From advertising to health education campaigns, sex and sexual imagery now permeate every aspect of popular culture. "Striptease Culture" explores this 'sexualisation' of contemporary life, relating it to wider changes in the sexual politics of post-war societies. Divided into three sections, "Striptease Culture" first traces the development of pornography, following its movement from elite to mass culture and examining the culture of confession, as seen in day-time talk shows and reality TV, and the contemporary fascination with 'porno-chic'. In part two McNair explores the use of sexuality in contemporary art, and the 'striptease' of artist like Jeff Koons, Madonna, Gilbert & George and Natasha Merritt who have used their own naked bodies in their work. McNair considers the contribution made by the art of sexual transgression to the critique of mainstream patriarchal culture. The final part considers the representation of sex and gender roles in a variety of media. Moving from backlash elementsin straight male culture and changing images of women to the representation of gays in contemporary film and television shows such as Ellen and Queer as Folk, McNair argues that the changing structure of representation of sex and gender mark significant progress in the sexual politics of advanced capitalist societies.

List of figures. Preface and Acknowledgments. 1. Sex Matters 2. From Wilde to Wild: the End of Patriarch, Or Is It All Just History Repeating Part I Cultural Sexualisation: from Pornosphere to Public Sphere 3. The Amazing Expanding Pornosphere 4. Porno-chic, or the Pornographication of the Mainstream 5. Striptease Culture: the Sexualisation of the Public Sphere Part II Sexual Representation 6. Women, Know Your Limits! 7. The Mainstreaming of Gayness 8. Men Behaving Sadly: the Crisis of Masculinity? Part III The Aesthetics of Sexual Transgression 9. Men, Sex and Transgression 10. Queer Culture 11. Bad Girls: Sexual Transgression as Feminist Strategy 12. Conclusions. Bibliography