Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review“
Wallowing in Sex is important work: it pushes us to understand the institutional terrain of 1970s American television in the context of the sexual revolution and emergent feminist and gay liberation movements in a manner that no other scholarly work has done before.”—Tim J. Anderson, author of
Making Easy Listening: Material Culture and Postwar American Recording“
Wallowing in Sex is a groundbreaking and important examination of television’s significant role in the increasingly sexualized culture of the 1970s. Painstakingly researched and smartly written, it is a crucial addition to the field of television history and, more generally, to the history of popular culture of the recent past. And if you grew up with 1970s television,
Wallowing in Sex will make you look at the programming of the era in a thoroughly new light.”—Aniko Bodroghkozy, author of
Groove Tube: Sixties Television and the Youth Rebellion“
Wallowing in Sex is an excellent contribution to the fields of television studies, gender studies, and popular culture. Levine’s blend of textual, historical, and industrial analysis paints a thorough picture of ‘the new sexual culture of 1970s America,’ making it a necessary text for any and all students of the decade. Moreover, her extremely thorough coverage of all aspects of 1970s television, and its peculiar obsession with female sexuality make an important intersection between feminist theory and broadcast history. In this vein,
Wallowing in Sex is on par with such germinal texts as Lynn Spigel’s
Make Room for TV and Julie D’Acci’s
Defining Women, making it an important and exciting addition to the canon of feminist media studies.” -- Mary E. Pagano * Jump Cut *
“Levine makes a substantial contribution to television scholarship . . . . This is a significant book that television scholars, in particular those with an interest in feminism, cannot afford to overlook.” -- Hilary Radner * Journal of American History *
“Levine’s book successfully reexamines televised representations of sexuality during a watershed decade of American culture marked by the rise of the feminist and gay movements. . . . Written in a straightforward and clear manner, [Levine] passionately guides the reader through the different issues and ambivalences that televised sexuality encountered during the 1970s. . . . Levine’s work should be appreciated not only as an historical overview of screened sexualities, but also as a critical inquiry into a-historical processes of regulation, prohibition and shame which are affecting what can and cannot be displayed on screen.” -- Frederik Dhaenens * Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii
Introdution 1
1. KIDDIE PORN VERSUS ADULT PORN
Inter-Network Competition 17
2. NOT IN MY LIVING ROOM
TV Sex That Wasn’t 46
3. THE SEX THREAT
Regulating and Representing Sexually Endangered Youth 76
4. SYMBOLS OF SEX
Television’s Women and Sexual Difference 123
5. SEX WITH A LAUGH TRACK
Sexuality and Television Humor 169
6. FROM ROMANCE TO RAPE
Sex, Violence, and Soap Operas 208
CONCLUSION 253
NOTES 261
BIBLIOGRAPHY 299
INDEX 309
