Telling Sexual Stories

Telling Sexual Stories The world has become cluttered with sexual stories. From child abuse scandals to lesbians and gays coming out; from Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas to the troubles of Michael Jackson; from sexual surveys to therapy groups—sexual talk has become more and more evident. This book explores the rites of a sexual story telling culture. Taking three major examples—rape stories, coming out stories, recovery stories—it examines the nature of these newly emerging narratives and the socio-historical conditions which have given rise to them. It looks at the rise of the women’s movement, the lesbian and gay movement and the ‘recovery’ movement as harbingers of significant social change that encourage the telling of new stories. In a powerful concluding section, the book turns to the wider concern of how story telling may be changing in a postmodern culture and how central it may be in the creation of a participatory democratic political culture. Ken Plummer illustrates how ‘the narrative turn’ of cultural studies may be taken up within sociology and suggests that a sociology of stories asks different questions about stories from those posed within cultural studies. The fascination with texts—with narrative structure, genre and metaphor—is now supplemented with questions around the social and political role that stories play, with the social processes through which they are constructed and consumed, with the political changes that stories may encourage. Telling Sexual Stories is a major contribution to our understanding of sexuality and the cultures of intimacy. Ken Plummer is Reader in Sociology and Head of the Sociology Department at Essex University. Telling Sexual Stories Power, Change and Social Worlds Ken Plummer London and New York First published 1995 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003. Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 © 1995 Ken Plummer All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0-203-42526-X Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-73350-9 (Adobe eRead