Offering an anthology of original articles on sexuality from a sociological perspective, Selves, Symbols, and Sexualities: An Interactionist Anthology focuses on the diverse and multi-layered meanings of sexuality, sexual behaviors and sexual identities. Thomas S. Weinberg and Staci Newmahr bring you essays that explore sexuality as a social process. As a whole, the book takes the perspective that what each of us understands to be sexual is constructed through everyday social processes and interaction, situated in particular spaces and moments, identified through our social-sexual presentations, and symbolized through language, objects and practices. The book is organized around these four distinct but interrelated processes, and augmented by personal narratives around relevant issues. The authors' goals for the book are to engage students in the sociological enterprise by providing interesting and insightful entries that emphasize the importance of meaning-making in human sexuality, and to provide them with conceptual tools to understand human sexuality in a complex and quickly changing sexual landscape.

Part I. Theorizing SexCh.1 Sex, Symbolic Interactionism, and Social Constructionism by Chris BrickellCh.2 Muscle and Blood: Erotic Fantasy in Theory and Practice by Don KulickCh.3 Stating Desire: Sexuality, the State, and Social Control by Misty LuminaisCh.4 Scripting Sexual Practice in Differing Social Contexts: Young Women Negotiating Mothers¿ Expectations in Hong Kong and Britain by Stevi Jackson and Petula Sik Ying HoCh.5 Sex as Theater: Action, Character and the Erotic by Charles EdgleyPart II. Constructing Sexual MeaningsCh.6 Talking Sex: Parents, Schools, and Sexuality by Sinikka Elliott and Josephine Ngo McKelvyCh.7 Techno-sexuality: The Sexual Pragmatists of the Technological Age by Dennis D. WaskulCh.8 Painting Desire Pink: Meaning-Making at a Romance Sex Store by Alison BetterPart III. Negotiating Sexual SelfhoodCh.9 "¿Somewhere between Evangelical and Queer¿: Sexual-Religious Identity Work in an LGBT Christian Church by J. Edward SumerauCh.10 Negotiating Promiscuity: Straight Edge (sXe), Sex, and the Self by Jamie L. MullaneyCh.11 The Challenges of Identity Formation for Bisexual-Multiracial Women of Asian/White Descent by Beverly Yuen ThompsonCh.12 "Give Me a Dominant of Any Gender Over Any Kind of Non-Dominant": Sexual Orientation Beyond Gender by Brandy L. SimulaPart IV. Sex, Emotion, and IdentityCh.13 "Bittersweet" Emotions, Identities, and Sexualities: Insights From a Lesbian Community Space by Clare ForstieCh.14 Not Necessarily Broken: Redefining Success When Polyamorous Relationships End by Elisabeth SheffCh.15 A Symbolic Interactionist Approach to Asexuality by Susie Scott, Matt Dawson, and Staci NewmahrPart V. Sexual StoriesCh.16 The Unfortunate Adventures of a Girl in the Know by Stella MeningkatCh.17 Backroom "Dance" by Ruby PearsonCh.18 A Conflicted Mind by John P.Ch.19 On Confessing One¿s Kink in a Sexuality Textbook by Tanya BezrehCh.20 Intersections of Vampirism and Sexuality: A Narrative Description of a Vampire Feeding by D J WilliamsCh.21 Adjusting the Inner Face by Giselle Ridgeway