The invention of heterosexuality / Jonathan Ned Katz ; foreword by Gore Vidal ; afterword by Lisa Duggan.
This boldly original work reexamines our society's basic heterosexual/homosexual distinction - focusing on the evolution of the term heterosexual, which, as this study demonstrates, only entered our language a little more than a hundred years ago, ushering in a new way of dividing up and judgin...
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| Access Note: | Access to electronic resources restricted to Simmons University students, faculty and staff. |
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| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
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New York :
Dutton,
©1995.
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| Summary: | This boldly original work reexamines our society's basic heterosexual/homosexual distinction - focusing on the evolution of the term heterosexual, which, as this study demonstrates, only entered our language a little more than a hundred years ago, ushering in a new way of dividing up and judging sexuality and people. Exploring the startling history of the heterosexual concept, Jonathan Ned Katz reveals that as late as the 1920s, heterosexuality was still defined in a major American dictionary as "morbid sexual passion for one of the opposite sex." It was only through a slow process that heterosexuality became this society's dominant norm. Analyzing the work of such pioneering students of sexuality as Sigmund Freud and Richard von Krafft-Ebing, Katz considers the effects of their ideas about the sacred primacy of heterosexuality on both scientific literature and popular culture. He also examines the varied commentaries on heterosexuality by such contemporary writers as James Baldwin, Betty Friedan, Adrienne Rich, Kate Millett, and Michel Foucault. |
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| Item Description: | Reprint. originally published in 1995 by Dutton. |
| Physical Description: | xi, 291 pages ; 23 cm |
| Format: | Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 247-281) and index. |
| ISBN: | 0525938451 9780525938453 0452275423 9780452275423 |
| Access: | Access to electronic resources restricted to Simmons University students, faculty and staff. |