Menu
Idea

sexuality

338
Filter by:

Filter by published date

Jesus blessing two men who are kneeling in prayer.

Lusting for Zion

A new book questions what we think we know about heterosexuality and Latter-day Saints, or Mormons.
by John G. Turner via Arc: Religion, Politics, Et Cetera on January 23, 2025
Drag queen reading book to children.

Censorship Through Centuries

A new book examines battles over drag story hours and book bans through the lens of LGBTQ history.
by Rebecca L. Davis via Literary Hub on September 9, 2024
Abstract painting of people embracing.

The Forgotten History of Sex in America

Today’s battles over issues like gender nonconformity and reproductive rights have antecedents that have been lost or suppressed. What can we learn from them?
by Rebecca Mead via The New Yorker on August 26, 2024
Censored stills of a naked man running.

The Decline of Streaking

Naked runners used to disrupt events seemingly all the time. Why’d they stop?
by Michael Waters via The Atlantic on June 13, 2024
Digital image of Lindsay Lohan, saying "Lindsay all grown up."

Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon

This tale of two girlhoods, Shirley Temple’s and Lindsay Lohan’s, sheds light on what “woman” means in the world of eroticized youth.
by Katherine Fusco via Dilettante Army on April 16, 2024
Three muscle builders pose at Muscle Beach on the Santa Monica Beach in California, 1949.

Gay Panic on Muscle Beach

The skin and strength on display at Santa Monica’s Muscle Beach aggravated American fears of gender transgressions and homosexuality.
by Livia Gershon, Elsa Devienne via JSTOR Daily on August 26, 2022
Illustration of Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders.

Sex, Scandal, and Sisterhood: Fifty Years of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders

They’re global icons who have left a lasting imprint on American culture. But do recent controversies threaten the squad’s future?
by Sarah Hepola via Texas Monthly on August 15, 2022
Hattie McDaniel with a row of Oscar Awards

Mammy and the Femme Fatale: Hattie McDaniel, Dorothy Dandridge, and the Black Female Standard

Black femininity was always considered a hard sell in Hollywood, but Hattie McDaniels and Dorothy became the perfect women to peddle racist stereotypes.
by Lynda Cowell via Girls On Tops on July 20, 2022
Two types of intrauterine devices, copper and hormonal, such as Mirena or Skyla
partner

Abortion Opponents Are Gunning For Contraception, Too

Efforts to roll back abortion and contraception access aim to control women’s sexuality.
by Anya Jabour via Made By History on March 25, 2022
Illustration of Henry David Thoreau and Lidian Emerson looking into each other's eyes

Thoreau in Love

The writer had a deep bond with his mentor, Ralph Waldo Emerson. But he also had a profound connection with Emerson’s wife.
by James Marcus via The New Yorker on October 11, 2021
Collage of sexual freethinkers with a book, a gavel, and a bra.

The Radical Women Who Paved the Way for Free Speech and Free Love

Anthony Comstock’s crusade against vice constrained the lives of ordinary Americans. His antagonists opened up history for feminists and other activists.
by Margaret Talbot via The New Yorker on July 15, 2021
Linda Kay Klein as a teenager
partner

Shamed Over Sex, a Generation Confronts the Past

Former followers of an evangelical “purity” movement that promoted a strict view of abstinence are grappling with aftershocks.
via Retro Report on April 6, 2021

The Amplified Age

Jenny Hendrix on the 'Naughty Nineties,' the decade in which America rediscovered sex.
by Jenny Hendrix via The Times Literary Supplement on January 23, 2018

The Invention of Monogamy

For most of its history, monogamy was a rule only applied to married women.
by Sarah Mirk, Isabella Rotman via The Nib on October 20, 2017
Elvis Presley dancing.

How Long Will We Care?

A music critic assesses Elvis Presley's influence on popular culture.
by Lester Bangs via Village Voice on August 29, 1977
Still from “The Rejected,” a 1961 documentary about homosexuals. Hal Call (at right), president of the Mattachine Society and Don Lucas, Mattachine’s executive secretary. Credit: San Francisco Bay Area Television Archive
partner

The Homosexual in Our Society

This 1958 interview is the earliest known radio recording to overtly discuss homosexuality.
by Blanche M. Baker, KPFA, Elsa Knight Thompson, Harold Leland Call, Leah Gailey via American Archive of Public Broadcasting on November 24, 1958
Robert Crumb

He’s Lewd, Problematic, and Profoundly Influential

R. Crumb’s cartoons plumb the grotesque corners of the American unconscious.
by Jeremy Lybarger via The New Republic on May 20, 2025
Mary MacLane.

“I Am Making the World My Confessor”: Mary MacLane, the Wild Woman from Butte

In 1902, a woman named Mary MacLane from Butte, Montana, became an international sensation after publishing a scandalous journal at the age of 19.
by Hunter Dukes via The Public Domain Review on April 23, 2025
A woman holding her head in distress, and a naked woman sitting on an illustration of a toy car pulled by string.

Frog-Free

The demystification of pregnancy.
by Erin Maglaque via London Review of Books on April 17, 2025
Cartoon drawing of a child hiding behind a man.

How Robert Crumb Channeled Mid-Century Teenage Angst Into Art

Dan Nadel on the formative awkward adolescence of an iconic American cartoonist.
by Dan Nadel via Literary Hub on April 15, 2025
Trans activist Sylvia Rivera during her “Y’all better quiet down” speech at an early gay pride rally in New York City, 1973.

Why Are Trans People Such an Easy Political Target? The Answer Involves a Surprising Culprit.

Making a whole group of people this vulnerable does not just happen overnight.
by Zein Murib via Slate on April 7, 2025
1860 political cartoon depicting Lincoln as a "Wide-Awake"
partner

A Posthumous Romance of White Male Reunion

The history of deriving political meaning from Abraham Lincoln’s sexuality.
by Andrew Donnelly via HNN on February 11, 2025
Repeated photo of Ericka Huggins fading in.

How Ericka Huggins and the Black Panther Party Attempted to Liberate Black Women in America

On John Huggins, Angela Y. Davis, and the complex history of an oft-misunderstood political movement.
by Mary Frances Phillips via Literary Hub on January 10, 2025
A cartoon of a group of effeminate men walking together.

Rise and Fall of the ‘Pansy Craze’

On Jazz Age gay culture and its backlash.
by Margaret Vandenburg via Gay And Lesbian Review on January 2, 2025
A medieval drawing of a stork.
partner

Exit, Pursued by a Stork

When the 1930 Hays Code banned pregnancy in film, birds took over the business of birth.
by Victoria Sturtevant via HNN on December 17, 2024
Collage of The Golden Girls, a suitcase, a golf ball, viagra pills, and a Welcome to Florida sign.

How Old Age Was Reborn

“The Golden Girls” reframed senior life as being about socializing and sex. But did the cultural narrative of advanced age as continued youth go too far?
by Daniel Immerwahr via The New Yorker on November 25, 2024
Pamela Harriman posing in an expensively decorated bedroom beside a four poster bed.

How a Mid-Century Paramour Became a Democratic Power Broker

Churchill weaponized her powers of seduction—but Pamela Harriman came into her own when she brought her glamour to Washington.
by Margaret Talbot via The New Yorker on September 16, 2024

How a 1920s Survey Changed the Way Americans Thought About Sexuality

A researcher challenged the idea that women did not – and should not – experience sexual desire.
by Anya Jabour via The Conversation on August 27, 2024
A man lifts a woman out of a boat and onto the pier. Photo from London, 1925.

The Complex History of American Dating

While going out on a date may seem like a natural thing to do these days, it wasn't always the case.
by Ashawnta Jackson, Beth Bailey via JSTOR Daily on August 8, 2024
Old advertisements selling cars to women.

Driving While Female

Is the car our most gendered technology?
by Leann Davis Alspaugh via The Hedgehog Review on July 31, 2024
View More
30 of
338

Filter Results:

Suggested Filters:

Idea

Person

brought to you by
© Bunk History