Our amorous and erotic experiences do not simply bring us pleasure; they shape our very identities, our ways of relating to ourselves, each other and our shared world. This volume challenges some of our most prevalent assumptions relating to identity, the body, monogamy, libido, sexual identity, seduction, fidelity, orgasm, and more. In twelve original and philosophically thought-provoking essays, the authors reflect on the broader meanings of love and sex: what their shifting historical meanings entail for us in the present; how they are constrained by social conventions; the ambiguous juxtaposition of agency and passivity that they reveal; how they shape and are formed by political institutions; the opportunities they present to resist the confines of gender and sexual orientation; how cultural artefacts can become incorporated into the body; and how love and sex both form and justify our ethical world views. Ideal for students both in philosophy and gender studies, this highly readable book takes us to the very heart of two of the most important dimensions of human experience and meaning-making: to the seductive and alluring, confusing and frustrating, realms of love and sex.
Part I: Desire's Dissonance / 1. Introduction: Desire's Dissonance, Sarah LaChance Adams, Christopher Davidson, and Caroline Lundquist / Part II: Defining Desire / 2. Finding and Then Losing Your Way, Louis A. Ruprecht Jr. / 3. Love, and a Romantic Living Room: Remarks for an Inquiry on Ordinary Love Today, Chiara Piazzesi / 4. Love at the Limit of Phenomenology (a la Sartre and Marion), Yong Dou (Michael) Kim / 5. Monogamism and Polyamorism: A Weberian Analysis, Erik Jansson Bostroem Part III: Sex, Love, and Agency / 6. Friendless Women and the Myth of Male Nonage, Elena Clare Cuffari / 7. Revolutionary Politics of Love: Pussy Riot and Punk Rock as Feminist Practice, Fulden Ibrahimhakkioglu / 8. Practice in Paradox: What We Can Learn About Love from Relationships between Parents and Young Adult Children, Christine Overall / Part IV: Embodiment and Culture / 9. Orchid Love, Phoebe Hart / 10. Failed Medicalization and the Cultural Iconography of Feminine Sexuality, Rebecca Kukla / 11. Being Through Love: The Collaborative Construction of a Sexual Body, Amy E. Taylor Part V: Truth and Deception / 12 The Power of Seduction, Alain Beauclair / 13. Some Notes on Faking, Hildur Kalman / Notes / Bibliography / Index / Notes on Contributors
