Description
Book Synopsis177 Lovers and Still Counting: My Life as a Sex Researcher offers a transcultural perspective on gender and sexuality through engaging personal accounts of the author’s participant-observer research in multiple countries and cultures across the globe. Dr. Leanna Wolfe draws from anthropology, sexology, evolutionary psychology, and sociology, effortlessly weaving together personal stories along with qualititiave and quantitiave cross-cultural studies to shed light on relationships, genders, and sexualities. As an autoethnography that is both personal and clinical, Wolfe describes and analyzes personal experiences conduction participant-observer research in order to understand sex, gender, and relationships situated in the social context. She provides insight through personal, intimate storytelling, revealing the many varieties of love, sex, and relationships across cultures and subcultures, and how these insights might impact her readers’ lives, just as it has impacted the author’s life.
Table of ContentsPreface
Coming Out
A Tale of Two Viruses
What is an Auto-Ethnography?
Ethical Concerns
My Life as an Engaged Anthropologist
177 Lovers—What’s in a Number?
Part I – Beginnings
Chapter 1: Erotic Stirrings
Chapter 2: My Parents’ World/My World
Chapter 3: Saving It/Losing It
Chapter 4: Orgasm Me-Search/Research
Chapter 5: Am I Gay?
Part II - Stepping Out Into the World as a Young Woman
Chapter 6: The Gringa Studies Machismo
Chapter 7: Discoveries and Dalliances in Late 1970s New York City
Part III – Adult Sex Education
Chapter 8: Learning About Sex
Chapter 9: Forays into Alternative Lifestyles
Tracking BDSM
The Swing Scene
Part IV – Rethinking Marriage
Chapter 10: Researching Singles Culture in Los Angeles
Part V – Engaging Polygamy and Polyamory
Chapter 11: Researching Polygamy in East Africa and Papua New Guinea
Briefly a Polyamorous Triad
Polygyny Field Research in Africa
Papua New Guinea Beckons!
Chapter 12: Researching Sex, Drugs and Polyamory at Burning Man
Part VI – Making it Professional
Chapter 13: Becoming a Sexology Professional
Chapter 14: Learning by Teaching: Insights into Ethnic Generation Gaps
Part VII – Exploring Worlds of the USA
Chapter 15: Studying Cheating from a Multitude of Perspectives
Chapter 16: In Search of Baby Batter
Part VIII – Engaging the Cybersex World
Chapter 17: The Viral Nipple
Chapter 18: The Petrified Sex Goddess
Chapter 19: Working as a Cyber Sexpert
Part IX – The Marriage Question Continues
Chapter 20: Engaging India’s Courtship with Love Marriage
Chapter 21: Deconstructing Niger’s Marriage Market
Part X – Exploring Other Worlds
Chapter 22: Scoping Out Sexual Tourism in Thailand, Jamaica and Peru
Thailand
Jamaica
Peru
Chapter 23: Engaging Morocco’s Gender Divide
Chapter 24: Sorting Out Sex, Culture and Business in China and Cuba
Part XI – Three Full Circle Stories
Chapter 25: Reckoning with #MeToo
Chapter 26: Full Circle Love
Chapter 27: Return to Mexico
Part XII – Conclusion
Chapter 28: Conclusion: Healing Through Culture, History and Context
References
Dr. Leanna Wolfe’s Research
Sources Cited
Index
About the Author
