From cyber porn to striptease culture, this trailblaising book uncovers the shockingly fascinating new ways that western society is being sexualized. We don't realise how far the 'pornogrification' of culture has reached - this book does and discusses it graphically but responsibly. Media interest in this subject is huge."Mainstreaming Sex" uncovers the significant impact, hitherto only half glimpsed, that striptease culture is having on our media, relationships, educational and working lives. It is a welcome and much needed book.Western culture is exhibiting its fascination with sex in new, often surprising ways. Pole dancing is a form of keep fit, porn stars find work as agony aunts, pornography itself is just 'a mouse click away', and phone sex, email affairs and cybersex are now part of our everyday lives. This sexualization of modern culture is the subject widely discussed here.In original chapters, the contributors confront the reality that in all aspects of social and cultural life, sex is being 'mainstreamed'. They explore film, print and online pornographies; representations of masturbation in film and television, supersexualized advertising, and problem page sex.They also examine young people's views of sex in mainstream media; women's use of sexual media in the home; and, pole dancing as exercise and performance and third wave feminism and the sexualization debate.

Contents AcknowledgementsContributorsIntroduction: The Sexualization of CultureFeona AttwoodSection 1: Pornography and PornographicationThe New Pornographies: Representation or Reality?Simon HardyPleasing Intensities: Masochism and Affective Pleasures in PornShort Fictions Clarissa Smith"Choke on it, Bitch!": PornStudies, Extreme Gonzoand the Mainstreaming of Hardcore Stephen MaddisonFrom Porn Chic to Porn Fear: the Return of the Repressed?Brian McNairSection 2: Sexualization and Mainstream MediaThe Mainstreaming of Masturbation: Autoeroticism and Consumer CapitalismGreg TuckSupersexualize Me!: Advertising and the 'Midriffs'Rosalind GillWhatever Happened to Cathy and Claire?: Sex, Advice and the Role of the Agony AuntPetra BoyntonSection 3: Striptease CultureToo Much Too Toung?: Young People, Sexual Media and LearningSara Bragg & David BuckinghamSome Texts Do It Better: Women, Sexually Explicit Texts and the EverydayDana Wilson-KovacsKeeping Fit in Six Inch Heels: The Mainstreaming of Pole DancingSamantha Holland & Feona AttwoodBUST-ing the Third Wave: Barbies, Blowjobs and Girlie FeminismRebecca Munford AppendicesFilm and TV GuideBibliographyIndex