Examining the social, cultural, and historical dimensions of sexuality, this innovation and accessible collection of original essays is designed for sexuality courses at undergraduate level. The fourth edition adds 51 new essays whilst retaining 33 popular essays from previous editions.

Part 1: Laying the Foundations 1.Welcome to the New Sexuality Studies 2. Construction as a Social Process 3. The Shifting Boundaries of Sexual Morality 4.Trans Categories and the Sex/Gender/Sexuality System: How Transforming Understandings of Sex and Gender can Shift Sexuality 5. Unthinking Compulsory Sexuality: Introducing Asexuality 6. The Dos and Don'ts of Dating: Heterosexual and LGBTQ Dating Rituals as Sexual Scripts 7. Why Sexual Identities, Behaviors, and Attractions Do Not Always "Match" 8. Method Matters: Discovering How Early Motherhood, Monogamy, and Social Class Shape Young Women’s Sexuality 9. Suicide Is Only Part of the Story: Telling Wounded Truths About LGBTQ Youth 10. Sex-Positivity: A Black Feminist Gift Part 2: Bodies and Behaviors 11. The History and Politics of Sexual Intercourse 12. Polishing the Pearl: Discoveries of the Clitoris 13. But Can You Ever Win? Genital Cosmetic Procedures, the Promise of Vulval Perfection, and the Production of Vulval Distress 14. The Social Meanings and Practices of Orgasm 15. Anal Sex: Phallic and Other Meanings 16. Rethinking Dick Pics 17. Reconceiving Unintended Pregnancy: Considering Context in Sexual and Reproductive Decision-Making 18. Sex in Later-Life: Beyond Dysfunction and the Coital Imperative 19. "There’s Really No Reason to Settle": Size Acceptance as a Path to Sexual Empowerment Part 3: Relating and Relationships 20. Romance and Other Threats to Our Future 21. One is Not Born a Bride: Weddings and the Heterosexual Imaginary 22. Yes, No, Maybe So?: Inequalities in Sexual Consent and Sexual Pleasure for Young Adults 23. What Do Vulnerability, Shame, and Mindfulness Have To Do With Intimacy? 24. Interracial Romance: The Logic of Acceptance and Domination 25. Romantic Apartheid: Digital Sexual Racism in Online Dating 26. Sexualized Othering in Multiracial Women’s Experiences with Sex and Romance 27. Gay Racism: The Institutional and Interactional Patterns of Racism in Gay Communities 28. Gender Labor, Racework, and Trans Pleasure: Transgender Individuals’ Experiences in Intimate Relationships 29. "We Were on a BREAK!": Men Chasing Masculinity and Women Seeking Pleasure in Affairs 30. Polyamory, Mononormativity, and Polyqueer Kinship Part 4: Sex, Gender, and Sexuality 31. Intersexy, but Fat: On the Selective Celebration of Bodily Differences 32. Trans Sexualities: Identities, Relationships, and Desires 33. Adolescent Girls’ Sexuality: Sexual Agency and the Renovated Sexual Double Standard 34. "There’s No Such Thing as a Slut": Creating and Destroying the "Good Girl" in Taylor Swift’s Musical Persona 35. "Guys Are Just Homophobic": Rethinking Adolescent Homophobia and Heterosexuality 36. Not "Straight" But Still a "Man": Negotiating Non-Heterosexual Masculinities 37. Straight Men and Women: Hegemonic and Counter-Hegemonic Straightness 38. How "Regular Sex" Contributes to the Gender Gap in Orgasms 39. Sacred and Beastly Sex: Abstinence Pledges and Masculinity 40. Heteroflexibility Part 5: Social Structures and Institutions 41. The Economy and American Marriage: Change and Continuity 42. The Marriage Contract: The Legal Context of Marriage 43. The Elusive Goal of Sexual Health 44. Medicine and the Making of the Sexual Body 45. The Feminization of "Responsive" Desire 46. The Coloniality of Sexuality 47. "I Am God’s Creation": Religion as a Positive Force in the Lives of LGBTQ+ Persons of Faith 48. The Politics of Sexuality and Gender Expression in Schools 49. Sexual Education and Its Failures: From Social Inequalities to Intimate Possibilities Part 6: Navigating Inequalities and Oppressions 50. The Body, Disability, and Sexuality 51. The Intersection of Sexuality and Intellectual Disabilities: Shattering the Taboo 52. Disrupting Dichotomies: Non-Binary Sexual Identities 53. Creando Una Familia: LBQ Latinas Facilitating Bonds Through Shared Race/Ethnicity 54. "Heterosexual Families Do Not Have to Explain themselves": Heteronormativity in the Lives of LGBTQ+ Children and Parents 55. Intersected Lives: Race, Class, and Gender in Lesbian- and Gay-Affirming Protestant Congregations 56. "The Thorn in My Side": How Ex-Gays, Ex-Ex-Gays, and Celibate Gays Negotiate Their Religious and Sexual Identities 57. The Racial and Sexual Stereotypes of the "Down Low" 58. Unspoiling Stigmatized Identities: Combatting Racial and Sexual Stigma Part 7: Sexual Cultures, Places, and Scenes 59. Sexual Capital and Social Inequality: The Study of Sexual Fields 60. Belonging in Gay Neighborhoods and Queer Club Nights 61. Queering the Sexual and Racial Politics of Urban Revitalization 62. "We Will Always Remember": Reactivating Queer Places as Expressions of Grief, Solidarity, and Protest After Pulse 63. The Changing Role of Gay Bars in American LGBTQ+ Life 64. Learning to be Queer: College Women’s Sexual Fluidity 65. Critical Consent: Negotiating Consent in Trans-Les-Bi-Queer BDSM Communities 66. Nurturing through Normalizing, Endangering through Dramatizing: Approaches to Adolescent Sex and Love Part 8: Sexual Labor and Commerce 67. The Sexual Economy and Nevada’s Legal Brothels 68. Inclusive Pleasure: Feminist Sex Shops 69. Looks for Sale: The Impact of Aesthetic Labor on Men Who Strip 70. Intimate Labor in the Adult Film Industry 71. Migrant Sex Work and Trafficking: Sorting them Out 72. Sex Work, the Victim, and the Anti-Trafficking Movement 73. Sex Workers’ Rights Activism in the United States: Navigating the Internet in an Age of S*x Work Censorship, State, and Corporate Surveillance 74. Challenging the Controlling Images of Vamps and Victims: Sex Work Activism in India Part 9: Sexual Politics, Social Movements, and Empowerment 75. Sexuality, State, and Nation 76. Anti-Homosexuality Legislation and Religion Viewed from a Transnational Frame 77. The Religious Right, Same-Sex Marriage, and LGBTQ+ Rights Activism 78. The Evolution of Same-Sex Marriage Politics in the United States 79. The Politics of Race, Class, and Gender in Queer Safer Sex 80. Children’s Sexual Citizenship 81. War and the Politics of Sexual Violence 82. The History of Activism against Sexual Violence and the Modern #MeToo Movement 83. A Public Health Approach to Campus Sexual Assault Prevention: Sexual Citizenship, Projects, and Geographies 84. The Ally Paradox