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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A bizarre historical look back at our varied sexuality, December 5, 2008
This review is from: The Best of Sexology: Kinky and Kooky Excerpts from America's First Sex Magazine (Hardcover)
If you've even had sex with a chicken, or plan to, this is the book for you. (Finally an answer to the question, "which came first...")
Sexology was the long-running magazine that talked about things you just didn't talk about, back in an era when that covered an awful lot of ground.
This book collects some of the best - and strangest - from Sexology's long publishing history, including: Can Humans and Animals Crossbreed? How To Have a Successful Honeymoon, Types of French Prostitutes, and Sex Among the Eskimos. This isn't "Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex But Were Afraid To Ask." Instead, "The Best of Sexology" answers questions you never had about topics you didn't know existed. (Pregnant Men, When Midgets Marry)
Celebrity value comes from discussing the proclivities of such famous individuals as Hitler, Napoleon, Victor Hugo, Ben Franklin and Satan. You'll have to buy the book to see which one had the oddest sex life.
Sexual fetishes is a frequent topic, and the book covers many I'd never heard of (and can't wait to try!).
But don't be fooled into thinking this is a hot book. A lot of the articles focus on freakish deformities (Humans with Tails!) taking any hint of eroticism out of the subject of sex. In a way, it's an exercise in talking about sex without being sexy. You'll read more stimulating descriptions in a cookbook. But that's what makes Sexology so fascinating. Imagine what it was like to read this stuff in the Fifties!
From Elvis Presley to elephantiasis, The Best of Sexology covers all the various aspects of human sexuality, plus a few I think they made up.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Many excellent articles on important subjects., February 7, 2010
This review is from: The Best of Sexology: Kinky and Kooky Excerpts from America's First Sex Magazine (Hardcover)
This book actually contains some first-rate writing on serious topics related to human and animal sexuality -- and it is the height of irony that Mr. Yoe has decided to cloak it all in such a patronizing, finger-pointing presentation. Five stars for many of the articles, two stars for the compiler.
Undoubtedly, the magazine had its sensationalist side, meant to titillate most people's appetite for things that fall outside of "normal" sexuality. So Mr. Yoe chooses to open the book with far-fetched and wholly unscientific article on cross-breeding between species. But before long one finds some pretty insightful essays based on solid historical research, such as Robert Wood's piece on chastity belts, to some pretty accurate treatments of adultery and other issues that arise with "deviant" sexuality. We need more honest, thought-provoking writing on these taboo subjects and I'm afraid a snarky book such as this one only contributes to diminishing perception of this field.
The juvenile approach to this material by Mr. Yoe is quite indicative of American parochialism and shows that "Sexology" utterly failed to make an impression on his thoughts. While our contemporary sexual culture has become much more open and exhibitionist, we have in no way surmounted most of the issues brought about by these writers from decades past. In fact, we may be in more denial than ever before.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Hapiness in Slavery (and other bedtime notions!), December 23, 2010
This review is from: The Best of Sexology: Kinky and Kooky Excerpts from America's First Sex Magazine (Hardcover)
People look at books all the time, remembering how much a bucket of this or that cost, how much a car would have been, or how far a dollar would go when your parents were a'spending. With this book, you have a view of a subject that was somewhat taboo at the time and that people really didn't talk about when they were kicking it with their friends. Homosexual chickens, the perfect bosy, Kinsley's report; so many things are there and so many things are really, really funny. In a lot of ways they reflect the way society saw the subject of intamacy and talking about their tastes, concealing it in some really odd notions.
It makes me wonder exactly what people were thinking.
Reading this has amused countless people around me thusfar, and the book itself is not vulgar compared to so many other publictions. It has a cover that does not have to be convered, and it has a variety of things. I stil might not sit down and read it with people in my exptended family, but I would read it with my wife and get a laugh out of it. a lot of other people would, too, because it is funny.
Funny and very good to give as a real gift or a gag gift.
The back lists these subjects to give you an idea: Chickens, priapism, vampirism, pregnantmen, when midget marry, twin beds or single, humans with tails, french "ladies," adolph hitlers loving life, sex and satan, and more. Its a lot of laughs but it still isn't all ages - I hope that shows. 5/5 for what you might discover buried in the black of osmeone's aging mind.
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