The Moral Panics of Sexuality
Language: English
Pages: 259
ISBN: 1137353163
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
A provocative feminist analysis of the moral panics of sexuality, this interdisciplinary edited collection showcases the range of historical and contemporary crises we too often suppress, including vagina dentata, vampires, cannibalism, age appropriateness, breast cancer, menstrual panics, and sex education.
superior to human males. Recently re-released under the same title as John Carpenter’s 1982 classic scifi horror The Thing, the prequel The Thing (2011) similarly features mysterious, violent alien antagonists that can make an exact carbon copy of other species in order to infiltrate and kill it. What is interesting regarding the curious biological feat unique to this alien species, however, is that while in its covert copied form, if threatened the creature transforms into a frightening,
“pure” and “innocent” child is critical to the formation of the good moral heteronormative adult citizen. Children’s access to sexual knowledge before it is considered to be developmentally appropriate—discursively defined within a moral, Christian, heteronormative framework—is perceived as corrupting the child’s innocence and potentially leading to children’s promiscuity and immature sexual activity. (Robinson 2012, 264–265) What kinds of citizens will sexually knowledgeable children grow up to
attitudes about and “frenzies” over sexuality. Panic and anxiety have a way of bleeding over into other aspects of people’s lives, of taking apart and exploding the seemingly rational. Chris Hedges (2003), an international war journalist, has aptly noted that war is a force that gives us meaning, in part because it creates a context for cultural amnesia and radical repositioning of who is responsible and how to resist. Instead, the flurry of nationalistic, patriotic, and battle-hungry sentiments
eyewitness account and a work of the imagination, Typee becomes a discussion about imperialist discourse in the travel narrative. I argue that Melville’s novel is a self-conscious reproduction of the genre, making Typee a spectacle of the travelogue. Cannibalism in Nineteenth Century Travel Writing 123 For this reason Typee is indispensable to a discussion about nineteenth century moral panics over sexuality. The novel begins with a lament: “Six months at sea! … Oh! for a refreshing glimpse
questioned about Gunderson’s version of events less than two weeks later, said he was not aware of any independently financed conservative smear campaign and said he had never urged Gunderson to end the write-in campaign. “I thought he would get the chairmanship of the Agriculture Committee … I don’t remember mentioning any individuals. It was entirely his decision, and he had my absolute support if he wanted to run” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 1996). A recorded phone call between Harsdorf and