I am very pleased to have contributed a chapter and several spotlights in this awesome new book — Sexual Deviance and Society by Meredith G. F. Worthen!

(pictured: awesome new book!)

The book just came out on June 24th, published by Routledge. Here’s some descriptive text from the publisher:

In a society where sexualized media has become background noise, we are frequently discouraged from frank and open discussions about sex and offered few tools for understanding sexual behaviors and sexualities that are perceived as being out of the norm. This book encourages readers to establish new ways of thinking about stigmatized peoples and behaviors and to think critically about gender, sex, sexuality, and sex crimes… (more here)

I agree with this description!

Here’s the thing… I get asked to “contribute to projects” (read: do stuff for free, often with no front-facing credit and always with requisite copyright release) all. the. time. And I always refuse because the projects are generally not in-line with my scholarship/sociological goals and values — one of said values being “Pay people fairly for their work, especially if you’re going to monetize said work in some way.” But in this case, aside from me being longtime friends with the author (we went to grad school together), I actually felt that this text was looking to do something different.

Yes, the price point is high — $50+ on Kindle — which does make it inaccessible and, thus, inherently “ivory tower” academic. But this book is also a piece of the canon written by a member of the establishment. Worthen is a tenured professor at a major research university. But trust me when I tell you: much like its author, this text is *challenging* and *critical* — It works to move the established rhetoric from within the system (!!!)

I’m pleased and proud to have contributed Chapter 11 — “Sex Work” — in Sexual Deviance and Society. Said chapter includes spotlight sections on web camming, sexperts, and an homage to the late great Candida Royalle. I also was *very* pleased to contribute a spotlight to Chapter 13, Sex Crimes Against Children, entitled “‘Child Pornography’ and CSAM: Language and the Perpetuation of Crime and Marginalization.” In this section, I explain the misnomers “child pornography” and “CP” and how/why their sustained usage perpetuates, rather than challenges, sex crimes against young people.

I will be posting the text I contributed to this book here on ct.com in upcoming weeks so you will have a slice of open unfettered access, but if it interests you I invite you to check out the book in full. It challenges the status quo in many ways from within the establishment — and that’s radical as fuck.

Check out Sexual Deviance and Society on Amazon right — here

(pictured: my Mini-tank is also pleased by this book!)

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Got a sociology question? Need some social justice informed life advice? Contact Dr. Chauntelle right here.

Get Exposure: A Sociologist Explores Sex, Society, and Adult Entertainment on Amazon and CT.com