About this item
Handcuffs, paddles, whips—the words alone are enough to make a person blush. Even by our society’s standards, the practice of things like BDSM is still very hush-hush, considered deviant sexual behavior that must be kept hidden. But the narrow view of what is thought of as “normal” sex—a vanilla act performed by one man and one woman—is more and more contested these days. And as Julie Peakman reveals, normal never really existed; for everyone, different kinds of sex have always offered myriad pleasures, and almost all sexual behaviors have traveled between acceptance and proscription. The Pleasure’s All Mine examines two millennia of letters, diaries, court records, erotic books, medical texts, and more to explore the gamut of “deviant” sexual activity.
About the Author
Julie Peakman first became interested in the history of sex when she studied Victorian prostitution for her first degree. Her study of erotica involved reading most of the eighteenth-century 'under the counter' books in the British Library resulting in her acclaimed book 'Mighty Lewd Books'. She explored the eighteenth-century in her bawdy romp through history, 'Lascivious Bodies' and defined the literary genre in her eight-volumes of Whore Biography 1700-1825. She teaches at Birkbeck College, University of London. She has appeared in documentaries for Channel 4, the BBC and the Biography Channel and writes articles and reviews for History Today, BBC's Who Do You think You Are Magazine? , BBC History Magazine and Herstoria. She lives in London and on the Greek island of Leros with her partner.
