SUNY series in Queer Politics and Cultures Pleasure Without Apology

Approaches stigmatized sex with candor and curiosity, interweaving experience and analysis to better appreciate the intricacies and intrigue of queer desires and pleasures. Queer theorists have long defended stigmatized sexual desires and behaviors by demonstrating how they are either fundamentally harmless or have some higher political, psychological, or social value. While such defenses may be useful in combatting homophobia, the mandate that sex be either benign or virtuous has impeded our ability to apprehend the nuance and variety of the things that turn us on and get us off. Queer Pleasure Without Apology refuses this mandate, approaching stigmatized sex with curiosity rather than judgment. Greg Goldberg examines his own "bad" desires and behaviors-from anonymous sex to fetishization to playing games-to show how critics keep getting them wrong. Heady and humorous, Queer Pleasure Without Apology challenges us to think about sex in a way that is as playful and perplexing as sex itself.