Masturbation in Pop Culture

Screen, Society, Self

Lauren Rosewarne

Through reference to over six hundred scenes from film and television—as well as a diverse and cross-disciplinary academic bibliography—Masturbation in Pop Culture investigates the role that masturbation serves within narratives while simultaneously mirroring our complicated relationship with the practice in real life and sparking discussions about a broad range of hot-button sexual subjects.

From sitcoms to horror movies, teen comedies to erotic thrillers, autoeroticism is easily detected on screen. The portrayal, however, is not a simple one. Just as in real life a paradox exists where most of us masturbate and accept it as normal and natural, there simultaneously exists a silence about it; that we do it, but we don’t talk about it; that we enjoy it but we laugh about it. The screen reflects this conflicted relationship. It is there—hundreds and hundreds of times—but it is routinely whispered about, mocked and presented as a punchline, and is inevitably portrayed as controversial at the very least.

Masturbation in Pop Culture investigates the embarrassment and squeamishness, sexiness and inappropriateness of masturbation, showcasing and analyzing how our complex off screen relationship is mirrored in film and television.

Lexington Books

Pages: 366 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-0-7391-8367-0 • Hardback • October 2014 • $122.00 • (£94.00)

978-0-7391-8368-7 • eBook • October 2014 • $115.50 • (£89.00)

Subjects: Social Science / Popular Culture, Social Science / Gender Studies, Social Science / Media Studies

Masturbation in Pop Culture

Screen, Society, Self

Hardback

eBook

Summary

Through reference to over six hundred scenes from film and television—as well as a diverse and cross-disciplinary academic bibliography—Masturbation in Pop Culture investigates the role that masturbation serves within narratives while simultaneously mirroring our complicated relationship with the practice in real life and sparking discussions about a broad range of hot-button sexual subjects.

From sitcoms to horror movies, teen comedies to erotic thrillers, autoeroticism is easily detected on screen. The portrayal, however, is not a simple one. Just as in real life a paradox exists where most of us masturbate and accept it as normal and natural, there simultaneously exists a silence about it; that we do it, but we don’t talk about it; that we enjoy it but we laugh about it. The screen reflects this conflicted relationship. It is there—hundreds and hundreds of times—but it is routinely whispered about, mocked and presented as a punchline, and is inevitably portrayed as controversial at the very least.

Masturbation in Pop Culture investigates the embarrassment and squeamishness, sexiness and inappropriateness of masturbation, showcasing and analyzing how our complex off screen relationship is mirrored in film and television.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 366 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-0-7391-8367-0 • Hardback • October 2014 • $122.00 • (£94.00)

978-0-7391-8368-7 • eBook • October 2014 • $115.50 • (£89.00)

Subjects: Social Science / Popular Culture, Social Science / Gender Studies, Social Science / Media Studies

Author

Lauren Rosewarne is a senior lecturer in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents
Introduction: It’s Okay, Everybody Does it, But Nobody Ever, Ever Talks About It
Chapter 1: The Demonization
Chapter 2: The Coming of Age
Chapter 3: The How
Chapter 4: The Trigger
Chapter 5: Locating It
Chapter 6: The Show
Chapter 7: The Substitution
Chapter 8: Within Relationships
Chapter 9: For Health and Empowerment
Chapter 10: The Norm
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
About the Author

Reviews

Rosewarne gives a widespread overview about different forms of reports and classifications about masturbation.
— Sexuality & Culture

An impressive work of seminal scholarship, Masturbation in Pop Culture: Screen, Society, Self by Lauren Rosewarne is enhanced with a two page list of Media References; a sixteen page Bibliography, and a comprehensive Index. A critically important and highly recommended contribution to academic library Western Popular Culture Studies reference collections and supplemental study lists.
— Midwest Book Review

Lauren Rosewarne has written another book which goes to those aspects of sexuality and popular culture that few of her peers would dare follow. Her mixture of rigorous scholarship and engaging, cutting edge analysis makes Masturbation in Pop Culture: Screen, Society, Self essential reading for anyone interested in the relationship between sex and media in our time.
— Brian McNair, Queensland University of Technology

Masturbation in Pop Culture

Screen, Society, Self

Lauren Rosewarne

Masturbation in Pop Culture

Screen, Society, Self

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