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Summary:

the heterosexual was invented in the 1860s and swiftly and permanently transformed Western culture. The idea of أthe heterosexualؤ was unprecedented. After all, men and women had been having sex, marrying, building families, and sometimes even falling in love for millennia without having any special name for their emotions or acts. Yet, within half a century, أheterosexualؤ had become a byword for أnormal,ؤ enshrined in law, medicine, psychiatry, and the media as a new gold standard for human experience. <p> In this surprising chronicle, historian Hanne Blank digs deep into the past of sexual orientation, while simultaneously exploring its contemporary psyche. Illuminating the hidden patterns in centuries of events and trends, Blank shows how culture creates and manipulates the ways we think about and experience desire, love, and relationships between men and women. Ranging from Henry VIII to testicle transplants, from Disneyland to sodomy laws, and from Moby Dick to artificial insemination, the history of heterosexuality turns out to be anything but straight or narrow.

Table of Contents:

• The love that could not speak its name
• Carnal knowledge
• Straight science
• The marrying type
• What's love got to do with it?
• The pleasure principle
• Here there be dragons.

Author/Creator:

Blank, Hanne

Languages:

English

Language Notes:

Item content: English

Main Work:

Straight: the surprisingly short history of heterosexuality [by Blank, H.]

Subjects:

Identity (Philosophical concept)

Heterosexuality — History

Homosexuality — History

Heterosexuality

Homosexuality

Genres:

History

General Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. 181-213) and index.
A gift from Resource Center Dallas.

Physical Description:

228 pages ; 24 cm

Call Numbers:

HQ23 .B56 2012

ISBNs:

9780807044438 (hardcover, acid-free paper)

Library of Congress Control Numbers:

2011031432

OCLC Numbers:

724650928