Publication

2007 - University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois

Language

English

Word Count

76,250 words, Guess

Page Count

305 pages

Identifiers

and 2 more
  • Goodreads744245
  • LibraryThing107834

Classifications

  • DDC306.7609182/10904
  • LCCHQ23 .K315 2007

Description

“Heterosexuality,” assumed to denote a universal sexual and cultural norm, has been largely exempt from critical scrutiny. In this boldly original work, Jonathan Ned Katz challenges the common notion that the distinction between heterosexuality and homosexuality has been a timeless one. Building on the history of medical terminology, he reveals that as late as 1923, the term “heterosexuality” referred to a "morbid sexual passion," and that its current usage emerged to legitimate men and women having sex for pleasure. Drawing on the works of Sigmund Freud, James Baldwin, Betty Friedan, and Michel Foucault, The Invention of Heterosexuality considers the effects of heterosexuality’s recently forged primacy on both scientific literature and popular culture.

Subjects

Other Editions

  • The invention of heterosexuality: with a new prefaceUniversity of Chicago Press2007-01-01

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