Confronting the issue of the unacceptable as a social category, this collection of international essays provides distinctive perspectives on the theme of what is deemed socially acceptable. The book reveals the ways category of the unacceptable reflects sexual, racial and political fault-lines of a society.

Notes on Contributors Acknowledgements Introduction: What is the Unacceptable?; J.Potts  & J.Scannell PART I: THE SOCIALLY UNACCEPTABLE Power and the Unacceptable; M.Dean 'Schooling Scandals!': Exploring the Necessity of Cultural Disgust; C.Haywood Presumed Innocent: Picturing Childhood; C.Lumby The Sombrero Comes Out of the Closet: Gay Marriage in Mexico City and a Nation's Struggle for Identity; S.Ballina The Drug Cultures in France and the Netherlands (1960s-1980s): Banning or Regulating the 'Unacceptable'; A.Marchant 'When the Smoke Clears': Confronting Smoking Policy; J.Scannell PART II: REPRESENTING THE UNACCEPTABLE The Monstrous-Familial: Representations of the Unacceptable Family; J.Potts Unacceptability and Prosaic Life in Breaking Bad; E.Logan Sade's Constrained Libertinage: The Problem of Disgust; N.Stekelenburg Censorship in Performance in America: Freedom of Expression Has Limitations; T.R.Wilson Why Saying 'No' to Life is Unacceptable; C.Colebrook Index