The Science/Fiction of Sex

Feminist Deconstruction and the Vocabularies of Heterosex

By: Annie Potts

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Paperback | 27 November 2002 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

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306 Pages

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23.39 x 15.6 x 1.63

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What can we learn from exploring the differences in male and female orgasmic experience? Is the penis an entity with a mind of its own?

These issues and others, such as the popular portrayals of male sexuality as active and outwardly focused and female sexuality as passive and internally located, are discussed in The Science/Fiction of Sex.

Contemporary feminist and poststructuralist theories of sex and gender are explored alongside an investigation of how people make sense of such concepts as heterosexuality, orgasm, sexual dysfunction, femininity and masculinity, and safer sex practice.

Potts asks men and women about their actual experiences of heterosex. This interview material, combined with excerpts from sexological and medical texts and features from film and television, draws attention to the ways in which western cultural constructs influence our ideas and experiences of the body, sex, and gender. Potts also uses deconstructive theory as a textual tool, concentrating on how binary oppositions such as inside/outside and mind/body impact on our understandings of heterosex, and affect the power relations between women and men. She also examines how the radical postmodern theories of the body and sexuality proposed by Irigaray, Lyotard, and Deleuze and Guattari disrupt such dualistic modes of understanding and experiencing sexualized bodies.

The Science/Fiction of Sex will be of interest to those studying women and psychology as well as gender studies, cultural studies, feminist studies, sociology, philosophy, public health and education.

Industry Reviews

Potts' analysis of current trends in sexology are on the mark. She offers an encyclopaedic overview of popular and scholarly writings together with original research that will be well received in sexuality, women's studies and cultural studies classes. - Leonore Tiefer, Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry, New York University of Medicine

The Science/Fiction of Sex is original, witty, extremely clever ... it has some remarkable chapters, such as the one on masculinity which I would rate among the best I've ever read. The analysis of the alternative erotic-theoretical systems proposed by Irigaray and Deleuze are first-class pieces of writing, daring and intelligent. - Rosi Braidotti, Netherlands Research School of Women's Studies, Utrecht University

Annie Potts has opened up new ways of understanding the open potential of all forms of sexuality - an exciting and crucial project for feminists of the future. - Elizabeth Grosz, Rutgers University

Annie Potts has opened up new ways of understanding the open potential of all forms of sexuality - an exciting and crucial project for feminists of the future. - Elizabeth Grosz, Rutgers University

The Science/Fiction of Sex is original, witty, extremely clever ... It has some remarkable chapters, such as the one on masculinity, which I would rate among the best I've ever read. The analysis of the alternative erotic-theoretical systems proposed by Irigaray and Deleuze are first-class pieces of writing ... daring and intelligent. - Rosi Braidotti, Netherlands Research School of Women's Studies, Utrecht University

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Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
Sexology and its discontents	p. 1
Let's get meta (physical)	p. 2
Intellectualizing sex	p. 4
Preparing for take-off: the sequence of events	p. 7
The Science/Fiction of Sex	p. 13
Sexual science fiction	p. 15
The discursive construction of sex	p. 16
The genesis of sexology	p. 19
The vocabularies of sexology	p. 32
Sexology and safer sex	p. 35
War of the worlds	p. 48
Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus	p. 49
The science (fiction) of sex: Mars and Venus in the bedroom	p. 51
The construction of pleasure: male (s)expertise, female surrender	p. 59
Afterplay: Gray strikes out	p. 67
The Vocabularies of Heterosex	p. 69
The day the earth stood still	p. 71
Deconstructing orgasm	p. 71
Textual analysis of orgasm	p. 77
(In)conclusion: disrupting the phallic orgasm	p. 98
The man with two brains	p. 102
The infusion of body and culture with/in the sexual self	p. 102
The exteriorization of masculine heterosexual experience	p. 105
Measuring up: firmer, faster, bigger is better	p. 115
On-going speculations	p. 130
The incredible shrinking man	p. 134
The penis stands in for/up for the man	p. 135
The 'dysfunctional' penis: how the mind matters	p. 137
Expanding in other ways: sexual pleasure in excess of the erect penis	p. 148
Innerspace	p. 152
Interior designs: the feminization of space and the spatialization of woman	p. 153
Foreign bodies and hazardous fluids: the 'curse' of woman	p. 174
Regulating material girls	p. 183
Changing place	p. 187
The final frontier	p. 191
"Putting things in there": the benefits of exteriority	p. 194
Gain and pain: gendered first experiences of heterosexual intercourse	p. 197
Avenging lips: women's discursive resistance to colonization	p. 212
Brave new worlds	p. 217
It's sex, but not as we know it	p. 218
The outer limits	p. 231
(Anti-climax) A plateau	p. 254
Parting comments, future sexes	p. 258
Revamping the sexual	p. 259
Spacing out	p. 265
Appendix 1	p. 266
Appendix 2	p. 267
References	p. 268
Index	p. 289
Table of Contents provided by Rittenhouse. All Rights Reserved.

The Science/Fiction of Sex

Feminist Deconstruction and the Vocabularies of Heterosex

At a Glance

Paperback

Industry Reviews

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How to return your order

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