Abstract

The "sexual revolution" was a central element of North American culture in the 1960s. Today, sex is increasingly central to mainstream culture, in large part due to the Internet, and we might wonder whether we are living through a comparable period of sexual history. In this article, I revisit the work of Herbert Marcuse-the original theorist of the sexual revolution-to ask whether it can contribute to a critical theory of sexuality in the era of digital technology. After outlining Marcuse's theory of the role of Eros in social life, I discuss two pornographic Web sites that combine eroticism and social critique. I argue that Marcuse's work is valuable for its emphasis on the intersection of sex, technology, and capitalist economy, but that it needs to be supplemented by a focus on masculinity and the male body in Internet pornography.

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Authors

Garlick S

Institution

Department of Sociology, University of Victoria, Box 3050 STN CSC, Victoria, BC, Canada, V8W 3P5. sgarlick@uvic.ca

Source

Canadian review of sociology = Revue canadienne de sociologie 48:3 2011 Aug pg 221-39

MeSH

Canada
Erotica
Fantasy
Humans
Internet
Male
Masculinity
Mythology
Sexuality
Social Change
Sociology

Pub Type(s)

Journal Article

Language

eng

PubMed ID

22214041