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 ANNUAL EDITIONS

Human Sexualities
Thirty-First Edition

EDITOR
Bobby Hutchison
Modesto Junior College

Bobby Hutchison is a Professor of Psychology and Human Sexualities at Modesto Junior College
in California. Professor Hutchison graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara
with degrees in psychology and sociology. He also has an academic background in the biological
sciences and French language and literature, having completed the equivalent of a major in French.
He focused on sex research and sex education during his graduate studies. He has published numer-
ous articles, essays, and reviews in psychology, sociology, education, and history journals.
Professor Hutchison conducts trainings on adolescent psychosexual development, sexual risk-
taking, lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender youth, teen pregnancy, and sexually transmitted infections.
His work with foster and adoptive families has been recognized by awards from the local county
board of supervisors and child welfare agency. Through his work on campus, in the community, and
with Annual Editions, Professor Hutchison is committed to promoting the application of academic
theory and scientific research in everyday life.

hut16341_00.1_title.indd i 11/27/08 11:34:44 AM

 ANNUAL EDITIONS: HUMAN SEXUALITIES, THIRTY-FIRST EDITION

Published by McGraw-Hill, a business unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.
Copyright © 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Previous edition(s) 2003, 2005, 2007. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written consent
of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., including, but not limited to, in any network or other electronic storage or transmission, or broadcast
for distance learning.

Some ancillaries, including electronic and print components, may not be available to customers outside the United States.

Annual Editions® is a registered trademark of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Annual Editions is published by the Contemporary Learning Series group within The McGraw-Hill Higher Education division.

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ISBN 978–0–07–351634–9
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Managing Editor: Larry Loeppke

Senior Managing Editor: Faye Schilling
Developmental Editor: Debra Henricks
Editorial Coordinator: Mary Foust
Editorial Assistant: Nancy Meissner
Production Service Assistant: Rita Hingtgen
Permissions Coordinator: Lenny J. Behnke
Senior Marketing Manager: Julie Keck
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Library in Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Main entry under title: Annual Editions: Human Sexualities. 31/e.
1. Sexual Behavior—Periodicals. 2. Sexual hygiene—Periodicals. 3. Sex education—Periodicals.
4. Human relations—Periodicals. I. Hutchison, Bobby, comp. II. Title: Human Sexualities.
658'.05

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hut16341_00.2_copyright.indd ii 1/12/09 8:06:44 AM

 Editors/Advisory Board
Members of the Advisory Board are instrumental in the final selection of articles for each edition of ANNUAL EDITIONS. Their review
of articles for content, level, currentness, and appropriateness provides critical direction to the editor and staff. We think that you will
find their careful consideration well reflected in this volume.

EDITOR
Bobby Hutchison
Modesto Junior College

ADVISORY BOARD
Ben Anderson-Nathe Karen Edwards Pat Lefler
Portland State University University of Delaware Bluegrass Community
and Technical College
Harriet Bachner Harry F. Felton
Pittsburgh State University Pennsylvania State University— Theodore J. Maroun
Worthington McGill University
Janice I. Baldwin
University of California— Tony Fowler Danielle McAneney
Santa Barbara Florence-Darlington Southwestern College
Tech College
John D. Baldwin Abi Mehdipour
University of California— Luis Garcia Troy University
Santa Barbara Rutgers University
Shan Parker
Yvonne Barry Marilyn Gardner University of Michigan—Flint
John Tyler Community College Western Kentucky University
Fred L. Peterson
Kelli McCormack Brown Rachel Gillibrand University of Texas—Austin
University of South Florida University of the West of England
Jane A. Petrillo
Angel M. Butts Patrick M. Gorman Kennesaw State University
Rutgers University Edmonds Community College
Pamela Richards
Teresa Jean Byrne Marylou Hacker Central College
Kent State University Modesto Junior College
Florence Sage
Michael Calhoun Robert A. Hayes Clatsop Community College
Elon University Lewis-Clark State College
Sadie B. Sanders
Dianne Catherwood Debby Herbenick University of Florida—Gainsville
University of Gloucestershire Indiana University—Bloomington
Martin S. Turnauer
Jeffrey K. Clark Jennifer Hughes Radford University
Ball State University Agnes Scott College
Glenda Warren
Maureen A. Clinton Loeen M. Irons University of the Cumberlands
Suffolk Community College Baylor University
Deitra Wengert
Linda J. Coleman Kathleen Kaiser Towson University
Salem State College California State University—Chico
Janis White
Carol Conaway Gary F. Kelly University of Phoenix
University of New Hampshire Clarkson University
Karl Wielgus
Sheree Cox Alice Kingsnort Anoka Ramsey Community College
Webster University Sierra College
Charles Wood
Donald R. Devers John T. Lambert Southern West Virginia Community
Northern Virginia Community College Mohawk College—Fennell and Technical College
Michael Drissman Bruce D. LeBlanc Patricia Wren
Macomb College Black Hawk College Oakland University

iii

hut16341_00.3_adboard.indd iii 1/8/09 12:07:43 AM

 Preface
In publishing ANNUAL EDITIONS we recognize the enormous role played by the magazines, newspapers, and journals of the public press in
providing current, first-rate educational information in a broad spectrum of interest areas. Many of these articles are appropriate for students,
researchers, and professionals seeking accurate, current material to help bridge the gap between principles and theories and the real world.
These articles, however, become more useful for study when those of lasting value are carefully collected, organized, indexed, and reproduced
in a low-cost format, which provides easy and permanent access when the material is needed. That is the role played by ANNUAL EDITIONS.

“Sex lies at the root of life and we can never learn to worlds. There is also an ever increasing understanding
reverence life until we know how to understand sex.” of the importance of a range of biological processes on
sexual development and behavior. What we once talked
about in the singular (as if it were a unified, single, eas-

M any editions of this book have opened with the

above quote from Havelock Ellis, a late nineteenth cen-
ily identified phenomenon) has often now become plural.
Today, we speak of heterosexualities, homosexualities,
and bisexualities. This reflects greater evidence that there
tury sexologist. Sex researchers and educators today are multiple developmental pathways to who we are. In
persist in our belief that an accurate understanding of sex sum, the new title of this book is reflective of the diversity
and sexualities is essential to fully appreciate the human of the world today and the people we study, as well as the
condition. It is one piece of a bigger puzzle. But it is an richness and variety of perspectives in a multidisciplinary,
essential piece. This perspective, which is at the very dynamic area of inquiry.
heart of the book, is reflected as a continuing tradition. The book’s title isn’t the only thing that has changed.
The original purpose and core values of this book have Most of the articles that appear in this edition are new to
never changed. With the passage of time, however, some the book. With few exceptions, selected articles are no
things have changed. more than three years old prior to going to publication.
Perhaps, nowhere can we find more change and This new edition has also been reorganized and sections
diversity than in the sexual landscape of the world today. have been re-titled. Annual Editions: Human Sexualities
Globalization and technology have brought in new pos- is now organized into seven major units.
sibilities for more complex human connections. In the Social and Cultural Foundations explores a range
more than three decades of this book’s publication, vast of topics from historical, social, and cultural contexts.
changes have occurred in the study of human sexualities, Biological Foundations examines both reproductive capaci-
and in society as a whole. Human sexuality has come into ties as well as sexual pleasure and desire. Sexualities and
its own as an interdisciplinary field within academia. When Development considers a variety of issues that relate to
this book was first published, there were few academic different stages of our lives. The unit on Intimacies and
programs for students seriously interested in studying Relationships includes articles on love, and different types
sex. Today, there are undergraduate majors and minors of intimate relationships and experiences. Gender and
in human sexuality studies as well as dedicated gradu- Sexual Diversity provides insights into perspectives on
ate programs. Related areas of inquiry such as women’s gender as well as sexual orientations. Sexual Health and
studies, lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender studies, and Well-Being looks at what can go wrong with our sexual
ethnic studies have thrived. What was once an area of health and what we can do about it. The last unit, Sexuali-
inquiry that drew suspicion among “serious” scholars is ties and Social Issues, explores topics that are frequently
now a flourishing academic field with its own journals, in the news or at the center of the “culture wars.”
conferences, and degree programs. Sex researchers These many changes relate well to the current sexu-
from diverse academic perspectives, make rich and last- ality textbooks as well as to important trends in research
ing contributions to their own disciplines such as biology, and teaching today. The organization of this volume is
psychology, sociology, anthropology, education, nursing, intended to provide the reader the greatest flexibility pos-
public health, and medicine to name just a few. sible, making this book the most useful, dynamic, ancil-
The multidisciplinary nature of sex education and lary text of human sexuality in the market.
research is reflected throughout this book. The title of The updated Internet References can be used to
this book has been updated from the original (and sin- further explore the many topics presented in this book.
gular) Human Sexuality to the plural Human Sexualities. These useful websites are cross-referenced by number in
This is a subtle change, but one that is important. The the Topic Guide. You may be surprised by what you will
rich diversity in the field as well as the diverse lives of learn about human sexualities just from doing a little bit of
those we study are reflected in the new title Human browsing on some of these sites.
Sexualities. We have a better understanding today of the All articles included in this book have been carefully
incredible range of not only sexual behaviors but also reviewed and selected for their quality, readability, cur-
identities, experiences, perspectives, voices, and social rentness, interest and usefulness. They present a variety
iv

hut16341_00.4_preface.indd iv 1/16/09 9:58:07 AM

 of viewpoints on human sexualities. Some of what you will inspire and educate a large, dynamic student population
read, you may personally relate to. Some of it, you may as well as other sex educators and researchers.
find hard to understand, or even upsetting. Some points I am most thankful to my amazing daughter, Anaïs,
of view you will agree with, some you will not. Whatever who is my biggest inspiration. Being a parent, I find that I
your experience with these articles, I hope you will learn care even more about each of the topics we cover in human
from each of them. sexuality. Everything in life, including this course, takes on
Appreciation and thanks go to Larry Loeppke, Man- so much more meaning than I ever thought possible.
aging Editor and Debra Henricks, Developmental Editor Finally, many thanks to those who have submitted
at McGraw-Hill. They have been incredibly supportive articles for this anthology or reviewed articles from pre-
of the changes in this edition. Debra has held my hand vious editions. The many updates and changes in this
throughout the process, providing essential support and new edition are a direct result of readers’ input. Students
guidance. I have enjoyed our many discussions, emails, and professors have told us what they think, and we
and working with both of them. have responded accordingly. Because of that feedback,
I want to thank the previous academic editors of this is one of the most useful and up-to-date books avail-
Annual Editions: Human Sexuality, Ollie Pocs and Susan able today. Please tell us what you think by returning the
Bunting for their inspiring work. Susan Bunting foresaw postage-paid Article Rating Form located on the last
some of the changes that would take place in this edition, page. Also, if you know of a recent article that you think
when she wrote about the shift in language from sexuality should be included please let us know by giving the title,
to sexualities. When I was an undergraduate in my first source, and publication information for that article at the
human sexuality course, we were assigned Annual Edi- very bottom of the rating form. We very much look forward
tions: Human Sexuality edited by Ollie Pocs. I got hooked to hearing from you and receiving your feedback.
on studying sex, in part because of Annual Editions.
I never could have guessed, as I held that book in my
hands and read it, that I would one day take over the edit-
ing and writing responsibilities of that very book. There
may be a student reading this, who will one day be at the
helm of Annual Editions: Human Sexualities.
Much gratitude and thanks go to Janice and John
Baldwin, my professors who inspired and taught me when
I was an undergraduate at the University of California at Bobby Hutchison
Santa Barbara. Their courses and research continue to Editor

hut16341_00.4_preface.indd v 1/16/09 9:58:08 AM

 Contents
Preface iv
Correlation Guide xiii
Topic Guide xiv
Internet References xix

UNIT 1
Social and Cultural Foundations

Unit Overview xxii

1. Vox Populi: Sex, Lies, and Blood Sport, Heather Pringle, Discover,
June 2006
The graffiti scratched on the walls of private residences over 2,000 years ago are known
as Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. These well-preserved tablets contain gossip
about drinking, love, sex, blood sports, and more from the glory days of Rome. . . . 3

2. The Baby Deficit, Michael Balter, Science, June 30, 2006

While developing nations’ population continues to rise, fertility rates in the developed
world are declining to below the replacement rate. Many governments are offering
incentives to encourage childbearing to ward off economic complications, yet their
effectiveness is uncertain. 7

3. Three ‘Rules’ That Don’t Apply, Stephanie Coontz, Newsweek,

June 5, 2006
A noted family historian addresses three common myths about marriage, its present,
future, and its past. Separating myths from realities will help us better understand a so-
cial institution that impacts everyone in society, whether single, partnered, or married. 12

4. Everyone’s Queer, Leila J. Rupp, OAH Magazine of History, March 2006

The title of this article on nonnormative sex may have caught your eye, but reading it
is likely to maintain your interest, as well as increase your understanding of the evolution
of what is considered normal over the last 60 years. 13

5. A Mind Dismembered: In Search of the Magical Penis Thieves,

Frank Bures, Harper’s Magazine, June 2008
“Thief! My genitals are gone!” This article explores the phenomenon of “penis theft” in
Africa. This article uses penis theft as a means to examine culture-related syndromes,
calling into question many assumptions that are commonly made about disorders and
diagnoses in Western and non-Western societies. 17

6. Afterbirths in the Afterlife: Cultural Meaning of Placental Disposal

in a Hmong American Community, Deborah G. Helsel and
Marilyn Mochel, Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 2002, Vol. 13, No. 4
For the Hmong Americans, the placenta has special significance for the soul in the
afterlife. Western medical practices and Hmong American cultural perspectives can
sometimes be at odds over the disposal of the placenta. 23

7. Gender Is Powerful: The Long Reach of Feminism, Nancy MacLean,

OAH Magazine of History, October 2006
Readers of this article will gain a greater appreciation of the significance of the women’s
movement. By studying the women’s movement, we are in a better position to fully
understand civil rights, and numerous other social and political movements in the
United States 28

8. How AIDS Changed America, David Jefferson, Newsweek,

May 15, 2006
The 1981 to 2006 timeline tells the story of AIDS in America. This article describes the
development in knowledge about HIV/AIDS, and the change in personal, social, and
cultural responses towards HIV/AIDS over the quarter century. 33

The concepts in bold italics are developed in the article. For further expansion, please refer to the Topic Guide.

vi

hut16341_00.5_toc.indd vi 1/9/09 5:36:58 PM

 UNIT 2
Biological Foundations

Unit Overview 36

Part A. Reproductive Capacities

9. Starting the Good Life in the Womb, W. Allan Walker and

Courtney Humphries, Newsweek, September 17, 2007
Choices that women make while they are pregnant may have a life-long impact on their
baby. This article suggests ideas for mothers to improve their baby’s chances to grow
into healthy adults. 39

10. Success at Last, Deborah Kotz, U.S. News & World Report,
May 7, 2007
Couples fighting infertility have some control over conception through the alteration
of diet, exercise, and stress levels. Many factors in these areas can affect
ovulation and hormone levels in women, thus influencing fertility, but men’s habits
matter as well. 41

11. A Man’s Shelf Life, Mark Teich, Psychology Today,

September/October 2007
As men age, their fertility decreases. That’s not the only reproductive challenge men
face as they get older. Some birth defects increase in frequency with paternal age.
Potential parents need to know the information discussed in this article. 45

Part B. Pleasure and Desire

12. The Orgasmic Mind, Martin Portner, Scientific American Mind,

April/May 2008
Sexual desire, arousal, and orgasm involve complex physiological, cognitive, and
affective phenomena. This fascinating article explores the complexities of desire and
orgasm through scientific research on the brain. 49

13. Women’s Sexual Desire: A Feminist Critique, Jill M. Wood,

Patricia Barthalow Koch, and Phyllis Kernoff Mansfield,
The Journal of Sex Research, Vol. 43(3), August 2006
The biomedical model of female sexual desire is challenged in this article. The
authors offer an alternative approach, a “New View,” that calls into question the
scientific and therapeutic communities’ current understanding of female sexual desire. 53

UNIT 3
Sexualities and Development

Unit Overview 64

14. How to Talk about Sex, Heidi Raykeil, Parenting, February 2006
Although this article was written for partners who are also parents, it generalizes as well to
couples with varying interest/towards needs for sex. Its encouragement of and guid-
ance for outing the secret is important, as the risk of letting things go too long is real. 67

15. The Birds and the Bees and Curious Kids, Margaret Renkl, Parenting,
June 2006
Read about the best strategies for handling the kinds of scenarios that catch parents
off guard about bodies, body parts, and sexual behavior, as well as how to—and not
to—approach “the talk.” 70

The concepts in bold italics are developed in the article. For further expansion, please refer to the Topic Guide.

vii

hut16341_00.5_toc.indd vii 1/9/09 5:37:00 PM

 16. What to Tell the Kids about Sex, Kay S. Hymowitz, The Public Interest,
Fall 2003
Sex education is a controversial subject. Sex education programs have recently morphed
into comprehensive sexuality education programs. These programs appear more per-
missive than earlier programs that emphasized abstinence and conservatism. 72

17. Teenage Fatherhood and Involvement in Delinquent Behavior,

Terence P. Thornberry, Carolyn A. Smith, and Susan Ehrhard,
The Prevention Researcher, November 2004
This paper investigates the relationship between teenage fatherhood and various
indicators of deviant behavior. By using a large sample of students, first interviewed
in the 7th or 8th grade and again when they were 21 years old, the authors are able
to explore the link between teenage fatherhood and delinquent behavior along the
adolescent life course. 79

18. Torn between Two Mothers, Christine Koubek, Ladies’ Home Journal,
September 2008
A woman adopted as an infant recounts her touching story of being reunited with her
birth mother, and describes the complexities of managing a relationship with two
mothers. 84

19. Staying up Late with Sue, Anne Matthews, AARP Bulletin, May 2004
Labeled a “dirty old lady” by some, the “Julia Child of sex” by others, this Canadian sex
educator tells it like it is (or could be) on cable television stations for teens through
octa-generations. Although some readers will blush and others will be shocked, all will
learn something from this short article and introduction to (not your) Granny Sue. 87

20. Women’s Sexuality as They Age: The More Things Change, the More
They Stay the Same, Patricia Barthalow Koch and Phyllis Kernoff
Mansfield, SIECUS Report, December 2001/January 2002
The authors examine women’s sexuality over the life cycle, in an attempt to determine
whether there are any changes in female sexuality as a result of aging or menstrual
status. 89

UNIT 4
Intimacies and Relationships

Unit Overview 94

21. Free as a Bird and Loving It, Sharon Jayson, USA Today Newspaper,
April 12, 2007
Is marriage becoming less desirable? Being single is not seen as a temporary and
undesirable state anymore; more individuals are choosing to put off marriage or
simply not marry at all. This article addresses some of the benefits of remaining single. 96

22. Happily Never Married, Nadia Berenstein, Ms., Summer 2007

Nadia Berenstein explores the implications of laws covering marriages, civil unions,
and domestic partnerships, and concludes that unmarried couples are treated
unfairly. 98

23. This Thing Called Love, Lauren Slater, National Geographic,

February 2006
What we recognize as passionate love or infatuation shares a chemical profile that is
surprisingly similar to that of obsessive-compulsive disorder. In order for relationships
to last, we cannot depend on retaining feelings of passionate love throughout the
duration of the relationship. 100

24. Pillow Talk, Nina Utne, Utne Reader, March/April 2006

Stephen Levine is a writer of best sellers on death and dying. He and his wife, Andrea,
have had three unsuccessful marriages between them before their current 26-year one.
Their responses to a range of questions about lust, the meaning of marriage, love,
and true intimacy will give all readers much to think about. 106

The concepts in bold italics are developed in the article. For further expansion, please refer to the Topic Guide.

viii

hut16341_00.5_toc.indd viii 1/9/09 5:37:03 PM

 25. Behind the Cloak of Polygamy, Andrea Moore-Emmett, Ms.,
Summer 2008
There has been a significant amount of recent media coverage of religious polygamist
sects in the United States. Former members of some of these sects recount their ex-
periences with polygamy. This article raises many important concerns including abuse
and human rights. 109

26. Love at the Margins: Extreme Relationships Demand Extreme

Commitment, Mark Teich, PsychologyToday, September/October 2006
For non-traditional couples, the demands can be high. These relationships can
mean a need for extreme commitment, and coping with social disapproval and
self-doubt. 112

27. My Cheatin’ Heart, Daphne Gottlieb, Utne Reader, March/April 2006

Infidelity . . . affair . . . new and forbidden love versus committed monogamy. All of
these are bluntly and powerfully addressed in this essay that looks at cheating from
both sides—the cheater and the partner. 118

UNIT 5
Gender and Sexual Diversity

Unit Overview 120

Part A. Perspectives on Gender

28. A Case for Angry Men and Happy Women, Beth Azar,
Monitor on Psychology, April 2007
People are faster at identifying anger on men’s faces as well as seeing happiness on
women’s faces. This process has been linked to the evolutionary advantage of being
able to spot and avoid an angry and potentially dangerous male. This article addresses
the deeply rooted connection between gender, emotions, and evolution. 123

29. Learning and Gender, Michael Gurian, American School Board Journal,
October 2006
Michael Gurian examines gender differences as they impact the educational expe-
riences and potential of boys and girls. Achievement gaps in math, science and
literacy need no longer exist. 125

30. Goodbye to Girlhood, Stacy Weiner, The Washington Post,

February 20, 2007
This article describes the troubling trend in the way women and girls are depicted by
the media. Pop culture images are targeting younger girls, potentially influencing the
development of eating disorders, lower self-esteem, and depression. 128

31. (Rethinking) Gender, Debra Rosenberg, Newsweek, May 21, 2007

Debra Rosenberg opens the window on people who are born one gender but feel that
they are the other gender. Some use surgery and/or hormones to bring their bodies
into compliance with their identity . . . Their stories are riveting and their lived experi-
ences raise many questions about gender. 131

Part B. Perspectives on Sexual Orientation

32. Finding the Switch, Robert Kunzig, Psychology Today, May/June 2008
Is a homosexual orientation influenced by biological processes? Research on the
influence of genetics and hormones on the development of homosexuality is explored
in this article. Scientific evidence suggests that there are multiple developmental
pathways to homosexual orientations, including multiple biological influences. 135

The concepts in bold italics are developed in the article. For further expansion, please refer to the Topic Guide.

ix

hut16341_00.5_toc.indd ix 1/9/09 5:37:04 PM

 33. Children of Lesbian and Gay Parents, Charlotte J. Patterson,
Current Directions in Psychological Science, October 2006
Does parental sexual orientation affect child development? After years of research,
little difference has been found between children of same-sex parents and those of
other sex parents. In fact, the quality of relationships in the family seems to matter
more than parents’ sexual orientation. 138

34. Broadcast News: The Insider Is Out, Greg Endries, The Advocate,
June 17, 2008
What happens when a popular CNN news anchor comes out as openly gay? Is there
room for gay and lesbian anchors in broadcast news? This article explores the story of
Thomas Roberts and other gay news personalities. 142

UNIT 6
Sexual Health and Well-Being

Unit Overview 148

Part A. Problems and Interventions

35. Sex, Health & Happiness, Deborah Kotz, U.S. News & World Report,
September 15/September 22, 2008
A healthy, active sex life is not only for the young and acrobatic. Adult Americans of
all ages can enjoy an active sex life. This article presents some of the benefits and
challenges of maintaining a healthy sex life at any age. 151

36. Fighting the Cancer a Mammo Can’t Catch, Margaret Renkl,

Health Magazine, June 1, 2008
Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is a rare, yet highly aggressive form of breast
cancer that is often misdiagnosed. Learn about the signs and symptoms of IBC, as
well as one woman’s courageous journey of fighting the disease. 153

37. When Sex Hurts, Lisa Collier Cool, Good Housekeeping, March 2003
This fact-filled article addresses a rarely talked about, but often devastating problem
for women and couples: painful intercourse. Citing medical research and experts, the
seven most likely conditions associated with painful sex are explained along with how
and where to get help and effective treatments. 156

Part B. Sexually Transmitted Infections and HIV

38. Popping the Other Question, Adrienne P. Samuels, Ebony, June 2008
Asking about sexual history, sexually transmitted infections, and HIV status can
be especially challenging for a variety of reasons. This article explores issues that all
single people and couples need to be aware of, in order to protect their health. 159

39. Sex, Drugs, Prisons, and HIV, Susan Okie, The New England Journal
of Medicine, January 11, 2007
Risky behaviors among prison inmates are common, including high-risk sexual
encounters and drug use. Both of these behaviors increase the risk of transmitting
HIV. Providing condoms and clean needles could slow the spread of HIV, but many
prison officials are reluctant to make these available to prisoners. 161

The concepts in bold italics are developed in the article. For further expansion, please refer to the Topic Guide.

hut16341_00.5_toc.indd x 1/9/09 5:37:05 PM

 40. HIV Plan B, Justine Sharrock, Mother Jones, May/June 2008
Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) treatment can prevent HIV infection in many people
who are at-risk of becoming infected after a suspected or known exposure. PEP is FDA
approved, but not always available to those who need it. High cost and lack of knowl-
edge are among the reasons why some people may have limited access to it. 164

41. HIV Apathy, Zach Patton, Governing, February 2007

Many new drugs to combat HIV Disease have changed HIV from a terminal to a chronic
condition that can be managed in some people infected with the virus. Partially as a
result of new treatments available, some individuals engage in high risk behaviors that
put them at risk for HIV infection. To combat this, health officials are trying to make test-
ing for HIV more available and widespread. 166

UNIT 7
Sexualities and Social Issues

Unit Overview 168

42. Flower Grandma’s Secret, Susan Wicklund, Ms., Fall 2007

A physician specializing in reproductive health and abortion is about to go public
on national television. She now must visit her grandmother to tell about her medical
specialty. The doctor soon discovers that she does not want to hear about her “Flower
Grandma’s secret.” 171

43. You Can’t Do That on Television, Rachel Fudge, Utne Reader,

September/October 2005
Although depictions of sex and sexuality on television are extraordinarily common,
according to the Center for the Study of Popular Culture and Television at Syracuse
University, the portrayal of abortion “is conspicuous in its absence.” This article ex-
plores the shift in treatment of unplanned pregnancy and abortion from the Roe v.
Wade ’70s to today. 174

44. Sex, Politics, and Morality at the FDA: Reflections on the Plan B
Decision, Frank Davidoff, Hastings Center Report, March/April 2006
The author of this article was a consultant with the Food and Drug Administration.
He and others resigned in order to protest the August 2005 decision to delay a final
ruling on the over-the-counter availability of Plan B, the emergency contraceptive.
Learn why he believes that the FDA changed the rules for political reasons. 177

45. Guess Who’s Watching Porn, Monique Polak, Maclean’s, June 3, 2008
The Internet has made porn more easily accessible to everyone, including young
children. Parents are discovering that their young children are accessing graphic por-
nography via the Internet. Is this indicative of what has been called the pornification
of society? 183

46. Breeder Reaction, Elizabeth Weil, Mother Jones, July/August 2006

The Constitution of the United States identifies the right to procreate as a fundamen-
tal human right. Yet there is almost no public policy in the United States regarding
reproductive rights and access to reproductive technology. The provocative article
discusses this thorny issue; and the results are thought provoking. 187

47. The Sex Offender Next Door, Amy Engeler, Good Housekeeping,
January 2006
Megan’s Law was passed in 1996, two years after the rape and murder of 7-year-old
Megan. It requires sex offenders to register, so that information about their where-
abouts can be available to the public, but states have much discretion on how this hap-
pens. Are children being protected enough? 193

The concepts in bold italics are developed in the article. For further expansion, please refer to the Topic Guide.

xi

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 48. Sexual Assault on Campus: What Colleges and Universities Are
Doing about It, Heather M. Karjane, Bonnie S. Fisher, and
Francis T. Cullen, NIJ Journal, December 2005
Congress asked the National Institute of Justice to find out what schools are doing to
prevent and respond to reports of sexual assault. Among other facts, the study found
that in most cases of rape, victim and assailant know each other, and half of all student
victims do not consider such incidents to be rapes. 196

49. Human Rights, Sex Trafficking, and Prostitution, Alice Leuchtag,

The Humanist, January/February 2003
One of the evil plagues haunting the world today is sex slavery, and it is getting worse.
It is the product of extreme poverty and the considerable profits involved in the trade.
However, the exploitation involved is horrendous. Human rights groups are trying to
stop the practice. Alice Leuchtag covers many aspects of this issue. 203

Test-Your-Knowledge Form 208

Article Rating Form 209

The concepts in bold italics are developed in the article. For further expansion, please refer to the Topic Guide.

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 Correlation Guide
The Annual Editions series provides students with convenient, inexpensive access to current, carefully selected articles from the public press.
Annual Editions: Human Sexualities, 31/e is an easy-to-use reader that presents articles on important topics such as biology, gender, health,
and many more. For more information on Annual Editions and other McGraw-Hill Contemporary Learning Series titles, visit www.mhcls.com.

This convenient guide matches the units in Annual Editions: Human Sexualities, 31/e with the corresponding chapters in two of our best-selling
McGraw-Hill Human Sexuality textbooks by Hyde/DeLamater and Kelly.

Annual Editions: Understanding Human Sexuality, 10/e

Human Sexualities, 31/e by Hyde/DeLamater Sexuality Today, 9/e by Kelly
Chapter 1: Cultural, Historical, and Research
Unit 1: Social and Cultural Foundations Chapter 1: Sexuality in Perspective
Perspectives on Sexuality
Chapter 4: Human Sexual Arousal and Response
Chapter 5: Sex Hormones, Sexual Differentiation,
Chapter 10: Reproduction, Reproductive
Puberty, and the Menstrual Cycle
Unit 2: Biological Foundations Technology, and Birthing
Chapter 6: Conception, Pregnancy, and Childbirth
Chapter 11: Decision Making about Pregnancy
Chapter 8: Sexual Arousal
and Parenthood
Chapter 5: Sex Hormones, Sexual Differentiation,
Puberty, and the Menstrual Cycle
Chapter 6: Sexuality in Infancy, Childhood, and
Chapter 9: Sexuality and the Life Cycle:
Unit 3: Sexualities and Development Adolescence
Childhood and Adolescence
Chapter 7: Adult Sexuality and Relationships
Chapter 10: Sexuality and the Life Cycle: Adulthood
Epilogue: Looking to the Future: Sexuality Education
Chapter 10: Sexuality and the Life Cycle: Adulthood Chapter 9: Sexuality, Communication, and
Unit 4: Intimacies and Relationships
Chapter 11: Attraction, Love, and Communication Relationships
Chapter 5: Developmental and Social
Chapter 5: Sex Hormones, Sexual Differentiation, Perspectives on Gender
Puberty, and the Menstrual Cycle Chapter 6: Sexuality in Infancy, Childhood, and
Chapter 9: Sexuality and the Life Cycle: Adolescence
Unit 5: Gender and Sexual Diversity
Childhood and Adolescence Chapter 13: Sexual Orientation, Identity, and
Chapter 12: Gender and Sexuality Behavior
Chapter 13: Sexual Orientation: Gay, Straight, or Bi? Chapter 14: The Spectrum of Human Sexual
Behavior
Chapter 9: Sexuality and the Life Cycle: Chapter 17: Sexually Transmitted Diseases,
Childhood and Adolescence HIV/AIDS, and Sexual Decisions
Unit 6: Sexual Health and Well-Being
Chapter 17: Sexual Disorders and Sex Therapy Chapter 18: Sexual Dysfunctions and Their
Chapter 18: Sexually Transmitted Infections Treatment
Chapter 6: Conception, Pregnancy, and Childbirth Chapter 8: Sexual Individuality and Sexual
Chapter 7: Contraception and Abortion Values
Chapter 14: Variations in Sexual Behavior Chapter 10: Reproduction, Reproductive
Unit 7: Sexualities and Social Issues Chapter 15: Sexual Coercion Technology, and Birthing
Chapter 16: Sex for Sale Chapter 15: Sex, Art, the Media, and the Law
Chapter 19: Ethics, Religion, and Sexuality Chapter 16: Sexual Consent, Coercion, Rape,
Chapter 20: Sex and the Law and Abuse

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 Topic Guide
This topic guide suggests how the selections in this book relate to the subjects covered in your course. You may want to use the topics listed on
these pages to search the Web more easily.
On the following pages a number of Web sites have been gathered specifically for this book. They are arranged to reflect the units of this Annual
Editions reader. You can link to these sites by going to http://www.mhcls.com.

All the articles that relate to each topic are listed below the bold-faced term.

Abortion 29. Learning and Gender

31. (Rethinking) Gender
42. Flower Grandma’s Secret
32. Finding the Switch
43. You Can’t Do That on Television
33. Children of Lesbian and Gay Parents
44. Sex, Politics, and Morality at the FDA:
34. Broadcast News: The Insider Is Out
Reflections on the Plan B Decision
35. Sex, Health & Happiness
42. Flower Grandma’s Secret
Abuse
25. Behind the Cloak of Polygamy Adulthood, young
45. Guess Who’s Watching Porn
47. The Sex Offender Next Door 4. Everyone’s Queer
48. Sexual Assault on Campus: What Colleges 11. A Man’s Shelf Life
and Universities Are Doing about It 12. The Orgasmic Mind
49. Human Rights, Sex Trafficking, and Prostitution 13. Women’s Sexual Desire: A Feminist Critique
14. How to Talk about Sex
15. The Birds and the Bees and Curious Kids
Adoption 16. What to Tell the Kids about Sex
18. Torn between Two Mothers 17. Teenage Fatherhood and Involvement
33. Children of Lesbian and Gay Parents in Delinquent Behavior
18. Torn between Two Mothers
19. Staying up Late with Sue
Adulthood, later 20. Women’s Sexuality as They Age: The More Things Change,
4. Everyone’s Queer the More They Stay the Same
11. A Man’s Shelf Life 21. Free as a Bird and Loving It
12. The Orgasmic Mind 22. Happily Never Married
13. Women’s Sexual Desire: A Feminist Critique 23. This Thing Called Love
18. Torn between Two Mothers 24. Pillow Talk
19. Staying up Late with Sue 25. Behind the Cloak of Polygamy
20. Women’s Sexuality as They Age: The More Things 26. Love at the Margins: Extreme Relationships Demand
Change, the More They Stay the Same Extreme Commitment
21. Free as a Bird and Loving It 27. My Cheatin’ Heart
22. Happily Never Married 29. Learning and Gender
23. This Thing Called Love 30. Goodbye to Girlhood
24. Pillow Talk 31. (Rethinking) Gender
25. Behind the Cloak of Polygamy 32. Finding the Switch
26. Love at the Margins: Extreme Relationships Demand 33. Children of Lesbian and Gay Parents
Extreme Commitment 34. Broadcast News: The Insider Is Out
27. My Cheatin’ Heart 35. Sex, Health & Happiness
31. (Rethinking) Gender 42. Flower Grandma’s Secret
32. Finding the Switch 45. Guess Who’s Watching Porn
33. Children of Lesbian and Gay Parents 48. Sexual Assault on Campus: What Colleges
34. Broadcast News: The Insider Is Out and Universities Are Doing about It
35. Sex, Health & Happiness
42. Flower Grandma’s Secret Anatomy, male and female
5. A Mind Dismembered: In Search of the Magical
Adulthood, middle Penis Thieves
4. Everyone’s Queer 12. The Orgasmic Mind
11. A Man’s Shelf Life 20. Women’s Sexuality as They Age: The More Things Change,
12. The Orgasmic Mind the More They Stay the Same
13. Women’s Sexual Desire: A Feminist Critique 31. (Rethinking) Gender
18. Torn between Two Mothers 36. Fighting the Cancer a Mammo Can’t Catch
19. Staying up Late with Sue 37. When Sex Hurts
20. Women’s Sexuality as They Age: The More Things Change,
the More They Stay the Same
21. Free as a Bird and Loving It Biology
22. Happily Never Married 6. Afterbirths in the Afterlife: Cultural Meaning of Placental
23. This Thing Called Love Disposal in a Hmong American Community
24. Pillow Talk 9. Starting the Good Life in the Womb
25. Behind the Cloak of Polygamy 10. Success at Last
26. Love at the Margins: Extreme Relationships Demand 11. A Man’s Shelf Life
Extreme Commitment 12. The Orgasmic Mind
27. My Cheatin’ Heart 13. Women’s Sexual Desire: A Feminist Critique

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 20. Women’s Sexuality as They Age: The More Things Change, 27. My Cheatin’ Heart
the More They Stay the Same 29. Learning and Gender
23. This Thing Called Love 30. Goodbye to Girlhood
28. A Case for Angry Men and Happy Women 32. Finding the Switch
32. Finding the Switch 40. HIV Plan B
35. Sex, Health & Happiness 42. Flower Grandma’s Secret
36. Fighting the Cancer a Mammo Can’t Catch 44. Sex, Politics, and Morality at the FDA:
37. When Sex Hurts Reflections on the Plan B Decision
45. Guess Who’s Watching Porn
46. Breeder Reaction
Bisexualities 49. Human Rights, Sex Trafficking, and Prostitution
4. Everyone’s Queer
8. How AIDS Changed America Female sexualities
13. Women’s Sexual Desire: A Feminist Critique
26. Love at the Margins: Extreme Relationships Demand 4. Everyone’s Queer
Extreme Commitment 7. Gender Is Powerful: The Long Reach of Feminism
32. Finding the Switch 8. How AIDS Changed America
33. Children of Lesbian and Gay Parents 12. The Orgasmic Mind
13. Women’s Sexual Desire: A Feminist Critique
20. Women’s Sexuality as They Age: The More Things Change,
Contraception the More They Stay the Same
44. Sex, Politics, and Morality at the FDA: Reflections 21. Free as a Bird and Loving It
on the Plan B Decision 22. Happily Never Married
23. This Thing Called Love
24. Pillow Talk
Culture 25. Behind the Cloak of Polygamy
26. Love at the Margins: Extreme Relationships Demand
1. Vox Populi: Sex, Lies, and Blood Sport
Extreme Commitment
3. Three ‘Rules’ That Don’t Apply
27. My Cheatin’ Heart
4. Everyone’s Queer
30. Goodbye to Girlhood
5. A Mind Dismembered: In Search of the Magical
31. (Rethinking) Gender
Penis Thieves
32. Finding the Switch
6. Afterbirths in the Afterlife: Cultural Meaning of Placental
35. Sex, Health & Happiness
Disposal in a Hmong American Community
36. Fighting the Cancer a Mammo Can’t Catch
7. Gender Is Powerful: The Long Reach of Feminism
37. When Sex Hurts
8. How AIDS Changed America
38. Popping the Other Question
13. Women’s Sexual Desire: A Feminist Critique
41. HIV Apathy
19. Staying up Late with Sue
42. Flower Grandma’s Secret
20. Women’s Sexuality as They Age: The More Things
44. Sex, Politics, and Morality at the FDA:
Change, the More They Stay the Same
Reflections on the Plan B Decision
21. Free as a Bird and Loving It
46. Breeder Reaction
22. Happily Never Married
49. Human Rights, Sex Trafficking, and Prostitution
25. Behind the Cloak of Polygamy
26. Love at the Margins: Extreme Relationships Demand
Extreme Commitment Gender
30. Goodbye to Girlhood 7. Gender Is Powerful: The Long Reach of Feminism
31. (Rethinking) Gender 13. Women’s Sexual Desire: A Feminist Critique
33. Children of Lesbian and Gay Parents 17. Teenage Fatherhood and Involvement
34. Broadcast News: The Insider Is Out in Delinquent Behavior
35. Sex, Health & Happiness 18. Torn between Two Mothers
43. You Can’t Do That on Television 20. Women’s Sexuality as They Age: The More Things Change,
44. Sex, Politics, and Morality at the FDA: the More They Stay the Same
Reflections on the Plan B Decision 21. Free as a Bird and Loving It
46. Breeder Reaction 25. Behind the Cloak of Polygamy
26. Love at the Margins: Extreme Relationships Demand
Extreme Commitment
Desire 28. A Case for Angry Men and Happy Women
4. Everyone’s Queer 29. Learning and Gender
11. A Man’s Shelf Life 30. Goodbye to Girlhood
12. The Orgasmic Mind 31. (Rethinking) Gender
13. Women’s Sexual Desire: A Feminist Critique 49. Human Rights, Sex Trafficking, and Prostitution
20. Women’s Sexuality as They Age: The More Things Change,
the More They Stay the Same
23. This Thing Called Love Health
24. Pillow Talk 6. Afterbirths in the Afterlife: Cultural Meaning of Placental
26. Love at the Margins: Extreme Relationships Demand Disposal in a Hmong American Community
Extreme Commitment 8. How AIDS Changed America
27. My Cheatin’ Heart 9. Starting the Good Life in the Womb
32. Finding the Switch 10. Success at Last
35. Sex, Health & Happiness 11. A Man’s Shelf Life
37. When Sex Hurts 12. The Orgasmic Mind
13. Women’s Sexual Desire: A Feminist Critique
14. How to Talk About Sex
Ethical issues 15. The Birds and the Bees and Curious Kids
25. Behind the Cloak of Polygamy 16. What to Tell the Kids about Sex
26. Love at the Margins: Extreme Relationships Demand 20. Women’s Sexuality as They Age: The More Things Change,
Extreme Commitment the More They Stay the Same

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 30. Goodbye to Girlhood 39. Sex, Drugs, Prisons, and HIV
31. (Rethinking) Gender 40. HIV Plan B
35. Sex, Health & Happiness 44. Sex, Politics, and Morality at the FDA:
36. Fighting the Cancer a Mammo Can’t Catch Reflections on the Plan B Decision
37. When Sex Hurts 46. Breeder Reaction
38. Popping the Other Question 49. Human Rights, Sex Trafficking, and Prostitution
39. Sex, Drugs, Prisons, and HIV
40. HIV Plan B
41. HIV Apathy Infidelity
42. Flower Grandma’s Secret 27. My Cheatin’ Heart
43. You Can’t Do That on Television
44. Sex, Politics, and Morality at the FDA:
Reflections on the Plan B Decision
Intimacies
48. Sexual Assault on Campus: What Colleges 8. How AIDS Changed America
and Universities Are Doing about It 20. Women’s Sexuality as They Age: The More Things Change,
49. Human Rights, Sex Trafficking, and Prostitution the More They Stay the Same
21. Free as a Bird and Loving It
22. Happily Never Married
Heterosexualities 23. This Thing Called Love
4. Everyone’s Queer 24. Pillow Talk
8. How AIDS Changed America 25. Behind the Cloak of Polygamy
13. Women’s Sexual Desire: A Feminist Critique 26. Love at the Margins: Extreme Relationships Demand
22. Happily Never Married Extreme Commitment
25. Behind the Cloak of Polygamy 27. My Cheatin’ Heart
26. Love at the Margins: Extreme Relationships Demand 31. (Rethinking) Gender
Extreme Commitment 35. Sex, Health & Happiness
32. Finding the Switch 37. When Sex Hurts
38. Popping the Other Question
History
1. Vox Populi: Sex, Lies, and Blood Sport Legal issues
3. Three ‘Rules’ That Don’t Apply 17. Teenage Fatherhood and Involvement
4. Everyone’s Queer in Delinquent Behavior
5. A Mind Dismembered: In Search of the Magical 22. Happily Never Married
Penis Thieves 25. Behind the Cloak of Polygamy
7. Gender Is Powerful: The Long Reach of Feminism 26. Love at the Margins: Extreme Relationships Demand
13. Women’s Sexual Desire: A Feminist Critique Extreme Commitment
21. Free as a Bird and Loving It 31. (Rethinking) Gender
22. Happily Never Married 33. Children of Lesbian and Gay Parents
25. Behind the Cloak of Polygamy 39. Sex, Drugs, Prisons, and HIV
26. Love at the Margins: Extreme Relationships Demand 40. HIV Plan B
Extreme Commitment 44. Sex, Politics, and Morality at the FDA:
31. (Rethinking) Gender Reflections on the Plan B Decision
42. Flower Grandma’s Secret 45. Guess Who’s Watching Porn
46. Breeder Reaction 46. Breeder Reaction
47. The Sex Offender Next Door
HIV disease 48. Sexual Assault on Campus: What Colleges
8. How AIDS Changed America and Universities Are Doing about It
38. Popping the Other Question 49. Human Rights, Sex Trafficking, and Prostitution
39. Sex, Drugs, Prisons, and HIV
40. HIV Plan B Marriages
41. HIV Apathy
3. Three ‘Rules’ That Don’t Apply
49. Human Rights, Sex Trafficking, and Prostitution
21. Free as a Bird and Loving It
22. Happily Never Married
Homosexualities 23. This Thing Called Love
4. Everyone’s Queer 24. Pillow Talk
8. How AIDS Changed America 25. Behind the Cloak of Polygamy
13. Women’s Sexual Desire: A Feminist Critique 26. Love at the Margins: Extreme Relationships Demand
22. Happily Never Married Extreme Commitment
26. Love at the Margins: Extreme Relationships Demand 27. My Cheatin’ Heart
Extreme Commitment 31. (Rethinking) Gender
32. Finding the Switch 33. Children of Lesbian and Gay Parents
33. Children of Lesbian and Gay Parents 35. Sex, Health & Happiness
34. Broadcast News: The Insider Is Out
Male sexualities
Human rights 4. Everyone’s Queer
8. How AIDS Changed America 5. A Mind Dismembered: In Search of the Magical
13. Women’s Sexual Desire: A Feminist Critique Penis Thieves
22. Happily Never Married 8. How AIDS Changed America
25. Behind the Cloak of Polygamy 11. A Man’s Shelf Life
26. Love at the Margins: Extreme Relationships Demand 12. The Orgasmic Mind
Extreme Commitment 13. Women’s Sexual Desire: A Feminist Critique
31. (Rethinking) Gender 17. Teenage Fatherhood and Involvement
33. Children of Lesbian and Gay Parents in Delinquent Behavior

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 21. Free as a Bird and Loving It 43. You Can’t Do That on Television
22. Happily Never Married 45. Guess Who’s Watching Porn
23. This Thing Called Love 46. Breeder Reaction
24. Pillow Talk 47. The Sex Offender Next Door
25. Behind the Cloak of Polygamy 48. Sexual Assault on Campus: What Colleges
26. Love at the Margins: Extreme Relationships Demand and Universities Are Doing about It
Extreme Commitment 49. Human Rights, Sex Trafficking, and Prostitution
27. My Cheatin’ Heart
31. (Rethinking) Gender
32. Finding the Switch
Polygamy/Polyamory
35. Sex, Health & Happiness 25. Behind the Cloak of Polygamy
38. Popping the Other Question 26. Love at the Margins: Extreme Relationships Demand
41. HIV Apathy Extreme Commitment
49. Human Rights, Sex Trafficking, and Prostitution
Pornography
Media 45. Guess Who’s Watching Porn
8. How AIDS Changed America
19. Staying up Late with Sue Pregnancy
25. Behind the Cloak of Polygamy 6. Afterbirths in the Afterlife: Cultural Meaning of Placental
30. Goodbye to Girlhood Disposal in a Hmong American Community
34. Broadcast News: The Insider Is Out 9. Starting the Good Life in the Womb
43. You Can’t Do That on Television 10. Success at Last
45. Guess Who’s Watching Porn 11. A Man’s Shelf Life
17. Teenage Fatherhood and Involvement
Parenthood in Delinquent Behavior
18. Torn between Two Mothers
2. The Baby Deficit
25. Behind the Cloak of Polygamy
6. Afterbirths in the Afterlife: Cultural Meaning of Placental
33. Children of Lesbian and Gay Parents
Disposal in a Hmong American Community
42. Flower Grandma’s Secret
9. Starting the Good Life in the Womb
44. Sex, Politics, and Morality at the FDA:
10. Success at Last
Reflections on the Plan B Decision
11. A Man’s Shelf Life
46. Breeder Reaction
14. How to Talk About Sex
15. The Birds and the Bees and Curious Kids
16. What to Tell the Kids about Sex Rape
17. Teenage Fatherhood and Involvement 25. Behind the Cloak of Polygamy
in Delinquent Behavior 39. Sex, Drugs, Prisons, and HIV
18. Torn between Two Mothers 40. HIV Plan B
25. Behind the Cloak of Polygamy 44. Sex, Politics, and Morality at the FDA:
33. Children of Lesbian and Gay Parents Reflections on the Plan B Decision
45. Guess Who’s Watching Porn 47. The Sex Offender Next Door
46. Breeder Reaction 48. Sexual Assault on Campus: What Colleges
and Universities Are Doing about It
Pleasure 49. Human Rights, Sex Trafficking, and Prostitution
4. Everyone’s Queer
12. The Orgasmic Mind Relationships
13. Women’s Sexual Desire: A Feminist Critique 3. Three ‘Rules’ That Don’t Apply
20. Women’s Sexuality as They Age: The More Things Change, 4. Everyone’s Queer
the More They Stay the Same 8. How AIDS Changed America
21. Free as a Bird and Loving It 12. The Orgasmic Mind
23. This Thing Called Love 13. Women’s Sexual Desire: A Feminist Critique
24. Pillow Talk 20. Women’s Sexuality as They Age: The More Things Change,
25. Behind the Cloak of Polygamy the More They Stay the Same
26. Love at the Margins: Extreme Relationships Demand 21. Free as a Bird and Loving It
Extreme Commitment 22. Happily Never Married
27. My Cheatin’ Heart 23. This Thing Called Love
35. Sex, Health & Happiness 24. Pillow Talk
37. When Sex Hurts 25. Behind the Cloak of Polygamy
26. Love at the Margins: Extreme Relationships Demand
Politics Extreme Commitment
27. My Cheatin’ Heart
2. The Baby Deficit 31. (Rethinking) Gender
8. How AIDS Changed America 32. Finding the Switch
13. Women’s Sexual Desire: A Feminist Critique 33. Children of Lesbian and Gay Parents
22. Happily Never Married 35. Sex, Health & Happiness
25. Behind the Cloak of Polygamy 38. Popping the Other Question
26. Love at the Margins: Extreme Relationships Demand
Extreme Commitment
29. Learning and Gender Reproduction
31. (Rethinking) Gender 2. The Baby Deficit
32. Finding the Switch 6. Afterbirths in the Afterlife: Cultural Meaning of Placental
33. Children of Lesbian and Gay Parents Disposal in a Hmong American Community
39. Sex, Drugs, Prisons, and HIV 9. Starting the Good Life in the Womb
40. HIV Plan B 10. Success at Last
42. Flower Grandma’s Secret 11. A Man’s Shelf Life

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 17. Teenage Fatherhood and Involvement 48. Sexual Assault on Campus: What Colleges
in Delinquent Behavior and Universities Are Doing about It
18. Torn between Two Mothers 49. Human Rights, Sex Trafficking, and Prostitution
25. Behind the Cloak of Polygamy
33. Children of Lesbian and Gay Parents
42. Flower Grandma’s Secret Sex work and sex trafficking
43. You Can’t Do That on Television 49. Human Rights, Sex Trafficking, and Prostitution
44. Sex, Politics, and Morality at the FDA:
Reflections on the Plan B Decision
46. Breeder Reaction
Sexual dysfunctions and treatments
35. Sex, Health & Happiness
Sex and love
23. This Thing Called Love Sexual orientations
24. Pillow Talk 4. Everyone’s Queer
25. Behind the Cloak of Polygamy 13. Women’s Sexual Desire: A Feminist Critique
26. Love at the Margins: Extreme Relationships Demand 26. Love at the Margins: Extreme Relationships Demand
Extreme Commitment Extreme Commitment
27. My Cheatin’ Heart 32. Finding the Switch
32. Finding the Switch 33. Children of Lesbian and Gay Parents
35. Sex, Health & Happiness

Sex education Sexually transmitted infections

14. How to Talk About Sex 8. How AIDS Changed America
15. The Birds and the Bees and Curious Kids 38. Popping the Other Question
16. What to Tell the Kids about Sex 40. HIV Plan B
17. Teenage Fatherhood and Involvement 41. HIV Apathy
in Delinquent Behavior
19. Staying up Late with Sue Transgenderisms/Transsexualities
41. HIV Apathy 4. Everyone’s Queer
26. Love at the Margins: Extreme Relationships Demand
Sex offenders Extreme Commitment
47. The Sex Offender Next Door 31. (Rethinking) Gender

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 Internet References
The following Internet sites have been selected to support the articles found in this reader. These sites were available at the time of publication.
However, because Web sites often change their structure and content, the information listed may no longer be available. We invite you to visit
http://www.mhcls.com for easy access to these sites.

Annual Editions: Human Sexualities 31/e

General Sources and violations of human rights, plus the latest news covering
human rights issues from around the world.
World Health Organization: Sexual Health SocioSite: Feminism and Women’s Issues
http://www.who.int/topics/sexual_health/en/ http://www.sociosite.net/topics/women.php
The World Health Organization (WHO) maintains this website Visit the University of Amsterdam “Social Science
to provide educational information on the organization’s sexual Information System” to gain insights into a number
health activities and programs. This is a great resource for facts, of issues that affect both men and women. It provides
statistics, reports and educational materials on sexual health biographies of women in history, an international network for
around the world. women in the workplace, links to family and children’s issues,
National Institutes of Health (NIH) and much more.
http://www.nih.gov Woman in Islam: Sex and Society
Consult this site for links to extensive health information and http://www.jamaat.org/islam/WomanSociety.html
scientific resources. The NIH is one of eight health agencies This Web site is sponsored by the secretary general of Pakistan
of the Public Health Service, which in turn is part of the U.S. offering objective analysis and explanations regarding a woman’s
Department of Health and Human Services. role in Islamic society. Topics include marriage, family matters,
SIECUS and sex within Islamic society.
http://www.siecus.org Women’s Human Rights Resources
Visit the Sexuality Information and Education Council http://www.law-lib.utoronto.ca/Diana/
of the United States (SIECUS) home page to learn about This list of international women’s human rights Web sites
the organization, to find news of its educational programs provides interesting resources on marriage and the family; rights
and activities, and to access links to resources in sexuality of girls; sexual orientation; slavery, trafficking, and prostitution;
education. and violence against women.
SexInfo
http://www.soc.ucsb.edu/sexinfo/
UNIT 2: Biological Foundations
SexInfo is based out of the University of California at Santa
Barbara. The site is run by advanced human sexuality students Ask NOAH About Pregnancy: Fertility & Infertility
under the supervision of two UCSB sexuality professors. All http://www.noah-health.org/en/search/health.html
aspects of sex and sexuality are covered on this website with New York Online Access to Health (NOAH) seeks to
great articles and Q&As. provide relevant, timely, and unbiased health information
The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, for consumers. You will find extensive links to a variety
and Reproduction of resources about infertility treatments and issues at this
http://www.indiana.edu/~kinsey/ interesting website.
This is the official website for Indiana University’s Kinsey Childbirth.Org
Institute. This website will be helpful to anyone interested in the http://www.childbirth.org
scientific study of sex. Check out their latest news and events This interactive site about childbirth options is from an
section as well as their resources. Find out about the history of organization that aims to educate consumers to know their
this important research institute. options and provide themselves with the best possible care to
The Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality ensure healthy pregnancies and deliveries. The site and its links
http://www.sexscience.org/ address a myriad of topics, from episiotomy to water birth.
SSSS is a professional association of sex researchers from a Planned Parenthood
many different scientific disciplines. According to their website, http://www.plannedparenthood.org
they are “[t]he oldest professional society dedicated to the Visit this well-known organization’s home page for links to
advancement of knowledge about sexuality.” Have a look at their information on the various kinds of contraceptives and pregnancy
ethics statement as well as the various kinds of publications they prevention options (including outercourse and abstinence) as
sponsor. well as discussions of other topics related to sexuality and
reproduction.
UNIT 1: Social and Cultural Foundations Infertility Resources
http://www.ihr.com/infertility/index.html
Department of State: Human Rights This site includes links to the Oregon Health Sciences University
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/hr/ Fertility Program and the Center for Reproductive Growth in
The U.S. State Department’s Web page for human rights Nashville, Tennessee. Ethical, legal, financial, psychological, and
includes country reports, fact sheets, reports on discrimination social issues are discussed.

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 Internet References
UNIT 3: Sexualities and Development people—and those younger and older. Many questions about
physical and emotional health and well-being in the modern
World Association for Sexology world are answered.
http://www.tc.umn.edu/nlhome/m201/colem001/was/wasindex.htm
The World Association for Sexology works to further the
understanding and development of sexology throughout the
UNIT 5: Gender and Sexual Diversity
world. Access this site to explore a number of issues and links SocioSite: Feminism and Women’s Issues
related to sexuality throughout the lifespan.
http://www.sociosite.net/topics/women.php
SIECUS Visit the University of Amsterdam “Social Science Information
http://www.siecus.org System” to gain insights into a number of issues that affect both
Visit the Sexuality Information and Education Council of men and women. It provides biographies of women in history, an
the United States (SIECUS) home page to learn about the international network for women in the workplace, links to family
organization, to find news of its educational programs and and children’s issues, and much more.
activities, and to access links to resources in sexuality Woman in Islam: Sex and Society
education.
http://www.jamaat.org/islam/WomanSociety.html
Teacher Talk This Web site is sponsored by the secretary general of Pakistan
http://education.indiana.edu/cas/tt/tthmpg.html offering objective analysis and explanations regarding a woman’s
This home page of the publication Teacher Talk from the Indiana role in Islamic society. Topics include marriage, family matters,
University School of Education Center for Adolescent Studies will and sex within Islamic society.
lead you to many interesting teacher comments, suggestions, Women’s Human Rights Resources
and ideas regarding sexuality education and how to deal with
http://www.law-lib.utoronto.ca/Diana/
sex issues in the classroom. The section of the website that is of
the greatest interest to sexuality is Volume 1, Issue 3. This list of international women’s human rights Web sites
provides interesting resources on marriage and the family; rights
American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) of girls; sexual orientation; slavery, trafficking, and prostitution;
http://www.aarp.org and violence against women.
The AARP, a major advocacy group for older people, includes The Intersex Society of North America (ISNA)
among its many resources suggested readings and Internet links
http://www.isna.org/
to organizations that deal with the health and social issues that
may affect one’s sexuality as one ages. ISNA maintains this resource for anyone interested in the issue
of intersex conditions. Physicians, therapists, parents, intersexed
National Institute on Aging (NIA) individuals and many others will want to learn more about the
http://www.nih.gov/nia/ problems caused by stigma and lack of knowledge for people
The NIA, one of the institutes of the National Institutes of Health, who are born intersexed.
presents this home page to lead you to a variety of resources on Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays
health and lifestyle issues that are of interest to people as they
http://www.pflag.org
grow older.
This is the site of PFLAG: Parents, Families and Friends of
Lesbians and Gays. Information and downloadable pamphlets
UNIT 4: Intimacies and Relationships with information and support on a variety of topics including
“coming out” can be found here.
American Psychological Association The Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network
http://www.apa.org/topics/homepage.html http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/home/index.html
By exploring the APA’s resources you will be able to find links The Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN)
to an abundance of articles and other information related to provides resources for teachers, parents and students. They
interpersonal relationships throughout the life span. promote safe school environments for all students regardless of
SexInfo: Love and Relationships sexual orientation.
http://www.soc.ucsb.edu/sexinfo/?article=A2J8
The Love and Relationships section of the SexInfo website
provides students and the general public with an excellent
UNIT 6: Sexual Health and Well-Being
overview of relationship issues, including communication and World Health Organization: Sexual Health
building effective relationships.
http://www.who.int/topics/sexual_health/en/
Bonobos Sex and Society The World Health Organization (WHO) maintains this website
http://songweaver.com/info/bonobos.html to provide educational information on the organization’s sexual
This site, accessed through Carnegie Mellon University, includes health activities and programs. This is a great resource for facts,
an article explaining how a primate’s behavior challenges statistics, reports and educational materials on sexual health
traditional assumptions about male supremacy in human around the world.
evolution. National Cancer Institute: Breast Cancer
Go Ask Alice http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/breast
http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu The National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Cancer Institute
This interactive site provided by Healthwise, a division of runs this Breast Cancer website. Find out more about breast
Columbia University Health Services, includes discussion and cancer and treatment options here. This site includes information
insight into a number of personal issues of interest to college-age on both male and female breast cancer.

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 Internet References
National Cancer Institute: Ovarian Cancer UNIT 7: Sexualities and Social Issues
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/ovarian
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Cancer Institute Planned Parenthood
runs this Ovarian Cancer website. Find out more about ovarian http://www.plannedparenthood.org
cancer and treatment options here. This site includes a wide Planned Parenthood has an “Abortion Issues”
range of information on ovarian cancer. section to provide information on reproductive
National Cancer Institute: Testicular Cancer rights.
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/testicular/ Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN)
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Cancer Institute http://www.rainn.org/
runs this Testicular Cancer website. Find out more about RAINN is committed to providing “anti-sexual assault”
testicular cancer and treatment options here. This site includes a information and education. Learn about rape, incest
wide range of information on testicular cancer. and other kinds of sexual victimization as well as what
SexInfo: Sexually Transmitted Infections you can do to make a difference. There are a variety of
http://www.soc.ucsb.edu/sexinfo/?article=VN5j resources, including RAINN’s 2008 Back-To-School Tips
The Sexually Transmitted Infections section of the SexInfo for Students.
website provides students and the general public with essential The Child Rights Information Network (CRIN)
information on various kinds of STIs. There is also an excellent http://www.crin.org
discussion of STIs and communication issues, including sharing
The Child Rights Information Network (CRIN) is
sexual histories with a new partner. This is not to be missed!
a global network that disseminates information about
The Johns Hopkins University HIV Guide Q&A the Convention on the Rights of the Child and child
http://www.hopkins-hivguide.org/q_a/index.html?categoryId= rights among nongovernmental organizations (NGOs),
9352&siteId=7151#patient_forum United Nations agencies, intergovernmental organizations
This is a Q&A forum for patients and clinicians run by Johns (IGOs), educational institutions, and other child rights
Hopkins University’s Professor Joel Gallant, an internationally experts.
recognized expert on HIV disease and Editor in Chief of the HIV Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section
Guide. (CEOS)/U.S. Department of Justice
The Body: The Complete HIV/AIDS Resource http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/ceos/trafficking.html
http://www.thebody.com/index.html This site introduces the reader to essential information
On this site you can find essential basics about HIV disease, about trafficking and sex tourism. There are links to sex
learn about treatments, exchange information in forums, and trafficking of minors and child prostitution FAQs in addition
gain insight from experts. to other resources at this site.

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 UNIT 1
Social and Cultural
Foundations
Unit Selections
1. Vox Populi: Sex, Lies, and Blood Sport, Heather Pringle
2. The Baby Deficit, Michael Balter
3. Three ‘Rules’ That Don’t Apply, Stephanie Coontz
4. Everyone’s Queer, Leila J. Rupp
5. A Mind Dismembered: In Search of the Magical Penis Thieves, Frank Bures
6. Afterbirths in the Afterlife: Cultural Meaning of Placental Disposal in a Hmong American Community,
Deborah G. Helsel and Marilyn Mochel
7. Gender Is Powerful: The Long Reach of Feminism, Nancy MacLean
8. How AIDS Changed America, David Jefferson

Key Points to Consider

• From the selected readings, what kinds of variations related to sexualities have you noted across cultures and times? Are the
differences significant? Why? Why not?
• Were you surprised by any of the cultural or historical differences you read about? If so, what surprised you the most?
• Have you ever spoken to someone your age (in person or online) from another culture/country about sexuality-related ideas,
norms, education, or behaviors? If so, what did you learn? What did you think about what they shared with you?
• Is our culture too permissive or too rigid with respect to sexual norms, expectations, and laws? What is the basis of the beliefs
you expressed?
• Do we talk too much or too little about sex in our culture? Explain.
• Does either of the genders have a wider range of acceptable behaviors? If so, which? Why?
• What do you think can and should be done about HIV disease?

Student Web Site

www.mhcls.com

Internet References
Department of State: Human Rights
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/hr/
SocioSite: Feminism and Women’s Issues
http://www.sociosite.net/topics/women.php
Woman in Islam: Sex and Society
http://www.jamaat.org/islam/WomanSociety.html
Women’s Human Rights Resources
http://www.law-lib.utoronto.ca/Diana/

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 H uman sexuality is a dynamic and complex force that
involves psychological, sociocultural, and physiological facets.
Our sexualities include our biological, psychological and social
selves. However strong the influence of biology, we learn
what it means to be sexual, and to behave sexually within the
structure and parameters of the era in which we live, through
our families, social groups, the media, and the society as a
whole. By studying different cultures and times, we see more
clearly the interplay between the biological, psychological and
sociocultural factors influencing sexualities. With a strong
sociocultural foundation, we are better equipped to understand
the individual within the broader generational and societal
contexts.
Anthropological and historical evidence indicate that there
is remarkable variation in human sexualities across cultures
and times. Indeed, people of different civilizations during vari-
ous historical periods have engaged in an amazing variety of
sexual behaviors. What is common here and now wasn’t always
so. There seems to be a strong temptation to think that how we
do things in our culture is simply the “natural” way to do things.
Cross-cultural and historical studies call that assumption about
what we consider “natural” very much into question.
For several centuries, Western civilization, especially Western
European and, in turn, American cultures, has been character-
ized by an “antisex ethic.” Antisex belief systems include a vari-
ety of negative views and expectations about sex and sexualities,
including denial, fear, restriction, and the detachment of sexual
feelings and behavior from the wholeness of personhood or
humanity. Indeed, it has only been in the last 50 years that the
antisex proscriptions against knowing or learning about sex have
lost their stranglehold. More and more people can find accurate
information about their sexual health, sexual functioning, and birth
control without fear of social disproval or even eternal damnation. © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc./Christopher Kerrigan, photographer
For sex educators, this is a cause for celebration. As with many
things, there’s also another side to the coin. Access to accurate necessary for survival. Moving to large population centers, sell-
information about sex is not available uniformly around the world. ing one’s labor, and living independently became increasingly
While we may live in a global economy, where technology and possible. Within our society, there have been important shifts in
travel have created new opportunities and challenges, there the past few decades that have impacted sexualities and rela-
is still incredible repression and suppression of human (often tionships. The liberation of women from the kitchen and their
female) sexualities in the world. In some societies today, women participation in the workforce meant that women were no longer
and sexual minorities sometimes pay with their lives for express- required to stay in abusive or unfulfilling relationships. Changes
ing who they are. It would be hard to overstate the magnitude of in the legality and availability of birth control and abortion, the
the unspeakable human rights violations occurring right this very reconsideration of democratic values of individual freedom and
minute around the world. Sexuality is often a focus for some of the the pursuit of happiness, demographic shifts in age groups, the
most extreme forms of social control. growth of the mass media, and the ushering in of the computer
Societies can and do change. Political, economic, and age have all influenced the expression of human sexualities in
scientific/technological changes have created new possibilities very complex ways.
for the expression of human sexualities. The industrial revolu- Some changes in the sexual landscape have simply been
tion provided new opportunities for people to move away from unintended and unanticipated by-products of technological and/
home-based modes of production and economies. Some peo- or historical shifts. Some changes have been hard fought and
ple were freed from the social and family constraints that were won by social groups. In the United States, these groups include

hut16341_00.8a_unit01.indd Sec2:1 1/8/09 2:35:58 PM

 the earliest feminists, the suffragettes, civil rights organizers, to consent. Others have organized to protest routine circumci-
and lesbian/gay/bisexual and transgender activists. So-called sion of boys. International groups have formed in order to fight
sodomy laws suffered a serious defeat with a 2003 ruling by the against female circumcision and genital infibulation. These are
U.S. Supreme Court. Same-sex marriage is now legal in all of just a few examples. But they illustrate the range of issues, from
Canada, European countries such as Spain and Norway, and the past to the present, that can help us better understand the
in California and Massachusetts. At the time this book went to social and cultural contexts of human sexualities.
press, the situation in California remained uncertain, due to a This unit overviews historical, cross-cultural, and current
proposition initiative on the ballot. In addition to same-sex mar- issues in order to show the incredible variations and interesting
riage, civil/legal partnerships (with varying benefits) for same- connections in our values, practices, and experiences of human
sex couples are now found in numerous U.S. States and in sexualities. In doing so, readers are challenged to adopt a very
many countries around the world. broad perspective through which their examination of today’s
Many interest groups continue to work for social change sexualities, and their experiences of their own sexualities, can
in various areas related to our study of human sexualities. be more meaningful. By examining various social, cultural and
Intersexed people have organized, and are pushing for greater historical influences, we are better equipped to avoid a return
understanding and rights for intersexed children. Their goal is to to a reliance on a fear-based “antisex ethic,” while striving to
educate parents and doctors in order to protect intersexed chil- evaluate the impact and value of the social changes that have
dren’s bodies from irreversible surgeries before they are able so profoundly affected sexualities today.

hut16341_00.8a_unit01.indd Sec1:2 1/8/09 2:36:02 PM

 Article 1

Vox Populi: Sex, Lies, and Blood Sport

Gossip in the glory days of Rome was just like ours—but written in stone.

Heather Pringle

P
liny the Elder, the Roman savant who compiled the to peruse Roman ruins, inspect museum collections, and
eclectic 37-book encyclopedia Historia Naturalis ferret out inscribed slabs of marble or limestone wherever
nearly 2,000 years ago, was obsessed with the written they had been recycled, including the tops of medieval bell
word. He pored over countless Greek and Latin texts, instruct- towers and the undersides of toilet seats. Working largely
ing his personal secretary to read aloud to him even while he in obscurity, Mommsen’s legions and their successors mea-
was dining or soaking in the bath. And when he traveled the sured, sketched, and squeezed wet paper into crevices. Cur-
streets of Rome, he insisted upon being carried everywhere rently, Corpus researchers add as many as 500 inscriptions
by slaves so he could continue reading. To Pliny, books were each year to the collection, mostly from Spain and other
the ultimate repository of knowledge. “Our civilization—or at popular tourist destinations in the Mediterranean where
any rate our written records—depends especially on the use of excavations for hotel and restaurant foundations reveal new
paper,” he wrote in Historia Naturalis. epigraphic treasures.
Pliny was largely blind, however, to another vast trea- Packed with surprising details, the Corpus offers schol-
sury of knowledge, much of it literally written in stone by ars a remarkable picture of everyday life: the tumult of the
ordinary Romans. Employing sharp styli generally reserved teeming streets in Rome, the clamor of commerce in the prov-
for writing on wax tablets, some Romans scratched graf- inces, and the hopes and dreams of thousands of ordinary
fiti into the plastered walls of private residences. Others Romans––innkeepers, ointment sellers, pastrycooks, prosti-
hired professional stonecutters to engrave their ramblings tutes, weavers, and wine sellers. The world revealed is at once
on tombs and city walls. Collectively, they left behind an tantalizingly, achingly familiar, yet strangely alien, a society
astonishing trove of pop culture—advertisements, gambling that both closely parallels our own in its heedless pursuit of
forms, official proclamations, birth announcements, magi- pleasure and yet remains starkly at odds with our cherished
cal spells, declarations of love, dedications to gods, obituar- values of human rights and dignity.
ies, playbills, complaints, and epigrams. “Oh, wall,” noted
one citizen of Pompeii, “I am surprised that you have not
collapsed and fallen, seeing that you support the loathsome The Gift of Bacchus
scribblings of so many writers.” To most Romans, civilization was simply untenable without
More than 180,000 of these inscriptions are now cataloged the pleasures of the grape. Inscriptions confirm that wine was
in the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, a mammoth scien- quaffed by everyone from the wealthy patrician in his painted
tific database maintained by the Berlin-Brandenburg Acad- villa to soldiers and sailors in the roughest provincial inns.
emy of Sciences and Humanities. The Corpus throws open a And although overconsumption no doubt took a toll, wine was
large window on Roman society and reveals the ragged edges far safer than water: The acid and alcohol in wine curbed the
of ordinary life—from the grief of parents over the loss of a growth of dangerous pathogens.
child to the prices prostitutes charged clients. Moreover, the Epicures took particular delight in a costly white wine
inscriptions span the length and breadth of the empire, from known as Falernian, produced from Aminean grapes grown on
the Atlantic coast of Spain to the desert towns of Iraq, from mountain slopes south of modern-day Naples. To improve the
the garrisons of Britain to the temples of Egypt. “It would be flavor, Roman vintners aged the wine in large clay amphorae
impossible to do most of Roman history without them,” says for at least a decade until it turned a delicate amber. Premium
Michael Crawford, a classicist at University College London. vintages—some as much as 160 years old—were reserved for
The Corpus was conceived in 1853 by Theodor Mommsen, a the emperor and were served in fine crystal goblets. Roman
German historian who dispatched a small army of epigraphists oenophiles, however, could purchase younger vintages of

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 ANNUAL EDITIONS
Falernian, and they clearly delighted in bragging of its expense. A large and lucrative sex trade flourished in Roman cities,
“In the grave I lie,” notes the tombstone of one wine lover, and prostitutes often advertised their services in short inscrip-
“who was once well known as Primus. I lived on Lucrine tions. One of the stranger aspects of Roman life is that many
oysters, often drank Falernian wine. The pleasures of bathing, wealthy families rented out small rooms in their homes as
wine, and love aged with me over the years.” miniature brothels, known as cellae meretriciae. Such busi-
Estate owners coveted their own vineyards and inscribed nesses subsidized the lavish lifestyles of the owners. At the
heartfelt praises for “nectar-sweet juices” and “the gift of other end of the sex trade were elegant Roman courtesans.
Bacchus” on their winepresses. Innkeepers marked their walls In Nuceria, near present-day Naples, at least two inscriptions
with wine lists and prices. Most Romans preferred their wine describe Novelli Primigenia, who lived and worked in the
diluted with water, perhaps because they drank so much of it, “Venus Quarter.” So besotted was one of her clients that he
but they complained bitterly when servers tried to give them carved: “Greetings to you, Primigenia of Nuceria. Would that
less than they bargained for. “May cheating like this trip you I were the gemstone (of the signet ring I gave you), if only for
up, bartender,” noted the graffito of one disgruntled customer. one single hour, so that, when you moisten it with your lips to
“You sell water and yourself drink undiluted wine.” seal a letter, I can give you all the kisses that I have pressed
So steeped was Roman culture in wine that its citi- on it.”
zens often rated its pleasures above nearly all else. In the Most Roman citizens married, and some clearly enjoyed
fashionable resort town of Tibur, just outside Rome, the tomb remarkably happy unions. One inscription unearthed just out-
inscription of one bon vivant counseled others to follow his side Rome records an epitaph for a particularly impressive
own example. “Flavius Agricola [was] my name. . . . Friends woman, composed by her adoring husband. Classicists have
who read this listen to my advice: Mix wine, tie the garlands fervently debated the identity of this matron, for the epitaph
around your head, drink deep. And do not deny pretty girls recalls the story of Turia, who helped her husband escape exe-
the sweets of love.” cution during civil unrest in the first century b.c. The inscrip-
tion has crumbled into fragments, however, and the section
containing the name of the woman has been lost, but it is clear
Pleasures of Venus her cleverness and audacity saved the day for her spouse. “You
Literary scholars such as C. S. Lewis (who wrote, among furnished most ample means for my escape,” reads the inscrip-
many other things, The Chronicles of Narnia) have often sug- tion, elegantly carved by a stonecutter. “With your jewels
gested that romantic love is a relatively recent invention, first you aided me when you took off all the gold and pearls from
surfacing in the poems of wandering French and Italian trou- your person, and handed them over to me, and promptly, with
badours in the 11th and 12th centuries. Before then, goes the slaves, money, and provisions, having cleverly deceived the
argument, couples did not know or express to one another a enemies’ guards, you enriched my absence.”
passionate attachment, and therefore left no oral or written
record of such relationships. Surviving inscriptions from the
Roman Empire paint a very different portrait, revealing just Little Darlings
how much Romans delighted in matters of the heart and how A prominent French historian, Philippe Ariès, has theorized
tolerant they were of the love struck. As one nameless writer that it was not until the beginning of industrialization—which
observed, “Lovers, like bees, lead a honeyed life.” boosted the standard of living in Europe during the 18th and
Many of the infatuated sound remarkably like their counter- 19th centuries—that parents began bonding deeply with their
parts today. “Girl,” reads an inscription found in a Pompeian babies. In earlier times, infant mortality rates were stagger-
bedroom, “you’re beautiful! I’ve been sent to you by one who ing, leading parents to distance themselves emotionally from
is yours.” Other graffiti are infused with yearning that tran- babies who might perish from malnutrition or infection before
scends time and place. “Vibius Restitutus slept here alone, learning to walk.
longing for his Urbana,” wrote a traveler in a Roman inn. Some Intriguingly, studies of Roman tomb inscriptions lend
capture impatience. “Driver,” confides one, “if you could only credence to Ariès’s idea. The British classicist Keith Hopkins
feel the fires of love, you would hurry more to enjoy the plea- has estimated, based on comparative demographic data, that 28
sures of Venus. I love a young charmer, please spur on the percent of all Roman children died before reaching 12 months of
horses, let’s get on.” age. Yet epigraphists have found relatively few inscribed tombs
Often, men boasted publicly about their amorous adven- for Roman infants in Italy: Just 1.3 percent of all funerary stones
tures. In bathhouses and other public buildings, they carved mark such burials. The statistical discrepancy suggests to many
frank descriptions of their encounters, sometimes scrawling classicists that parents in ancient Rome refrained from raising
them near the very spot where the acts took place. The lan- an expensive marble monument for a child, unwilling to mourn
guage is graphic and bawdy, and the messages brim with detail publicly or privately.
about Roman sexual attitudes and practices. Many authors, Some Romans, however, could not and did not repress the
for example, name both themselves and their partners. In love they felt for their infants. As many graffiti reveal, they
Rome, men who preferred other men instead of women felt celebrated a baby’s birth in an openly sentimental manner
no pressure to hide it. recognizable to parents today. “Cornelius Sabinus has been

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 Article 1. Vox Populi: Sex, Lies, and Blood Sport
born,” announced a family in a message carved in a residen- “customary [wild] beast hunt,” and “awnings” to shade spec-
tial entranceway, a spot where neighbors and passersby could tators against the summer sun.
easily see it. Others went further, jubilantly inscribing the The gladiators steeled themselves for the battle ahead,
equivalent of baby pictures. “Iuvenilla is born on Saturday the practicing their deadly swordplay. The devout among them
2nd of August, in the second hour of the evening,” reads one prayed to gods for a victory. In a North African barrack,
such announcement; nearby, someone sketched in charcoal a Manuetus the Provocator, a gladiator who fought with a
picture of a newborn. short, straight sword, made a last vow, promising to “bring
The epitaphs composed for infant tombs also disclose a Venus the gift of a shield if victorious.” Outside the gladi-
great deal about the intense grief some parents suffered. One ators’ barracks, scribes painted walls with announcements
inscription describes a baby whose brief life consisted of and programs for the upcoming event, listing the combat-
just “nine sighs,” as if the parents had tenderly counted each ants’ names and career records.
breath their newborn had taken. Another funerary inscrip- On the day of the games, raucous and bloodthirsty crowds
tion describes in poignant detail a father’s grief. “My baby flooded the arena. At Rome’s Colosseum, each spectator held
Acerva,” he wrote, “was snatched away to live in Hades before a tessera, a ticket corresponding to a number inscribed on
she had her fill of the sweet light of life. She was beautiful and one of the building’s 80 arcades. Each arcade then led ticket
charming, a little darling as if from heaven. Her father weeps holders to a staircase and a specific section of seating. As
for her and, because he is her father, asks that the earth may spectators waited for the bloody combat matches to begin,
rest lightly on her forever.” they snacked on bread or cakes purchased from stalls outside
Other carved messages supply details about schooling. As the arena. Local chefs baked breads especially for the games,
children learned to write, local walls served as giant exercise employing molds bearing designs of dueling gladiators and
books where they could practice their alphabets. On one, a the name of the baker.
young student scrawled what seems to be a language arts drill, At the end of each fatal match, stretcher bearers hustled
interlacing the opening letters of the Roman alphabet with its out on the floor of the arena to collect the fallen gladiator
final ones—A X B V C T. In another inscription, a Roman and carry his body to a nearby morgue, or spoliarium. There
couple marveled at the eloquence of their 11-year-old son, officials slit the man’s throat to ensure that he was truly dead:
who had entered a major adult competition for Greek poetry. Roman bettors despised fixed matches. Friends and family
The boy took his place, they noted, “among 52 Greek poets members then claimed the body and, if they possessed suf-
in the third lustrum of the contest, [and] by his talent brought ficient funds, raised a tomb in his memory. “To the reverend
to admiration the sympathy that he had roused because of his spirits of the Dead,” inscribed one grieving widow. “Glauca
tender age, and he came away with honor.” The young poet was born at Mutina, fought seven times, died in the eighth.
died shortly after his performance. He lived 23 years, 5 days. Aurelia set this up to her well-
deserving husband, together with those who loved him. My
advice to you is to find your own star. Don’t trust Nemesis
The Sporting Life [patroness of gladiators]; that is how I was deceived. Hail and
The Romans loved to be entertained, and few things riveted Farewell.”
them more than the spectacle of gladiatorial combat. Sports As studies of epitaphs show, skilled gladiators rarely survived
fans fervently tracked the career records of the most skilled more than 10 matches, dying on average at the age of 27.
gladiators and laid wagers on their survival, while well-to-
do female admirers stole into gladiator barracks by night,
prompting one combatant, Celadus, to boast in an inscription Ancient Pipe Dreams
that he was “the girls’ desire.” That most gladiators were Some of the humblest inscriptions shed surprising light on one
slaves forced to fight to the death for an afternoon’s enter- of the glories of Roman technology, revealing just how close
tainment of the public did not trouble most Romans: They ancient metalworkers came to a major coup––the invention of
believed that a demonstration of bravery in the arena brought printing. In the Roman waterworks, messages were raised in
nobility to even the lowliest slave and that the price—death— relief on the lead pipes that fed fountains, baths, and private
was worth it. homes. As a rule, these short texts recorded the name of the
So ingrained were gladiatorial games in Roman culture that emperor or the municipal official who had ordered and paid
senior government officials dug into their own pockets and for the expansion of the water system.
emptied public purses to stage them. To pack an arena, the To form these inscriptions, workers first created small indi-
sponsor often advertised the games with an edicta munerum, vidual molds for each letter in the Latin alphabet. They then
an inscription painted by teams of professional artists on walls spelled out the name of the emperor or official by selecting
near the local amphitheater. One surviving poster describes the appropriate letter molds, placing them into a carved slot
how Decimus Lucretius Satrius Valeris, a priest of Nero, and in a stone slab. Ensuring that the molds lay flush with the sur-
another prominent Roman sponsored a major event in Pompeii face of the stone, they locked the type into place and laid the
spanning five consecutive days before the ides of April. The stone slab on a large flat tray. Then they poured molten lead
expensive attractions included 20 pairs of gladiators, the across slab and tray, forming a large metal sheet. Once cooled,

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 ANNUAL EDITIONS
the sheet could be rolled into a cylinder and soldered at the overlooked Roman technology “tempts one into speculat-
seam. On the pipe’s contour, the emperor’s name appeared in ing how close the ancient world was to making the full-scale
elevated letters. breakthrough into printing.” But the Romans failed to capital-
The pipemakers’ ingenuity in using movable type to form ize on this remarkable invention.
a line of text is eerily similar to the method used by Johannes Perhaps they were simply too immersed in the culture of
Gutenberg and other European printers more than 1,000 years carved and painted words to see the future of print—the real
later. As Canadian classicist A. Trevor Hodge has noted, this writing on the wall.

From Discover, June 2006, pp. 63–66. Copyright © 2006 by Discover Syndication. Reprinted by permission.

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 Article 2

The Baby Deficit

As fertility rates decline across the developed world, governments are offering
big incentives for childbearing. Experts don’t expect them to have much effect.

Michael Balter

L
ast month, from the podium of the Kremlin’s grandi- for example, low birthrates have already begun to shrink the
ose Marble Hall, Russian President Vladimir Putin population, and demographers project that the E.U. will lose
expounded on subjects vital to his nation’s future— between 24 million and 40 million people during each coming
economic growth, technological modernization, and world decade unless fertility is markedly raised (Science, 28 March
trade—then he turned to the “most important” matter. “What 2003, p. 1991). Population losses could bring a raft of negative
I want to talk about,” Putin said in his annual speech before economic consequences in the industrialized world, as well as
the Federal Assembly, “is love, women, children. I want to talk greater stresses on social security and health care systems as the
about the family, about the most acute problem facing our coun- proportion of older citizens increases. “The changes projected
try today—the demographic problem.” Reminding the deputies for the United States are not as dramatic as those projected for
that Russia’s 143-million-strong population was declining by other areas—particularly Europe and Japan—but they none-
almost 700,000 people each year, Putin proposed a fistful of theless present substantial challenges,” then-Federal Reserve
incentives to boost the country’s flagging birthrate. They include Board chair Alan Greenspan told a 2004 symposium on popula-
raising the childcare benefit of 700 rubles ($26) per month to tion aging in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
1500 rubles for a first child and 3000 rubles for a second child, Although these trends are most pronounced in the devel-
and paying 18 months of maternity leave equal to at least 40% oped world, fertility declines are now also being detected even
of a mother’s previous wages. in less affluent areas of Latin America and Asia. Roughly half
Putin is not the only politician talking about babies these of the world’s nations, with more than 40% of the human pop-
days. Earlier this year, Poland’s Parliament approved a one-time ulation, now have birthrates below replacement levels, and
payment of 1000 zlotys ($328) for each child born, and this fertility rates are falling steadily in most developing countries
month, German Chancellor Angela Merkel proposed a 1-year as well. To be sure, demographers predict that the world’s
paid leave for women who have children. When Australia intro- population will continue to increase for decades to come, ris-
duced its own generous “baby bonus” in 2004, the country’s ing from its current 6.5 billion to somewhere between 8 billion
treasurer Peter Costello exhorted parents to have “one for Mum, and 11 billion by 2050 (see sidebar, p. 177). But nearly all of
one for Dad, and one for the country.” On 1 July, Australia’s this increase will be in developing countries.
bonus will jump from $2250 to $3002 per child (in U.S. dollars) Population researchers nevertheless are currently engaged in
and will reach $3762 by 2008. Meanwhile, pro-family induce- a lively debate over just what, if anything, developed countries
ments have been in place for many years in France, Sweden, can do to increase family size. Some believe very low fertility
and other European countries. rates are here to stay. “The popularity of baby-bonus schemes
among governments is difficult to understand,” says Anne
Gauthier, a sociologist at the University of Calgary in Canada.
“The popularity of baby-bonus schemes “While the additional financial support is bound to be welcomed
among governments is difficult by parents, the overall effect on fertility is likely to be small.”
Others argue that even modest boosts in the birthrate can
to understand.” make a difference. “We can only expect relatively small effects
—Anne Gauthier, University of Calgary of policy on fertility, but relatively small effects are important
when fertility is low,” says demographer Peter McDonald of
the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, whose
Political leaders and economists see plenty of justification advocacy of pro-family policies helped bring about Australia’s
for spending all this money. In the European Union (E.U.), baby bonus. Yet both sides agree that falling fertility rates might

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 ANNUAL EDITIONS
be irreversible once they drop below a certain level—what some States, exceptional in the developed world, hits the replacement
demographers have begun to call the “low-fertility trap.” mark, with a TFR of 2.09.
Today’s low TFRs are an unexpected consequence of a so-
called demographic transition to lower fertility rates that began
The Demographic Transition in Europe in about 1800 and is still taking place in much of the
Predicting population trends is a tricky business, fraught with world. As advances in health and hygiene increased the likeli-
assumptions about what humans are likely to do in the future. hood of a child surviving to reproduce, both death and birthrates
Most demographers rely on a complex parameter called the started to fall, especially in industrialized countries. Although
total fertility rate (TFR). For any particular country and year, the TFRs remain high in some of the world’s poorest countries—
TFR is a hypothetical measure of the average number of chil- Niger has the highest TFR, 7.46—the demographic transition is
dren that nation’s women would bear during their lifetimes if, either under way or completed in most nations. The process has
at each stage of their lives, they behaved exactly like women in taken place even in relatively poor countries such as Mexico,
each age group did during that year. By comparing TFRs from where TFR dropped from 6.5 to 2.5 between 1975 and 2005,
one year to another, demographers can track fertility trends. and the Philippines, which saw a decline from 6.0 to 3.2 during
Leaving aside the effects of immigration and emigration, if a the same period. However, demographers had assumed that the
population is to remain the same size, both parents must replace decline would stop when replacement-level TFRs were reached.
themselves. For industrialized countries, demographers define a “During the early 1970s, everyone talked about the magic floor
replacement-level TFR as 2.1—slightly more than a flat rate, to of replacement,” says David Reher, a population historian at the
account for the small fraction of children who die before reach- Complutense University of Madrid, Spain. “Nobody thought it
ing reproductive age. would go below 2.1.”
Yet nearly all of the world’s industrialized nations have TFRs Yet by 1975, several European countries, as well as the
well below this magic number. Russia’s current TFR is only United States and Canada, had already dipped below this floor.
1.28 (which ties it with Italy and Spain), Poland’s is 1.25, Ger- (Although the United States has now come back up to replace-
many’s is 1.39, and Australia’s is 1.76, which helps explain the ment level, Canada’s TFR has continued to plummet and now
alarm expressed by political leaders in those countries. Even stands at 1.61.) This trend, which many demographers and econ-
the E.U. nations with the highest birthrates, France and Ireland, omists call the “second demographic transition,” has its roots
are falling short of replacement, with TFRs of 1.84 and 1.86, in the social changes that swept much of the Western world
respectively. Nor is the baby shortage restricted to Europe: during the 1960s and 1970s. As women entered the labor force
South Korea’s TFR is 1.27 and Japan’s is 1.25. Only the United in increasing numbers and obtained easier access to effective

Source: U.N. Population Prospects

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 Article 2. The Baby Deficit
contraception and as conflicts between work and childbear-
ing intensified, parents began to delay the timing of their first The Bomb That Wasn’t
child, which inevitably led to a reduction in the total number
of offspring. These shifts were accompanied by a constellation
of new attitudes toward family, career, and personal autonomy When Stanford University entomologist Paul Ehrlich pub-
that are not easily quantified, researchers say. “Human repro- lished The Population Bomb in 1968, the world’s human
ductive behavior is profoundly social,” says Jennifer Johnson- population was about 3.5 billion. Yet the worst of Ehrlich’s
widely publicized predictions, including the starvation of
Hanks, a demographer and anthropologist at the University of
hundreds of millions of people in mass famines, have
California, Berkeley. “It is structured by social categories, value not come true. Still, the world’s population is expected
systems, and power relations.” John Bongaarts, a demographer to continue to grow until at least 2050, according to esti-
at the Population Council in New York City, adds that personal mates by the United Nations Population Division (esa
choice has come to play a much bigger role in reproductive .un.org/unpp). Just how much it will increase depends
decisions. In earlier days, Bongaarts says, “people tended to do on future fertility, which is very difficult to predict. U.N.
what society expected of them. Over time, individual agency population experts have examined three hypothetical
has become more important.” fertility trends, which they term medium, low, and high.
Social factors also explain the United States’ anomalously Under the medium scenario, population would reach
high fertility rate, population experts say. Although relatively 9.1 billion by 2050, but the low and high scenarios project
higher birthrates among some ethnic groups and more recently as few as 7.6 billion people and as many as 10.6 billion.
Nearly all of this growth will be in developing coun-
arrived immigrants, including Hispanics, explain part of the dif-
tries, with major contributions from nations such as
ference, the TFR for non-Hispanic whites is still about 1.85, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, and China. (Even
equivalent to the highest rates seen in Europe. “There are sev- the United States, with its relatively youthful population,
eral factors that make the TFR in the U.S. higher than in many will add significant numbers.) Fueled by very high fertil-
European countries,” Bongaarts says, including a higher rate of ity rates, between now and 2050, population is expected
unwanted pregnancies due to restrictions on birth-control infor- to at least triple in some nations, such as Afghanistan,
mation, a lower unemployment rate, and a greater tendency for Burundi, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, and
women to have children earlier in life than in Europe. Gauthier Uganda—despite high HIV infection rates in many Afri-
adds that a stronger emphasis on religion and “traditional can countries. Yet over the long term, fertility is expected
values” in the United States also tends to favor larger families. to drop dramatically in even the poorest countries, from
an average of five children per woman now to about 2.6
in 2050; and under the U.N.’s medium scenario, average
Aged and Dependent worldwide fertility will decline to 2.05 by 2050, and to just
over 1.5 in the low scenario, well below the replacement
The key reason that economists and other experts are worried level.
about low fertility rates is that they accelerate an overall “aging” “Virtually all countries are headed towards
of a population, in which the proportion of elderly adults rela- replacement-level fertility or below,” says Ronald Lee,
tive to the active labor force increases. The consequences of an a demographer at the University of California, Berkeley.
increase in this so-called dependency ratio are hard to predict, “But there may be pauses and reversals along the way,
says demographer James Trussell of Princeton University. “The sometimes lasting decades.” If so, the population bomb
economic burden of the elderly will depend on their health, on may ultimately fizzle out—that is, assuming an already
employment opportunities, and on the social institutions that stressed planet can survive the onslaught of 9 billion
support their care,” Trussell says. “But it is clear that it will be human beings.
a challenge.” One way that many developed countries meet the
challenge now is through immigration, which tends to increase
the number of younger workers. Yet few demographers see this gap, some see wiggle room for fertility-enhancing poli-
immigration as the answer. cies. Thus, public-opinion surveys carried out by the E.U. as
“As a short-term solution, it is necessary, and it is happen- part of its Eurobarometer program have suggested that this
ing,” says Reher. “But there are very serious doubts about gap amounts to an average of about 0.5 children per woman.
whether it is a long-term solution. Migrant fertility starts higher Indeed, baby bonuses and other pro-family measures are in part
than that of the native population but very quickly descends designed to make it easier financially for families to fulfill this
towards local fertility levels.” Trussell agrees: “To have an ideal. But Gauthier questions whether the gap is actually that
appreciable effect on the aging of a population, you would large. In a study in press at the journal Population Research and
need massive immigration, which is not politically acceptable Policy Review, she concludes that the “window of opportunity”
in either Europe or the U.S.” for family policies might actually be as little as 0.1 to 0.2 chil-
That leaves raising birthrates as the only solution, assuming dren per woman.
that a solution to low fertility rates is possible—and desired. Gauthier and other researchers agree nevertheless that pro-
Some demographers take heart in an apparent gap between how family policies have had some positive effect on fertility rates
many children parents would ideally like to have if they felt in countries such as France, whose TFR of 1.84 is the second
they could manage it and how many they actually do have. In highest in the E.U. after Ireland. “There are no fewer than 38

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 ANNUAL EDITIONS
measures in favor of families with children,” says demographer ANU’s McDonald says that although it is too early to carry
Laurent Toulemon of the National Institute of Demographic out “rigorous research” on the reasons for the increase, most of
Studies in Paris. For example, mothers receive 16 weeks of the additional births are to women in the middle to late part of
maternity leave at more than 80% of their normal pay, which is their childbearing years. This suggests that the message may
extended to 26 weeks beginning with a third child. Parents also have been heard: “If you want to have children, it is risky to
receive numerous direct allowances to help provide for young delay too long,” McDonald says. And although McDonald
children, and the number of publicly funded nursery schools has concedes that “most of the 261,000 women who gave birth in
expanded in recent years to the extent that nearly every child is 2005 would have had the baby without” the baby bonus, the
guaranteed a place. In fact, there are so many pro-family poli- extra money “can make a difference” to middle income families
cies, says Toulemon, “that it is almost impossible to evaluate the who make “close calculations” about the impact of parenting.
impact of each one” on fertility. McDonald estimates that Australia’s TFR for 2005, when pub-
Despite these generous allotments, however, France’s rela- lished in November, should rise from about 1.76 to 1.82.
tively high fertility rate in European terms is still below replace- But Robert Birrell, director of the Center for Population and
ment. The same is true of Sweden, where government officials Urban Research at Monash University in Clayton, Australia,
credit bountiful policies designed to make life easier for work- says that a number of other factors may have weighed much
ing parents with recent gains in TFR from about 1.6 to 1.8. more heavily, especially “the impact of the current economic
Yet Gigi Santow, formerly of Stockholm University and now boom in Australia, which has seen an increase in the rate of
an independent demographer in Sydney, Australia, says that employment for men and particularly women in recent years.”
this fertility jump was not due to baby bonuses or other direct Santow agrees: “I would not leap immediately to the conclusion
attempts to create a baby boom. “Swedish fertility rates may that Peter Costello should be given the credit.”
well have responded to the government’s integrated web of cra-
dle-to-grave social policies,” Santow says. She adds that fertil-
ity plummeted during the economic recession that hit Sweden Low-Fertility Spiral
during the 1990s, despite the policies then in place. The uncertain response to incentives suggests to some demogra-
Proving that financial incentives can actually raise fertil- phers that governments need to do even more to make child rear-
ity rates is very difficult—and demographers do not always ing attractive. “Many things that we’ve tried aren’t big enough,”
agree. “We cannot carry out an experiment,” says Gauthier. says Bongaarts. “To move behavior, you need real incentives;
“We can only look historically at what has happened and rely you need thousands of dollars. . . . You have to pull all the levers
on cross-national differences in policies.” Earlier this month, you have, and maybe you will get halfway there.” But pulling
for example, Australia’s news media were abuzz with reports of those levers might end up being too costly, Trussell says. “Poli-
the latest birth figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, cies that would work would be so expensive that they will never
showing that 261,404 babies were born in 2005, 2.4% more be implemented.”
than the previous year and the highest number since 1992. And some researchers have begun to think that it might actu-
Treasurer Costello was quick to credit the baby bonus: The ally be too late to reverse the trend in countries with the lowest
daily newspaper The Australian quoted Costello as “delighted fertility levels. At several recent population meetings, for exam-
that at least some families have been taking up the challenge.” ple, McDonald has warned that once a nation’s TFR falls below

Source: OECD

10

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 Article 2. The Baby Deficit
1.5, a downward demographic spiral sets in that makes it much Indeed, Reher, at the July 2005 annual meeting of the Inter-
more difficult to recover. “This is the safety zone,” McDonald national Union for the Scientific Study of Population in Tours,
says. “Countries should try hard to avoid falling below it.” France, presented a paper suggesting an even more dismal pic-
A team led by Wolfgang Lutz, a demographer at the Inter- ture. Reher argued that low fertility rates were now entrenched
national Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in in the social structure of developed countries and a growing
Laxenburg, Austria, has taken McDonald’s observation further number of developing countries as well. Although the momen-
and argued that countries with a TFR of 1.5 or lower may have tum of past high fertility rates would continue to fuel an increase
crossed into permanent negative population growth. Lutz calls in the entire world’s population for some decades to come, this
this hypothesis, which he presented most recently at this spring’s would eventually stop. Rather, Reher maintained, much of the
annual meeting of the Population Association of America in Los world is now on the cusp of a prolonged period of population
Angeles, California, the “low-fertility trap.” Lutz and other col- decline. The resulting population aging would lead to labor
leagues at IIASA and the Vienna Institute of Demography argue shortages even in developing countries. The result could be an
that the new social norms created by low fertility rates create economic disaster, Reher warned. “Urban areas in regions like
a self-reinforcing negative feedback loop. It is locked in place Europe could well be filled with empty buildings and crum-
by a reduction in ideal family size, aging of the population, bling infrastructures as population and tax revenues decline,”
and other effects on the labor market that make having fewer he prognosticated, adding that “it is not difficult to imagine
and fewer children inevitable. As evidence, Lutz and his col- enclaves of rich, fiercely guarded pockets of well-being sur-
leagues cite data from the Eurobarometer survey showing that rounded by large areas which look more like what we might see
in Germany and Austria—nations with TFRs of 1.39 and 1.36, in some science-fiction movies.”
respectively—young adults now consider their ideal family Most population researchers agree that there is plenty to
sizes to be as low as 1.7 children on average. worry about in current worldwide demographic trends. Yet
“Germany is the extreme example of this phenomenon, with few are ready to accept the direst parts of Reher’s dooms-
around 30% of young people not intending to have children,” day scenario—at least not yet. “I wouldn’t be surprised” if
says McDonald. On the other hand, McDonald does not agree population shrinkage “happens in a lot of places in the world,”
that there is no turning back for countries whose TFRs fall this says Gauthier, although she adds that “it is much harder to
low: “This does make Germany a tougher nut to crack, but I believe in Africa,” where the population is expected to at least
would never declare the game as over.” double by 2050. And Santow comments that although Reher’s
Yet Reher sees little reason for optimism. “When fertility is predictions “may well be sensible,” she sees “nothing terri-
drastically below replacement, it doesn’t go up, no matter how fying about a drop in the size of Europe’s population. Any
many policies and how much money is thrown at it,” he says. decline will take time, and economies will adjust. Govern-
“We are in the midst of a cascading fertility decline. Even a TFR ments should not expend energy to maintain the status quo.
of 1.7 is not safe; it is a disaster if you look a couple of genera- Governments should plan for the future, not try to reintroduce
tions down the line.” the past.”

From Science, Vol. 312, June 30, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by American Association for the Advancement of Science. Reproduced with permission from AAAS.
www.sciencemag.org

11

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 Article 3

Three ‘Rules’ That Don’t Apply

A historian upends conventional wisdom.

Stephanie Coontz

M
arriage has changed more in the last 30 years than in the overturned. For women born since 1960, this rule has ceased to apply.
previous 300. People today have unprecedented freedom Today, although the average college grad marries almost two years
about whether, when and whom to marry, and they are mak- later than the average woman—and the average woman who gets an
ing those decisions free from the huge social and economic pressures advanced degree marries almost five years later—they are more likely
that once had them marching in lockstep. to marry than women with low levels of education.
In such periods of massive change and diversification, it is use- This “rule” has recently been recycled as women’s graduation rates
less to see averages as descriptions of the typical experience. They have outstripped men’s. Many people claim men aren’t willing to
are simply the artificial addition of the experiences of many different marry educated, independent women. But that’s no longer true. Men
subgroups, each of which may be going in a different direction, divided are now much more likely to marry women who are their educational
by the total number of people. That is why so many old assumptions and economic peers. Also, the pool of men available to older women
and predictions have turned out to be wrong. has grown because women are now more willing to marry younger
When I look at the 1986 NEWSWEEK story, I see three old “rules” men, and younger men are now more willing to marry them.
of marriage that are particularly bad guides for modern relationships. The third “rule” is that people who marry earlier and later than
Two have already been overturned. And the third is in the process of average have a higher risk of divorce. On average, that’s still true. But
being overturned. those averages are derived from a world that no longer describes the
The first is that women who delay marriage are condemning them- lives of most educated women who postpone marriage, and I believe
selves to lifelong singlehood. This had some truth in the 1950s and this rule may be on its way out, too. The people who married late used
early 1960s, when the economic and social pressures to marry early to be those who were least competitive in the marriage market. But
were enormous. One psychiatrist wrote in 1953 that “a girl who hasn’t today, with educated and professional women having a much better
a man in sight by the time she is 20 is not altogether wrong in fearing chance of marrying late than women with low education or earnings,
that she may never get married.” So women made sure to set their sights my educated guess is that this old rule will also cease to apply.
on a potential husband early. The average age of first marriage was 20, The divorce rate has gone down for college-educated women in the
with the greatest single number of women marrying at 18. Very few last two decades, while it has gone up for those without college. And it
women married for the first time after 24. It was easy to assume that a is college-educated women who have the best chance of marrying late.
woman who hadn’t married by the end of her 20s would never marry. Women with education and earnings have more ability to leave a bad
That turned out to be wrong. As more women went to school and marriage, but they also have more ability to change the terms of mar-
worked for a longer period of time, the average age of marriage rose. riage to make them more satisfying for both partners. And they are the
But perhaps more important, the breakdown of the rigid, cookie-cutter ones most likely to choose husbands who support equality.
life course of the 1950s created more variation in when people left So the bottom line is, chart your own course. Don’t rush into mar-
home, went to work and got married, so there was a wider range of riage because some so-called expert waves depressing averages at you.
dispersal from the average. Don’t avoid it because you fear divorce. Marriage is more work today
This is a different world than the 1950s. The average age at first than it was at a time when gender roles were nonnegotiable, when men
marriage for women is now almost 26. For women with a B.A. it is had the legal right to the final say in many family arguments and when
more than 27, and for women with master’s or professional degrees women had to stick it out because they couldn’t afford to leave. But the
it is 30. And there is huge variation within each average, so that more payoffs of a good marriage are also higher than in the past. And many
women now marry for the first time in their 40s, 50s and even 60s than of the older marriages being contracted now are between people who
ever before in history. have the skills to construct those good marriages—more egalitarian
The second “rule” is that women who remain single to pursue men, more savvy women and lovers who have deeper friendships.
higher education or a successful career are less likely to marry. That
was true for hundreds of years, and remained true for women born up Stephanie Coontz is the author of “Marriage, a History: How Love
to 1960, those who reached marriageable age in the 1980s. So as late Conquered Marriage” (Viking). She is director of research at the Coun-
as 1986 it seemed a safe prediction. But even then it was already being cil on Contemporary Families.

From Newsweek, June 5, 2006, p. 49. Copyright © 2006 by Newsweek, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission and protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States. The
printing, copying, redistribution, or retransmission of the Material without express written permission is prohibited.
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 Article 4

Everyone’s Queer
Leila J. Rupp

that people began to think of “heterosexuals”.1 And what defined

W
hen I was growing up, one of my Quaker mother’s
favorite expressions was “Everyone’s queer except a heterosexual? Someone who did not, under any (or almost any)
thee and me, and sometimes I think thee is a little circumstances, engage in same-sex love or intimacy or sex. That
queer, too.” Even as a child, I loved both the sentiment and the this never became a hard and fast rule throughout U.S. society
language, and then later I got a special kick out of the possibilities is suggested by the recent attention to life on “the down low,”
of the word “queer.” But until I sat down to write this piece, I had the practice of some black men who secretly engage in sex with
never thought about how appropriate the saying is to a consider- other men but live in heterosexual relationships, or to patterns
ation of the history of sexuality. For the most striking thing about of sexuality among Latino men.2 But the important point here
the literature is that the vast majority of what we know about is that normative heterosexuality—what scholars sometimes call
sexuality in the past is about what is “queer,” in the sense of non- “heteronormativity—can only be defined in contrast to what it is
normative. We assume that “normative” describes most of what not. Which is why the history of nonnormative sexuality and the
happened sexually in the past, but we know very little about that. concept of “queer” is so important.
Except what the history of nonnormative sexuality—same-sex, So how did people come to think of themselves as homo-
commercial, non- or extra-marital, or in some other way deemed sexual or bisexual or heterosexual or transsexual? That is one of
inappropriate—can tell us. And that, it turns out, is quite a lot. the interesting questions that historians have explored. We now
know a great deal about the development of the concepts by the
sexologists, scientists, and social scientists who studied sexual
Like motherhood or childhood, sexuality, behavior, but we also are learning more about the complex rela-
we once assumed, had no history. Now we tionship between scientific definitions (and, in the case of trans-
know better. sexuality, medical techniques) and the desires and identities of
individuals.3 For example, Lisa Duggan, in her book Sapphic
Slashers (2000), details the ways that publicity about a notori-
Like motherhood or childhood, sexuality, we once assumed, ous lesbian murder in Memphis in the late nineteenth century
had no history. Now we know better. Sexuality, consisting of, both fed on and fed into such diverse genres as scientific case
among other elements, sexual desires, sexual acts, love, sexual studies and French novels.4 In his work on New York, George
identities, and sexual communities, has not been fixed over time Chauncey opens the curtains on an early twentieth-century world
and differs from place to place. That is, whether and how people in which men were not homosexual or heterosexual, despite the
act on their desires, what kinds of acts they engage in and with categorizations of the sexologists, but instead fairies or pansies,
whom, what kinds of meanings they attribute to those desires wolves or husbands, queers or “normal” men depending on their
and acts, whether they think love can be sexual, whether they class position, ethnicity, and sexual role (the part one plays in
think of sexuality as having meaning for identities, whether they a sexual act—generally penetrator or encloser).5 And Joanne
form communities with people with like desires—all of this is Meyerowitz, in How Sex Changed (2002), reveals that even
shaped by the societies in which people live. On the streets of before the publicity about Christine Jorgensen’s sex-change
New York at the turn of the nineteenth century, men engaged in surgery hit American newsstands, individual men and women
sexual acts with other men without any bearing on their identity wrote of their longings to change sex and bombarded physicians
as heterosexual, as long as they took what they thought of as with questions and demands.6 That is, we do not have the doc-
the “male part.” Women embraced their women friends, pledged tors and scientists to thank for our identities; their definitions
their undying love, and slept with each other without necessarily sometimes enabled people to come to an understanding of their
interfering with their married lives. Knowing these patterns, it feelings and actions, sometimes to reject the definitions. But
begins to make more sense that Jonathan Katz wrote a wonder- it was observation of individuals and communities that led the
fully titled book. The Invention of Heterosexuality (1995). for it sexologists to their thinking about categories in the first place.
was only when certain acts and feelings came to be identified as We, as homosexuals and heterosexuals and bisexuals, were not
the characteristics of a new type of person, “the homosexual.” created out of thin air.

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 ANNUAL EDITIONS
Identities—and by identities I mean not just homosexual or that heterosexual oral sex was something confined to prostitu-
gay or lesbian, but all their elaborate manifestations such as tion—at least in theory—until the early twentieth century. What
fairy, faggot, pogue, lamb, bulldagger, ladylover, butch, stud, prostitutes, both male and female, were willing to do, especially
fem—have a complex relationship to behavior, as the contem- for increased fees, tells us something about what “respectable”
porary case of life on the down low makes clear. Over time, women were probably not.
the sexologists came to define homosexuality not as gender In addition to interest in desire, love, sexual acts, and
inversion—effeminacy in men and masculinity in women—but identities—and the complex relationships among them—histo-
as desire for someone of the same sex. By extension, heterosexu- rians of sexuality have concentrated on the building of commu-
als felt no such desire. But how to explain men who identified nities and on struggles to make the world a better place. Martin
as heterosexual but had (appropriately masculine-defined—that Meeker, in his book Contacts Desired (2006), uncovers the com-
is, insertive rather than receptive) sex with other men? Or, in the munications networks that made same-sex sexuality visible and
case of women who came to be known as “political lesbians” in both resulted from and contributed to the building of communi-
1970s lesbian feminist communities, women who identified as ties and the homophile movement in the post-Second World War
lesbians but didn’t have sex with women?7 Identity and behavior decades.14 His concentration on a wide variety of media adds to
are not always a neat fit, as the revelations of widespread same- incredibly rich research on different communities. In addition
sex sexual interactions in the famous Kinsey studies of male and to Chauncey on New York, Kennedy and Davis on Buffalo, and
female sexuality made clear to a stunned American public in the Boag on Portland, there’s Esther Newton on Cherry Grove, tell-
postwar decades. In response to his findings, based on interviews ing the story of the creation of a gay resort.15 In the same vein,
with individuals about their sexual behavior, Kinsey developed a Karen Krahulik has detailed the ways that Provincetown became
scale to position people in terms of their behavior on a spectrum “Cape Queer”.16 Marc Stein, in City of Sisterly and Brotherly
from exclusively heterosexual to exclusively homosexual.8 Loves (2000), uses the history of Philadelphia to detail, among
Another aspect of the relationship of identity to behavior other things, the relationship between lesbian and gay worlds
is suggested by some of the labels people claimed for them- in the city and in the movement.17 Nan Alamilla Boyd, in her
selves, for many of them referred to a preference for specific study of San Francisco, shows not only how the city by the
kinds of sexual acts, sexual roles, or sexual partners. George Bay became a gay mecca (something Meeker addresses as well
Chauncey’s research on the Naval investigation into “perver- from a different perspective), but also how queer culture and the
sion” in Newport, Rhode Island, in the second decade of the homophile movement had a more symbiotic relationship than
twentieth century revealed the very specific terms used for those we had thought.18 A collection of articles on different commu-
who preferred particular acts and roles.9 In his study of the nities, Creating a Place for Ourselves (1997), provides even
Pacific Northwest, Peter Boag describes a preference for anal or more geographical diversity, as does John Howard’s work on
interfemoral intercourse in the intergenerational relationships the vibrant networks gay men fashioned in the rural South.19
between “wolves” and “punks” among transient laborers.10 Liz
Kennedy and Madeleine Davis’s study of the working-class
lesbian bar community in Buffalo, New York, in the 1940s and We know that, without the concept
1950s makes clear how central sexual roles were, at least in
theory, to the making of butches and fems.11 One identity, that of
of homosexuality, there would be no
“stone butch,” was defined by what a woman did not do, in this heterosexuality. Without knowing which
case desire and/or allow her lover to make love to her. sexual desires and acts are deemed
One of the things that historians’ uncovering of the sexual deviant, we would not know which ones
acts that took place between people of the same sex reveals is passed muster. Knowing how identities
how these changed over time. Sharon Ullman’s research shows are created, institutions established,
that oral sex between men was considered something new in
the early twentieth century. When the police in Long Beach,
communities built, and movements
California, broke up a “society of queers,” they were confounded mobilized, we learn from the margins
to discover that they were having oral rather than anal sex and what the center looks like.
concluded that that didn’t really count as homosexual sex. The
men themselves dubbed oral sex “the twentieth-century way”.12
Likewise, Kennedy and Davis found that butches and fems in What these studies collectively reveal is the way economic,
Buffalo did not engage in oral sex. We know, or should know, political, and social forces, especially in the years since the Sec-
that cultures in different times and places foster different kinds ond World War, enhanced the possibilities for individuals with
of sexual acts. Kissing, for example, is a relatively recent West- same-sex desires to find others like themselves, to build institu-
ern innovation as something erotic. But on the whole, as Heather tions and communities, to elaborate identities, and to organize
Miller has pointed out, historians of sexuality have paid very in order to win basic rights: to gather, work, play, and live. This
little attention to the actual sexual acts in which people—and despite the crackdown following the war, which David Johnson
especially heterosexual people—engage.13 One of the things that argues in The Lavender Scare (2004) was more intense and long
nonnormative sexuality can tell us about heteronormativity is lasting than the effort to root Communists out of government.20
what kinds of sexual acts are acceptable. We know, for example, These works on diverse communities have also fleshed out the

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 Article 4. Everyone’s Queer
story John D’Emilio tells of the rise of the homophile move- queer.29 And we have a lot to learn from the history of nonnor-
ment in his classic Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities (1983) mative sexualities.
and responded to the question of how the war shaped the experi-
ences of gay men and women first told by Allan Bérubé in his
1990 book Coming Out Under fire.21 Endnotes
Increasingly, research on same-sex sexuality and other forms 1. Jonathan Ned Katz, The Invention of Heterosexuality
of nonnormative sexuality has attended to the relationship of (New York: Dutton, 1995).
sexual desires and identities to gender, class, race, and ethnicity. 2. See, for example, J. L. King, On the Down Low: A Journey Into
Lisa Duggan’s Sapphic Slashers, for example, tells the story of the Lives of “Straight” Black Men Who Sleep with Men
white middle-class Alice Mitchell’s murder of her lover Freda (New York: Broadway Books, 2004); Tomás Almaguer,
Ward intertwined with the Memphis lynching that drove Ida B. “Chicano Men: A Cartography of Homosexual Identity and
Behavior,” differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies
Wells from her hometown and into her anti-lynching crusade.
3 (Summer 1991): 75–100; Don Kulick, Travesti: Sex, Gender,
Judy Wu and Nayan Shah attend to how ethnicity shaped sexu- and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes
ality in the Chinese American community.22 John D’Emilio’s (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998); Annick Prieur,
biography of Bayard Rustin makes his identity as a black gay Mema’s House, Mexico City. On Transvestites, Queens,
man inseparable from considering his role in the civil rights and Machos (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998);
movement.23 George Chauncey and Peter Boag detail different Claibome Smith, “Gay Caballeros: Inside the Secret World of
ways that class distinctions emerged in forms of male same-sex Dallas’ Mayates,” Dallas Observer (January 13, 2005).
sexuality on opposite sides of the continent. Karen Krahulik 3. On sexology, see Jennifer Terry, An American Obsession:
makes ethnicity and class central to the story of the coexistence, Science, Medicine, and Homosexuality in Modern Society
sometimes peaceful and sometimes not, of gay and lesbian pio- (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999).
neers and Portuguese fishermen in Provincetown. And Kevin 4. Lisa Duggan, Sapphic Slashers: Sex, Violence, and American
Mumford, in Interzones (1997), argues for the centrality of the Modernity (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000).
areas of New York and Chicago in which racial mixing and all 5. George Chauncey, Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture,
sorts of nonnormative sexuality took place for the shaping of and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1590–1940 (New York:
both mainstream and gay culture.24 Basic Books, 1994),
Which brings us back to the notion of the queerness of us 6. Joanne Meyerowitz, How Sex Changed: A History of
all. We know that, without the concept of homosexuality, there Transsexuality in the United States (Cambridge, MA: Harvard
would be no heterosexuality. Without knowing which sexual University Press, 2002).
desires and acts are deemed deviant, we would not know which 7. See Arlene Stein, Sex and Sensibility: Stories of a Lesbian
ones passed muster. Knowing how identities are created, institu- Generation (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997).
tions established, communities built, and movements mobilized, 8. Alfred Kinsey et al., Sexual Behavior in the Human Male
we learn from the margins what the center looks like. (Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Col, 1948); Kinsey et al., Sexual
What we do know more directly about normative sexual- Behavior in the Human Female (Philadelphia: W.B. Sanders
ity tends to be about prescription, and we know that directives Co., 1953).
about how to act are not necessary if everyone is behaving 9. George Chauncey Jr., “Christian Brotherhood or Sexual
properly. So Marilyn Hegarty has shown how the forces of Perversion? Homosexual Identities and the Construction of
government, the military, and medicine cooperated and com- Sexual Boundaries in the World War I Era,” Journal of Social
peted both to mobilize and contain women’s sexuality in the History 19 (1985): 189–212.
interests of victory during the Second World War.25 Carolyn 10. Peter Boag, Same-Sex Affairs: Constructing and Controlling
Lewis’s forthcoming work on the premarital pelvic exam in the Homosexuality in the Pacific Northwest (Berkeley: University
1950s reveals the cold war anxieties that lay behind the initia- of California Press. 2003).
tive to teach women how to enjoy and reach orgasm through 11. Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy and Madeline D. Davis, Boots of
heterosexual vaginal intercourse.26 To take another example, in Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community
her forthcoming book, Susan Freeman explores sex education (New York: Routledge, 1993).
directed at girls in the 1950s and 1960s, revealing, among other 12. Sharon Ullman, “ ‘The Twentieth Century Way:’ Female
things, the ways that girls pushed to learn what they needed to Impersonation and Sexual Practice in Turn-of-the-Century
know.27 These contributions—examples from my own students America,” Journal of the History of Sexuality 5 (1995): 573–600.
or former students—add to what we know about heteronorma- 13. Heather Lee Miller, “The Teeming Brothel: Sex Acts, Desires,
tivity from scholars such as Sharon Ullman, Beth Bailey, David and Sexual Identities in the United States, 1870–1940” (Ph.D.
Allyn, and Jeffrey Moran.28 diss., Ohio State University, 2002).
So my mother was right, except she didn’t go far enough. As 14. Martin Meeker, Contacts Desired: Gay and Lesbian
Dennis Altman pointed out in arguing for the “homosexualiza- Communications and Community, 1940s–1970s (Chicago:
tion of America,” and as my own work with Verta Taylor on University of Chicago Press, 2006).
drag queens and the responses they evoke in audience members 15. Esther Newton, Cherry Grove, Fire Island: Sixty Years in
reveals, in a wide variety of ways, from what we desire to how America’s First Gay and Lesbian Town (Boston: Beacon Press,
we love to how we make love to how we play, we are all a little 1993).

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 ANNUAL EDITIONS
16. Karen Christel Krahulik, Provincetown: From Pilgrim Landing 25. Marilyn Elizabeth Hegarty, “Patriots, Prostitutes, Patriotutes:
to Gay Resort (New York: New York University Press, 2005). The Mobilization and Control of Female Sexuality in the
17. Marc Stein, City of Sisterly and Brotherly Loves: Lesbian and United States during World War II” (Ph.D. diss., Ohio State
Gay Philadelphia, 1945–1972 (Chicago: University of Chicago University, 1998). Revised version forthcoming from the
Press, 2000). University of California Press.
18. Nan Alamilla Boyd, Wide Open Town: A History of Queer San 26. Carolyn Herbst Lewis, “Waking Sleeping Beauty: The Pelvic
Francisco to 1965 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003). Exam, Heterosexuality and National Security in the Cold War,”
Journal of Women’s History 17 (2005): 86–110.
19. Brett Beemyn, ed., Creating a Place for Ourselves: Lesbian,
Gay, and Bisexual Community Histories (New York: Routledge, 27. Susan Kathleen Freeman, “Making Sense of Sex: Adolescent
1997); John Howard, ed., Carryin’ on in the Lesbian and Gay Girls and Sex Education in the United States, 1940–1960”
South (New York: New York University Press, 1997); and (Ph. D, diss., Ohio State University, 2002). Revised version
Howard, Men Like That: A Southern Queer History (Chicago: to be published by the University of Illinois Press.
University of Chicago Press, 1999). 28. Sharon R. Ullman, Sex Seen: The Emergence of Modern
20. David K. Johnson, The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Sexuality in America (Berkeley; University of California Press,
Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government 1997); Beth Bailey, Sex in the Heartland, 1st paperback ed.
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004). (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002); David
Allyn, Make Love, Not War. The Sexual Revolution, An
21. John D’Emilio, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The
Unfettered History, 1st paperback ed. (New York: Routledge,
Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States,
2001); Jeffrey P. Moran, Teaching Sex: The Shaping of
1940–1970 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983);
Adolescence in the 20th Century (Cambridge, MA: Harvard
Allan Bérubé, Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay
University Press, 2000).
Men and Women in World War II (New York: Free Press, 1990).
29. Dennis Altman, The Homosexualization of America (New
22. Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, Doctor Mom Chung of the Fair-Haired
York: St. Martin’s Press, 1982); Leila J. Rupp and Verta Taylor,
Bastards: The Life of a Wartime Celebrity (Berkeley: University
Drag Queens at the 801 Cabaret (Chicago: University of
of California Press, 2005); Nayan Shah, Contagious Divides:
Chicago Press, 2003).
Epidemics and Race in San Francisco’s Chinatown (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2001).
23. John D’Emilio, Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Leila J. Rupp is Professor and Chair of Women’s Studies at the
Rustin (New York: Free Press, 2003). University of California, Santa Barbara. She is the author of A Desired
24. Kevin J. Mumford, Interzones: Black/White Sex Districts in Past: A Short History of Same-Sex Love in America (1999) and coau-
Chicago and New York in the Early Twentieth Century (New thor, with Verta Taylor, of Drag Queens at the 801 Cabaret (2003). She
York: Columbia University Press, 1997). is currently working on a book called “Sapphistries.”

From OAH Magazine of History, March 2006, pp. 8–10. Copyright © 2006 by Organization of American Historians. Reprinted by permission via the Copyright Clearance Center.

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 Article 5

A Mind Dismembered
In Search of the Magical Penis Thieves
Frank Bures

N
o one is entirely sure when magical penis loss first the bottom of the pool. But through these sporadic news stories,
came to Africa. One early incident was recounted by I was forced to contemplate a land more foreign than any I had
Dr. Sunday Ilechukwu, a psychiatrist, in a letter some ever seen, a place where one’s penis could be magically blinked
years ago to the Transcultural Psychiatric Review. In 1975, away. I wanted to see for myself, but no magazine would send
while posted in Kaduna, in the north of Nigeria, Dr. Ilechukwu me. It was too much money, too far, and too strange. Finally,
was sitting in his office when a policeman escorted in two men when my wife became pregnant, I realized that it might be my
and asked for a medical assessment. One of the men had accused one last reckless chance to go, and so I shouldered the expenses
the other of making his penis disappear. This had caused a major myself and went.
disturbance in the street. As Ilechukwu tells it, the victim stared
straight ahead during the examination, after which the doctor

O
pronounced him normal. “Exclaiming,” Ilechukwu wrote, “the n my first morning in the Mainland Hotel, a run-down
patient looked down at his groin for the first time, suggesting place with falling ceiling tiles and broken locks, I
that the genitals had just reappeared.” awoke to a din, and I realized that it was simply the
According to Ilechukwu, an epidemic of penis theft swept city: the clatter of the 17 million people of Lagos. It was louder
Nigeria between 1975 and 1977. Then there seemed to be a lull than any metropolis I had ever heard. My windows were closed,
until 1990, when the stealing resurged. “Men could be seen in but it sounded as if they were wide open. For the next few days,
the streets of Lagos holding on to their genitalia either openly I wandered around the city not quite sure where to begin. I went
or discreetly with their hand in their pockets,” Ilechukwu wrote. to bookstores and took motorcycle taxis and asked people I met,
“Women were also seen holding on to their breasts directly or friends of friends, but without much insight or luck.
discreetly, by crossing the hands across the chest. . . . Vigilance Eventually I found my way to Jankara Market, a collection
and anticipatory aggression were thought to be good prophy- of cramped stands under a patchwork of corrugated-tin sheets
laxes. This led to further breakdown of law and order.” In a typi- that protect the proffered branches, leaves, seeds, shells, skins,
cal incident, someone would suddenly yell: Thief! My genitals bones, skulls, and dead lizards and toads from the elements.
are gone! Then a culprit would be identified, apprehended, and, All these items are held to contain properties that heal, help, or
often, killed. harm, depending on what one needs them to do. The market is
During the past decade and a half, the thievery seems not to better known for the even darker things one can buy. At Jankara,
have abated. In April 2001, mobs in Nigeria lynched at least one can buy juju: magic. On my first trip to Jankara, to look
twelve suspected penis thieves. In November of that same year, around, I met a woman who loved me, she said, and wanted to,
there were at least five similar deaths in neighboring Benin. One marry me. When I told her I was already married, she threatened
survey counted fifty-six “separate cases of genital shrinking, to bind me to her magically with two wooden figures so that I
disappearance, and snatching” in West Africa between 1997 and would not sleep at night until I saw her. But she said it with a
2003, with at least thirty-six suspected penis thieves killed at the glint in her eye, so I didn’t worry.
hands of angry mobs during that period. These incidents have A few days later, I returned to Jankara to ask her some ques-
been reported in local newspapers but are little known outside tions. As soon as I walked into the dark, covered grounds of the
the region. market, she saw me.
For years, I followed this trend from afar. I had lived in East “Ah,” she said. “You have come back!”
Africa, in Italy, in Thailand, and other places too, absorbing “Yes,” I said.
their languages, their histories, their minutiae. I had tried to “Sit here,” she said, and pointed to a bench. She sat down
piece together what it might be like not just to live in those across from me. “What did you bring me?”
places but really to be in them, to jump in and sink all the way to I showed her some fruit I had brought.

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 ANNUAL EDITIONS
“Ah, very nice,” she said and started to eat, even though it Even in the 1960s, there were reports of Italian migrant work-
was daytime in the middle of Ramadan and she was Muslim. ers in Switzerland panicking over a loss of virility caused by
“How is your wife?” witchcraft.
“She is good.” These fears, however, seem to have been largely isolated;
“And what about your other wife?” mass panics over genital retraction were not recorded until 1874.
“Who is that?’ ” This was the year that, on the island of Sulawesi, a certain Ben-
“‘Who is that?” she said in mock surprise. “I think you know jamin Matthes was compiling a dictionary of Buginese when
who that is. That is me.” he came across a strange term, lasa koro, which meant “shrink-
“That is nice,” I said. “But in America it’s not possible.” ing of the penis,” a disease that Matthes said was not uncom-
A man came up to her and handed her a crumpled piece of mon among the locals and “must be very dangerous.” Sporadic
paper with a list of ingredients on it. She peered at the list, then reports of koro, as it came to be known, recurred over the years,
got up and went around collecting sticks and leaves and seeds and during the late twentieth century the panics proliferated. In
and plants. She chopped them all up and put them in a bag. 1967, an epidemic of koro raced through Singapore, affecting
While she was doing this, the man sat next to me on a bench. some five hundred men. In 1976, in northern Thailand, at least
“Is that for you?” I asked. two thousand people were afflicted with rokjoo, in which men
“Yes,” he said. “It makes you very strong.” and women complained that their genitals were being sucked
Then another man came up and put in his order. It was some- into their bodies. In 1982, there were major koro epidemics in
thing for the appendix, he said. When he was gone, the woman India and again in Thailand, while in 1984 and 1985, some five
sat down next to me. thousand Chinese villagers in Guangdong province tried des-
“I have a question,” I said. perately to keep their penises outside their bodies using what-
“Yes.” ever they had handy: string, chopsticks, relatives’ assistance,
“In my country, we don’t have juju.” jewelers’ clamps, and safety pins. But the phenomenon was
“Yes.” given little notice by Western scientists, who considered such
“But I was reading in the paper about penis snatchers—” strange mental conditions to be “ethnic hysterias” or “exotic
“Ah,” she interrupted me. “Don’t listen to them. That is not psychoses.”
true. If I touch your thing like this”—and here she touched my This way of thinking has changed, thanks largely to the work
leg—“is your penis gone?” of a Hong Kong–based psychiatrist named Pow Meng Yap. In
“No,” I said, uneasily. “But what if I come to you and ask you the early 1950s, Yap noticed a strange thing: a trickle of young
for protection? Can you do it?” men coming into his office, complaining that their penises were
“Yes, I can.” disappearing into their bodies and that when this happened they
“How much?” would die. After seeing nineteen such cases, Yap published a
“One thousand naira. Two thousand. Even up from there.” paper in the British Journal of Psychiatry entitled: “Koro—A
This was a large sum by Nigerian standards—more than $15. Culture-Bound Depersonalization Syndrome.” For years, Yap
“Do you have many people come and ask for this?” had been interested in the interplay among culture, mind, and
“Yes,” she said in a low voice. She looked around.“Many.” disease. In an earlier paper, “Mental Diseases Peculiar to Certain
Cultures,” Yap had discussed other similar conditions: latah, a
trance/fright neurosis in which the victim obeys commands from

N
igeria was not the first site of mysterious genital dis- anyone nearby; amok, unrestrained outbursts of violence (as in
appearance. As with so many other things, its inven- “running amok”); and thanatomania, or self-induced “magical”
tion can be claimed by the Chinese. The first known death. Koro fit quite well among these other exotic maladies. In
reports of “genital retraction” date to around 300 b.c., when the fact, it was perhaps the best example of a phenomenon that can
mortal dangers of suo-yang, or “shrinking penis,” were briefly arise only in a specific culture, a condition that occurs in a sense
sketched in the Nei Ching, the Yellow Emperor’s Classic Text of because of that culture. Yap saw that these ailments had this one
Internal Medicine. Also in China, the first full description of the feature in common, grouped them together, and gave them a
condition was recorded in 1835, in Pao Siaw-Ow’s collection of name that, in spite of all the controversy to follow, would stick.
medical remedies, which describes suo-yang as a “ying type of They were “culture-bound syndromes.”
fever” (meaning it arises from too much cold) and recommends Under this rubric, koro and the other culture-bound syndromes
that the patient get a little “heaty” yang for balance. are now treated with more respect, if not total acceptance. Sci-
Fears of magical penis loss were not limited to the Ori- ence is, after all, the quest for universality. In psychiatry, this
ent. The Malleus Maleficarum, medieval Europeans’ primary means all minds are treated the same and all conditions should
guidebook to witches and their ways, warned that witches exist equally across the world. Some thought that calling koro
could cause one’s membrum virile to vanish, and indeed “culture-bound” was an end-run around the need for universal-
several chapters were dedicated to this topic. Likewise the ity, a relativistic cop-out. Were these syndromes really caused
Compendium Maleficarum warned that witches had many by different cultures? Or were they just alternate names for
ways to affect one’s potency, the seventh of which included afflictions that plagued, or could plague, every culture? This
“a retraction, hiding or actual removal of the male genitals.” was precisely what I had come to Nigeria to find out, though so
(This could be either a temporary or a permanent condition.) far with little success.

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 Article 5. A Mind Dismembered

A
few days after I arrived in Lagos, an article appeared Akeem shook his head and looked down the road. It had been
in the newspaper. The headline read: court remands cut off with two large wooden blocks and a car. There was no
man over false alarm on genital organ disap- way out.
pearance. According to the paper, a young man named Wasiu One of the local Area Boys looked particularly eager to
Karimu was on a bus when he “was said to have let out a strident deliver some punishment. He ran into the street with his cane
cry, claiming that his genital organ had disappeared. He imme- and whacked it on the ground. “We will beat the press,” he
diately grabbed [Funmi] Bello, who was seated next to him, yelled. “We will beat the press.”
and shouted that the woman should restore his ‘stolen’ organ.” The young men huddled together in front of Wasiu Karimu’s
They got off the bus, and a crowd of “miscreants” swarmed house. After a long delay, they called Akeem over. He talked to
around the woman, ready to kill her. But a passing police patrol them for a little bit. Then they called me over. They wanted to
intervened, stopped her from being lynched, and escorted them see the article about Wasiu. I pulled the wrinkled photocopy out
both to the police station, where Karimu told the commissioner of my pocket and handed it over.
“his organ was returning gradually.” The paper gave the exact A quiet man in a 50 Cent T-shirt was clearly the leader. He
address where Wasiu Karimu lived, so I decided to try and find took the article, unfolded it, and read through it.
out what exactly had transpired in his pants. “Let us see your I.D.,” he said. I hadn’t brought my passport,
The day was already hot when a friend of a friend named for exactly this reason, and my driver’s license had disappeared
Akeem and I rolled into Alagbado, the dusty, run-down town on from my hotel room. All I had with me was an expired YMCA
the far edge of Lagos where Wasiu Karimu lived. We drove past membership card, which I handed over.
clapboard shacks and little restaurants, through huge muddy The leader, whose name was Ade, took it and turned it over.
pools, past people watching us from doorways, until we came He handed it to a lanky man with crooked teeth, who looked at
to the address given in the paper. Chickens and goats scattered it briefly, then handed it back.
in front of our car, which we had borrowed from a journalist and “Do you know who we are?” asked Ade.
which said press on the windshield. The house was an ample I did not.
two-story affair with a little shop next to it. We got out and asked “We are O.P.C. You know O.P.C.?”
a girl if Wasiu lived there. The O.P.C. was the O’odua People’s Congress, a quasi-
“Yes,” she said, “but he is not around.” political organization that was halfway between the Area Boys
Akeem went into the yard in front of Wasiu Karimu’s house, and a militia. They were violent and arbitrary. Recently, they
and a woman jumped in front of him. She said she was Wasiu’s had killed several policemen in Lagos, and in some parts of the
mother and began yelling at him to get out of the yard. Akeem city they were being hunted by the government.
retreated to the car, and we stood there in the middle of the “We have to make sure,” Ade said, “you are not coming here
road, in the sun. Wasiu Karimu was nowhere to be found, so to do some harm. Maybe you were sent here by that woman.”
we decided to wait for him to show up. But after about twenty The woman, he meant, who stole Wasiu Karimu’s penis.
minutes, several men came around the corner and took up posts There was a crash, as a glass bottle exploded against one of
around Wasiu’s house. A couple of them were holding long the tires on our car. Both Akeem and I jumped.
sticks. “No,” I said trying to be calm. “I just want to ask some ques-
Akeem turned to me and said, “Local Area Boys.” tions. Is he around?”
In Lagos, the Area Boys are thugs—a law unto themselves. “He is not around.”
They have multiplied since the military dictatorship fell in 1998, They talked among themselves in Yoruba, then Ade’s hench-
seeding a new kind of terror throughout the city. These young man with the bad teeth told the story. Unbeknownst to me at
men had an ugly swagger, and they looked as if they had run to the time, Wasiu Karimu himself was apparently there, listening
get there. I could see sweat start to drip down Akeem’s head. from a distance. Akeem told me later he was sure he had seen
“Let us go,” he said. him—a little guy standing at the back, young and nervous.
“Wait a minute,” I said. We had come a long way—in fact, I Wasiu, Bad Teeth told me, had gotten on the bus and sat
had come all the way from America for this and did not know down next to this woman. He didn’t have a watch, so he asked
how many chances I would get to speak to someone whose her what time it was. She didn’t know. Then the conductor came
penis had actually been stolen. So I made us wait. I don’t know around and asked her for her fare. She didn’t have that either. As
why. I suppose I figured we weren’t doing any harm. I only she stood up to get out of the bus, she bumped into Wasiu.
wanted to ask a few questions. I walked to the shop next to “Then,” he said, “Wasiu Karimu felt something happen in
Wasiu Karimu’s house and bought something to drink. his body. Something not right. And he checked and his thing
The young girl at the shop said, “Sir, are you looking for was gone.”
someone?” “Was it gone,” I asked, “or was it shrinking?”
“Yes,” I said. “Wasiu Karimu.” “Shrinking! Shrinking! It was getting smaller.”
“Sir,” she said, “maybe you should just go now, before there And as he felt his penis shrink, Wasiu Karimu screamed
are problems. It will be easier for everyone.” and demanded the woman put his penis back. The conductor
I walked back to the car. “Okay,” I said to Akeem. Now I told them both to get off the bus, and a crowd closed in on the
had a sick feeling. My own back was drenched with sweat. accused, not doubting for an instant that the woman could do
“Let’s go.” such a thing. But as soon as she saw trouble coming, Bad Teeth

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 ANNUAL EDITIONS
said, she replaced Wasiu’s manhood, so when the police took Interest, one of the few books on the phenomenon, wrote a
him down to the station, they thought he was lying and arrested scathing critique of the DSM-IV’s treatment of culture-bound
him instead. syndromes, which had been gathered together in the back of the
“What did she want the penis for?” I asked Bad Teeth. book in an appendix as if they were still under glass, a museum
“For juju,” he said, “or maybe to make some money.” of exotica where nothing had changed since these ills were con-
Behind us, from the corner of my eye, I could see that the sidered “ethnic psychoses” that affected primitive people but
roadblocks had been removed. not us. Hughes argued that the borders around culture-bound
“Do you have anything else you want to ask?” syndromes are inherently fuzzy and that to rope them off at
“No,” I said. “I don’t think so.” the back of the DSM-IV is a farce. He lamented the lack of
“Okay,” he said. “You are free to go.” a “short course in sophisticated cultural awareness” for psy-
“Thank you.” chiatrists and said that “[t]o use the class-designated term ‘cul-
I nodded to Akeem. We got in the car and drove away. ture-bound [psychiatric] syndromes’ is comparable to using
the terms ‘culture-bound religion,’ ‘culture-bound language,’
or ‘culture-bound technology,’ for each of these institutional

T
he debate over the term “culture-bound syndrome” areas is shaped by, and in its specific details is unique to, its
seems to have simmered down as our understanding of cultural setting.”
“culture” has evolved. These days the terms “culture- In other words, everything else in the DSM-IV, and in life, is
bound” and, more often, “culture-related” have been grudg- culture-bound, too. While koro and its culture-bound kin languish
ingly accepted; after all, how is Western medicine supposed at the back, other conditions such as multiple personality dis-
to categorize such ailments as hikikomori, in which Japanese order, bulimia nervosa, type A personality, muscle dysmorphia,
children refuse to leave their rooms for years on end, or dhat, belief in government-implanted computer chips, and pet hoard-
in which Indians and Sri Lankans become ill with anxiety over ing are given universal status because Western psychiatrists
semen loss, or zar, in which some Middle Easterners and North cannot see beyond their own cultural horizons.
Africans are possessed by a spirit, or hwa-byung, the “fire ill-
ness” of Korean women in which anger is said to be manifest-

S
ing itself in physical symptoms including “palpitations” and “a tarrys Obazi sat across the table from me at Mr. Bigg’s,
feeling of mass in the epigastrium”? How can we fit these, and a cheap fast-food place on the north side of Lagos
a dozen other ailments, neatly into the pages of the DSM-IV, where we had agreed to meet. Around us, other Nige-
the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the rians walked past with their trays and sat down to eat their
Western bible of maladies of the mind? The fact is that there burgers and watch rap videos on the television behind us. Star-
was no good place until Pow Meng Yap created one—ill-fitting rys dug into his chicken. A wiry little man with a nasal voice,
as it may be—for these unruly members of the family of mental he had been an editor for fourteen years at FAME, a Nigerian
conditions whose causes cannot be found just in one mind but celebrity tabloid, until the publisher mysteriously stopped pay-
instead must be sought in the social. These conditions are not ing him. Jobs, even low-paying editorial jobs, were tough to
purely psychogenic, as psychiatry’s universalists once held all come by in Lagos, and it had been several years since Starrys
things must be. They are also sociogenic, or emerging from the had held one.
social fabric. Here, in the flesh, finally, was a man whose penis had been
This debate has mirrored a larger debate that took place in stolen. It happened one day in 1990, when Starrys was a reporter
the twentieth century over whether culture was something pure, at the Evening Times. While he was waiting for a bus to take him
something existing independently of the people who lived in to work, a man approached him and held out a piece of paper
it—something with an almost supernatural ability to shape with a street name on it.
those people into fundamentally different beings—or merely “Do you know where this is?” the man asked, without saying
accumulated wisdom, the chance collection of the behavior of a the name. Starrys did not know the street, and he thought this
group of individuals. Was culture a quasi-independent superor- was strange. He didn’t believe the street existed. Then another
ganism that shaped people? Or was it just a collection of human man behind Starrys, without seeing the paper, said where the
organisms? Did it produce us, or did we produce it? street was. This was even stranger.
Lately, a more nuanced conception of culture has emerged, The two men walked away, and Starrys started to feel some-
as evolutionary psychology begins to shed some light on what thing he had never felt before.
exactly culture is. It is neither nature nor nurture. It is both at the “At that moment,” Starrys told me, leaning forward, “I felt
same time, a positive feedback loop of tendencies and behav- something depart my body. I began to feel empty inside. I put
iors and knowledge and beliefs. It is, as the science writer Matt my hand into my pants, and touched my thing. It was unusu-
Ridley has called it, nature via nurture, or as primatologist Frans ally small—smaller than the normal size. And the scrotum was
de Waal put it in his book The Ape and the Sushi Master, “an flat. I put my fingers into the sockets, and they were not there.
extremely powerful modifier—affecting everything we do and The testes were gone. And I was just feeling empty!” His voice
are, penetrating to the core of human existence.” strained as he recalled the panic of that day.
In 1998, Charles Hughes, co-editor of Culture-Bound Syn- Starrys ran after the men and confronted them. “Something
dromes: Folk Illnesses of Psychiatric and Anthropological happened to my penis!” he told the man who had asked for

20

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 Article 5. A Mind Dismembered
directions. The man said he had no idea what Starrys was talk- in America all registered better health than native residents.
ing about. This phenomenon has come to be called the “healthy migrant
“Something told me inside not to shout,” he said. “Because effect.” Although most of the research has focused on physical
as soon as I shouted, he would have been lynched. And if he was indicators (cancer, heart disease, diabetes, etc.), recent studies
lynched, how could I get my penis back?” have started to look at the mental health of immigrants, which
I watched as Starrys finished his chicken and wiped his hands. seems to show a similar pattern. In 2000, one study concluded
“It was one quarter of its normal size,” he said emphatically, as if, that first-generation Mexican immigrants have better mental
even now, even he could not believe it had happened. But Starrys, health than their children born in the United States, despite the
a journalist and a worldly man, did believe it. And as I listened to latter group’s significant socioeconomic advantages—a finding,
him tell his story, I almost believed it, too. I could feel the inten- it noted, that was “inconsistent with traditional tenets on the
sity, the fear. It made a kind of sense, even if it didn’t make sense relationship among immigration, acculturation, and psychopa-
at all. I could start to see the world that his fear came from. I could thology.” The stress of immigration is assumed to have major
see what it was built on, and for a few minutes I could imagine mental-health costs, but here the opposite seemed to be true: the
standing there with Starrys on a street corner, alone in the world, longer immigrants remained in a developed country, the worse
helpless and missing my most cherished possession. I let go of my their mental health became.
doubts and gave in to the panic in Starrys’s voice, and it was real, For this reason, the healthy-migrant effect is also called
utterly. And I was afraid. This was how koro could be caught. the “acculturation paradox”: the more acculturated one is, the
Starrys continued with his story. Despite the men’s denials, less healthy one becomes. One study of Turkish immigrants to
one of them agreed to accompany Starrys to a nearby hospital to Germany showed the effect to last for at least a generation. A
document the theft. But just as they arrived at the hospital, the subsequent 2004 study of Mexican immigrants to the United
man grabbed Starrys and bellowed, “LET’S GO IIIIN!” And at States showed that “[w]ith few exceptions, foreign-born Mexi-
that moment something happened. can Americans and foreign-born non-Hispanic whites were at
“When he grabbed me,” Starrys said, “I felt calm again. I significantly lower risk of DSM-IV substance-use and mood-
felt an inner calm. I checked my testes, and they were there.” anxiety disorders compared with their US-born counterparts.”
He checked his penis as well, and the missing three quarters These included alcohol and drug abuse, major depression, dys-
had returned. The doctor examined Starrys and pronounced him thymia, mania, hypomania, panic disorder, social and specific
fine. On hearing Starrys’s story, though, the doctor admonished phobia, and generalized anxiety disorder. The longer they lived
the penis thief to quit causing trouble on the street. in the United States, the more they showed the particular dam-
age to the mind that our particular culture wreaks. People who
come to America eventually find themselves subject to our own

I
thought about Starrys. He had been a skeptic before his culture-related syndromes, which the DSM-IV can easily recog-
encounter; but on that day, his inner world shifted, and he nize and categorize, as acculturation forces their internal worlds
became afraid. He stopped giving directions. He stopped to conform to the external world, i.e., the American culture that
trusting strangers. He knew that magical penis loss was a real the DSM-IV knows best.
and terrifying possibility. He had, in a sense, been drawn into I could feel something similar happening to me in Nigeria.
the culture, into its beliefs, so far that he had caught this culture- I could feel plates shifting. I did not try to hold them back. As
bound syndrome. I listened to the tales of friends of friends, as I read the horror
We all go through a similar process of being formed by the stories in newspapers, as I watched the angry crowds on televi-
culture around us. It is something described well in Bruce Wex- sion, as I saw the fear and hatred in the eyes of the young O.P.C.
ler’s book Brain and Culture: Neuroscience, Ideology and Social men, and as I sat across from Starrys Obazi and heard the panic
Change, in which Wexler argues that much of human conflict in his voice, I could feel my own mind opening to this world
arises from our efforts to reconcile the world as we believe it to where such things were possible. I could see the logic. I could
exist (our internal structures) with the world we live in. Accord- feel the edge of belief. Something was starting to make sense.
ing to Wexler, we develop an inner world, a neuropsychological Now and then I would catch myself feeling strangely vulnerable
framework of values, cause and effect, expectations, and a gen- between my legs.
eral understanding of how things work. This inner world, which I was almost there, and it was time to see if I could get in just
underpins our culture, forms through early adulthood, after which a little further.
we strive to ensure it exists, or continues to exist, in the world
outside. Those inner structures can change in adulthood, but it is

T
more difficult given our decreased brain plasticity. he winding streets of Lagos were packed with people.
That different internal structures exert different pressures on Tens of thousands, coming and going, moving along
the mind (and body) should not be surprising. Every culture has sidewalks, jamming the streets so thickly that cars had
its own logic, its own beliefs, its own stresses. Once one buys into to push through them at a crawl, blaring their horns and parting
its assumptions, one becomes a prisoner to the logic. For some crowds like a snowplow.
people, that means a march toward its more tragic conclusions. I was far from Jankara Market when I started out and headed
Not long ago, medical researchers noticed a strange phenom- southwest toward Idumota, to walk through some of the most
enon: Turks in Germany, Vietnamese in England, and Mexicans crowded streets in the world, where I hoped to brush up against

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 ANNUAL EDITIONS
the boundary of this culture. I wanted to look back and see Then I clipped another man a little harder, but when I looked
someone checking if his manhood was still in place. back, it was like I wasn’t even there. I bumped a few more peo-
I climbed some stairs near a bank and stopped to watch the ple lightly, until finally I caught one man enough that I’m sure
city flow by. I walked back down the stairs and jumped into the he knew it was purposeful.
onrush. I moved with it. Together we were packed tightly, but But the magic failed. He didn’t reach down and grab himself,
we rarely touched. The winding streams of people ran easily didn’t point to me, didn’t accuse. He didn’t even give me a dirty
along, next to one another. I moved farther into the city, and as look. I was swimming in the water, but I could not get all the
I did, I watched the people pass within inches of me, then feint, way in, no matter how deep I dove. And so I let go, walked on,
slip by, barely brushing me. At first I tried to nudge a few people and allowed the current to carry me wherever it would.
with my shoulder, but most were too fast, too alert, too leery.
Walking along, I caught one man on the shoulder with mine. Frank Bures writes frequently about Africa. He lives in Madison,
But when I looked back, it seemed like he hadn’t even noticed. Wisconsin.

Reproduced from the June 2008, pp. 60–65. Issue of Harper’s Magazine, by special permission. Copyright © 2008 by Harper’s Magazine. All rights reserved.

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hut16341_05_48220.indd 22 1/15/09 9:43:59 AM

Other documents randomly have
different content
 T h e P ro j e c t G u t e n b e r g e B o o k o f Ly r a
C e l t i c a : A n A n t h o l o g y o f R e p re s e n t a t i v e
Celtic Poetry
 This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you
are not located in the United States, you will have to check the
laws of the country where you are located before using this
eBook.

Title: Lyra Celtica: An Anthology of Representative Celtic Poetry

Editor: Elizabeth A. Sharp

Contributor: William Sharp

Editor: J. Matthay

Release date: January 11, 2021 [eBook #64260]

Most recently updated: October 18, 2024

Language: English

Credits: Tim Lindell, Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed

Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LYRA CELTICA:

AN ANTHOLOGY OF REPRESENTATIVE CELTIC POETRY ***
 THE COLLECTED WORKS OF
“FIONA MACLEOD"
(WILLIAM SHARP)
I. Pharais; The Mountain Lovers.
II. The Sin-Eater; The Washer of the Ford, Etc.
III. The Dominion of Dreams; Under the Dark Star.
IV. The Divine Adventure; Iona; Studies in Spiritual History.
V. The Winged Destiny; Studies in the Spiritual History of the Gael.
VI. The Silence of Amor; Where the Forest Murmurs.
VII. Poems and Dramas.
The Immortal Hour—In paper covers.
SELECTED WRITINGS OF
WILLIAM SHARP
I. Poems.
II. Studies and Appreciations.
III. Papers, Critical and Reminiscent.
IV. Literary, Geography, and Travel Sketches.
V. Vistas: The Gipsy Christ and other Prose Imaginings.
Uniform with above, in two volumes
A MEMOIR OF WILLIAM SHARP
(FIONA MACLEOD)
Compiled by Mrs William Sharp
LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN

The Celtic
Library
LYRA CELTICA
First Edition 1896
Second Edition (Revised and Enlarged) 1924

LYRA CELTICA
AN ANTHOLOGY OF REPRE-
SENTATIVE CELTIC POETRY

EDITED BY
E. A. SHARP AND J. MATTHAY

WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES

By WILLIAM SHARP

ANCIENT IRISH, ALBAN, GAELIC, BRETON,

CYMRIC, AND MODERN SCOTTISH AND
IRISH CELTIC POETRY

EDINBURGH: JOHN GRANT

31 GEORGE IV. BRIDGE
1924

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY

OLIVER AND BOYD EDINBURGH
 CONTENTS

“ ... a troubled Eden, rich

In throb of heart ...”

GEORGE MEREDITH
 CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION xvii

ANCIENT IRISH AND SCOTTISH

The Mystery of Amergin 3
The Song of Fionn 4
Credhe’s Lament 5
Cuchullin in his Chariot 6
Deirdrê’s Lament for the Sons of Usnach 8
The Lament of Queen Maev 10
The March of the Faërie Host 12
Vision of a Fair Woman 13
The Fian Banners 14
The Rune of St Patrick 17
Columcille cecenit 18
Columcille fecit 20
The Song of Murdoch the Monk 22
Domhnull Mac Fhionnlaidh: “The Aged Bard’s Wish” 23
Ossian Sang 28
Fingal and Ros-crana 29
The Night-Song of the Bards 31
The Death-Song of Ossian 41

ANCIENT CORNISH
The Pool of Pilate 44, 45
Merlin the Diviner 46
The Vision of Seth 47

EARLY ARMORICAN
The Dance of the Sword 53
The Lord Nann and the Fairy 55
 Alain the Fox 58
Bran 60

EARLY CYMRIC AND MEDIÆVAL WELSH

The Soul 67
Llywarc’h Hên
The Gorwynion 68
The Tercets of Llywawrc’h 72
Taliesin
Song to the Wind 73
Aneurin
Odes of the Months 75
Dafydd ap Gwilym
The Summer 78
To the Lark 81
Rhys Goch (of Eryri)
To the Fox 82
Rhys Goch ap Rhiccart
The Song of the Thrush 83

IRISH (MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY)

“A.E.”
Sacrifice 87
The Great Breath 88
Mystery 89
By the Margin of the Great Deep 90
The Breath of Light 91
William Allingham
Æolian Harp 92
The Fairies 93
Thomas Boyd
To the Lianhuan Shee 95
Emily Brontë
Remembrance 97
Stopford A. Brooke
The Earth and Man 98
Song 99
John K. Casey
Maire, my Girl 101
Gracie Og Machree 103
George Darley
Dirge 104
Aubrey De Vere
The Little Black Rose 105
Epitaph 106
Francis Fahy
Killiney Far Away 107
Sir Samuel Ferguson
Cean Dubh Deelish 109
Molly Asthore 110
The Fair Hills of Ireland 112
Alfred Percival Graves
Herring is King 113
The Rose of Kenmare 115
The Song of the Pratee 118
Irish Lullaby 120
Gerald Griffin
Eileen Aroon 121
Nora Hopper
 The Dark Man 123
April in Ireland 124
The Wind among the Reeds 125
Douglas Hyde
My Grief on the Sea 126
The Cooleen 127
The Breedyeen 128
Nelly of the Top-Knots 130
I shall not Die for Thee 132
Lionel Johnson
The Red Wind 133
To Morfydd 134
Denis Florence Maccarthy
A Lament 135
James Clarence Mangan
The Fair Hills of Eiré, O! 137
Dark Rosaleen 139
The One Mystery 142
Rosa Mulholland
The Wild Geese 144
Roden Noël
Lament for a Little Child 146
The Swimmer 148
The Dance 151
From “The Water-Nymph and the Boy” 152
A Casual Song 154
The Pity of it 155
The Old 157
Charles P. O’Conor
Maura Du of Ballyshannon 158
John Francis O’Donnell
A Spinning Song 160
John Boyle O’Reilly
A White Rose 161
Arthur O’Shaughnessy
The Fountain of Tears 162
Fanny Parnell
After Death 165
T. W. Rolleston
The Dead at Clonmacnois 166
Dora Sigerson
Unknown Ideal 167
George Sigerson
Mo Cáilin Donn 168
John Todhunter
An Irish Love Song 170
The Sunburst 171
Song 173
Katherine Tynan
Winter Sunset 174
Shamrock Song 176
Wild Geese 178
Charles Weekes
Dreams 179
Poppies 180
W. B. Yeats
They went forth to the Battle, but they always fell 181
The White Birds 183
The Lake of Innisfree 184
SCOTO-CELTIC (MIDDLE PERIOD)
Prologue to “Gaul” 187
In Hebrid Seas 189
Cumha Ghriogair Mhic Griogair 191
Drowned 194
Alexander Macdonald
The Manning of the Birlinn 195
Angus Mackenzie
The Lament of the Deer 201
Duncan Bàn MacIntyre
Ben Dorain 203
The Hill-Water 208
Mary Macleod
Song for Macleod of Macleod 210

MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY SCOTO-

CELTIC
Monaltri 217
An Coineachan—A Highland Lullaby 218
A Boat Song 219
John Stuart Blackie
The Old Soldier of the Gareloch Head 222
Robert Buchanan
Flower of the World 224
The Strange Country 225
The Dream of the World without Death 228
The Faëry Foster-Mother 235
Lord Byron
When we Two Parted 238
Stanzas for Music 239
 Colin’s Cattle 240
MacCrimmon’s Lament 241
Ian Cameron
Song 242
John Davidson
A Loafer 243
In Romney Marsh 245
Jean Glover
O’er the Muir amang the Heather 246
George Macdonald
Song 247
Ronald Campbell Macfie
Song 249
William Macdonald
A Spring Trouble 250
Amice Macdonell
Culloden Moor 251
Alice C. Macdonell
The Weaving of the Tartan 252
William Macgillivray
The Thrush’s Song 254
Fiona Macleod
The Prayer of Women 255
The Rune of Age 257
A Milking Song 259
Lullaby 261
The Songs of Ethlenn Stuart 262
The Closing Doors 264
The Sorrow of Delight 265
Norman Macleod
Farewell to Fiunary 266
Sarah Robertson Matheson
A Kiss of the King’s Hand 267
Dugald Moore
The First Ship 268
Lady Caroline Nairne
The Land o’ the Leal 269
Alexander Nicolson
Skye 270
Sir Noël Paton
Midnight by the Sea 272
In Shadowland 273
William Renton
Mountain Twilight 274
Lady John Scott
Durisdeer 275
Earl of Southesk
November’s Cadence 276
John Campbell Shairp
Cailleach Bein-y-Vreich 277
Una Urquhart
An Old Tale of Three 279
Anon.
Lost Love 280

CONTEMPORARY ANGLO-CELTIC POETS

(WALES)
George Meredith
Dirge in Woods 283
Outer and Inner 284
Night of Frost in May 286
Hymn to Colour 289
Sebastian Evans
Shadows 292
Ebenezer Jones
When the World is Burning 293
The Hand 294
Emily Davis
A Song of Winter 296
Ernest Rhys
The Night Ride 297
The House of Hendra 298

CONTEMPORARY ANGLO-CELTIC POETS

(MANX)
T. E. Brown
The Childhood of Kitty of the Sherragh Vane 307
Hall Caine
Graih my Chree 309

CONTEMPORARY ANGLO-CELTIC POETS

(CORNISH)
A. T. Quiller Couch
The Splendid Spur 317
The White Moth 318
Stephen Hawker
 Featherstone’s Doom 319
Trebarrow 320
Riccardo Stephens
Witch Margaret 321
A Ballad 323
Hell’s Piper 325

MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY BRETON

The Poor Clerk 331
The Cross by the Way 333
The Secrets of the Clerk 335
Love Song 336
Hervé-Noël le Breton
Hymn to Sleep 338
The Burden of Lost Souls 340
Villiers de l’Isle-Adam
Confession 342
Discouragement 343
Leconte de Lisle
The Black Panther 344
The Spring 346
Leo-Kermorvan
The Return of Taliesen 348
Louis Tiercelin
By Menec’hi Shore 351

THE CELTIC FRINGE

Bliss Carman
Song 355
The War-Song of Gamelbar 356
Golden Rowan 359
 A Sea Child 360
Ellen Mackay Hutchinson
The Quest 361
Moth Song 362
June 363
Hugh M‘Culloch
Scent o’ Pines 364
Duncan Campbell Scott
The Reed-Player 365
Thomas D’Arcy M‘CGee
The Celtic Cross 366
Mary C. G. Byron
The Tryst of the Night 368
Alice E. Gillington
The Doom-Bar 369
The Seven Whistlers 371
Shane Leslie
Requiem 373
Padraic Colum
An Old Woman of the Roads 374
A Cradle Song 375
James Stephens
The Coolun 376
The Clouds 377
Eleanor Hull
The Old Woman of Beare 378
Thomas Macdonagh
From a “Litany of Beauty” 381
Seosamh Maccathmhaoil
I will go with my Father a-ploughing 383
A Northern Love Song 384
Patrick MacGill
Fairy Workers 385
Francis Ledwidge
The Shadow People 386
My Mother 387
Gordon Bottomley
Lyric from “The Crier by Night” 388
James H. Cousins
The Quest 389
Padraic H. Pearse
The Fool 390
Lord Dunsany
The Return of Song 392
Kenneth Macleod
Dance to your Shadow 393
Sea Longing 394
The Reiving Ship 395
Marjory Kennedy-Fraser
Land of Heart’s Desire 396
Ossian’s Midsummer Day-Dream 397
Kishmul’s Galley 398
Agnes Mure Mackenzie
Aignish on the Machair 399
Neil Munro
Fingal’s Weeping 400
 403-
NOTES
450
 INTRODUCTION

I N this foreword I must deal cursorily with a great and fascinating subject,
for “Lyra Celtica” has extended beyond its original limits, and Text and
Notes have absorbed much of the space which had been allotted for a
preliminary dissertation on the distinguishing qualities and characteristics of
Celtic literature.
For most readers, the interest of an anthology is independent of any
introductory remarks: the appeal is in the wares, not in the running
commentary of the hawker. For those, however, who have looked for a
detailed synthesis, as well as for the Celticists who may have expected an
ample, or, at least, a more adequately representative selection from the older
Celtic literatures, I have a brief word to say before passing on to the matter
in hand.
In the first place, this volume is no more than an early, and, in a sense,
merely arbitrary, gleaning from an abundant harvest. For “Lyra Celtica” is
not so much the introduction to a much larger, more organic, and more
adequately representative work, to be called “Anthologia Celtica,” but is
rather the outcome of the latter, itself culled from a vast mass of material,
ancient, mediæval, and modern. It is, moreover, intentionally given over
mainly to modern poetry. “Anthologia Celtica” may not appear for a year or
two hence, perhaps not for several years; for a systematic effort to compile a
scholarly anthology, on chronological and comparative lines, of the ancient
poetry of Irish and Scottish Gaeldom, of the Cymric, Armorican, and other
Brythonic bards, is a task not to be lightly undertaken, or fulfilled in
anything like satisfactory degree without that patience and care which only
enthusiastic love of the subject can give, and for which the extrinsic reward
is payable in rainbow-gold alone.
In the second place, all that was intended to be written here, will be given
more fully and more systematically in a volume to be published later: “An
Introduction to the Study of Celtic Literature.” Therein an effort is made to
illustrate the distinguishing imaginative qualities of the several Celtic races;
to trace the origins, dispersion, interfusion, and concentration of the early
Celtic, Picto-Celtic, and later Goidelic and Brythonic peoples, and to reflect
Celtic mythopœic and authentic history through Celtic poetry and legendary
lore. Concurrently there is an endeavour to relate, in natural order, the
development of the literature of contemporary Wales, Brittany, Ireland, and
Celtic Scotland, from their ancient Cymric, Armorican, Erse, and Alban-
Gaelic congeners.

It is not yet thirty years ago since Matthew Arnold published his
memorable and beautiful essay on Celtic Literature, so superficial in its
knowledge, it is true, but informed by so keen and fine an interpretative
spirit; yet already, since 1868, the writings of Celtic specialists constitute
quite a library.
Of recent years we have had many works of the greatest value in Celtic
ethnology, philology, history, archæology, art, legendary ballads and
romances, folk-lore, and literature. Of all the Celtic literatures, that which
was least known, when Arnold wrote, was the Scoto-Gaelic; but now with
books such as Skene’s “Celtic Scotland,” Campbell’s “Popular Tales of the
West Highlands,” with its invaluable supplementary matter, Dr Cameron’s
“Reliquiæ Celticæ,” and many others, there is no difficulty for the would-be
student. Again, it is impossible to overrate the value of popular books at
once so able, so trustworthy, and so readily attainable, as Professor Rhys’s
“Celtic Britain,” or Dr Douglas Hyde’s “Story of Early Gaelic Literature”;
while Breton literature, ancient or modern, has found almost as many, and
certainly as able and enthusiastic, exponents as that of Wales or that of
Ireland. In Ireland there is, with Mr Standish Hayes O’Grady, Dr Douglas
Hyde, Dr Sigerson, and many more, quite an army of workers in every
branch of Celtic science and literature; in Scotland one less numerous
perhaps, but not less ardent and justly enthusiastic; and in Wales the old
Cymric spirit survives unabated, from the Butt of Anglesea to the marches
of Hereford. In Brittany there was, till the other day, Hersart de la
Villemarqué, and now there are M. de Jubainville, M. Loth, M. Anatole Le
Braz, M. Auguste Brizeux, Charles Le Goffic, Louis Tiercelin, and many
more philologists and other students, poets, romancists, and critics.
Cornwall has not been neglected, nor has Man, and even the outlying fringe
of Celtdom has found interpreters and expounders. In France the “Revue
Celtique”; in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, Gaelic or Welsh or Anglo-Celtic
periodicals and “Transactions,” stimulate a wider and deeper interest, and do
inestimable service. The writings of men such as Renan, De Jubainville,
Valroger, and other French Celticists: of Windisch, Kuno Meyer, and other
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