Public Sex: The Culture of Radical Sex [Paperback]

Pat Califia (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1994

For nearly two decades, Pat Califia has been "fuming and fussing" about censorship and the rights of perverts in America. Whether she's writing about lesbian relationships, S/M and "leather sex," sex between lesbians and gay men, eroticizing latex and safe sex, role-playing and genderbending, sex with youth, prostitution, or sex in public, Califia's essays-clear, consistent, provocative and eminently reasonable- set the standard for writing about sex. Public Sex collects the very best of Califia's work, providing both a chronicle of the sex radical movement in this country as well as the definitive positions of America's most consistent and trenchant sexual critic.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Among the beacons of sex radicalism--alongside Susie Bright, Carol Queen, Kate Bornstein, and very few others--Pat Califia has been writing angry, sex-positive essays and politically charged erotica since the late 1970s. The bulk of her many nonfiction pieces is collected in this reprint of a book first published in 1994, providing a lively, informal history of the sex wars of the '80s and '90s--from the absurd, puritanical Meese Commission Report to the antiporn feminists to the unexamined attitudes behind the popular Re/Search book Modern Primitives. The chief apologist for the S/M community and one of the strongest voices in the anticensorship fight, Califia is at her best when the subject is closest to home. Her peevish reflections on the stupidity and political shortsightedness of anti-S/M feminists and lesbians are a joy to read; you can hear the swish of her whip and the stamp of her boot heel. With its excellent introduction, this book should be on the shelf of every feminist, every lesbian, every sexual adventurer, and anyone who hopes to understand sexual politics in America. --Regina Marler --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

"Today, at the amazing age of forty, I am trying to cause just as much trouble as I did when I was twenty-five," writes Califia, author of 12 books, including Macho Sluts and Sapphistry. Public Sex comprises 19 of Califia's smartest essays on sex and politics from 1980 to the present. Always intelligent but never academic, Califia takes bold, unpopular stances on censorship and sexual freedom. She unequivocally supports NAMBLA (North American Man-Boy Love Association), sex clubs, pornography and kinky sex of all kinds. No aspect of sex is too forbidden or too undignified to merit Califia's critical attention: she devotes an entire essay to rubber, and she doesn't just mean safe sex equipment. The older articles are from popular gay-community newspapers and magazines, while the most recent are from academic journals, although the older pieces are no less theoretical and the newer pieces no less sexy. This comparison gives some credence to Califia's claim that "the gay press has traded censorship by the chief of police or the postmaster general for a more subtle form of social control by Absolut Vodka."
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Cleis Pr; 1st Edition/ 2nd Printing edition (October 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0939416891
• ISBN-13: 978-0939416899
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,779,044 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bold and articulate, December 28, 2000

By 

Joan Mazza "Author, speaker, poet" (Mineral, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Public Sex: The Culture of Radical Sex (Paperback)

My first reading of Pat Califia's work was in PoMoSexuals, a collection of essays where she was one of the contributors. Her writing was so eloquent and coherent that I sought out her books. In this collection of her essays, Califia challenges the muddled thinking and hyperbole so prevalent among feminists (especially Andrea Dworkin) about pornography and sexual "deviance." Califia's knowledge and arguments are stated clearly with humor and compassion. Many quotable quotes such as: "It is true that pornography is marketed for a male audience, but there are women who enjoy it. I do not think it sufficient to say these women are brainwashed by the patriarchy, since women are socialized NOT to use erotic materials." (p. 109)

[about teen interest in sex] "Any attempt at independence and autonomy by a young person is seen as wickedness, rebellion, and evil." (p. 80) And: "It is adult outrage and shame over such perfectly normal activities that give young people the idea that there's something wrong with sex or nudity, and intimidates them out of asking the questions they need to explore their own erotic natures." (p. 81)

"Instead of praying for extraordinary talents, we should pray for the good sense to fully use the talents we have been given." (p. 259)

I found this book informative and very thought provoking and recommend it for anyone with strong feelings, pro or con, about the rights of sexual minorities.

~~Joan Mazza, author of Dream Back Your Life; Dreaming Your Real Self; Things That Tick Me Off; and Exploring Your Sexual Self.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Public Sex: political, sexual, intelligent thought, June 24, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Public Sex: The Culture of Radical Sex (Paperback)

at one point in Public Sex, Pat Califia says that "you can still be a sex radical even if you prefer to get off in the missionary position and still believe there are only two genders." it's an important thing to remember. in this collection of essays, Califia explores -- over a period of about a dozen years -- issues of sex, politics, and where the two intersect (usually by bolstering the latter at the expense of the former). she explains why sexual freedoms and sexual responsibility are rights we all deserve, though many of us don't get them. she confronts the p.c. "feminist" positions on issues like pornography, prostitution, and S/M, and her well-thought-out points will make any reader pause. Public Sex changed my life, making me more aware than i had ever been of the sheer *perversity* of the strictures on sexual behavior in our culture today. the more people read this book, the better our chances of gaining those liberties that all of us deserve.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful yet intellectually serious work from a pioneer in the sex-positive movement, September 24, 2006

By 

socialecologist85 "Michael" (Arkansas, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Public Sex: The Culture of Radical Sex (Hardcover)

This books collects many of Patrick Califia's writings from the late 1970s through the early 90s and is a real jewel of a book. I recommend the newest edition, publish in the early 2000s that includes a new introduction and new essay on the most controversial topic in the book that is well worth reading for it shows the evolution of Califia's thought on an immensely contentious subject.

Besides that essay, there are numerous others that the term 'eye opening' would be an understatement in describing. Her promotion of a sex-positive feminist and queer viewpoint is always a joy to read and her essays on lesbian sexuality, the empowering aspects of S/M, on the persecution and shaming of prostitutes by the Right and the Left, and many other works are all a breath of fresh air. Califia is definitely to be commended for fighting to put the sex back into sexuality, and in this increasingly prim, proper, and puritanically-minded society of ours, that is a blessing.

Califia takes on virtually all the great bugaboos of the more puritanical, embourgeoisized, and authoritarian elements of the feminist and LGBTQ movements which serve, in all seriousness, as distractions that prevent liberatory-minded feminists and queer activists from the pooling our resources from the urgent task of fighting for and building a more free, democratic, and substantively just world.