Sexual Conduct

"With the continuing attention to the study of sexualities, readers now have the opportunity to revisit--or encounter for the first time--a classic in the field. Rereading Gagnon and Simon's "Sexual Conduct" reminds us of its importance in having established over thirty years ago the foundation for understanding the social dimensions of sexuality while also providing us with creative insights relevant to today's issues and theoretical debates. This is a key book everyone doing research and writing about sexuality must read in order to learn how the social meanings of sexuality are developed, organized, and maintained in a culture." --Peter M. Nardi, author of "Gay Men's Friendships: Invincible Communities" and professor of sociology, Pitzer College "When I read the first edition of "Sexual Conduct" it literally changed my life. I was just beginning my sociological career and this book shook my worldview to the core and made me into a symbolic interactionist, and committed me to a lifelong study of the sociology of sexuality. Bill Simon and John Gagnon wrote a book that was so revelatory that nothing has been the same since it's publication. Simon and Gagnon brought the theory of social scripts home to sociology and allowed us to see the role of culture and gender in the construction of meaning about our sexual lives. The authors intellectually destroyed categorical ways of thinking about sex acts and sexual actors and showed how culture created our perceptions, norms, and feelings. Way before gender became one of the cornerstones of sociological analysis, Simon and Gagnon helped sociology and other behavioral sciences (not to mention students and other disciplines) understand how social norms created gender and now gender molded sexual behavior. Simon and Gagnon were the first wave of resistance to 'essentialism, ' the belief that all major sexual feelings, from sexual arousal to partner choice are biologically based. No one can read this book and imagine that our s dtgdgd dgtdsgdg dtgdgd dgtdsgdg "Sexual Conduct is a skillfully written book in which the authors have liberally used anecdotes, case studies, literature, findings from their research, and social science theory to demonstrate the significance of a sociological perspective in understanding human sexuality. . . . This book is an important one which should serve the different needs of different audiences. . . . [T]his volume makes interesting reading and is highly recommended." --Graham B. Spanier and Joanne Nicholson, Journal of Marriage and Family "Sexual Conduct is a book which I, and I think many others, have awaited with eagerness. Its authors are recognized to be among the most skillful and the most imaginative workers in the field of human sexuality. . . . [M]ust reading for professionals in the field of sexology." --Judith Long Laws, Contemporary Sociology "With the continuing attention to the study of sexualities, readers now have the opportunity to revisit--or encounter for the first time--a classic in the field. Rereading Gagnon and Simon's "Sexual Conduct" reminds us of its importance in having established over thirty years ago the foundation for understanding the social dimensions of sexuality while also providing us with creative insights relevant to today's issues and theoretical debates. This is a key book everyone doing research and writing about sexuality must read in order to learn how the social meanings of sexuality are developed, organized, and maintained in a culture." --Peter M. Nardi, author of "Gay Men's Friendships: Invincible Communities" and professor of sociology, Pitzer College "When I read the first edition of "Sexual Conduct" it literally changed my life. I was just beginning my sociological career and this book shook my worldview to the core and made me into a symbolic interactionist, and committed me to a lifelong st

William Simon

Foreword: Permanence and Change: Sexual Conduct Thirty Years On Kenneth Plummer Preface to the Second Edition John H. Gagnon Acknowledgments to the First Edition 1. The Social Origins of Sexual Development 2. Childhood and Adolescence 3. Postadolescent Sexual Development 4. The Pedagogy of Sex 5. Homosexuality Among Men 6. A Conformity Greater than Deviance: The Lesbian 7. The Prostitution of Women 8. Homosexual Conduct in Prison 9. Pornography: Social Scripts and Legal Dilemmas 10. Social Change and Sexual Conduct Afterword: The Struggle Over Sexual Change Since 1970 John H. Gagnon The Writing of Sexual Conduct: Two Recollections The Never-Ending Conversation: Two Interviews References Index