At present the USA is the global innovator in sexual repression, with almost one million Americans under electronic surveillance, many rendered unemployable and indigent for offenses as minor as frat-party mooning or streaking, consensual relations between teenagers, teen sexting, erotic massage, and public urination. We seem to be a step closer to Big Brother telescreens installed in every home and Thought Police crashing through bedroom windows. But if George Orwell’s 1984 comes to mind, it’s not the right starting point. Sexual fascism takes root, rather, in the telescreens that we install inside our heads. And because sexual self-discipline is never enough, we grant powers to the state to give us a helping hand and extend its control over the population with an expanding array of judicial and carceral measures, all obscured by illusory freedoms of sexual choice and expression. The essays in this collection investigate the paradox of a culture where sexual freedom is retreating under the illusion of advancing.
“Sexual Fascism brilliantly describes the expansion of its many forms in the United States with the premise that patriarchal family life best prepares people to submit to gendered oppression.” — Hill Gates, author of China’s Motor: A Thousand Years of Petty Capitalism
“People as diverse as Californian feminists to bible-thumping Southern Baptists would find some common ground in wishing to ‘cancel’ Isham Cook after reading his book. This is an achievement to be applauded.” — Arthur Meursault, author of Party Members
“A provocative treatise targeting American sex laws and mores, sure to enrage.” — BookLife Reviews by Publishers Weekly
“An impassioned, thought-provoking manifesto that’s brave enough to raise scandalous questions….A stimulating cry for sexual humanism.” — Kirkus Reviews
Goodreads reviews:
“Cook’s radical, libertine views on how we could look at sex, have sex, and manage sexual relations can only seem rational, natural and appealing.”
“The author proposes unisex public restrooms à la Ally McBeal with showering facilities, etc. free to all – a boon to the homeless and trans population and in keeping with other countries. He covers prostitution, pornography, and polyamory as well as massage parlors….Altogether a fascinating read.”
“Cook has dusted off a mirror and is holding it up for us to see our reflections….another solid collection of essays from this original writer.”
“A high-dispersion spikily irreverent outlay into the insidious and occasionally transparent ways in which the state nudges its populace into socio-cultural mores related to personal and social identity in families, communities and nations by following the fascist playbook.”
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction (book only)
Chapter 1 Sexual Surveillance in the Age of Covid-19
Chapter 2 The Sewage System, or What Is Fascism?
Chapter 3 The State of Rage: The American Sexual Dystopia
Chapter 4 An American Talisman
Chapter 7 Massage diary: Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam
Chapter 8 The Breasts of Bali: An Update
Chapter 9 A Modest Proposal Regarding Sex Work: Why All Sex Should Be Paid For
Chapter 10 Transgressions: From Porn to Polyamory
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Buy the book SEXUAL FASCISM: ESSAYS on Amazon in paperback and Kindle
More essay collections by Isham Cook:
Confucius and Opium: China Book Reviews
American Rococo: Essays on the Edge
At the Teahouse Cafe: Essays on the Edge
Massage and the Writer: Essays on Asian Massage
Categories: Erotics
ISHAM COOK 