Handbook

Sex is a constant through time, but ‘sexuality’ has a history. By starting in the Ancient world, you will learn that people and societies have not always understood sexual behaviour to equate with a sexual identity, such as ‘homosexual’ or ‘heterosexual’. ‘Sexuality’ then is a modern phenomenon. To comprehend this, we will examine why masturbation suddenly became a very big ‘problem’ in the 18th century and why sex was increasingly regulated from the 19th century. We chart the growth of new forms of sexual knowledge and ponder feminist critiques of Freud and other sex ‘experts’. We wind up in the twentieth century, with not one but several sexual revolutions. The course is designed for students in Women’s and Gender Studies and in History, but should appeal to anybody with an interest in one of the most studied and discussed aspects of modern life.