Product Description

Public Sex collects the best of Pat Califia's work published over the past 20 years. Providing both a chronicle of the radical sex movement in the United States, as well as the definitive opinions of America's most consistent and trenchant sexual critic, Public Sex is must-read material for anyone interested in sexual practices, feminism, censorship, or simply the art of the political essay.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #556555 in Books
• Published on: 2000-06-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 250 pages

Amazon.com Review
Among the beacons of sex radicalism--alongside Susie Bright, Carol Queen, Kate Bornstein, and very few others--Pat Califia has been writing angry, sex-positive essays and politically charged erotica since the late 1970s. The bulk of her many nonfiction pieces is collected in this reprint of a book first published in 1994, providing a lively, informal history of the sex wars of the '80s and '90s--from the absurd, puritanical Meese Commission Report to the antiporn feminists to the unexamined attitudes behind the popular Re/Search book Modern Primitives. The chief apologist for the S/M community and one of the strongest voices in the anticensorship fight, Califia is at her best when the subject is closest to home. Her peevish reflections on the stupidity and political shortsightedness of anti-S/M feminists and lesbians are a joy to read; you can hear the swish of her whip and the stamp of her boot heel. With its excellent introduction, this book should be on the shelf of every feminist, every lesbian, every sexual adventurer, and anyone who hopes to understand sexual politics in America. --Regina Marler

From Publishers Weekly
"Today, at the amazing age of forty, I am trying to cause just as much trouble as I did when I was twenty-five," writes Califia, author of 12 books, including Macho Sluts and Sapphistry. Public Sex comprises 19 of Califia's smartest essays on sex and politics from 1980 to the present. Always intelligent but never academic, Califia takes bold, unpopular stances on censorship and sexual freedom. She unequivocally supports NAMBLA (North American Man-Boy Love Association), sex clubs, pornography and kinky sex of all kinds. No aspect of sex is too forbidden or too undignified to merit Califia's critical attention: she devotes an entire essay to rubber, and she doesn't just mean safe sex equipment. The older articles are from popular gay-community newspapers and magazines, while the most recent are from academic journals, although the older pieces are no less theoretical and the newer pieces no less sexy. This comparison gives some credence to Califia's claim that "the gay press has traded censorship by the chief of police or the postmaster general for a more subtle form of social control by Absolut Vodka."
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
American society often attempts to repress sexuality, but as long as Califia (Sex Changes: The Politics of Transgenderism) has something to sayDor writeDabout the issue, censoring sex will be a little less easy. In this second edition of Public Sex, Califia collects most of the essays in the previous edition (the bulk of her work from 1979 to 1994), adding a new foreword as well as four new essays that she has written in the last six years. And, intriguingly, for some of the topics she discusses, she modifies her position on a few matters as well. The 23 essays cover censorship and sexuality, age-of-consent laws and minors, conservative feminists and pornography, sex workers, sadomasochism, leather culture, and lesbians and safer sex, among other topics. Witty, well written, direct, and never boring, this edition will be sure to find as great a following as the first. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries.DKimberly L. Clarke, Univ. of Minnesota Libs., Minneapolis
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Bold and articulate
My first reading of Pat Califia's work was in PoMoSexuals, a collection of essays where she was one of the contributors. Her writing was so eloquent and coherent that I sought out her books. In this collection of her essays, Califia challenges the muddled thinking and hyperbole so prevalent among feminists (especially Andrea Dworkin) about pornography and sexual "deviance." Califia's knowledge and arguments are stated clearly with humor and compassion. Many quotable quotes such as: "It is true that pornography is marketed for a male audience, but there are women who enjoy it. I do not think it sufficient to say these women are brainwashed by the patriarchy, since women are socialized NOT to use erotic materials." (p. 109)

[about teen interest in sex] "Any attempt at independence and autonomy by a young person is seen as wickedness, rebellion, and evil." (p. 80) And: "It is adult outrage and shame over such perfectly normal activities that give young people the idea that there's something wrong with sex or nudity, and intimidates them out of asking the questions they need to explore their own erotic natures." (p. 81)

"Instead of praying for extraordinary talents, we should pray for the good sense to fully use the talents we have been given." (p. 259)

I found this book informative and very thought provoking and recommend it for anyone with strong feelings, pro or con, about the rights of sexual minorities.

~~Joan Mazza, author of Dream Back Your Life; Dreaming Your Real Self; Things That Tick Me Off; and Exploring Your Sexual Self.

Public Sex: political, sexual, intelligent thought
at one point in Public Sex, Pat Califia says that "you can still be a sex radical even if you prefer to get off in the missionary position and still believe there are only two genders." it's an important thing to remember. in this collection of essays, Califia explores -- over a period of about a dozen years -- issues of sex, politics, and where the two intersect (usually by bolstering the latter at the expense of the former). she explains why sexual freedoms and sexual responsibility are rights we all deserve, though many of us don't get them. she confronts the p.c. "feminist" positions on issues like pornography, prostitution, and S/M, and her well-thought-out points will make any reader pause. Public Sex changed my life, making me more aware than i had ever been of the sheer *perversity* of the strictures on sexual behavior in our culture today. the more people read this book, the better our chances of gaining those liberties that all of us deserve.

Delightful yet intellectually serious work from a pioneer in the sex-positive movement
This books collects many of Patrick Califia's writings from the late 1970s through the early 90s and is a real jewel of a book. I recommend the newest edition, publish in the early 2000s that includes a new introduction and new essay on the most controversial topic in the book that is well worth reading for it shows the evolution of Califia's thought on an immensely contentious subject.

Besides that essay, there are numerous others that the term 'eye opening' would be an understatement in describing. Her promotion of a sex-positive feminist and queer viewpoint is always a joy to read and her essays on lesbian sexuality, the empowering aspects of S/M, on the persecution and shaming of prostitutes by the Right and the Left, and many other works are all a breath of fresh air. Califia is definitely to be commended for fighting to put the sex back into sexuality, and in this increasingly prim, proper, and puritanically-minded society of ours, that is a blessing.

Califia takes on virtually all the great bugaboos of the more puritanical, embourgeoisized, and authoritarian elements of the feminist and LGBTQ movements which serve, in all seriousness, as distractions that prevent liberatory-minded feminists and queer activists from the pooling our resources from the urgent task of fighting for and building a more free, democratic, and substantively just world.