Policing Sexuality

Policing the body politic always entails sequestering the body sexual; the questions are only how and why, exactly where and when. This trans-regional examination of the different, and always self-contradictory, modalities of sexual state control and self-control is a treasure chest. Authors from Michel Foucault to Judith Butler would pawn one of their books to read this one: a combination of socio-cultural anatomies with humanist thinking. The anthropological wealth and comparative sociological imagination of this painstaking, yet amazingly easy-to-read book are scholarship at its best: accessible but never simplifying, liberating but never patronizing. * Gerd Baumann, University of Amsterdam, author of Contesting Culture (1996), The Multicultural Riddle (1999) and Grammars of Identity / Alterity: A Structural Approach (2005) *
In a moment when state policies seeking to regulate sexual expression have emerged under many cultural and religious banners, affecting a wide range of sexual subjects, Julian Lee gives us an invaluable map to understand this moral policing more clearly and comprehensively. Policing Sexuality is exceptional among recent works on sexuality, gender and public policy in providing a rich comparative analysis across five major country contexts encompassing both South and North. Lee's eye for complexity along with his gift for lucid, straightforward prose illuminates “the evolutionary nature of sexuality rights and empowerment” and shows why we must never view culture as static or given nor human rights as sufficient without political struggle. * Rosalind P. Petchesky, Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York; author, Global Prescriptions: Gendering Health and Human Rights (2003); Sexuality, Health and Human Rights (with Sonia Corrêa and Richard Parker, 2008) *