# Sex: A Modern History

- Institution: Gresham College
- Speaker: Professor Joanna Bourke
- Year: 2021
- Level: For everyone
- Language: English
- Subjects: Biology, Society and politics, History, Literature and writing
- Source: [Gresham College](https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/series/sex-history)
- Licence: [Educational use (Gresham College's terms)](https://www.gresham.ac.uk/terms-and-conditions)
- Who can watch: Adult profiles and older (sources give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the source's own words)

Sex manuals can incite revolution. In the early 1970s a feminist collective released Our Bodies, Ourselves (1970) while 'free love' proponent Dr. Alex Comfort published The Joy of Sex (1972). Both manuals have been read and updated and republished many times. What do changes in the advice given in these and other manuals tell us about the way sexual mores and practices have shifted between the 1970s and the present? What factors contribute to changes in ideas about sexual pleasure?

## Lectures

1. [Pleasure](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/gresham/series-sex-history/5ce844dd58f2) (YouTube)
2. [Perversion](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/gresham/series-sex-history/6c0acfbf4256) (YouTube)
3. [Pornography](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/gresham/series-sex-history/e0a00f6d4507) (YouTube)
4. [Sex Work](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/gresham/series-sex-history/5e3e44f80041) (YouTube)
5. [Monogamy](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/gresham/series-sex-history/3af448b42a04) (YouTube)
6. [Abstinence](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/gresham/series-sex-history/32156df86109) (YouTube)