The Pleasure's All Mine: A History of Perverse Sex Hardcover – December 15, 2013

This Book is not for the squeamish or faint of heart. It bluntly talks about subjects such necrophilia, bestiality and incest. It provides a look at how our attitudes towards many sexual taboos have changed throughout time. Often many sexual acts we now deem as taboo were once viewed as almost normal, and vice versa. Pedophilia, homosexuality, and the age of consent, are three of the stand out topics that seemed to be more taboo now than they were in the ancient world. As for the topic of bestiality turns out this sexual fetish, is a lot more common than many, including myself would have guessed. I've read many books on sex and this one is good, but I wish it just went a little deeper into the psychological reasons people indulge in these behaviors. It does touch on some of the psychological aspects, but I just wished it went a little further. A book I thought was even better than this one on the subject of sex, was Robin Baker's, "Sperm Wars", but in today's politically correct climate, where one can't even make a sexual joke, this books is a breath of fresh raunchy air.

Peakman discusses the delightful and the disturbing sides of sexual practice. She reminds us of both the diversity of sexual behavior and the essentially arbitrary nature of past and present limitations on it. She concludes with an ethical approach to sexual practice: consent, protection of the vulnerable, and consistency with regard to age of consent. This is a refreshing review of these intriguing issues.

First, this really is a history, with a lot of thoughtful comment on changing times, changing mores. Illustrations quite good, but not pornography. And unlike a lot of academic work, this is extremely readable. Extremely high publishing quality, superb paper and binding. A book to read, enjoy, and then pass on to a friend with an open mind.

Very well written, researched and organized. Every thing you wanted to know about sex from the beginning of time and more.

Fascinating mix of history and scientific anecdotes.

What's natural and what's unnatural, after all, when sex is the issue? The standards deviate over time, and the historical struggle in the West to define what is acceptable and what is deviant comprises this study, promoted as the first one-volume summary of "perverse sex".

Following Peakman's scholarship on eighteenth-century British prostitution and pornography, this European-centered presentation peers beyond English shores to look back to classical and biblical reactions to varieties of sex, and--given the limits of firsthand evidence for much of history, often relying upon court testimony and scientific or religious examination--personal accounts when a few dare or boast or are coerced into admitting their own indulgences. Peakman's argument remains clear throughout a dozen thematic chapters. "Normal" does not always equate with heterosexual, male-dominated activities. Standards keep changing. The abnormal alters over time and space.

Despite the unreliability of much of ancient literary or artistic evidence, and the scarcity of trustworthy medieval and early modern accounts for, understandably, a topic prone to secrecy more than display by many of its adherents, the sexual practices uncovered do reveal a similar pattern. For instance, as Peakman lists early on, "oral sex, masturbation, homosexuality, lesbianism, transvestism, flagellation, exhibitionism, voyeurism" all have been accepted by ancient peoples, then condemned by Christian societies, and denigrated by those who in recent centuries began to replace the labels attached to such behaviors. As Western culture secularized, these actions were not so much "sinful" as "irrational"; the medical profession rushed to prevent the acceptance of such activities as normal.

Taking masturbation as one example, what Greek or Roman physicians might have recommended to patients, what Christians condemned, what Enlightenment-era or Victorian physicians diagnosed as a physical or mental disorder, and what modern counterparts judge as "a healthy and necessary alternative to procreative sex" typifies the "life cycle of a sexual perversion".

Peakman examines same-sex male and female sexuality, and she distinguishes differences in social or cultural reactions. Men tended to, in the ancient world, be accepted if they dominated the homosexual coupling, while the passive partner was seen as weak, often a slave or a boy trapped, perhaps in a power differential. Women were also regarded as passive, and therefore dismissed as subservient. For lesbians, the sanctioned intimacy many females of any sexual preference tended to demonstrate among themselves allowed women to pursue same-sex relationships with less scrutiny by authorities and less danger than homosexuals. In 1921, an act of Parliament banning lesbianism was never passed. It seemed better to overlook the practice rather than to draw attention by prosecuting it.

A provocative chapter on bestiality enlivens the range of invention. Peakman muses whether this practice was more a question of preference or of opportunity, for what until the last century was a European population with many people growing up much more closely in contact with animals next to them on farms or nearby in villages. As with homosexuals and masturbators, those who clung to critters were often exposed by those who spied through holes in the walls or windows upon their misbehaving neighbors. The crime was often punished by death, both to the creature and the human.

Peakman returns at the conclusion of many chapters to the need for consent. This proves the crux of the matter. Partners may be assumed to agree, but in BDSM, can one legally go along with one's own assault? If an animal is a participant in sexual activity, can that creature be said to agree? If so, what does that mean, and how could such consent be determined? As for necrophilia, the dead partner certainly lost any say in the matter. Pedophilia has had its recent advocates who claim consent exists by those who perhaps may be at the legal age of consent (which varies), but as Peakman notes, attempts by that faction to come out and gain acceptance during the 1980s in the wake of gay rights movements only resulted in more persecution, as child-lovers were marched back to the closet.

The Marquis de Sade emerges as an inevitable spokesman in this debate. In his epigram to Juliette (1797-1801), "he defended its publication stating that he saw 'unnatural vices' as 'the strange vices inspired by Nature'. 'Natural' for Sade were all the perversions he described." Peakman sums up this twist: Sadeian philosophy asserts natural origins for all our actions, so they all logically are natural.

But, as the words sadist and masochist capture for two centuries since, those men who originated these terms celebrated a brutality and an exchange of power where consent may not always be arranged. Peakman reminds us of the Roman males who took sex rather than asked for it. She turns to the plight of the Victorian or Edwardian child unable to resist the predicament of his or her exploitation. "Men had no need to rape starving victims; they merely needed a few pence in their pockets and an eye for a starving child." As with the desperate or lonely, the inventive or deluded who sought release or comfort in grasping a horse or a cat, so Peakman draws the reader's attention to those who have been at the receiving end or found a blunt slap regarding bold sexual relationships.

With exhibitionism and voyeurism, the question of victimization now recedes; ironically, Peakman shows how until very recently with the advent of the Internet and mass-media, these two activities often depended on the lack of consent of those on display for the delight of Peeping Toms. Their female equivalents in public (and here we can include printed material--this book itself is illustrated with many period examples--and the media) may increasingly show off their vaginas and labias, Peakman finds, but the respective amount of depictions of the erect male phallus lags far behind. The gender imbalance, she mentions if only as an aside, as to who is looking at whom appears throughout much of the West; one limit of this book is that it does not examine global cultures to offer a broader perspective for comparison and contrast. This is admittedly a hefty volume as it is, yet her coverage for all its lively details rushes by, leaving the reader wanting much more than her many casual remarks when the need to interpret material and not only to collate and paraphrase it arises so often.

In a too terse but necessary epilogue, Peakman considers harmful sex "to the degree of death or bodily harm between consenting adults (sexual cannibalism or sadomasochism); second, vulnerable adults [e.g., those with learning difficulties or Down's syndrome]; and, third, the age of consent." As I hinted above, the final category has always varied. While she does not delve into some of these areas with sufficient detail, Peakman advises more monitoring of institutions against abuse, and better support for those who may be at risk of coercion or manipulation.

Finally, as procreation at last appears to be "no longer a sexual necessity (or hazard)" for more men and women, sexual acts themselves gain parity. Peakman judges that any kind of sex becomes a matter of preference. We now enjoy freedom of choice, extended and abetted by a mediating Internet. We redraw intimate boundaries, beyond those of one's own body and a willing partner (or two?) close at hand.

WOW! Way to go, Ms. Peakman! This is one of the most meticulously researched, comprehensive and entertaining read I have had in a very long time! She absolutely knows what she is talking about, and her passion for the subject is admirable and infectious. I wish there were more authors like her who had the ability to sift through the cultural and religious baggage surrounding the delicate topic of human sexuality and were able to produce works of such academic integrity and solid prose. I absolutely loved the glossy pages and helpful illustrations scattered throughout the text. You can never hide real talent and solid authorship, and Julie Peakman has produced a masterpiece in every sense of the word. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!