Kinky History
A Rollicking Journey through Our Sexual Past, Present, and Future
1 of 1 copy available
Contrary to popular belief, our predecessors had all sorts of obscene hobbies long before Christian Grey hit the scene. In this enlightening romp, learn about the first instances of homosexuality on record from the ancient world and the diverse history of nonbinary gender; encounter a thousand years’ worth of hilarious and horrifying contraceptive methods; consider the positive and negative effects of the widespread availability of pornography in the digital age—and how our relationship to it changed during the pandemic; take a sneaky riffle through centuries of bedside drawers; and discover the dirty little secrets of luminaries such as Julius Caesar, James Joyce, Albert Einstein, and Virginia Woolf.
Esmé Louise James also identifies the key tipping points that directly inform current beliefs around sex to place the past in conversation with the present. By educating ourselves about the weird, wonderful, and varied spectrum of human sexuality and experience, we can normalize and destigmatize sex, write people of marginalized sexual identities back into the pages of history, and build toward a more liberated future.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
June 18, 2024 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780593716915
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780593716915
- File size: 18830 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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August 15, 2023
Kinky History is based on the wildly popular TikTok account we all needed. Author Esmé Louise James (@esme.louisee) is a TikTok phenomenon with over 2.3 million followers, and it’s pretty clear why—she knows how to make sex and kink easy to talk about. And hilarious. And normal. James invites the reader to a multi-course dinner party with famous kinky people throughout history, including James Joyce, Albert Einstein and the Marquis de Sade, to talk about kink. At times the metaphor can seem a little much—but it works—and, along with plenty of euphuisms, make the book friendly and accessible. Kinky History combines James’s penchant for the historical with her mum’s (statistician Dr Susan James) love for data. In 2022, the pair surveyed over 14,000 Australians about their sex lives. Having these ‘SexTistics’ about what Australians like in the bedroom helps show us that our kinks aren’t weird or even unique, and adds to the overall sense of fun and comfort the author creates. Kinky History is a fun book and an important one as it explores five ‘kinks’ that may challenge how we think about sex. If its goal is to normalise kink and reduce shame, it achieves that. It is a good match for readers who enjoyed This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson.
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