Transformation of Intimacy: Sexuality, Love, and Eroticism in Modern Societies

by Anthony Giddens

Book Overview

The sexual revolution: an evocative term, but what meaning can be given to it today? How does "sexuality" come into being, and what connections does it have with the changes that have affected personal life more generally? In answering these questions, the author disputes many of the dominant interpretations of the role of sexuality in modern culture.

The author suggests that the revolutionary changes in which sexuality has become cauth...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0804722145
• ISBN13: 9780804722148
• Release Date: October 1993
• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

The Transformation of Intimacy

The evidence, statistics and research that Giddens uses are useful and suited. Even though there are parts where it seems his analysis falls short and could pursue more depth, there are useful and interesting insights all along the book. It's analytic and pragmatic, objective and emotional. Balanced, as a result. Very good essay.

Relationships

This book is primarily about relationships and how sexuality applies but specifically what Giddens terms a "pure relationship". This type of relationship exists between two individuals irregardless of gender. Characteristics of this relationship will parallel those of a democracy in that both individuals will have rights and duties but will be equal. Relationships will become a contract between two individuals emphasizing a confluent love rather than one that is dominated by economic and political controlling behaviors resulting in gender inequality associated with relationships within the realm of marriage. Pure relationships will be formed with set parameters according to each individual's needs and desires. Additionally it will not be a relationship "until death do us part" but rather one that states "until we no longer agree to be". Sex will be one aspect of this relationship that can be negotiated as a rite but not as a duty and will be completely separate to that of the relationship. It will no longer be considered a right of the husband but a means for each individual to acquire pleasure. Hedonism will be widely accepted in the future according to Giddens. In fact he expects Hedonistic Consumerism to replace capitalistic productivity as the driving force behind economics and politics. The consumerism of sex is proof to this phenomenon. During the industrial age one had to work long and hard to be productive while sexual pleasures were considered detrimental to those efforts. The additional disposable time one has earned through an incredible increase in production via the informational age has reversed this view that sexual pleasure is counterproductive. A sexual transformation is at hand. Giddens discusses Freud in detail concerning the phallus and penis envy. He is somewhat critical of Freud but applies these concepts to explain how and why man and woman develop their sexual identity and how this identity explains society. Men develop a masculine identity while women femininity. It is this masculinity that has plagued man for it is a lacking identity. It lacks intimacy and so it desires what it lacks. Women have intimacy but lack independence and autonomy. At some point in modernity women have emerged from their role of mother to join society as an equal of man. This has led to a subconscious effort by man to control women. Man sees this emergence as a threat and as a result responds at times with violence. Rape is the modern context is an act of control or punishment. Rape in pre-modern times usually occurred in the fringes of society such as the frontiers lacking authority, during wars by soldiers, etc. but not as punishment or controlling measure but for the sheer act of sexual pleasure. Rape, according to Giddens, in today's society is committed by loyalists of a day gone by where men ruled the roost. It is their way of being deviant. I think if Giddens is correct we will witness a future in which one will not be viewed as a

Why men and women don't find each other anymore?

Using Freud mostly trough kleinian psychoanalyst Nancy Chodorow from Berkeley, Giddens gives us very good arguments to why men and women don't find each other anymore. Firstly he explains what men and women want from each other based on Oedipus Theory. After he explains why the end of the ideal of romantic love weakened the ties between couples and changed relationships.

Good book slightly marred by bad editing

Anthony Giddens' The Transformation of Intimacy is one of the most oft-quoted of all books in this genre. His view of the subject centers around the following three words: reflexivity, confuluent love, and pure relationship, and is more in tune with the politico-economic reality of the consumer-driven hyper-capitalist society. He posits that our society becomes democratic to the degree that our sexual consciousness transcends various societal barriers. I fully concur with his progressive views of sexuality, which probably can apply to any post-industrial consumer society. One caveat: the book suffers from some bad editing as the whole text is peppered with numerous typographic errors.

Why marriages turned into "relationships".

In this excellent overview of the great social experiment known as modern "relationships," Giddens, a leading theorist of political sociology, turns his attention to the world of the personal lives. It is Giddens' thesis that women have been the revolutionaries in a sea change that has occurred within the nature and structure of the family. As women emanicipated themselves from traditional structures of family, they were forced to be pioneers in understanding themselves and their relationships. Using Foucault and Freud as a starting point, Giddens explores the differences between the sexes in the light of modernity, dialectically comparing them with later feminist writers. The contrast allows Giddens to synthesize views into something compatible with his larger view of society in microcosm. Giddens introduces the idea of "pure relationship", a relationship freely entered into for mutual benefit for as long as it is beneficial as a contrast with earlier notions of marriage as role and obligation. He also hypothesizes the eventual replacement of romantic love, as defined by the view (or illusion) that there is a "special someone", with what he calls "confluent love" locating the specialness in the relationship itself. Giddens feels this change is part of a radical "democratization" of society going on at its most micro levels. Some of this will be "old news" for those familiar with feminist literature, but for most people it will be an integrative look at what most of of have been experiencing without understanding. It may be a little too literate or scholarly for the mass market, but most people will find it interesting, if occasionally difficult. (One does not need to understand Foucault to get anything out of the book, however that particular chapter might be wasted.) There are only two shortcomings: [1] A general tendency to characterize men as the cultural laggards (though probably deservedly) despite a good section on the men's movement. I believe he could have explored more of the contradictions of men's current roles, as done by the more recent book by Susan Faludi- "Stiffed", and [2] a failure to explore what, if any, connection this micro "democratization" has with the increasingly hierarchial and globalized society at large. All in all, though, an excellent work.