A Brief History of Masturbation
In the U.S. and Europe, there's still discomfort around the topic of masturbation. But we’ve come a long way from tying it to mortal sin and insanity.
When Adventists and Mormons Turned Sex-Positive
How the once sex-averse Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Seventh Day Adventism embraced (married, monogamous) sex as a positive ideal.
Don’t Fear the Sex Recession
We shouldn't see changes in Americans’ sex lives as a single phenomenon with an overarching cause.
The Complicated Reality of “Sex Trafficking”
Anthropologist Jennifer Musto looked at how the rise in concern about sex trafficking, particularly in regard to the domestic trafficking of underage girls, actually plays out in policing.
Who Gets To Speak Publicly About Sex?
Frederick Hollick's case involved not only his controversial sex-positive arguments, but also the question of who should be privy to medical knowledge about sex.
The Political Provocations of Asexuality
As more people begin to identify themselves as asexual, their presence is revealing the limits to certain kinds of feminist politics.
Charles Knowlton, the Father of American Birth Control
Decades after Charles Knowlton died, his book would be credited with the reversal of population growth in England and the popularization of contraception in the United States.
Eroticism and Religion in Utopia
Some 19th-century utopian idealists took up deeply unconventional sexual arrangements based specifically on their religious beliefs.
The Books that Taught the Seventies to Have Sex
What can 1970s sex manuals tell us about the height of the Sexual Revolution? The 1970s was a distinctive sexual decade that’s well worth studying today.
A Short History of the Condom
Dating back to at least medieval times, the condom has taken a winding path to social acceptance.