Privilege, Possibility, and Perversion: Rethinking the Study of Early Modern Sexuality

Foundations of Erobotics

“…Contrary to what some may consider a misleading or overly optimistic title, “positive” approaches encourage us to adopt judgment-free stances on research and interventions [ 252 , 269 , 308 ]. Historically, this has been essential to the progress of Psychology and Sexology, which, unfortunately, have too often adopted biased, non-evidence-based, and harmful positions regarding individuals, groups, conditions, and/or sociosexualities (e.g., LGBTQA2S+ or Kink, fetish, and BDSM; [ 29 , 58 , 96 , 103 , 120 , 156 , 165 ]). Second, it encourages us to consider the full spectrum of possibilities related to sexuality and technology, by exploring both negative and positive aspects of erotic technology—e.g., from its possible risks/dangers, disorders/dysfunctions, and problematic behaviors, to its potential benefits such as fulfilling intimate live and healthy technological use.…”

Unchained Succubus: A Queer New Institutional Analysis of U.S. Supreme Court Nomination Hearings

“…Belief in the existence of supernatural beings such as demons was tied to fears about sex, masculinity, and sexuality (to name but a few). Crawford (2006) has explained the function of succubi in the psyche of many Christians living under the medieval church. While these creatures were historically portrayed as powerful devils with horns or witches with grotesque skin and magical powers, senators today can suggest that the public pay attention to the nomination proceedings in order to cue the same persistent fears.…”

"Equal to All Alike": A Cultural History of the Viol Consort in England, c.1550-1675

“…If we accept this (and doing so is fundamental to the epistemology of a carnal musicology) the whole simplistic and ultimately rather boring notion of an authoritative reading simply auto--digests, leaving us with its compost: that complex layering of interpretations that builds up around any work of art, and, culturally speaking, constitutes the nourishment it must have in order to survive." 19 Different bodies, in other words, will generate different readings, and this variety is essential to (or even constitutive of) a work's meaning.…”

“…If this sounds a bit polemical, it is-performer/scholars have spent enough keystrokes already "justifying" the left--hand term of label whose slash misleadingly divides a professional identity that does not feel particularly divided. Let non--performing musicologists preface their scholarship with meta--theoretical 19 Le Guin,Boccherini's body,26. explanations about how the absence of first--hand musical experience enriches their arguments.…”

“…19 Hobbes' definition of wit has proved useful to literary history and criticism, but seems to have little direct bearing on the musical experience of wit that I argue is an important effect of the instrumental consort music of William Lawes. Consort music's stylistic debt to the Italian madrigal includes the use of musical techniques that evoke spoken language without necessarily partaking of its capacity to signify.…”