In 1953 when Lucille Ball became pregnant, the censors required the characters on "I Love Lucy" to say only that the wacky redhead was "in the family way"-they feared the word "pregnant" might conjure up, in the minds of viewers, images of a man and woman having sexual intercourse. Now, some fifty years later, from giant billboards featuring nearly nude models in Times Square to Bill Clinton's creative definition of sex to Madonna and Britney's prime-time kiss, sex pervades virtually every aspect of public life, including the films and television programs we watch, the music we listen to, and the racy ads that bombard us. What happened?Through lively prose and engaging examples, Sex Sells! illuminates this arc from repression to obsession vis-à-vis changing sexual mores during the last five decades. Not only does the author examine how a broad range of media genres have reflected this libidinous journey, but he also shows how the media have played a leading role in propelling the Sexual Revolution. Whether it was the decision by Cosmo editor Helen Gurley Brown to run a photo of a nude Burt Reynolds in 1972 or the recent success of Showtime's sexually explicit "Queer as Folk," the media have led the charge in bringing sex into the mainstream. Along the way, what the author terms "sexual literacy" has become vital, especially for young media consumers. For Rodger Streitmatter, unlike many critics, believes that much of the media's sexual content is beneficial, as it gives parents and educators a jumping-off point from which to discuss such matters as AIDS, sexual identity, and sexual mores. In this age of continuing sexual liberation, such a viewpoint seems especially important and timely.
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About the Author
Rodger Streitmatter is a professor of communications at American University. A former reporter for the Roanoke (Virginia) Times & World News, he is the author of five previous books. He lives in Washington, D.C.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Better Luck Next Time,
By
This review is from: Sex Sells!: The Media's Journey From Repression To Obsession (Hardcover)
Any nonfiction book implies a level of trust between the author and the reader. Mr. Streitmatter lost that trust early in the book and never quite got it back. In the first chapter, he made two assertions which are clearly false. First he cites the statistics in Alfred Kinsey's work and only in a footnote does he reveal that Kinsey's research population was so flawed (up to 80% of his interviewees were criminals or homosexuals) that it makes no sense to cite the statistics as examples of anything. Then, he cites the long discredited allegation that J. Edgar Hoover wore women's dresses. He even gets the false allegation wrong. Mr. Streitmatter cites Anthony Summers, whose sole source for the charge in his very flawed biography was the wife of a man the FBI sent to jail. Summers claimed that Hoover wore a women's dress to a fancy ball at New York's Plaza Hotel (which would have meant that hundreds or thousands of people would have seen him, making it bizarre that Summers could find no witnesses other than a source with a grudge against Hoover), not in his own house, as Streitmatter would have it.
Anyone with standards loses patience with Mr. Streitmatter after that. And that's a shame, because the author has an important point to make: that the media has hidden messages even in its most frivolous amusements and that it behooves us all - puritan or libertine - to understand them. This is a lesson that everyone needs to learn about all media, not just the sexually oriented ones. It is, indeed, important to look beneath the surface to figure out just how the media is trying to influence you. All messages are propaganda and you need to be alert. The author takes several examples of popular media - movies, magazines, television shows, etc. - from Playboy in the 1950s to modern media to show how the media has operated to change sexual mores in America. Although the author's sympathy, with his references to "outdated moral codes" and "sexual repression," are clear, he does an admirably fair job of presenting opposing views. I would have preferred a more complex analysis. He presents these media at the height of their power and shows how they changed the prevailing mood, but I would have preferred it if he went a little farther to look at the downfall of these media: why did Playboy lose circulation to Penthouse and why did they both later lose out to less explicit magazines? Why was All in the Family cancelled or Three's Company lose its audience? You should be able to understand not just how these media made changes but why they got left in the dust. It would have also been worth examining the connection between more explicitness in the media and such modern phenomena as low birthrates and young people uninterested in sex or marriage. It may very well be, as a better book has it, that it is sexual taboos which kept sex interesting for so many centuries and that destroying those taboos also destroys the sex drive.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing,
By Mark Twain (Georgia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Sex Sells!: The Media's Journey From Repression To Obsession (Hardcover)
So basically, this book, in addition to being factual, is also facinating. The information has helped me greatly and the whole book kept my attention for more than a week. A great find and a great read!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sex Sells? I'll take 2 please.,
This review is from: Sex Sells!: The Media's Journey From Repression To Obsession (Hardcover)
I recently chose this book for an English paper in my Comp II class. Had I never had that assignment, I never would have read the book and I would have missed a lot. Streitmatter does an excellent job at taking an issue, sex in the media, that is generally looked down upon, and giving it a positive outlook. This book focuses on Americas exceptance and openess of sexuality, and the steps that took them there. From topics such as birth control, so sex in music and The Doors, and from Cosmo to Reality TV. Streitmatter covers them in a very educational way. All these things influenced what the media is today.
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