Sex in Public: The Transformative Power of Our Social Lives

Sociologist Jones (Camming) uncovers how sociopolitical forces shape sex and sexuality and how individuals and communities can subvert these externally imposed norms in this introspective and paradigm-shifting analysis. The author upends the typical understanding of sexuality as private and biologically determined. Instead, they methodically break down how patriarchy, white supremacy, heteronormativity, and capitalist systems impact “our self-concept, relationship to our bodies, and sexual behavior” by interrogating “five interconnected dimensions” of eroticism, including desire, behaviors, and relationships. For each, Jones highlights a marginalized sexual subculture that radically rethinks these assumptions, from asexuals’ rejection of “compulsory sexuality,” to polyamorous relationships’ inventive and honest negotiation of boundaries, to the BDSM community’s creation of “nonjudgmental spaces for exploration and learning.” An overreliance on jargon can distract from Jones’s fascinating and grounded exploration of the subversive sex lives of “erotic rule breakers,” but the book comes alive when Jones details, with remarkable openness and vulnerability, their own experiences and experiments in sexual subcultures, including juxtaposing the sex parties and educational workshops held at Toronto’s woman-run Oasis Aqualounge, where Jones “felt empowered... because I felt in control of what would happen,” with certain New York City swingers parties, where they felt fetishized as a Black bisexual nonbinary person. Readers will appreciate this sharp reconsideration of how to approach eroticism with more agency, consent, and intention. (June)