Abstract: Serial murder has captivated society’s imagination ever since Jack the Ripper’s reign of terror in Victorian London. Over time, though, the United States has emerged as a nation uniquely productive of and fascinated with murder. The serial killer has become a powerful cultural icon in our country, and he has come to be associated in… Read more Highway To Hell: The Sexual Serial Killer
Abstract: In this podcast, the authors describe the history of Playboy Magazine, in order to track larger patterns in the history of American pornographic magazines from the 19th century through the late 1970s. They examine both primary and secondary sources to argue that the history of Playboy is centered around a dialectical relationship in which… Read more Playboy and Society
Abstract While modern-day Hollywood retains a reputation of producing politically and sexually progressive content, at one point in time, strict censorship on “controversial” or “liberal” subject matter ensured its films conveyed strictly conservative messages to moviegoers. The Hays Code, a set of Hollywood rules and regulations created by Will H. Hays, closely monitored the ideals portrayed in… Read more “Don’ts” and “Be Carefuls”: Sex, Politics, and Morality in the Pre-Code Era
In this podcast, Jose and Rowan tackle the issue of the criminalization of sexual deviance. While there are many forms of sexual deviance, and likewise many methods of controlling this deviance, this podcast focuses primarily on anti-sodomy laws and anti-sex toy laws, specifically the Anti-Obscenity Enforcement Act that was passed in Alabama in 1998 and… Read more The Criminalization of Sexual Deviance in American History
What do you think of when you hear the words sex and colonial America? There’s a big chance that you do not think of anything, or that you think sex was taboo and only used for reproduction. We all have preconceived notions of a prudish colonial America, shaped by what we learn about the beliefs… Read more Puritans, Pilgrims, and Plantation Owners Doing the Dirty: A Study of Sex in Colonial America
Abstract On today’s episode of Fallen Women, we will dive into America’s Golden Age of the late 19th century, a time of rapid expansion and industrialization and, for our purposes, prostitution. This podcast will lay bare the intricacies of the world of female prostitution and, more specifically, the world of brothels. Our podcast operates on… Read more Fallen Women
**Warning: the sound quality on this podcast is a bit uneven. The music is much louder than the talking segments. Please adjust your volume accordingly.** Abstract: We researched the connections between music and sexuality in an attempt to understand modern notions of sex, sexuality, and censorship and how they are related to representation in music.… Read more Let’s Talk About Sex: Parental Advisory Explicit Content
