Noted sexologist cites honesty, equality, and responsibility as key to solving America's sexual dilemma.
Rape, teen pregnancy, child sexual abuse, and AIDS still plague us despite new technology and increased sexual awareness. Religious leaders blame the media for our sexual problems, while others remain ignorant or in denial. Sociologist Ira L. Reiss contends that only real solutions will result in a new generation of sexual problem solvers. In Solving America's Sexual Crises, he argues that we can reduce alarming rates of sexually transmitted disease, sexual violence and abuse, and unwanted pregnancy through responsible dialogue and cooperative action.
Reiss's direct, lucid, and challenging analyses of these problems, demonstrates that our current sexual malaise emerged from Victorian attitudes, religious intolerance, ignorance, and misconceptions about sexuality. Solving America's Sexual Crises is a pluralistic approach, touching on everything from safe-sex to sex therapy. Only by altering our outmoded, dogmatic notions about sexuality can we begin to manage and eventually solve current and future sexual problems.
IRA L. REISS, PH.D. (Minneapolis, MN) is a retired professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota, and former president of the International Academy of Sex Research. He is the author of An End to Shame: Shaping Our Next Sexual Revolution, and a contributor to "How I Got Into Sex".
289 pages ISBN 1-57392-172-6 Paper