{"id":904,"date":"2025-09-15T12:27:26","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T16:27:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/women\/?p=904"},"modified":"2025-09-16T13:44:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T17:44:18","slug":"fierce-desires-variation-conflict-and-pleasure-in-the-history-of-american-sexuality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/women\/2025\/09\/15\/fierce-desires-variation-conflict-and-pleasure-in-the-history-of-american-sexuality\/","title":{"rendered":"Fierce Desires: Variation, Conflict, and Pleasure in the History of American Sexuality"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the United States today, we have government decrees that there are only two sexes, debates about \u201ctrad wives\u201d and polyamory, and frequent references to the nation\u2019s \u201cpuritan\u201d past. But in her latest book\u2014and in this talk\u2014Professor Rebecca L. Davis argues that seventeenth-century Puritans are a weak precedent for how the history of sexuality has unfolded in the United States. Into the 1800s, the United States was far more welcoming of gender nonconformity and same-sex\/queer desires than we might presume. Instead, a significant shift occurred in the late nineteenth century, when anti-obscenity and anti-immigration legislation vastly expanded the federal government\u2019s investment in shaping sexual morality. The history that unfolds is far less about prudish puritans than shifting sexual values. Our contemporary conflicts over sex and gender highlight the power of this surprising history.
\nPlease join the talk on Thursday October 9, 2025 at 4:30-6pm in Clark 206<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the United States today, we have government decrees that there are only two sexes, debates about \u201ctrad wives\u201d and polyamory, and frequent references to the nation\u2019s \u201cpuritan\u201d past. But in her latest book\u2014and in this talk\u2014Professor Rebecca L. Davis argues that seventeenth-century Puritans are a weak precedent for how the history of sexuality has unfolded in the United States. Into the 1800s, the United States was far more welcoming of gender nonconformity and same-sex\/queer desires than we might presume. Instead, a significant shift occurred in the late nineteenth century, when anti-obscenity and anti-immigration legislation vastly expanded the federal government\u2019s investment in shaping sexual morality.<\/p>\n

Continue reading… Fierce Desires: Variation, Conflict, and Pleasure in the History of American Sexuality<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[7,13],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/women\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/women\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/women\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/women\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/women\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=904"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/women\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":922,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/women\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904\/revisions\/922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/women\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/women\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/women\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}