Sexualities All books
Étienne-Émile Baulieu, Françoise Héritier, Henri Leridon
Contraception : Constraint or Liberty ? (Work of the Collège de France)
It is now generally accepted that contraception should be readily available.
Léo Bersani
Homos Reassessing the Identity
What does it mean to be homosexual today ? Is it necessary to form communities and if so, why ? Is the primary aim equality in society such as it is, or the challenging of society itself ? Up to what point do homosexuals distinguish themselves ? Must there be a link between sexual claims and political dispute ? The gay and lesbian communities necessarily ask themselves these questions. On a wider scale, they also encourage a redefinition of the human being in contemporary societies. Already considered a classic in the United States, Homos presents an innovative, critical reflection on identity and the dangers in the withdrawal of a community from society. An expert in French literature, Leo Bersani is a professor at the University of California. He has notably published Baudelaire and Freud, and Theory and Violence.
Colette Chiland
Changing Sex
Some human beings refuse to take the path that leads from being male to becoming a man or from being female and becoming a woman and want to belong to the sex for which their bodies were not designed -and this at any price. In our culture, these transsexuals want to both occupy the other place in the network of symbolic exchanges and have a mark of this change in their bodies. Their sadness is irremediable, for although they can change their social sex, they cannot change their bodily sex. "It's better " states one transsexual, "to change what's in the mind". Will we succeed in doing so ? A university professor, Colette Chiland taught psychology and psychopathology of children and adolescents, then clinical psychology at the Sorbonne University in Paris.
Claude Aron
Bisexuality and the Order of Nature
Our sex defines our identity before we are even named - "It's a boy" or "It's a girl" is the traditional welcome we receive in this world. Similarly, throughout our entire life, our gender defines our diverse social roles. Yet, this book shows how nature presents us with only one model, that of bisexuality. Endocrinian manipulations have shown that it is possible to change from one sexuality to another in a reversible manner. This book is key reading in the debate about the genetic character, or not, of homosexuality. Claude Aron, a specialist in in the physiology of reproduction, is also an honorary professor of the Louis-Pasteur University in Strasbourg.
