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Prurient Interests: Sexuality, Ideology, and Popular Communication

The popular communication media provide a site where the contradictions between conservative and progressive cultural ideologies about sexuality (and concomitantly about power, gender, and social control) are enacted within an endless series of narratives. These narratives fulfill the economic requirements of the culture industries by an increasing focus on the sexual, including sexualities outside the mainstream. This seemingly progressive move is undermined by a variety of strategies, either within narrative outcomes or at the level of production. Such strategies offer a conservative reading that highlights the negative consequences of sexual insubordination. In the meantime, the popular press provides a platform for conservative ideologues who write about sexuality in the media without the benefit of serious research or expertise. They influence public policy while we in the academy are reluctant to seek a popular venue to discuss our work.