Reading On A Star

Hello, Bookworms, quick side note, as I was drafting the other day I was thinking back on the way I’ve updated this site but how some things have oddly never changed. This tagline being one. It’s so nostalgic at this point, I don’t think I could ever remove it. Anyway, back to the topic of this post. I’m pursuing a minor in sociology alongside my undergraduate degree, and it’s led me to an even greater interest in this area. I hope this post can be a helpful resource for anyone with a similar interest in expanding their knowledge or even as a starting point. I’ve compiled a few texts I’d like to read–out of personal interest and academic articles that could provide textual evidence on specific theories and give me a strong foundation in these topics. Near the bottom, I’ve included some websites that I found incredible, both in the quantity and quality of information they provide on their given area of research. Maybe it’s the blogger in me, but I love nothing more than a website filled to the brim with posts, bursting with knowledge.

Lighter Texts!

• The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir– yes this is under the lighter texts sub-heading…
• Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
• Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
• Meditations– a quick read I’d highly recommend!
• Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche
• After Virtue by Alasdair MacIntyre
• Metaphysics by Aristotle
• The Communist Manifesto by Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx
• An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume
• Euthyphro by Plato
• On Liberty by John Stuart Mill
• In Living a Feminist Life by Sara Ahmed 
• The Dialect of Sex by Shulamith Firestone

Journals and Papers

• Foucault, Michel. 1976. The History of Sexuality: An Introduction, Vol. I. New York: Random House.
• feminist frontiers ii: rethinking sex, gender, and society
• Mother Right: A New Feminist Theory
• Angelides, Steven. 2019. The Fear of Child Sexuality: Young People, Sex, and Agency. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
• Nagel, Joane. 2003. Race, Ethnicity, and Sexuality: Intimate Intersections, Forbidden Frontiers. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Orenstein, Peggy. 2016. Girls and Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape. New York: HarperCollins.
• Orenstein, Peggy. 2020. Boys and Sex: Young Men on Hookups, Love, Porn, Consent, and Navigating the New Masculinity. New York: HarperCollins.
• Devlin, Kate. 2018. Turned On: Science, Sex and Robots. London, UK: Bloomsbury Sigma.
• Ward, Jane. 2015. Not Gay: Sex Between Straight White Men. New York: New York University Press.
• Michael, Robert T., John H. Gagnon, Edward O. Laumann, and Gina Kolata. 1994. Sex in America: A Definitive Survey. New York: Little, Brown & Co.
• Roughgarden, Joan. 2013. Evolution’s Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People, Tenth Edition. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
• Willey, Angela. 2016. Undoing Monogamy: The Politics of Science and the Possibilities of Biology. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
• Armstrong, Elizabeth A. and Laura T. Hamilton. 2015. Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• Binnie, Jon. 2004. The Globalization of Sexuality. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• Travers, Ann. 2018. The Trans Generation: How Trans Kids (and Their Parents) Are Creating a Gender Revolution. New York: New York University Press.
• Chateauvert, Melinda. 2013. Sex Workers Unite: A History of the Movement From Stonewall to Slutwalk. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
• Fetner, Tina. 2008. How the Religious Right Shaped Lesbian and Gay Activism. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
• Wolf, Naomi. 2002. The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.
• Luther, Jessica. 2016. Unsportsmanlike Conduct: College Football and the Politics of Rape. New York: Edge of Sports/Akashic Books.
• Messner, Michael A. 2007. Out of Play: Critical Essays on Gender and Sport. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
• Ball, Carlos A. 2019. The Queering of Corporate America: How Big Business Went From LGBTQ Adversary to Ally. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
• Bogle, Kathleen. 2008. Hooking Up: Sex, Dating, and Relationships on Campus. New York: University Press.
• Luker, Kristin. 2006. When Sex Goes to School: Warring Views on Sex—and Sex Education—Since the Sixties. New York: W.W. Norton & Company
• Wade, Lisa. 2017. American Hookup: The New Culture of Sex on Campus. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
• Moslener, Sara. 2015. Virgin Nation: Sexual Purity and American Adolescence. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
• Kaplan, Laura. 1997. The Story of Jane: The Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
• Hartmann, Betsy. 2016. Reproductive Rights and Wrongs: The Global Politics of Population Control, 3rd Edition. Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books.
• Miller, Patricia. 2014. Good Catholics: The Battle Over Abortion in the Catholic Church. Oakland, CA: University of California Press.
• Grant, Melissa Gira. 2014. Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work. London, UK: Verso Books.
• Kara, Siddharth. 2009. Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery. New York: Columbia University Press.
• Sarracino, Carmine and Kevin M. Scott. 2009. The Porning of America: The Rise of Porn Culture, What It Means, and Where We Go From Here. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
• Harding, Kate. 2015. Asking For It: The Alarming Rise of Rape Culture and What We Can Do About It. Boston, MA: Perseus Books.
• Katz, Jackson. 2006. The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and How All Men Can Help. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks.

A brief commentary on – Thinking Sex by Gayle Rubin

In my humble opinion, this paper was compelling; as compelling as the subject matter could be, as it forced me to examine how sexuality is constructed and the general political dimensions that govern our erotic life. How did they eventually reach this current perspective? The origin of prejudices is sometimes not so simple to locate, as the complexities of roles, labels and categories we’ve attached to individuals go beyond sexual orientation. These created ideologies govern us, as they confine and define what we consider sexual. This isn’t necessarily immoral or harmful; however, once it’s understood that our view on sex is merely a result of social analysis and historical understanding, it can serve as a way to break free of these politics.

Additional Resources and Sites

• Sexuality and U – a website that provides information on sexuality and child development.
• The Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS) – is an organization that provides research in regard to all aspects of sexuality.
• The Kinsey Institute – located at Indiana University- is a trusted source on issues surrounding sex, gender and reproduction.
• Guttmacher Institute is dedicated to advancing reproductive rights in the United States and globally.
• Margaret Sanger Papers Project – created by the NYU Department of History, this site includes samples of her writing.
• Sex Workers Education Network – an incredible resource about sex work.
• National Sexual Violence Resource Center is a website with research and collaborations on sexual violence prevention and response.
• V-Day – an international movement serving to end violence against women and girls.

Thanks for reading.