Sexualities and Popular Culture (Feminist Perspective on Communication)

Synopsis

Sexualities and Popular Culture is a fascinating exploration into the study of popular culture and its influence on how we perceive the endless varieties of the sexualized human presentation of self in everyday life. Author Carl B. Holmberg presents a short history of the notion of popular culture and communication giving clear definitions and generous examples that illustrate the evolving portrayal of human sexuality. Holmberg gathers evidence from the popular inherent in all aspects of our culture from familiar sources such as books, film, magazines, and television, to less common ones such as prehistoric texts, sports, and everyday popular practices to explain how pervasively popular culture communicates sexuality to us and through us.This book is also highly recommended as supplementary reading for upper-division undergraduate and graduate students studying popular culture, gay and lesbian studies, sociology, and mass communication.Carl B. Holmberg's Sexualities and Popular Culture is one of the most important works in the field of cultural studies published in recent years. Well written in its analysis, wide ranging in its discussion, and containing numerous 'gems' of insight on a topic rarely approached, Holmberg's study is a must read for anyone seriously interested in the social dynamics of our culture. --Gary Hoppenstand, Michigan State University

Booknews

Holmberg (popular culture, Bowling Green State U.) traces the history of popular culture in terms of the development of the concept, and its influence on the ways in which we perceive the sexualized human presentation of self in everyday life. He discusses the ways in which popular culture communicates messages. He sees the contextualization of popular culture events and artifacts as constituting communicative matrices of mutual desire. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.