Visual Histories of Sex

Increased access to visual archives and the proliferation of digitized images related to sexuality have led a growing number of scholars in recent years to place images and visual practices at the center of critical historical inquiries of sexual desire, subjectivity, and embodiment. At the same time, new critical histories of sexual science serve both to expand the temporal and geographical frames for investigating the historical relationships of sex and visual production, and to generate new lines of inquiry and reshape visual studies more broadly. The contributors to this issue invite us to ask: What new questions and challenges for the study of sex and sexual science are posed by critical studies of the visual? How are new visual methodologies that focus on archives changing the contours of historical knowledge about sex and sexuality? What—and where—are new methodologies still needed? “Visual Archives of Sex” aims to illuminate current research that centers visual media in the history of sexuality and that interrogates contemporary historiographies.

Modern European sexological and orientalist assimilations of medieval Islamicate ‘ilm al-bah to erotology

This article discusses the term erotology, which was applied to medieval Islamicate ‘ilm al-bah (the science of coitus), as well as other world traditions of sexual knowledge, by European sexologists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who contrasted it with their own forms of inquiry into sexual matters in the modern field of sexual science. It argues that the homogenisation and minimisation of all ancient and non-European forms of medical knowledge about sex, even one as substantial as the ‘ilm al-bah tradition, supported a particular story about the origins of sexology's own emergence as a new and unprecedented biomedical and scientific way of knowing, characterised by an opposition assumed between sexuality and religion, by a view of sexual variations as perversions or pathologies, and by a view of Arabs and Muslims as sexually excessive. The article focusses on French, English, German, Austrian, and Italian sources of the 19th century that discussed the history of sexual medicine, relating these accounts to recent attempts to historicise sexology. It considers how forms of colonial hierarchy and exoticist views of non-European cultures impacted the dismissal of ‘ilm al-bah among European sexual scientists and how they may continue to exert an influence on forms of modern historical inquiry that are not attentive to scholarship on medieval Islamicate sexual medicine.

It’s all Greek to me: Explaining, computing, and summarizing traditional and (re)emerging metrics of reliability for seven measures in sexual science

Sexual scientists typically default to appraising the reliability of their self-report measures by calculating one or more α coefficients. Despite the prolific use of α, few researchers understand how to situate and make sense of α within the psychometric theories used to develop the measures used in their research (e.g., latent variable theory) and many unknowingly violate the assumptions of α. In this paper, we describe the disconnect between α and latent variable theory and the subsequent restrictive assumptions α makes. Simultaneously, we introduce an alternative metric of reliability—omega (ɷ)—that is compatible with latent variable theory. Subsequently, we provide a tutorial to walk readers through didactic examples on how to calculate ɷ metrics of reliability using the getOmega() function—a simple open-source function we created to automate the estimation of ɷ. We then introduce the Measurement of Sexuality and Intimacy Constructs (MoSaIC) project to provide insight into the state of reliability in sexuality science. We do this through contrasting α and ɷ estimates of reliability across seven sexuality measures, selected based on their emerging and pre-existing relevance and influence in the field of sexuality, in both a queer (LGBTQ+) sample ( n = 545) and a United States’ representative sample ( n = 548). We finish our paper with pragmatic suggestions for editors, reviewers, and authors. By more deeply understanding one’s options of reliability metrics, sexual scientists may carefully consider how they present and assess their measures’ reliability, and ultimately help improve our science’s replicability.

#DebunkingDesire: Sexual Science, Social Media, and Strategy in the Pursuit of Knowledge Dissemination (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Approximately 1 in 3 women experience low sexual desire. Despite this being a common concern, many women never seek professional help for their difficulties and will instead turn to online resources for information. OBJECTIVE We sought to address this need for digitally-accessible, evidence-based information on low sexual desire by creating a social media Knowledge Translation (KT) campaign aimed at women called #DebunkingDesire. METHODS Our team led a 10 month social media campaign where our primary outcomes for the campaign were impressions, reach, and engagement. RESULTS We generated over 300,000 social media impressions; appeared on 11 different podcasts that were listened to/downloaded 154,700 times; hosted and participated in eight online events; and attracted website users from 110 different countries. CONCLUSIONS Over the course of the campaign we learned many lessons on what worked for advertising our content and the importance of creating community for this population. Based on our campaign results, we recommend that others pursuing KT campaigns use social media, collaborate with a Patient Partner, and consider social media ads and podcasts to meet reach goals.

Sexology and the national Other in the Soviet Union

Historians have pointed to overseas colonialism and 'race science' as influential in the construction of European sexual science. Soviet sexology arose on a 'semi-periphery' between Europe and colonised societies. The 'Others' against whom Russian sexual ideals were forged would be 'internally colonised' peasants and non-Russian ethnicities of the Soviet Union's internal orient. Pre-Stalinist sexology blended the 'sexual revolution' with European sexual science focused on workers in the Slavic urban industrial heartland; nationalities beyond this perceived heartland lagged behind and their sex lives required modernisation. Stalin virtually curtailed sexological research. After 1945 the party revived it to spur fertility, especially in Slavic urban centres where births had dropped below replacement rate. Ideological control constrained sexologists, confining them to silos, limiting internationalisation and cramping research. But new, heteronormative therapeutic measures, some from Western science, and others devised at home, were developed. Less vocal than Western or Eastern Bloc sexology, Soviet sex research continued to display anxiety about internal national and ethnic Others into the 1980s and beyond.

Commodifying Licentiousness in a Time of Flux

This chapter focuses on material changes in print markets at the turn of the twentieth century that moved beyond the early modern challenge to yin. Between the end of the Qing Empire and the early Republican period, imported European erotic representations and domestically produced representations using state-of-the-art technologies appeared on the Chinese market. The chapter analyses how these transformations made desire itself a valid subject for open discourse and led to the globalized modern pornography. New mediums introduced new genres of sexual content. Books and images propagated the new ideas of sexual science, which was materially backed by broadening access to reliable contraception. The chapter details, however, these new genres did not displace — nor dispel the erotic charge — of older forms. Changes on the market for sexual representations were intertwined with and helped reinforce larger material and ideological developments of the era. The chapter also shows a complex market in flux, changes in the marketplace, and the ideas and representations that it made materially available. Ultimately, the chapter displays the changes in Beijing's markets for titillating media.

Sex(ology) Sells

This chapter points out the persistence of early modern genres and technologies in turn-of-the-century markets for sexual depictions. It shows that existing ways of thinking about licentiousness among urban Chinese consumers, merchants, and law enforcement helped novel media content and forms take root in early twentieth-century China. The chapter focuses on the simultaneity of novel material developments and long-standing trends in the markets for and regulation of sexual representations. It also describes the distance between the letter of the law and its enforcement, arguing that grassroots law enforcement's definitions of transgressiveness directly, powerfully shaped what counted as pornographic. The chapter dissects the most dramatic example of Chinese early modern sexual culture's enduring power: its assimilation of the self-consciously modern genre of sexual science. Existing sexual discourse and print economies absorbed sexological treatises so that, in the eyes of buyers, sellers, producers, and police, sexology became difficult to separate from licentious xiaoshuo and lyric books. It then examines continuities and changes in the perceptions and lived experiences of those on the demand and supply sides of the market. Ultimately, the chapter discusses the case of Zhang Jingsheng's rebranding as “Dr. Sexology,” and the assimilation of sexology into existing markets and vocabularies for eroticism.

Good in Theory: A Metatheoretical Review of Social Psychological Theories of Human Sexuality

The fields of social psychology and sexual science have an intuitive and growing connection, with social psychology’s tradition of theory generation poised to enrich the psychological study of the sexual. For those interested in applying social psychological theories to topics of sexuality, however, there are questions regarding the features, qualities, and strengths and weaknesses of social psychology’s theoretical offerings. We therefore conducted a comprehensive metatheoretical review of social psychology theories applicable to sexuality (n = 44). In doing so, we (i)promote a deeper understanding of the current state of social psychology theory (ii)provide original theory maps to streamline future theory testing (iii)evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of current social psychology theories. Our review finds existing social psychology theory to present a range of clarity with regards to theory definition, theory applicability, and testability. We interpret our results as encouragement for the pursuit of contemporary methods of theorizing in social psychology.