Sex with animals is one of the last taboos but, for a practice that is generally regarded as abhorrent, it is remarkable how many books, films, plays, paintings and photographs depict the subject. So what does loving animals mean? In this book the renowned historian Joanna Bourke explores the modern history of sex between humans and animals.Bourke looks at the changing meanings of ‘bestiality’ and ‘zoophilia’, assesses the psychiatric and sexual aspects, and concludes by delineating...

Il contatto sessuale con gli animali è uno degli ultimi tabù del mondo contemporaneo e, pur essendo una pratica comunemente considerata ripugnante, continua a figurare in numerosi libri, film, spettacoli teatrali e lavori pittorici e fotografici. Le persone sessualmente attratte dagli animali hanno problemi psichiatrici? O manifestano semplicemente un orientamento sessuale minoritario? Insieme ad altri temi che riguardano la sessualità, come per esempio la violenza, il consenso e l’abuso, ...

Everyone knows what is feels like to be in pain. Scraped knees, toothaches, migraines, giving birth, cancer, heart attacks, and heartaches: pain permeates our entire lives. We also witness other people - loved ones - suffering, and we 'feel with' them. It is easy to assume this is the end of the story: 'pain-is-pain-is-pain', and that is all there is to say. But it is not. In fact, the way in which people respond to what they describe as 'painful' has changed considerably over time. In the...

Why do certain women become icons of evil? This book offers the first comparative, non-sensationalist account of five of the most reviled women in the modern Anglophone world: Myra Hindley, Rosemary West, Aileen Wuornos, Karla Homolka and Karla Faye Tucker. It examines their lives, crimes and cultural reception in the UK, USA and Canada, asking how violence committed by women is understood, judged and remembered. Going beyond moral outrage or tabloid headlines, the book explores how concep...

Disgrace is the first truly global history of sexual violence. The book explores how sexual violence varies widely across time and place, from nineteenth-century peasant women in Ireland who were abducted as a way of forcing marriage, to date-raped high-school students in twentieth-century America, and from girls and women violated by Russian soldiers in 1945 to Dalit women raped by men of higher castes today. It delves into the factors that facilitate violence – including institu...

Birkbeck traces the 200-year history of Birkbeck, University of London from its founding at a time when social elites deplored the notion of educated working people to the present day. Joanna Bourke writes a lively history of the institution, and how it contributed to the shaping of modern British higher education. Two hundred years ago, Birkbeck was founded as the London Mechanics' Institution (LMI). When it was established in 1823, one third of all men and half of all women were...

In 1872, a woman known only as "An Earnest Englishwoman" published a letter titled "Are Women Animals?" in which she protested against the fact that women were not treated as fully human. In fact, their status was worse than that of animals: regulations prohibiting cruelty against dogs, horses, and cattle were significantly more punitive than laws against cruelty to women. The Earnest Englishwoman's heartfelt cry was for women to "become–animal" in order to gain the status that they were d...

Eyewitness accounts from the BBC Archive are at the heart of this unique history of the first half of the 20th Century, narrated by Tim Pigott-Smith.The events of 1900-1949 are described by the people who saw them happen, from the death of Queen Victoria and accession of Edward VII through the First World War, the sinking of the Titanic, the General Strike and the Great Depression, to the Second World War and its aftermath. Events both joyful and sorrowful are illustrated with fasc...

Looking across time and the globe, a critical history of sexual violence—what causes it and how we overcome it.Disgrace is the first truly global history of sexual violence. The book explores how sexual violence varies widely across time and place, from nineteenth-century peasant women in Ireland who were abducted as a way of forcing marriage, to date-raped high-school students in twentieth-century America, and from girls and women violated by Russian sold...

Eyewitness accounts from the BBC Archive are at the heart of this unique history of the latter half of the 20th Century, narrated by Tim Pigott-Smith.The events of 1950-1999 are described by the people who saw them happen, from the Festival of Britain in 1951 through to dawn of a new millennium at the end of 1999.Inbetween are the eras of the Angry Young Men, the Teddy Boys and the Punk Rockers; the arrival of rock and roll and the permissive society; the advent of industri...

為什麼性暴力中需要感到羞恥的是受害者？「羞恥不屬於受害者，而屬於允許傷害發生的意識形態、法律框架和權力結構」◎「誠品、金石堂、城邦讀書花園、TAAZE讀冊」選書◎勵馨基金會王玥好執行長專文推薦◎全面剖析性暴力的多重面貌，正視無所不在的性暴力◎挑戰性暴力的範圍，反思我們既有的用語和觀念◎立基於現實，展望沒有性暴力的未來全球女性中每五人就有一人遭到性暴力，即使在性別意識抬頭的國度裡，性暴力依舊難以消除。本書作者希望透過深入理解制度、意識形態、文化習俗如何促成性暴力，追求一個沒有性暴力的未來。書中案例分析跨越時代、階級、種族與地域，從盧安達大屠殺中帶有種族滅絕意圖的強暴、戰爭中的大規模性侵與「慰安婦」、演藝圈性醜聞到約會強暴等等，可以說是第一部真正的性暴力全球史。●當性暴力作為一種恥辱性暴力與其他暴力不同之處，在於性暴力被賦予一種羞恥感。羞恥感的重點不在於當事人做了什麼，而是其他人如何看待他。受害者相信自己失去「貞潔」，被指責行為「不檢點」，甚至是因...

Joanna Bourke, author of the critically-acclaimed Fear, unflinchingly and controversially moves away from looking at victims to look at the rapists. She examines the nature of rape, drawing together the work of criminologists, sociologists and psychiatrists to analyse what drives the perpetrators of sexual violence.Rape - A History looks at the perception of rape, both in the mass media and the wider public, and considers the crucial questions of treatment and punishment. Should se...