Hodges Supreme Court decision in 2015, sexual identity has dominated both public discourse and cultural trends--and yet, no historical phenomenon is its own cause. From Augustine to Marx, various views and perspectives have contributed to the modern understanding of self. In The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, Carl Trueman carefully analyzes the roots and development of the sexual revolution as a symptom, rather than the cause, of the human search for identity. This timely exploration of the history of thought behind the sexual revolution teaches readers about the past, brings clarity to the present, and gives guidance for the future as Christians navigate the culture's ever-changing search for identity.

    Using her nested model of attachment and trauma, she expands our understanding of how emotional experiences can influence our relationships. Then, she sets out six specific strategies to help you move toward secure attachments in your multiple relationships. Polysecure is both a theoretical treatise and a practical guide.

    Among those included are the woman who had blood tests done because she was convinced that "not wanting sex" was a sign of serious illness, and the man who grew up in an evangelical household and did everything "right," only to realize after marriage that his experience of sexuality had never been the same as that of others. Also represented are disabled aces, aces of color, non-gender-conforming aces questioning whether their asexuality is a reaction against stereotypes, and aces who don't want romantic relationships asking how our society can make room for them.

    It also had an unexpected effect on its author: Orenstein realized that talking about girls is only half the conversation. Boys are subject to the same cultural forces as girls—steeped in the same distorted media images and binary stereotypes of female sexiness and toxic masculinity—which equally affect how they navigate sexual and emotional relationships. In Boys & Sex, Peggy Orenstein dives back into the lives of young people to once again give voice to the unspoken, revealing how young men understand and negotiate the new rules of physical and emotional intimacy.Drawing on comprehensive interviews with young men, psychologists, academics, and experts in the field, Boys & Sex dissects so-called locker room talk; how the word “hilarious” robs boys of empathy; pornography as the new sex education; boys’ understanding of hookup culture and consent; and their experience as both victims and perpetrators of sexual violence. By surfacing young men’s experience in all its complexity, Orenstein is able to unravel the hidden truths, hard lessons, and important realities of young male sexuality in today’s world. The result is a provocative and paradigm-shifting work that offers a much-needed vision of how boys can truly move forward as better men.

    The generation born into evangelical purity culture has grown up, and many have started families of their own. But as time goes on, it's becoming more evident that many still struggle with purity culture's complicated legacy--its idolization of virginity, its mixed messages about modesty and lust, and its promise of a healthy marriage and great sex for those who follow the rules. In Talking Back to Purity Culture, Rachel Joy Welcher reviews the movement carefully, examining its teachings through the lens of Scripture. Compassionate, faithful, and wise, she charts a path forward for evangelicals in the ongoing debates about sexuality--one that rejects legalism and license alike, steering us back instead to the good news of Jesus. It's time to talk back to purity culture--and this book is ready to jump-start the conversation.

    Living as a Christian with same-sex attraction is not just a case of limping to the finish line—it's possible to run the race with joy. In this powerful and personal book, she describes her own unexpected journey of coming out and coming to faith... and what came next. As she does so, she addresses many of the questions that Christians living with same-sex attraction are wrestling with: Am I consigned to a life of loneliness? How do I navigate my friendships? Will my desires ever change? Is there some greater purpose to all this? What comes next, and next, and next? Drawing on insights from the Bible and the experiences of others, Born Again This Way provides assurance and encouragement for Christians with same-sex attraction, and paints a compelling picture of discipleship for every believer. Whatever your sexuality, this book is an inspiring testimony of how a life submitted to Jesus will be fulfilling and fruitful—but not always in the ways we might expect.

    Research has shown that by the time they graduate, as many as one in three women and almost one in six men will have been sexually assaulted. But why is sexual assault such a common feature of college life? And what can be done to prevent it? Drawing on the Sexual Health Initiative to Foster Transformation (SHIFT) at Columbia University, the most comprehensive study of sexual assault on a campus to date, Jennifer S. Hirsch and Shamus Khan present an entirely new framework that emphasizes sexual assault’s social roots—transcending current debates about consent, predators in a “hunting ground,” and the dangers of hooking up.Sexual Citizens is based on years of research interviewing and observing college life—with students of different races, genders, sexual orientations, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Hirsch and Khan’s landmark study reveals the social ecosystem that makes sexual assault so predictable, explaining how physical spaces, alcohol, peer groups, and cultural norms influence young people’s experiences and interpretations of both sex and sexual assault. Through the powerful concepts of “sexual projects,” “sexual citizenship,” and “sexual geographies,” the authors offer a new and widely-accessible language for understanding the forces that shape young people’s sexual relationships. Empathetic, insightful, and far-ranging, Sexual Citizens transforms our understanding of sexual assault and offers a roadmap for how to address it.

    Rather, this is a drop in the ocean, a paddle in the shallow end of sex history, but I hope you will get pleasantly wet nonetheless.The act of sex has not changed since people first worked out what went where, but the ways in which society dictates how sex is culturally understood and performed have varied significantly through the ages. Humans are the only creatures that stigmatise particular sexual practices, and sex remains a deeply divisive issue around the world. Attitudes will change and grow – hopefully for the better – but sex will never be free of stigma or shame unless we acknowledge where it has come from.

    This is the information you should have been taught at school: a no-holds-barred roadmap that covers everything from how the brain is the most important sex organ and how to communicate what you want to yourself and a partner, all the way down to the messy stuff - solo sex, orgasms, touching, kissing, blow jobs, cunnilingus, anal play, lube, toys, kegels. After all, sex education shouldn't start and end with putting a condom on a banana.

    As explained by disabled cartoonist A. Andrews, this easy-to-read guide covers the basics of disability sexuality, common myths about disabled bodies, communication tips, and practical suggestions for having the best sexual experience possible. Whether you yourself are disabled, you love someone who is, or you just want to know more, consider this your handy starter kit to understanding disability sexuality, and your path to achieving accessible (and fulfilling) sex. Part of the bestselling and critically acclaimed A Quick & Easy Guide series from Limerence Press, an imprint of Oni Press.

    Laurie and Matt Krieg are in a mixed-orientation marriage: a marriage in which at least one partner's primary attraction isn't toward the gender of their spouse. In the Kriegs' case, Laurie is primarily attracted to women--and so is Matt. Some find the idea of mixed-orientation marriage bewildering or even offensive. But as the Kriegs have learned, nothing is impossible with God--and that's as true of their marriage as anyone else's. In An Impossible Marriage, the Kriegs tell their story: how they met and got married, the challenges and breakthroughs of their journey, and what they've learned about marriage along the way. Christianity teaches us that marriage is a picture of Jesus' love for the church--and that's just as true in a mixed-orientation marriage as in a straight one. With vulnerability and wisdom, this book lays out an engaging picture of marriage in all its pain and beauty. It's a picture that points us, over and over again, to the love and grace of Jesus--as marriage was always meant to do.

    Sarge drops in on a diverse range of folks deciding whether to engage in sexual activity in this short and fun comic guide to communicating what you want, don't want, and how you want it! With wit and charm, Sarge also includes tips on what affirmative consent looks like, advocating for what you want, and setting boundaries that honor your comfort and safety. The result is a positive resource illustrating how easy it really is to respect each other’s bodies and desires. Part of the acclaimed QUICK & EASY GUIDE series from Limerence Press.

    Surprising. Insightful. Don't drink liquids while reading. This is not a “Happy Hooker” story. This is a “Hooker who is sick of your bullshit” story.

    In fact for many people, this issue is one of the biggest barriers for them considering Christianity.Sam Allberry, author of many books including Is God Anti-Gay? sets out God’s good design for the expression of human sexuality, showing that God himself is love and that only he can satisfy our deepest desires.It is a great reminder of the Bible’s positive blueprint for love, sex, and marriage and ideal for giving away to people who may see this as a stumbling block for belief.

    Whether we grew up in the repressive purity culture of American Evangelical Christianity or not, we've all been taught in subtle and not-so-subtle ways that sex (outside of very specific contexts) is immoral and taboo. Psychotherapist Matthias Roberts helps readers overcome their shame around sex by overcoming three unhealthy coping mechanisms we use to manage that shame. Beyond Shame encourages each of us to determine our own definition of healthy sex, while avoiding the ditches of boundaryless sex positivity on the one hand and strict moralistic boundaries on the other. Define your sexual values on your own terms, overcome your shame, and start having great, healthy sex.

    A must read!' Cherry Healey Did you know that there is an orgasm gap of around 30% between heterosexual couples when they have sex? In Mind The Gap, Dr Karen Gurney, a clinical psychologist and certified psychosexologist, explores not just this gap, but the gaps in our knowledge of so much of the most important new science around sex and desire. In this book, you will learn that nearly everything that you've been led to believe about female sexuality isn't actually true. And that, despite what you might think, it is possible to simultaneously feel little to no spontaneous desire and have a happy and mutually satisfying sex life long term.Exploring the mismatch between ideas about sex in our society and what the science tells us, Mind The Gap also explains how this disconnect lies at the root of many of our sexual problems. Combining science with case studies, practical exercises and tips, this is a book for anyone who wants to better understand the mechanics of desire and futureproof their sex life, for life.

    Reports of sexual harassment, misconduct, and rape saturate the news in the era of #MeToo. Straight men and women spend thousands of dollars every day on relationship coaches, seduction boot camps, and couple’s therapy in a search for happiness.In The Tragedy of Heterosexuality, Jane Ward smartly explores what, exactly, is wrong with heterosexuality in the twenty-first century, and what straight people can do to fix it for good. She shows how straight women, and to a lesser extent straight men, have tried to mend a fraught patriarchal system in which intimacy, sexual fulfillment, and mutual respect are expected to coexist alongside enduring forms of inequality, alienation, and violence in straight relationships.Ward also takes an intriguing look at the multi-billion-dollar self-help industry, which markets goods and services to help heterosexual couples without addressing the root of their problems. Ultimately, she encourages straight men and women to take a page out of queer culture, reminding them “about the human capacity to desire, fuck, and show respect at the same time.”

    She entered the sex industry at age 18, and has worked as a stripper, porn and as an escort. She currently works as an escort under the alias Gia James. She has written for magazines like Frankie, Vice and Penthouse Australia, and had a monthly sex and dating column for Sneaky magazine. She had her first solo photographic exhibition "Gemini" in 2016 at Goodspace Gallery in Sydney. The exhibit played on the juxtaposition of light and dark, and was centered around themes of sexuality, kink, femininity and fantasy. She is also the author of 4 self published zines - Zero Vol. 1 + 2, Heartbreaker and Fantasy. The zines focus on short stories about her life as a sex worker and discuss relationships, love, grief, mental health and sex. She distributes the zines through her Instagram and website. Rita is currently undertaking her Bachelor of Philosophy and working towards a career as an academic, specializing in the field of Gender Studies with a focus on sex work.

    It's not just a dating guide for men to get dates quickly and efficiently through dating apps like Tinder, or social media. It's about becoming a good communicator, knowing how to lead conversations and being able to set up genuinely fun activities that maximize your sexual results and relationships. With hundreds of analyzed screenshots collected from dedicated Message Game followers and Ice White himself, this is a visual guide with real stories of sex and adventures, and real conversations that have provided an understanding of successes and failures. All the learning has been done for you and compiled into a structured guide that can answer all your possible questions. From maximizing how many contacts and phone numbers you get to setting up dates quickly, from getting dates to getting laid, and from logistics to escalation. The book also features special sections that are especially useful, such as:The Situation Index - A table of common situations with references to every single page that has explained or showed the given situation. She isn't responding? She doesn't want anything serious? She says she is busy? She is only visiting your town or city? She thinks you just want sex? Whatever it is, we have the pages. Frequently Asked Questions - A summary of many common questions, such as how long you should wait to reply, how iften you should message someone, if you should use Tinder superlikes, if you should swipe a certain way on Tinder, and SO MUCH MORE. Without hesitation, this book is your own personal guide to getting the dates you want as frequently as possible.

    In an era of endless crossed signals and heightened awareness of consent and respect, award-winning author and sex educator Allison Moon shows you how to achieve safe and enjoyable encounters by practicing clear communication and consideration of all parties involved--yourself included. Getting It helps you understand what casual sex means for you and offers an instructive and empowering deep dive into how to get it, do it well, and feel great about it every step of the way. And since we're all imperfect, Moon offers guidance for how to gracefully recover when you screw up--or get screwed over. Refreshingly intersectional and respectful, Getting It is an honest guide to understanding the basics of hook-up culture and how to partake.

      But is love really all we need?    The love that the world tells us to pursue is all about self, about following your heart’s desires. But what is the Christian worldview on love? When we follow Jesus, we realize that he invites us to reorient the focus of our lives, so instead of chasing love primarily for our own happiness, we are first and foremost to give love—to God and to others.    In Chasing Love, Sean McDowell will invite readers into Jesus’ radical, upside-down approach to love, and in doing so, he’ll answer some of the toughest questions we’re asking about love today:  How does Jesus speak to singleness?What does the gospel say about LGBTQ issues?Can sexual sin truly be forgiven?What if I’m not happy in my marriage?

    He specializes in making this teaching accessible to all Christians, with particular attention to evangelicals. As West explains, from beginning to end the Bible tells a story of marriage. It begins with the marriage of man and woman in an earthly paradise and ends with the marriage of Christ and the church in an eternal paradise.In our post-sexual-revolution world, we need to remember that our bodies tell a divine story and proclaim the gospel itself. As male and female and in the call to become "one flesh," our bodies reveal a "great mystery" that mirrors Christ's love for the church (Eph. 5:31-32). This book provides a redemptive rather than repressive approach to sexual purity, explores the true meaning of sex and marriage, and offers a compelling vision of what it means to be created male and female. Foreword by Eric Metaxas.

    

    The dark side of our personality—the “other,” the shadow side—is made up of what we think is our primitive, primal, negative impulses—our “existential kink.” Our existential kink also drives the dark or negative repeating patterns in our life: always choosing the abusive partner or boss, settling for less, thinking that we’re undeserving, not worthy. But it also is the source of our greatest power.In Existential Kink, Carolyn Elliott, PhD, offers a truth-telling guide for bringing our shadow into the light. Inviting us to make conscious the unconscious, Elliott asks us to own the subconscious pleasure we get from the stuck, painful patterns of our existence.Existential Kink provides practical advice and meditations so we truly see our shadow side’s “guilty pleasures,” love and accept them, and integrate them into our whole being. By doing so, Elliott shows, we bring to life the raw, hot, glorious power we all have to get what we really want in our lives.

    Your friends, your neighbors, your Uber driver--everyone is giving you unsolicited advice, to which Beth and Jackie say: F*ck advice! There's no "right" way to be pregnant or a new mom, only stretchy pants to be worn and choices to be made.This illustrated guide asks and answers all the essential questions that pop up from the first trimester to the fourth, such as: Should I have an unmedicated or drugged-out birth? (Up to you!) Will I have time to pee as a new mom? (Maybe!) How do I avoid hating my partner? (That's a little more complicated.) Funny, feminist, and, above all, pro-mom, this book is an actually useful baby shower gift.

    Julie will revolutionise the way you relate to yourself and the ones you love, bringing deeper connection and richer intimacy.Enough mediocrity.Enough waiting.You are more powerful than that.This is for intelligent, magnificent women who:➵ need help to move from boss-mode to queen-mode➵ crave more from their relationship, but don't know how to get it➵ know they're beautiful, strong and capable, but also crave to swoon into surrender with a partner➵ can no longer tolerate mediocrity in their relationship or life➵ want to understand feminine and masculine energy➵ are ready to step into their feminine polarity, igniting magnetism and desire at will➵ do not have a perfect body, a perfect relationship, a perfect household . . .

    BOW DOWN.” —WEDNESDAY MARTIN, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of Primates of Park Avenue and UntrueEDGE PLAY by Jane Boon National Leather Association's Pauline Reage Novel Award, WINNER CORRECTION: Amy Lefevre’s second language is risk. A gorgeous young investment banker, she navigates Wall Street’s toxic culture with ease—until the stock market collapses. CRISIS: Amy starts investigating the failed deals her boss engineered. Drawn to a treacherous ride on the edge, will her efforts to expose him cause her to lose it all? CONSENT: Amy’s best friend is a dominatrix with an offer: take over her elite S&M dungeon, catering to the pervy needs of millionaires and billionaires and learn the true nature of power. EDGE PLAY is a universe beyond Fifty Shades of Grey and The Big Short, set in the most elite, twisted circles of Wall Street mega-power and S&M. Amy Lefevre dives into an underground realm of Big Swinging Dicks only to find that, in this arena, the women wield the whips and the men submit. “Edge Play explores obsession and ambition with a fetishist's eye for detail. From the sleek Syren latex to the sexy Louboutins, to power moves found in both the dazzling hustle of high finance and the darkness of the dungeon, this book delivers.” —LILY BURANA, Author of Strip City   “This is such a fun book! Smart, sexy, and full of surprises. It's also full of stingingly authentic details of Wall Street and the BDSM culture simmering just below it. It's a New York where everyone wants to come out on top, and power is a skill that can be learned.” —JO WELDON, Author of Fierce: The History of Leopard Print and The Burlesque Handbook

    It’s time to take sexy back.As women, we’re expected to be sexy, but not sexual. We’re bombarded with conflicting, shame-inducing, and disempowering messages about sex, instead of being encouraged to connect with our true sexual selves. Sexy gets reduced to a performance, leaving us with little to no space to reckon with the complexities of sexuality. In a culture intent on telling you who and how to be, standing in your truth is revolutionary. From relationship expert Alexandra Solomon—author of Loving Bravely—Taking Sexy Back is a groundbreaking guide to deepening your connection to yourself, honoring your desires, and cultivating authentic intimate connections. On these pages, you’ll discover how to deepen your sexual self-awareness, and use that awareness to create experiences that not only pleasure, but elevate, expand, and heal you. You’ll learn to understand your boundaries, communicate what feels good, and bring mindfulness and self-compassion to sex. Most importantly, you’ll embrace your sexuality as an evolving, essential, and beautiful part of your life. Sex is about more than what your partner enjoys or finds sexy. It’s about more than having an orgasm or finding the “right” positions. It’s about you. It’s time to take your sexy back!Named one of Cosmopolitan's Best Nonfiction Books of 2020!2020 Consumer Book Honorable Mention from The Society for Sex Therapy and Research (SSTAR) As featured on The Morning Show—Australia's top-rated morning program

    It’s funny. It’s informative. It’s brutally honest." – Comedian and Actor, Judy GoldJAIMIE KELTON and ROBIN HOPKINS, the creators and hosts of the popular podcast IF THESE OVARIES COULD TALK, realized the world needed to know there was more than one way to make an LGBTQ family. Each of their families came about in different ways, so how many other stories were out there? Turns out, lots. Inspired, the two friends launched their podcast asking LGTBQ families every question imaginable about their journeys to parenthood. Now the two hosts have written a book based on dozens of interviews to help address recurring questions that came up during their podcast. Is it important to have a child with your genetics? How does one pick a sperm donor? How will you talk to your children about where they came from? And just how does one pay for a baby because rumor has it, it costs a lot?With insights and stories from guests such as StaceyAnn Chin, Judy Gold, and State Senator Zach Wahls, Jaimie and Robin go humorously in-depth and guide you on a journey that is equal parts funny, serious, happy, sad, celebratory, cautionary, and powerful. You can read this book cover-to-cover or skip around like your very own LGBTQ choose your own baby adventure book. You’ll learn a lot and laugh even more along the way! Who knew making a baby could be this much fun?

    God has given men authority in the home, church, and society. Yet the church has rebelled against God's design and embraced the unbelieving world's teaching that women should take on the same roles and duties as men rather than focus on the home and children. Christian scholarship and Bible commentaries are dominated by feminist arguments that both husband and wife should submit to each another ("mutual submission"), that women may be pastors and preach sermons to men, and that the Apostle Paul's teaching on men and women was limited to Greco-Roman culture and has been transcended by our unity in Christ.Sadly, the conservative response to feminism-complementarianism-compromised several historic Christian teachings and has thus given feminism an even stronger foothold in the church. Many complementarians fail to root gender roles in the differing natures of men and women. As a result, they have refused to apply the Bible's teaching about men and women beyond the home and church, leading to the embrace of women in civil office and military combat. In addition, the vast majority of complementarians have adopted the novel interpretation of 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 ("the women should keep silent in the churches") that Paul only prohibited women from evaluating prophecy, which has opened the door to women preaching and teaching men in the church.The result is that the Western church has become effeminate and weak. Pastors are afraid to teach important Bible passages on the roles and duties of men and women, and it is no surprise that young Christian women are trading babies for careers outside the home and that churches are regularly capitulating to subversions of biblical sexual ethics. What the church needs is to recover its masculine calling, where men embrace their God-given authority-and responsibility-in the home, church, and society. This book affirms the historic Christian teaching on men and women, critiques feminist scholarship, and urges complementarians to hold a more robust and consistent position. This is a call to return to the Bible's teaching on men and women. This is a call to Masculine Christianity.

    

    That delivery, and the super kinky toy it contains, is about to propel Natalie's fantasy very hard and very fast into reality.The predicament she gets herself into will either be the most embarrassing experience of her life, or the start of something hot and beautiful. The choice is hers.Full of kinky play, humiliating but adorable scenarios, and the hottest consent you'll find in any erotica - dip into this first book in James Hardcourt's Edging Erotica Series.

    The problem is, her students barely know their birds from their bees! Between a girl who already has a girlfriend, a hard-core BL lover, and a girl who only cares about cats, Tsuji-sensei has her work cut out for her.

    It's where we live. "We dwell in Unreal City. We believe in un-being."With saber-like wit, poet and professor Anthony Esolen leads readers on a tour through the ruins of their own Western world—through king-size bookstores, manicured college campuses, strobe-lit choir lofts, mechanized farms, divorce courts, drag-queen libraries, and beyond. This hilarious guide to a culture gone mad with sex and self-care minces no words and spares no egos. We the people of Unreal City are no better, and certainly no smarter, than our fathers.But fear not. Sex and the Unreal City insists there's no need to settle down in the ninth circle of unreality. Esolen lights a torch and heads up the well-trod path back to our cleaner, kinder, truer homeland: earth. Along the way, the author sings the songs of masters somehow long forgotten—Shakespeare, Dante, Milton, the evangelists—and asks us to chant along.Readers of essayists like George Weigel, George Rutler, Malcom Muggeridge, and Walker Percy will enjoy this rollicking, intelligent book.

    Now well-established, Galileo Church “seeks and shelters spiritual refugees” in the suburbs of Fort Worth, Texas—especially young adults, LGBTQ+ people, and all the people who love them. Told in funny, poignant, and short vignettes, Galileo's story is not one of how to be cool for Christ. Like its founder, Galileo is deeply uncool and deeply devout, and always straining ahead to see what God will do next. Hays says curiosity is her greatest virtue, and she recounts how her curiosity led her to share the good news with people who are half her age and intensely skeptical. If you are all-in with Jesus but have trust issues with church, We Were Spiritual Refugees will give you hope for finding a community-of-belonging to call home.

    The perfect gift for fans of the hit podcast, Dear Joan & Jericha.

    

    Mark Yarhouse and Julia Sadusky offer an honest, scientifically informed, compassionate, and nuanced treatment for all readers who care about or work with gender-diverse youth: pastors, church leaders, parents, family members, youth workers, and counselors.Yarhouse and Sadusky help readers distinguish between current mental health concerns, such as gender dysphoria, and the emerging gender identities that some young people turn to for a sense of identity and community. Based on the authors' significant clinical and ministry experience, this book casts a vision for practically engaging and ministering to teens navigating diverse gender-identity concerns. It also equips readers to critically engage gender theory based on a Christian view of sex and gender.

    Tracking the politicization of male homosexuality in Renaissance Florence, Amsterdam, Paris, and London between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, and twentieth-century New York City, Chitty shows how sexuality became a crucial dimension of the accumulation of capital and a technique of bourgeois rule. Whether policing male sodomy during the Medici rule in Florence or accusing the French aristocracy of monstrous sexuality in the wake of the French Revolution, the bourgeoisie weaponized both sexual constraint and sexual freedom in order to produce and control a reliable and regimented labor class and subordinate it to civil society and the state. Only by grasping sexuality as a field of social contention and the site of class conflict, Chitty contends, can we embark on a politics that destroys sexuality as a tool and effect of power, and open a front against the forces that keep us unfree.

    Whether it’s you, a family member, a friend, or a partner who is affected, depression has the potential to touch us all. Even so, many of us don’t know how to handle depression becoming part of our love life and it can quickly become the monster under the bed. From “you have to love yourself first,” to “don’t stick it in the crazy,” to dead silence, popular responses to the topic leave much to be desired. But you’re not alone and you can have successful relationships and satisfying sex with depression. JoEllen Notte will help you understand how sexual function is affected by depression and what keeps us from effectively addressing it. Heavily informed by the author’s research, including surveys of over 1,000 people and interviews with close to 200, this is the first book of its kind. With practical tips and real-life examples, this is both a guidebook for people with depression and the people who love them, as well as a reference tool for mental health professionals.

    

    Afraid. Fighting to survive. A collision with space debris has left a gigantic hole in Inez Stanton's ship, nearly crippling it. Inez is a cargoist, that rare breed of adventurer who takes to deep space solo, ferrying valuable cargo for the Tenth Great and Glorious Browns Company. Now she's in a race against her own rig's spaceworthiness, and that might not be the worst part. The totalitarian Free Earth, led by the populist Brother Lin, has also lost a ship on this lane, and is intent on finding out why. The Company wants their cargo delivered and can make Inez's life very difficult if she doesn't succeed. With the nearest waystation three days away, death in the cold vacuum of space is a distinct possibility as well. The clock is ticking for her to deliver her cargo. But will she want to when she finds out what she's actually carrying?

    

    I’ve been privy to couples’ most intimate moments as they share their hopes for their relationship and fears that arise before the ceremony, and as they work through the inevitable issues that come up afterward. No, I’m not a wedding crasher, I just happen to be married to a Rabbi. Rethink Love is for anyone who is in love, wants love, or wishes to rekindle love. Relationships can be our biggest source of joy and our biggest source of pain. Every relationship has its problems, but the ones that work are the ones we consistently work on. Difficulties aren’t a sign of a bad marriage or a looming breakup. Challenges are a powerful signal that your relationship needs to evolve, and you are being called to reconnect to something greater, to evolve, and love more deeply. Love isn’t something we need to find, accumulate, or protect. It is something that we inherently possess, and the only way to receive it fully is to give it away. We have to throw away our misconceptions of what relationships are in order to embrace what they can be. Rethink Love emphasizes taking responsibility for the quality of your relationships while offering practical pathways to immediate, long-lasting solutions for improving them. Every person is worthy of being loved, and every relationship has the potential to bring lasting fulfillment.

    Far too often the church perpetuates the same message - as long as you are married. But far from being liberating, this idolising of sex leaves us even more sexually broken than before.With refreshing honesty and clarity, Ed Shaw calls on the church to rediscover its confidence in the Bible's teaching about our ability to experience or express sexual feelings. He points us to how God's word reveals that sexuality's ultimate purpose is to help us better know God and the full power of his passionate love. He shows us how this is surprisingly good news for all our joys and struggles with sexuality.

    Yet American law and policy disregard these stubborn facts, with statutes and judicial decisions that presume people to be autonomous, defined by their capacity to choose. As legal scholar O. Carter Snead points out, this individualistic ideology captures important truths about human freedom, but it also means that we have no obligations to each other unless we actively, voluntarily embrace them. Under such circumstances, the neediest must rely on charitable care. When it is not forthcoming, law and policy cannot adequately respond.What It Means to Be Human makes the case for a new paradigm, one that better represents the gifts and challenges of being human. Inspired by the insights of Alasdair MacIntyre and Charles Taylor, Snead proposes a vision of human identity and flourishing that supports those who are profoundly vulnerable and dependent--children, the disabled, and the elderly. To show how such a vision would affect law and policy, he addresses three complex issues in bioethics: abortion, assisted reproductive technology, and end-of-life decisions. Avoiding typical dichotomies of conservative-versus-liberal and secular-versus-religious, Snead recasts debates over these issues and situates them within his framework of embodiment and dependence. He concludes that, if the law is built on premises that reflect the fully lived reality of life, it will provide support for the vulnerable, including the unborn, mothers, families, and those nearing the end of their lives. In this way, he argues, policy can ensure that people have the care they need in order to thrive.In this provocative and consequential book, Snead rethinks how the law represents human experiences so that it might govern more wisely, justly, and humanely.

    She had questions: Was she a monster? Would she ever be able to grow sideburns? And most importantly, where was her penis?The problem was, it was the 1970s, so there were no answers yet.Here, Lorka tells the story—by turns hilarious and poignant—of her romp through the first fifty years of her life searching for sex, love, acceptance, and answers to her questions. With a sharp wit, endearing innocence, and indelible sense of optimism, she struggles through the awkward years (spoiler: that’s all of them) and discovers that what she thought were mistakes are actually powerful tools to launch her into a magical—and ridiculous—life.Oh, and she discovers that she can buy a penis at the store, too.

    Look where we are. What else do we have to hide?'When nineteen-year-old Mia is fired from her job at an insurance company, she answers an ad in the newspaper. The ad says: 'Erotic Massage. Good Money. No Sex.'Mia takes to her new job with recklessness, aplomb and good humour. Over the next few years, as she works her way through Sydney's many parlours, she meets exquisite and complex women from every walk of life who choose sex work for myriad reasons. While juggling the demands of her new job, she battles her problematic drug use, and the mental illness that has shaped her life.But rather than needing saving from sex work, it is the work that sometimes helps to save Mia from herself.A raw and honest memoir about surviving, sex work, friendships, drugs and mental illness.

    Her desires for women, money, and comfort lead her down a path far from that of her Christian upbringing. Her impulsive lifestyle, coupled with an underlying fear of being alone, constantly drive her to drown out the small whisper of God she hears in moments of silence and stillness. Torn by her desires, she lives a double life, jumping back and forth from husband to girlfriends, drunken nights to morning church, Southern California real estate to nonprofit work in Ethiopia.These pages of conflict, questioning, and seeking embody the struggle of a human soul. Yet even out of the darkest moments, love breaks through in radical ways and carries her into her God-given purpose, into serving others, into joy. Kim’s transparency about her life offers encouragement to those seeking peace and joy for their own restless hearts. In the end, love wins.

    So why not invite the divine in? The concept may feel awkward at first, because we've been trained by purity culture and centuries of mistrust of our bodies and our desires. But God wants to be part of all we do. God is already there when you are naked with your beloved. God is within you, and within them, and between you both. Be brave. Enter into that presence. You have the power to transform sex into worship of God, with God.

    It gathers the nuggets for remarkable sex from the experts, distilling them into an attainable blueprint for ordinary lovers who want to make erotic intimacy grow over the course of a lifetime. Looking at factors including individual and relational qualities, empathic communication and the myths and realities of magnificent sex, this book offers accessible and evidence-based guidance for lovers and therapists alike.It is replete with frank and often humorous interviews with straight and LGBTQ individuals and couples, those who are vanilla and kinky, monogamous and consensually non-monogamous and healthy and chronically ill. This illuminating book explores the implications of the findings to develop a model that effectively tackles the common problems of low desire and frequency. The cure for low desire is to create desirable sex!

    Such was the case with Laura Zam, who suffered the blame, shame, and embarrassment of feeling bedroom broken.  For her, delving between the sheets meant physical pain, zero desire, and emotional scars from being molested in her early years. However, in her late forties, after meeting and marrying the love of her life, Zam was determined to finally fix her sensual self.    This is her brave and bawdy plan to triage her flaccid romantic life, stepping into a void where intimacy, self-love, and playfulness could be experienced--the full monty of Eros that had been missing from her existence. The Pleasure Plan is what happened when she decided to challenge her hopelessness. In partnership with her initially reluctant husband, she visited 15 healers and tried 30 pleasure-enhancing methods: from dilators and dildos, to hypnosis and hosting a sex brunch, to cleansing chakras, to making love to her husband in front of a geriatric Tantric goddess. Packed with humor, heart, and a healthy dose of prescriptive advice, this book chronicles Zam’s insight as she confronts many issues—from mismatched libidos to female erection enlightenment. Throughout this journey, she and her husband grow as individuals and as a couple, both in and out of the bedroom. Fearlessly honest and full of inspiration, Zam peels back the layers—or covers—and exposes her foibles, insecurities, and eventual wisdom as she excavates past traumas, accepts and embraces her worth, and claims her right to be completely alive.  Today, Laura works as a sexuality educator, wellness coach, and speaker helping other women who suffer from sexual dysfunction, the effects of trauma, or those who would simply like more pleasure (of all kinds) in their lives. She also consults with health care providers so they may better assist their clients in achieving sexual well-being.   While The Pleasure Plan is Zam’s personal narrative, it demystifies pervasive taboos, encouraging women to make pleasure a priority, while teaching them how to claim (or reclaim) the power of their sexual selves. It also shows men how they can support their partners in this #Metoo era. Healthy, sultry intimacy is a right; it is time for women to learn—through glorious trial and error—how to embrace the sensual side of themselves. . . exuberantly and unabashedly.

    Capparucci encourages readers to think beyond their immediate circumstances to their childhoods, in order to better understand their struggles." –BookLife If you have been battling a sex/porn addiction you understand how frustrating it can be to fail time and time again. This book provides a new and proven treatment method that will empower you to take control and finally manage your addiction. The key is understanding the road to recovery from a sex/porn addiction goes through your childhood. Why? Because it’s your inner child who is running the show. The Inner Child Recovery Process has proven successful with a large majority of clients in my counseling practice. It has changed the lives of many individuals who felt helpless and hopeless due to their addiction. And it can do the same for you. Endorsed by many leaders in the sex/porn addiction field, the Inner Child Recovery Process is a game changer and can be the solution you have been seeking when it comes to breaking free from your sex and porn addictions.

    From her nerdy teenage years in rural Montana to her empowered late twenties in New York City, this vulnerable memoir is simultaneously hilarious, heartwarming, and painfully, beautifully authentic.Edgeman holds nothing back in this striking debut, as she describes her unconventional and promiscuous path to body positivity—a journey irrevocably tied to her rebellion against the constraints of Type 1 diabetes.Finding F*ck Yes: A Memoir of Orgasms & Insulin is a reflection of our society, a meditation on self-worth, a treatise on how we treat women who love sex, and a challenge of how we view women who are not thin.“Finding F*ck Yes is SO good. It's witty, smart, authentic and sexy. Edgeman manages to give us a story that's tantalizing and also relatable. Seriously, do yourself a favor and buy this book right now!" — Olive B. Persimmon, Author of The Coitus Chronicles

    

    LGBTQIA Studies. Art. In this first volume of REMEMBER THE INTERNET, a series that tells a complete history of the Internet, one book at a time, journalist Ana Valens introduces us to the erotic gifs, hashtag fetish fan art, and sex worker resource blogs that combined to transform Tumblr into the vanguard of a user-generated sexual revolution. As she tells the story of her own online sexual and political awakening, Valens investigates how Tumblr's technical architecture made it a convenient laboratory for social justice and sexual freedom, one that would ultimately clash with the government's crackdown on sexuality online.

    Many people misunderstand how the body was designed, its role in relating to others; and we lack awareness of the dangers of objectifying the body, divorcing it from its intended purpose.Timothy Tennent covers topics like marriage, family, singleness, and friendship, and he looks at how the human body has been objectified in art and media today. For the Body offers a biblical framework for discipling people today in a Christian theology of the body.Tennent—theologian and president of Asbury Theological Seminary—explores the contours of a robust Christian vision of the body, human sexuality, and the variety of different ways we are called into relationships with others. This book will reveal a theological vision that:Informs our self-understanding of our own bodies.Examines how we treat others.Reevaluates how we engage today's controversial and difficult discussions on human sexuality with grace, wisdom, and confidence.For the Body is a call to a deeper understanding of our bodies and an invitation to recapture the wonder of this amazing gift.

    That doesn’t stop me from wishing and hoping that Mr. Perfect will come along and rescue me from my normal, boring life. Then I met him… Gorgeous, young, sex in a suit, every woman’s wet dream. For one night, he’s mine. Toe curling orgasms a plenty and he knows how to deliver. There’s just one problem. A big one. He’s my boss. You’d think I hit the jackpot. Over the desk spankings, maybe a little rendezvous in the file room, kinky office sex. Wrong! He’s arrogant, cocky and demanding. He’s also the biggest playboy and most eligible bachelor around town. I make a plan to avoid him unless it is work related. I try. But he begins running through my thoughts. One hot, forbidden kiss changes our relationship. My brothers don’t want me with him. His mother is obsessed with him staying single. All I know is that I want to be with him no matter what. Does happily ever after really exist? Or am I dreaming? Maybe I should’ve stuck to my books. Simon Left to raise my daughter alone when my wife was killed, I vowed never again to let a woman into my heart. Women, yeah I love women. Especially when they’re eager to fall into my bed. They only ever get one night. Until her…the hot librarian in the lift. The one whose lips left me begging for more. One night, our passion exploded. One night she drove me crazy. She was gone before I woke. Too bad she’s my Personal Assistant. I don’t screw the crew. Ever. No matter how hard I try to steer clear. Her eyes are seductive, her lips so kissable I need to taste every inch of her…again. Forbidden kisses, flirtatious words, sexy touching. One problem. My Mum. She doesn’t want me moving on from my deceased wife, doesn’t believe in me choosing another to love and will do anything it takes to break us apart. I’ll be with her no matter what anyone says. I run my happily ever after. I found my princess and refuse to let her go.

    Thriving in Non-Monogamy will guide you through the process of getting in touch with your inner ethical slut, evaluating relationship values, honoring your needs and fears, and developing the tools to build relationships that work best for you.Whether that means ethically opening up or improving a monogamous arrangement, this ethical slut handbook provides stories from people of all genders, sexual orientations, and relationship arrangements who confront their unmet needs, insecurities, internalized trauma, and struggles with open relationships. You’ll also find reflection questions to help you approach your own arrangement with curiosity, openness, and compassion.Learn about the principles of being an ethical slut with:No judgment—Thriving in Non-Monogamy breaks down the shame surrounding negative messages that are internalized about sex and relationships.Learning limits—Includes a guide to an ethical slut setting boundaries and rules within open relationships.Thoughtful reflections—Challenge yourself to identify and process difficult emotions and improve relationship communication skills.Ethical slut may sound like an oxymoron, but it is a way of thinking that can teach you to overcome jealousy, enjoy sex, and honor yourself.

    And that it's under constant threat.Exploring the meanings and powers of love from ancient Greece to the present day, Richard Gilman-Opalsky argues that what is called “love” by the best thinkers who have approached the subject is in fact the beating heart of communism—understood as a way of living, not as a form of government. Along the way, he reveals with clarity that the capitalist way of assigning value to things is incapable of appreciating what humans value most. Capitalism cannot value the experiences and relationships that make our lives worth living and can only destroy love by turning it into a commodity. The Communism of Love follows the struggles of love in different contexts of race, class, gender, and sexuality, and shows how the aspiration for love is as close as we may get to a universal communist aspiration.

    The author explores differential diagnoses and clinical concerns that are relevant to health care providers including social workers and therapists as well as primary care physicians and sex educators. Interwoven throughout with real-world case studies, each chapter presents practical suggestions, tools, and handouts the reader can use to inform their practice and serve clients in ways that meet the needs of each individual, couple, or partnership.Written in a conversational, accessible style for clinicians and members of the BDSM community alike, The Leather Couch is the go-to resource for any mental health professional or educator looking to transform their practice from kink aware to kink affirming.

    A big problem. Our sexualised culture, promising freedom and pleasure, is creating a terrible cocktail of abuse, pain, despair, and suffering. The problem is not simply our actions, but our sinful desires. But there is hope. Christ is more powerful than any lustful desire, any temptation. He has defeated death and sin, and his way leads to true freedom.

    

    In Indian Sex Life, Durba Mitra shows how deviant female sexuality, particularly the concept of the prostitute, became foundational to this knowledge project and became the primary way to think and write about Indian society.Bringing together vast archival materials from diverse disciplines, Mitra reveals that deviant female sexuality was critical to debates about social progress and exclusion, caste domination, marriage, widowhood and inheritance, women’s performance, the trafficking of girls, abortion and infanticide, industrial and domestic labor, indentured servitude, and ideologies about the dangers of Muslim sexuality. British authorities and Indian intellectuals used the concept of the prostitute to argue for the dramatic reorganization of modern Indian society around Hindu monogamy. Mitra demonstrates how the intellectual history of modern social thought is based in a dangerous civilizational logic built on the control and erasure of women’s sexuality. This logic continues to hold sway in present-day South Asia and the postcolonial world.Reframing the prostitute as a concept, Indian Sex Life overturns long-established notions of how to write the history of modern social thought in colonial India, and opens up new approaches for the global history of sexuality.

    This pamphlet thoroughly exposes the analytical incoherency and moral deficiency within so much of this sup-posed left; their position, which is plainly morally corrupt, is proved to also be analytically impossible.

    The hurt partner often experiences a profound loss of self–respect and falls into a depression that can last for years. For the relationship, infidelity is often a death blow.After the Affair is the first book to help readers survive this crisis. Written by a clinical psychologist, it guides both hurt and unfaithful partners through the three stages of healing: Normalizing feelings, deciding whether to recommit and revitalizing the relationship. It provides proven, practical advice to help the couple change their behavior toward each other, cultivate trust and forgiveness and build a healthier, more conscious intimate partnership.

    By turns funny, passionate, and erotic, the poems of Natch plumb the poet’s deep well of longing and desire, a poetics of queer bodies narrated with a stunningly assured voice, compounded of bravado and vulnerability.

    The typical pastor takes on far too much. Who visits the hospital? Who counsels couples? Who teaches and preaches and disciples? Usually, the pastor. But according to Ephesians 4, a pastor’s true goal should be to equip the so-called ordinary members of their church to take on these pastoral tasks. Micah Fries and Jeremy Maxfield will show you how by:Exposing the dangerous undercurrents that may be holding back your church cultureTeaching you how to narrow your focus in order to multiply your ministryWalking you through how to delegate, develop leaders, and deploy your members.Yes, the people in those pews expect a lot from you, but learn how you can manage expectations, lead well, and pastor biblically. Not only does this approach drastically reduce the pressure on you, the pastor, it multiplies the effectiveness of your ministry 10, 20, even 100-fold!

    LGBTQIA Studies. Women's Studies. Freedom & Prostitution proposes the dream of a world without work, without money, without gender, while imagining forms of survival now for those who often have little to no choices, refuse to submit to the demands of tedious underpaid or unwaged labor, an abusive partner, or seek a life beyond work. Sex work is not a "better" type of labor but a proposal for the abolition of all work.

    Angela Jones takes readers inside this multi-billion dollar industry, revealing how its workers experience intimacy, community, empowerment--and, as she compellingly argues, pleasure.Drawing on in-depth interviews, survey data, web analytics, and more, Jones highlights not only the dangers, but also the rewards, of working in one of the most taboo corners of the Internet. She provides an inside look at the public and private shows between cam models and their customers, from exotic dancing and pornographic videos, to masturbation shows and erotic chatrooms.A fascinating, much-needed glimpse into the lives of cam models, Camming takes us behind the webcam lens to experience the power of erotic labor in the twenty-first century.

    

    Now she is ready to give him another chance. Finally. It's what he wants. What he’s waited thirteen years for. But then he meets Kadee Carlisle in line at a coffee shop, and what he wants suddenly becomes more complicated. He’s immediately taken with Kadee’s beauty and intensity. He wants to know her. To be with her. And yet, he still wants to marry the woman he has been waiting for. In this psychological thriller, we finally learn Noah Donovan's side of the precarious love triangle first recounted in Circle of Betrayal. Secrets, duplicity and childhood betrayals coalesce and spread uncontrollable chaos, proving that an unresolved past can impact the present in a way that Noah is helpless to stop. He learns all too late... You can't run from the secrets that define you. This novella can be read as a standalone or in conjunction with the Close Enough to Kill series.

    Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood is a resource to help church leaders improve the culture of their church and disciple men and women in their flock to read, understand, and apply Scripture to our lives in the church. Until both men and women grow in their understanding of their relationship to Scripture, there will continue to be tension between the sexes in the church. Church leaders need to be engaged in thoughtful critique of the biblical manhood and womanhood movement and the effects it has on their congregation.Do men and women benefit equally from God's word? Are they equally responsible in sharpening one another in the faith and passing it down to the next generation? While radical feminists claim that the Bible is a hopelessly patriarchal construction by powerful men that oppresses women, evangelical churches simply reinforce this teaching when we constantly separate men and women, customizing women's resources and studies according to a culturally based understanding of roles. Do we need men's Bibles and women's Bibles, or can the one, holy Bible guide us all? Is the Bible, God's word, so male-centered and authored that women need to create their own resources to relate to it? No! And in it, we also learn from women. Women play an active role as witnesses to the faith, passing it on to the new generations.This book explores the feminine voice in Scripture as synergistic with the dominant male voice. Through the women, we often get the story behind the story--take Ruth for example, or the birth of Christ through the perspective of Mary and Elizabeth in Luke. Aimee fortifies churches in a biblical understanding of brotherhood and sisterhood in God's household and the necessity of learning from one another in studying God's word.The troubling teaching under the rubric of "biblical manhood and womanhood" has thrived with the help of popular Biblicist interpretive methods. And Biblicist interpretive methods ironically flourish in our individualistic culture that works against the "traditional values" of family and community that the biblical manhood and womanhood movement is trying to uphold. This book helps to correct Biblicist trends in the church today, affirming that we do not read God's word alone, we read it within our interpretive covenant communities--our churches. Our relationship with God's word affects our relationship with God's people, and vice versa. The church is the school of Christ, commissioned to discipleship. The responsibility of every believer, men and women together, is being active and equal participants in and witnesses to the faith--the tradents of faith.

    So, seduction and foreplay are not only about getting what you want, but about giving and receiving, teasing and pleasing for the best possible rewards, no matter how you define them. (And, yes, foreplay IS sex!) The Ultimate Guide to Seduction & Foreplay teaches readers how to tune into their own desires, become better communicators, and ultimately be more confident, passionate, and attentive lovers. Inspired by fantasies of seduction, Marla and Jess take you on a journey of sexual exploration and help you understand the many factors that add to or inhibit arousal and pleasure on psychological, sociological, and sexological levels. Readers gain a deeper understanding of their own sexual needs and the foundations for greater compatibility and connection. As you explore your own learning and seduction styles (and your lover’s), you’ll discover and experiment with new and exciting ways to stimulate arousal and deepen intimacy: verbal, emotional, and digital seduction, foreplay, eroticizing daily actions, games, fantasy play, mindfulness, and more. Packed with practical exercises, techniques, and creative ideas — especially for busy couples — this inclusive guide is a surefire way for folks of all genders to master the art of seduction. You don’t have to be a rockstar in (or out of) the sack each time you have sex, but this book will help you approach your lovers with the confidence and comfort you deserve! Whether you are adding to your repertoire for later or striving to please your current lover, you’ll discover thrilling new pathways to pleasure and intimacy.

    Elle X, in her first installment of BDSM-specific erotica: The Red Room Diaries. Designed as a healthy and erotic alternative to the comparison and insecurity pornography and traditional erotica brings, The Red Room Diaries is written completely without physical descriptions of characters, focusing instead on creating an intensely visceral experience for the reader. This revolutionary method of storytelling allows readers to fully superimpose themselves (and if applicable, their partner(s)), into Ms. Elle’s sensuous scenes, encouraging the exploration of their deep desires and undiscovered fetishes in a safe and healthy way.

    

    And while we continue to witness many cultural changes relating to sex and gender, one thing that remains unchanged and timeless is the foundation for sexual intimacy--God's beautiful design for the flourishing of those created in his image. Editors Sandra L. Glahn and C. Gary Barnes bring together twenty-two expert contributors in the fields of biblical studies, theology, and psychology to address the most important and controversial areas of sexuality that Christians face today. From a scriptural perspective, the contributors address issues such as:Male and female in the Genesis creation accounts Abortion Celibacy Sexuality in marriage Contraception Infertility Cohabitation Divorce and remarriage Same-sex attraction Gender dysphoria The theology of the human bodySanctified Sexuality meets the onslaught of nuanced sexual issues emerging in the church today with clarity, kindness, and depth of expertise. The plurality of voices serve as a trustworthy guide for those hoping to avoid breaking bruised reeds.--Nika Spaulding, resident theologian at St. Jude Oak Cliff

    

    

    In this groundbreaking cultural history, Alyce Mahon traces how artists of the twentieth century turned to Sade to explore political, sexual, and psychological terror, adapting his imagery of the excessively sexual and terrorized body as a means of liberation from systems of power.Mahon shows how avant-garde artists, writers, dramatists, and filmmakers drew on Sade’s “philosophy in the bedroom” to challenge oppressive regimes and their restrictive codes and conventions of gender and sexuality. She provides close analyses of early illustrated editions of Sade’s works and looks at drawings, paintings, and photographs by leading surrealists such as André Masson, Leonor Fini, and Man Ray. She explains how Sade’s ideas were reflected in the writings of Guillaume Apollinaire and the fiction of Anne Desclos, who wrote her erotic novel, Story of O, as a love letter to critic Jean Paulhan, an admirer of Sade. Mahon explores how Sade influenced the happenings of Jean-Jacques Lebel, the theater of Peter Brook, the cinema of Pier Paolo Pasolini, and the multimedia art of Paul Chan. She also discusses responses to Sade by feminist theorists such as Simone de Beauvoir, Susan Sontag, and Angela Carter.Beautifully illustrated, The Marquis de Sade and the Avant-Garde demonstrates that Sade inspired generations of artists to imagine new utopian visions of living, push the boundaries of the body and the body politic, and portray the unthinkable in their art.

    This newfound visibility is also shedding light on the lack of resources available for victims to cope and heal from their pain. Perhaps it’s not surprising that many turn to whatever coping mechanisms are close by, which often include alcohol, other drugs, and unhealthy behaviors. How can people in recovery from both sexual trauma and substance use heal in a place where victim-blaming and addiction stigma collide? Jennifer Storm is living proof that there is hope. In her memoir Blackout Girl, she shared her story and showed survivors that they are not alone. In Awakening Blackout Girl, Jennifer goes further by providing the road map she used to wake herself up from the drug-fueled numbness that was killing her and to achieve a fulfilling life of recovery and advocacy. With more than twenty years of experience helping other victims through the criminal justice system, Jennifer knows what survivors face. In this guide, she provides the exercises, tools, and wisdom they need to heal. The foreword by Kristen Schmidt, MD, an addiction psychiatrist and trauma expert at the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, provides essential context on the clinical treatment of sexual trauma and addiction and how Jennifer’s strategies can help you find recovery. While covering crucial subjects ranging from shame and self-harm to sex and relationships, Jennifer’s message is this: Neither your pain, nor your offender, nor anyone else who doubts your strength gets to finish your story. You have the power to write your ending. You can survive, you can heal, and you can thrive.

    . . . An essential work.”"[A] magnum opus about the political and legal path to Obergefell."—Eric Cervini, New York Times Book Review"[An] impressive survey of how far the gay rights movement has come."—Publishers Weekly As a legal scholar who first argued in the early 1990s for a right to gay marriage, William N. Eskridge Jr. has been on the front lines of the debate over same‑sex marriage for decades. In this book, Eskridge and his coauthor, Christopher R. Riano, offer a panoramic and definitive history of America’s marriage equality debate. The authors explore the deeply religious, rabidly political, frequently administrative, and pervasively constitutional features of the debate and consider all angles of its dramatic history. While giving a full account of the legal and political issues, the authors never lose sight of the personal stories of the people involved, or of the central place the right to marry holds in a person’s ability to enjoy the dignity of full citizenship. This is not a triumphalist or one‑sided book but a thoughtful history of how the nation wrestled with an important question of moral and legal equality.

    Global funding for AIDS response is declining. Tough choices must be made: some people will win and some will lose. Global aid agencies and governments use health data to make these choices. While aid agencies prioritize a shrinking list of countries, many governments deny that sex workers, men who have sex with men, drug users, and transgender people exist. Since no data is gathered about their needs, life-saving services are not funded, and the lack of data reinforces the denial. The Uncounted cracks open this and other data paradoxes through interviews with global health leaders and activists, ethnographic research, analysis of gaps in mathematical models, and the author's experience as an activist and senior official. It shows what is counted, what is not, and why empowering communities to gather their own data could be key to ending AIDS.

    An ill-conceived notion of earning more money to pay off his debt and escape a dark past leaves the minstrel in a situation he can't escape and with a deadly bargain. Will he survive his mistake? Who is this mysterious patron?A Tales of Erana Novella18 rated for sex and themes.

    . . To be so full of longing you ache for release . . .  Coming to climax without a single touch. The fifth volume of the Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year anthology series explores and expands on the very definition of eroticism with a diverse mix of queer, non-binary, trans, and polyamorous #ownvoices that will have you quivering with delight and wondering what more you can explore—no matter how you identify. More than just steamy sex stories, this volume offers the quiet sexuality of emotional security, the overwhelming thrill of discovering something new, and a tale for every taste—from vanilla to kink, to strap-ons and sodomy. Now more than ever, it is crucial to see unique, underrepresented viewpoints across the literary spectrum. Award-winning author and editor Sinclair Sexsmith delivers in an anthology that is both tender and tantalizing, emotional and evocative.

    Yet how cultures have reacted to it is shaped by a range of forces, beliefs, and norms, like any other social phenomenon. Changes in how Anglo-American culture has understood intergenerational sex can be seen with startling clarity in the life of British writer Norman Douglas (1868–1952), who was a beloved and popular author, a friend of luminaries like Graham Greene, Aldous Huxley, and D.H. Lawrence, and an unrepentant and uncloseted pederast. Rachel Hope Cleves’s careful study opens a window onto the social history of intergenerational sex in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, revealing how charisma, celebrity, and contemporary standards protected Douglas from punishment—until they didn’t.Unspeakable approaches Douglas as neither monster nor literary hero, but as a man who participated in an exploitative sexual subculture that was tolerated in ways we may find hard to understand. Using letters, diaries, memoirs, police records, novels, and photographs—including sources by the children Douglas encountered—Cleves identifies the cultural practices that structured pedophilic behaviors in England, Italy, and other places Douglas favored. Her book delineates how approaches to adult-child sex have changed over time and offers insight into how society can confront similar scandals today, celebrity and otherwise.

    It is a challenging form of tantra, but the results are equally mind-blowing.Open up to a universe beyond the ordinary. Deep tantric practice transcends the moment and allows us to experience different states. It can give us insights and experiences that people usually require psychedelics to access.For over 15 years, Alexa Vartman has “changed the Tantra game”. Founder of The New Tantra, one of the largest tantra organisations in the world, Alexa’s work has affected thousands of people in over 15 countries. Unashamed and outspoken, Alexa can guide you into radically revolutionizing your experience between the sheets with the tantric teachings in this book. As a genderfluid person, she embraces every kind of expression, from light to dark, masculine and feminine. She has a talent for making Tantra a modern and accessible practice for the 21st century.For mature audiences only.

    Growing up in Evangelical Christianity, the pressure to remain chaste stifled her sexuality. A virgin when she got married, she thought her marriage would be free from the common pitfalls her non-Christian or impure Christian counterparts faced. Less than two years after she said “I do”, Hillary’s marriage was falling apart and her life in shambles. Well on her way to being one of the few divorced women from her hometown, Hillary’s faith shattered, and she was desperate. In a Hail Mary attempt to salvage their relationship, Hillary and her husband, Theo, resort to drastic measures. Hillary temporarily relocates to New Orleans to do research for an article she’s writing on post-Katrina life during hurricane season. While there, she lives as a single woman, free to explore her pent up sexuality.As she gets to know and love the city they call the Big Easy, Hillary undergoes a paradigm shift in the way she views life, love, sex and religion. She rages against the teachings of her church, and fits a lifetime of experiences into her six month marriage vacation. When she returns home, for better and for worse, nothing is the way it was before she left. Hillary has become a square peg in a round hole, no longer fitting into her old life. She has to decide if she can conform in order to remain in the life she built or turn her back on everything she knows and remain true to herself.Being pulled in one direction to honor the God she thought she knew and in the other to live the self-assured life she recently carved for herself, Hillary does what she has done anytime she needed to process something: she journals. Only this time, she pens her memoir. Hurricane Season is Hillary’s account of her life growing up in purity culture and the ramifications of being taught her body was something to be ashamed of rather than celebrated. Hillary walks her readers through the shame thrust upon her by those who loved her most, and the ways she went to war with her soul to become a person who accepted herself, flaws and all. Unafraid to get specific with her adventures, Hillary invites her readers into the bedroom during several of her erotic encounters. Trembling and shaking, she releases her unadulterated truth into the world knowing she can help other women escape the bondage which purity culture has left them.

    

    Economic and sexual practices are assumed to be not only separable but antithetical, hence why paid sex is so often criminalized and morally condemned. Yet, whilesexuality is highly politicized in moral terms, it has largely been overlooked in the discipline devoted to the study of global capitalism, international political economy (IPE). Likewise, the prevailing field in sexuality studies, queer theory, has frequently sidelined questions of politicaleconomy. This book calls for critical scholarship to challenge the economy/sexuality dichotomy as it not only structures disciplinary debates but is part and parcel of capitalism itself.Capitalism's Sexual History brings IPE and queer theory into close dialogue to explore how the division between economy and sexuality has been historically produced to appear both natural and moral. By examining sex work in Britain, Nicola J. Smith draws on in-depth archival research to chart ahistory of capitalism's sexual relations from medieval times to the present day. She shows how capitalist development was made possible by the appropriation of unpaid sexual labor that relied, in turn, on the repression and production of paid sex. By tracing the historical construction of boundariesaround sex and work, this book exposes how capitalism has long profited from the notion that the sexual and economic spheres can and must be kept apart. In so doing, it offers a distinctive contribution to the study of sex and work as well as to wider scholarly, activist, and policy debates aboutpolitical economy, reproductive labor, gender equality, and sexual justice.

    The text also offers in-depth coverage of clinical work with transgender, gender-nonconforming, and nonbinary clients of all ages. With a wealth of therapeutic strategies and case studies, this resource helps professionals respond to this ‘Big Tent’ community in an informed and empathetic way.Spanning sexuality, gender, relationships and age groups, The Modern Clinician's Guide to Working with LGBTQ+ Clients is an invaluable reference for psychotherapists in a broad range of clinical settings.

    Especially with the promise of £1,000 just for telling Ray Morville, the owner of the local bar, all about it. But when Danni still has two guys to go and it’s already day nine, she decides she’s had enough.What started as a fun competition on a drunken night out—as well as the end to her pressing financial worries—has ended with her feeling exhausted, regretful and desperate.So, when her car breaks down and she’s rescued by a couple of gorgeous hunks who teach her the delights of ménage romance, she should thank her lucky stars that her worries are finally over, right?Except that Danni has already developed feelings for the handsome guys. Is it the end of her financial worries, or the start of something much bigger?

    Possession and jealousy. Dominance and submission. Disobey the rules and get punished...This book contains graphic descriptions of sex and is definitely intended for an 18+ Audience.

    It discusses the work of contemporary artists such as Patrick Staff, Dean Sameshima, Monica Majoli, AK Burns and AL Steiner, and the artist collective Die Kränken, showing how archival histories and contemporary artistic projects might be applied in a broader analysis of LGBTQ culture and norms. Hanky codes, blurry photographs of Tom of Finland drawings, a pin sash weighted down with divergent histories – these become touchstones for writing leather histories.

    Known at the time as the “Pearl of the Danube,” it boasted some of Europe’s most innovative architectural and cultural achievements, and its growing middle class was committed to advancing the city’s liberal politics and making it an intellectual and commercial crossroads between East and West. In addition, as historian Anita Kurimay reveals, fin-de-siècle Budapest was also famous for its boisterous public sexual culture, including a robust gay subculture. Queer Budapest is the riveting story of nonnormative sexualities in Hungary as they were understood, experienced, and policed between the birth of the capital as a unified metropolis in 1873 and the decriminalization of male homosexual acts in 1961.   Kurimay explores how and why a series of illiberal Hungarian regimes came to regulate but also tolerate and protect queer life. She also explains how the precarious coexistence between the illiberal state and queer community ended abruptly at the close of World War II. A stunning reappraisal of sexuality’s political implications, Queer Budapest recuperates queer communities as an integral part of Hungary’s—and Europe’s—modern incarnation.