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The Joy of Sex (Censorship (Ready Reference series))

At a glance:

The Work

The prelude to the modern sexual revolution may be said to have begun with the sexual- behavior researches conducted by Alfred Kinsey during the 1940’s and 1950’s. He was followed by the revolutionary work of William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson in the 1960’s. Their work and other research culminated in the 1970’s, with the rise of what has been called the American sexual revolution—with its accompanying mass-media presentations and visual depictions showing precisely what the researchers were talking about. Open discussion of normal sexual behavior and debates about “proper” sexual techniques became increasingly popular.

The Joy of Sex appeared on the scene at the height of the so-called sexual revolution. This book described and illustrated—in clearly drawn and explicit detail—virtually every aspect of heterosexual physical activity. Its author, Alex Comfort, a British gerontologist, biochemist, novelist, and sexologist, saw the book make the best-seller list of The New York Times and remain there for more than a decade. Eventually it sold more than eight million copies, including later editions and variations such as More Joy of Sex (1973). Other titles that followed included The New Joy of Sex (1991) and The Compact Joy of Sex (1994); related books by other authors are Edmund White and Charles Silverstein’s The Joy of Gay Sex (1978) and The New Joy of Gay Sex (1992) and Emily L. Sisley and Bertha Harris’ The Joy of Lesbian Sex (1977).

Despite the anticensorship stance of the American Library Association, public libraries did not acquire books such as The Joy of Sex that might potentially disrupt their services, provoke community controversies, or invite theft by young patrons or by people opposed to such publications.

Despite the resurfacing of opposition to books such as The Joy of Sex during the 1980’s and 1990’s, renewed efforts to promote intelligent sex education programs in schools, more open tolerance of homosexual rights, and the proliferation of X-rated videos and television cable services led to the publication of more books like The Joy of Sex. In 1995, more than a half-century after publication of The Kinsey Report, Comfort’s The Joy of Sex went on the market in CD-ROM format—complete with parent access codes, adults-only warnings, and a pocket-sized book, The New Joy of Sex.