Interview by Christopher Michael Elias For nearly four decades, the Federal Bureau of Investigation used the so-called Sex Deviates Program to investigate and badger gay men and women in the United States. That harassment was justified by the belief that homosexuals posed a security risk in two ways: their behavior […]
Tag: United States history
Archives of Desire: Analog Sexting
My grandparents helped pave the way for virtual trysts.
How to Study an American Sex Scandal
When does sex become a political weapon?
Presidential Penis Politics: A Micro-History
Rachel Hope Cleves Donald J. Trump’s penis, size unknown, has reared its head as a political issue. On Thursday night, during yet another GOP presidential primary debate, the party’s leading candidate debated the size of his penis with rival Marco Rubio before an audience of millions. Mainstream media channels such […]
Inventing the Family Farm: Towards a History of Rural Heterosexuality
Gabriel N. Rosenberg In the postwar United States, the state’s project of preserving the family farm was yoked to its project of making the modern American family. The family farm enjoys an uncanny amount of deference in modern American political culture in part because it is an unusually potent sexual symbol: […]
“Arresting Dress”: A Student Interview with Clare Sears
Interview by Kalin Bullin, M. Blake Butler, Deborah Deacon, Christina Fabiani, Elise Forest-Hammond, Adam Kostrich, Jake Sherman, and Lee Thiessen Edited by Rachel Hope Cleves This post launches a new series for NOTCHES, which will feature students interviewing authors of recent works in the history of sexuality. The goal of […]
A Christmas Abortion
Gillian Frank On Christmas Eve 1955, Jacqueline Smith died from an illegal abortion at her boyfriend Thomas G. Daniel’s apartment. Jacqueline Smith was born in Lebanon, Pennsylvania in 1935. A quiet, driven and talented artist, she graduated from high school in 1953 and moved to New York City where she […]