Presenting Vesalius’ “penis-vagina” (as many students took to calling it) on the first day of class immediately primed students to dissect early modern social constructions of gender and sexuality.
Archives of Desire
The College Roots of Hugh Hefner and Playboy
A college humor magazine, Shaft, documents Hugh Hefner’s first forays into commercializing sex.
Die Bi(e)! Reading Bisexual Women’s History
Female bisexuality generates both particularly intense anger and fetishization that demand greater historical attention.
Collecting Riot Grrrl: Sexual Awakening in NYU’s Punk Archive
NYU’s Riot Grrrl Collection is that of a movement that provided a new path for young women’s sexuality
Disembodied Desire
For Victorians, the hand served as an acceptable object of fixation upon which to leer and project meaning and fantasy.
Archives of Desire: Sexualisation of Girlhood During Edwardian Times
Risqué Edwardian postcards are precursors and the sexualisation of childhood today.
Out of the Closet, Into the Archives: Researching Sexual Histories
Can an archive offer “proof” that historians often seek out?
Recent Posts
Porno Chic and the Sex Wars: A Roundtable on the Politics of Sexual Representations in the 1970s – Part 3
Tongzhi: “Queer” Identity Politics in Hong Kong Before and After the Handover
Do I have to have sex with my spouse? Two medieval answers
Queer History in the Divided City: A New Approach to Digital Mapping
‘Deviant and over-sexed’ or ‘respectful and vanilla’: Intimate stories from Australian Lesbians