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Sex Seen: The Emergence of Modern Sexuality in America. By Sharon R. Ullman. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997. xii, 176 pp. Cloth, $45.00, ISBN 0-520-20954-0. Paper, $16.95, ISBN 0-520-20955-9.)
This is an intriguing and imaginative book, a tribute to diligent research in several key genres, that is also, analytically, needlessly flawed.
The purpose is to demonstrate the period 1890-1914 as the seedbed of modern American sexuality, from growing permissiveness to elevation of the female body to concerns about sexual excess and homosexuality. The method (more original than the claims, which are by this point unexceptionable) involves close reading of early films (pre-code) and assessment of transvestite vaudeville in its heyday, juxtaposed with court cases from Sacramento that deal with consensual intercourse with minors, sexual allegations in divorce, prostitution, and police action against homosexuals. The result is an unprecedented mixture of cultural...