156251
ISBN 13
9780312156251
LCCN
97007983
OCLC/WorldCat
36499000, 43422712
Library Thing
270071
Goodreads
2095311

Excerpts

The Pleasure Principle is an exploration of themes and ideas that I have been writing about over the past three decades: homosexuality, gay culture, gay politics, the meaning of popular culture in people's lives, and the role that gay culture plays -- not only in the lives of gay people but in those of heterosexuals as well.
Page 1, added by Alex Voytek.
During the 1992 Republican National Convention, right-wing columnist and demagogue Pat Buchanan declared that America was in the midst of a cultural war that imperiled the country's moral and political well-being. This caused a huge media furor, but it was not news. Conservatives had been decrying the decline of American morals and values for at least a century. Recent culture wars have centered on National Endowment for the Arts funding of "pornographic" artists such as Robert Mapplethorpe, Tim Miller, Holly Hughes, and Karen Finley; past battles involved censorship laws, reproductive rights, sex education in the public schools, and sexual freedom for gay men and lesbians.
Page 5, added by Alex Voytek.

Chapter 1, paragraph 1

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