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America's War on Sex: The Attack on Law, Lust and Liberty
President George W. Bush says that, In our free society, people have the right to choose how they live their lives. But our government and the Religious Right are successfully censoring what you read, hear, and see; limiting your access to contraception; legislating good moral values; and brainwashing your kids that God hates premarital sex. The Right has politicized private life, expanding the zone of public sexuality. This guarantees policies that will worsen social problems and increase personal anxiety, providing proof that sexuality is fundamentally negative―so citizens demand more sex-negative policies . With examples ripped from today's headlines, with brutal honesty and a wicked sense of humor, Marty Klein names names, challenges political hypocrisy, and shows the financial connections between government and conservative religious groups that are systematically taking away your rights. And, in the process, changing American society―forever.
232 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2006
7 people are currently reading
566 people want to read
About the author
Marty Klein
21 books42 followersMarty Klein is a sex therapist, author, educator and public policy analyst. He is critical of censorship, the concepts of "sex addiction" and "porn addiction," and the anti-pornography movement.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
July 23, 2013
Reading this book caused a lot of eyebrow raising, forehead smacking, and fist shaking to the sky. I couldn’t believe the atrocities documented in America’s War on Sex. That documentation is definitely the strength of the book. I learned about all the innocuous sounding organizations designed to destroy my civil liberties. I learned about children taken from parents because of their sexual activity preferences. I learned about horrific privacy violations and women’s rights regulations that, honestly, had I been paying attention, would have blown my mind when they happened and not 5-10 years later. But that begs the question: why haven’t I been paying attention? Because the America within these pages is so repressive, it feels like fantasyland that simply cannot be real within my lifetime. While many of us are in denial there is a moral majority of erotophobes so shamed by their own sexual desires that they seek to control everyone else’s. Klein does a good job of explaining why.
1. Money and power. Of course. These organizations support political candidates and in turn the government supports these conservative religious organizations with money and tax-exempt status.
2. Sexuality is scary and people act impulsively when afraid and will do just about anything to protect themselves.
3. People are shamed about their sexuality and if their sexuality is bad so is their neighbor’s and the best way to deal with it all (in order to protect the innocent children) is via regulation—lots and lots and lots of it.
4. The more women’s reproductive rights are control by anyone other than the woman bearing the child, then women’s options (all of them) are limited and well, that helps a society that hates women.
5. It’s easier to profess belief in God, than it is to be Godlike so people use the the enforcement of their beliefs and feelings instead of facts and figures to show how pious they are. It’s easier to appear pious than to actually be pious.
So, there’s good stuff in the book. It’s good upper undergrad/grad reading even though the landscape is changing so fast that the second 2012 edition is now a bit dated. Klein is an excellent advocate for sex positivity and erotophiles. That said, at times, he’s an unrealizable narrator. He frequently makes this problematic conflation between sexual freedom and civil rights. It’s as if a) there are no more civil rights injustices and b) black people don’t have sexual freedom issues that are distinct from white folks’. If he wanted to make a point he’d say, our schools were desegregated and black people can rent houses anywhere so let’s end all sexual discrimination too. It sounds harmless at first but with enough repetition, it becomes clear that he could care less that the humanity of black folks is still under question in our society and so is our sexuality. After reading the porn section, I realized it had been a minute since I last previewed porn so I did a quick Google search (for research purposes) on “ebony sex” and “black porn” and my God, on some level porn is porn, but the discriminatory racial layers are NOT the same for white people. I am disappointed that for all his talk about sexual freedom and justice, this appears to have never occurred to Klein. But that’s his point, ironically. He claims that when the morality police get all hung up on other people’s morality it’s because they have issues with their own that remains unaddressed. Herein lies his uninterrogated privilege even as he advocates for “rights.” By extension, I didn’t like the conflation of gays and lesbians with swingers. He claims that people are also born with an intense desire for certain sexual behaviors in the same way that LGBT folks are born LGBT but again, it problematically conflates behavior with identity. If I were black and gay and a swinger I’d be outraged that in all of his talk about “me,” he completely erased “my” existence. And while he ranted about the right’s penchant for emotions and feelings over facts, I felt his book was also light on the facts. For example, he decries reports that the average age of a child’s exposure to porn is 8, but he doesn’t say what that average age is. There were several moments like this. He accuses the morality police of hyperbole but then writes this “You might as well melt down the Statue of Liberty and use the metal to fashion jail bars or chastity belts for the mind.” Hyperbole for hyperbole? I guess. In the final chapter, he encourages sex positive folks make their presence known so that the other side isn’t the only vocal majority but there are no action items, no steps to follow, no organizations to email, to representatives to write. Despite it’s penchant for activism, the book is not activist oriented. The lingering question is “what now?” For a second edition, that’s a glaring missed opportunity since the other side is clearly not going to be persuaded by any of his arguments and the people in the middle or those on his side are not likely going to be so overwhelmed by the end of the book, they will have no idea what to do next.
1. Money and power. Of course. These organizations support political candidates and in turn the government supports these conservative religious organizations with money and tax-exempt status.
2. Sexuality is scary and people act impulsively when afraid and will do just about anything to protect themselves.
3. People are shamed about their sexuality and if their sexuality is bad so is their neighbor’s and the best way to deal with it all (in order to protect the innocent children) is via regulation—lots and lots and lots of it.
4. The more women’s reproductive rights are control by anyone other than the woman bearing the child, then women’s options (all of them) are limited and well, that helps a society that hates women.
5. It’s easier to profess belief in God, than it is to be Godlike so people use the the enforcement of their beliefs and feelings instead of facts and figures to show how pious they are. It’s easier to appear pious than to actually be pious.
So, there’s good stuff in the book. It’s good upper undergrad/grad reading even though the landscape is changing so fast that the second 2012 edition is now a bit dated. Klein is an excellent advocate for sex positivity and erotophiles. That said, at times, he’s an unrealizable narrator. He frequently makes this problematic conflation between sexual freedom and civil rights. It’s as if a) there are no more civil rights injustices and b) black people don’t have sexual freedom issues that are distinct from white folks’. If he wanted to make a point he’d say, our schools were desegregated and black people can rent houses anywhere so let’s end all sexual discrimination too. It sounds harmless at first but with enough repetition, it becomes clear that he could care less that the humanity of black folks is still under question in our society and so is our sexuality. After reading the porn section, I realized it had been a minute since I last previewed porn so I did a quick Google search (for research purposes) on “ebony sex” and “black porn” and my God, on some level porn is porn, but the discriminatory racial layers are NOT the same for white people. I am disappointed that for all his talk about sexual freedom and justice, this appears to have never occurred to Klein. But that’s his point, ironically. He claims that when the morality police get all hung up on other people’s morality it’s because they have issues with their own that remains unaddressed. Herein lies his uninterrogated privilege even as he advocates for “rights.” By extension, I didn’t like the conflation of gays and lesbians with swingers. He claims that people are also born with an intense desire for certain sexual behaviors in the same way that LGBT folks are born LGBT but again, it problematically conflates behavior with identity. If I were black and gay and a swinger I’d be outraged that in all of his talk about “me,” he completely erased “my” existence. And while he ranted about the right’s penchant for emotions and feelings over facts, I felt his book was also light on the facts. For example, he decries reports that the average age of a child’s exposure to porn is 8, but he doesn’t say what that average age is. There were several moments like this. He accuses the morality police of hyperbole but then writes this “You might as well melt down the Statue of Liberty and use the metal to fashion jail bars or chastity belts for the mind.” Hyperbole for hyperbole? I guess. In the final chapter, he encourages sex positive folks make their presence known so that the other side isn’t the only vocal majority but there are no action items, no steps to follow, no organizations to email, to representatives to write. Despite it’s penchant for activism, the book is not activist oriented. The lingering question is “what now?” For a second edition, that’s a glaring missed opportunity since the other side is clearly not going to be persuaded by any of his arguments and the people in the middle or those on his side are not likely going to be so overwhelmed by the end of the book, they will have no idea what to do next.
October 20, 2015
This book will have you shaking your head and getting upset about how the Right and our government use sex, or more correctly, laws against sex, as a means of control and removal of personal and PRIVATE liberties. All in all, Dr. Klein makes a good argument as to why, to paraphrase Timothy Leary, this isn't a "War on Sex but a war on personal freedom" but I feel like the book is lacking in a few areas. 1) What can I do next? A list of resources and organizations would have been a nice appendix for those of us who want to help make a difference. 2) Why exactly is there no such thing as porn and sex addiction? Dr. Klein argues that these are constructs of the Right but I felt like the science supporting his hypothesis was weak. A new edition with this fleshed out more would be great as I think a LOT of people take for granted that these "afflictions" really exist. 3) An update to reflect on where we go from here now that the battle for gay marriage is, essentially, over with the Supreme Court's 2015 ruling. Where are the next battlegrounds? What can I do?
I have seen Dr. Klein speak at The Amazing Meeting and the Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism and, my own skeptics group, The Skeptical Society of St. Louis, has brought him to St. Louis to speak. Dr. Klein's message is definitely worth hearing and reading. I admit that there are many aspects of his argument I never even thought about until now. If we, as Americans, really believe in the protection of individual liberties, then those rights should extend to the bedroom and a person's body as much as it extends to our gun safes, our bookshelves, our Internet surfing, our religions (or lack thereof), and our speech.
I have seen Dr. Klein speak at The Amazing Meeting and the Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism and, my own skeptics group, The Skeptical Society of St. Louis, has brought him to St. Louis to speak. Dr. Klein's message is definitely worth hearing and reading. I admit that there are many aspects of his argument I never even thought about until now. If we, as Americans, really believe in the protection of individual liberties, then those rights should extend to the bedroom and a person's body as much as it extends to our gun safes, our bookshelves, our Internet surfing, our religions (or lack thereof), and our speech.
Read
June 10, 2012America’s War on Sex:The Attack on Law, Lust and Liberty, written by Dr. Marty Klein explains how conservative organizations and individuals who fear of sexuality and sexual expression attempt to regulate other people’s sexuality through government bodies and regulations. America’s War on Sex is a fundamental staple to any future sexuality educator, therapist, sex toy shop owner or sexual freedom fighter.
Dr. Klein breaks down the many, many, many arguments used by the anti-sex communities systematically by each topic;
Sex Education? Check.
Broadcast Indecency? Check.
Adult Entertainment. Double check.
The big, bad Internet world? Covered.
The War on Pornography? Excitedly embraced.
Sexual Privacy and Sexual Minorities? Of course he covered that!
If you want to learn more about sexual freedom fighting, exposing the unsupported claims regularly made by the religious right such as “Pornography causes men to rape women” while learning how to respond to the distracting questions directed to redirect you into non-related isues, buy this book (or check it out for free at The CSPH).
Leaning the issues is a part of the battle, learning how to respond is the important part of the battle. Again: Fundamental Reading for sexuality educators, activists, shop owners and yes, even you video game players. What you fiddle with (online or elsewhere) really is being watched.
Dr. Klein breaks down the many, many, many arguments used by the anti-sex communities systematically by each topic;
Sex Education? Check.
Broadcast Indecency? Check.
Adult Entertainment. Double check.
The big, bad Internet world? Covered.
The War on Pornography? Excitedly embraced.
Sexual Privacy and Sexual Minorities? Of course he covered that!
If you want to learn more about sexual freedom fighting, exposing the unsupported claims regularly made by the religious right such as “Pornography causes men to rape women” while learning how to respond to the distracting questions directed to redirect you into non-related isues, buy this book (or check it out for free at The CSPH).
Leaning the issues is a part of the battle, learning how to respond is the important part of the battle. Again: Fundamental Reading for sexuality educators, activists, shop owners and yes, even you video game players. What you fiddle with (online or elsewhere) really is being watched.
August 22, 2010
Great book. Isn't this a great country? For a place that boasts about being the land of the free and the home of the brave it sure seems like freedom is really not something that we here in the U.S of A are really able to truly and totally enjoy absolute freedom. For a Canadian married to an American and living here in the U.S. I feel it gives me the ability to not be clouded by all the U.S hype which in turn gives me the ability to see just how fucked up this country really is. Don't get me wrong every single country and government is likely in the same boat, Canada included, but America has this we are the best attitude and yet once you read this book you realize that we don't even have the basic right to enjoy sex or sexual subject matter without big brother deciding what is "healthy" for us. I am not trying to hate just trying to articulate the way I see things. Great book though, a real eye opener.
September 26, 2007
America's War on Sex is a look at the various violations of our civil liberties in reference to sexual freedom. The author, Dr Marty Klein, a certified sex therapist, clearly shows that sexual freedom for all consenting adults is an integral part of our rights under the First Amendment.
Dr Klein believes that "those who are trying to 'clean up' America say they're fighting for a number of critical reasons; children, the family, marriage, morals, education, community safety. But this isn't really true. It's a war against sex: sexual expression, sexual exploration, sexual arrangements, sexual privacy, sexual choice, sexual entertainment, sexual health, sexual imagination, sexual pleasure....The public is manipulated into fighting sexual expression, not sexual ignorance or poor sexual decision making."
Elaborating on his original premise, Dr Klein talks about abstinence-only vs comprehensive sex education, the campaigns to suppress and censor pornography, abortion, contraception, attempts to censor the broadcast media, adult entertainment, and the internet. He also takes a look at those involved in censorship and anti-sex campaigns, particularly religious fundamentalists, showing what drives them and how they operate. One chapter is nothing but outrageous quotes by many people who would seek to limit the sexual rights of others.
Most useful is a chapter about sexual privacy, particularly how it related to sexual minorities, which includes examples of how the law discriminates against sexual minorities, which is pretty much everyone who doesn't practice heterosexual monogamy within a legally recognized marriage. In this chapter, Klein focuses mainly on gay people, swingers, and aficionados of BDSM, but what he writes applies to other sexual minorities as well.
Also included are extensive source notes and an up-to-date bibliography.
He's preaching to the choir here, but I took one star away for his writing style which is a little strident and over the top. Nevertheless, this is a book that should be in the library of anyone who takes the American ideal of liberty and privacy seriously, especially as how it pertains to our sexuality.
Dr Klein believes that "those who are trying to 'clean up' America say they're fighting for a number of critical reasons; children, the family, marriage, morals, education, community safety. But this isn't really true. It's a war against sex: sexual expression, sexual exploration, sexual arrangements, sexual privacy, sexual choice, sexual entertainment, sexual health, sexual imagination, sexual pleasure....The public is manipulated into fighting sexual expression, not sexual ignorance or poor sexual decision making."
Elaborating on his original premise, Dr Klein talks about abstinence-only vs comprehensive sex education, the campaigns to suppress and censor pornography, abortion, contraception, attempts to censor the broadcast media, adult entertainment, and the internet. He also takes a look at those involved in censorship and anti-sex campaigns, particularly religious fundamentalists, showing what drives them and how they operate. One chapter is nothing but outrageous quotes by many people who would seek to limit the sexual rights of others.
Most useful is a chapter about sexual privacy, particularly how it related to sexual minorities, which includes examples of how the law discriminates against sexual minorities, which is pretty much everyone who doesn't practice heterosexual monogamy within a legally recognized marriage. In this chapter, Klein focuses mainly on gay people, swingers, and aficionados of BDSM, but what he writes applies to other sexual minorities as well.
Also included are extensive source notes and an up-to-date bibliography.
He's preaching to the choir here, but I took one star away for his writing style which is a little strident and over the top. Nevertheless, this is a book that should be in the library of anyone who takes the American ideal of liberty and privacy seriously, especially as how it pertains to our sexuality.
April 7, 2019
Honestly this book reread a as though it was written by an angry high school libertarian. I'm 100% in favor of comprehensive sex education, I believe how you practice sex in private is your business, but the way this book presented the information was kinda a dumpster fire.
Giving stats anytime he attacked antiporn standpoints, Klein would usually answer feminist and religious attacks on porn with what amounted to a simple"nuh uh" I was off put when he compared a lack of adult video shops to segregation as though they were equally unjust. He was dismissive of the link between the porn industry and trafficking, and said other questionable stuff. Instead of engaging in a well thought out debate he often minimized his opponents argument. I'd rather read a well thought out argument I disagree with than read a poor argument I agree with.
All that said nothing in here is groundbreaking. I don't think anyone who disagrees with him will read the book and if they do I don't think his tone is going to change any mind. Also I don't think anyone who is interested in this topic is ignorant to anything he wrote. If you want to read about healthy sexuality I would recommend you look elsewhere.
Giving stats anytime he attacked antiporn standpoints, Klein would usually answer feminist and religious attacks on porn with what amounted to a simple"nuh uh" I was off put when he compared a lack of adult video shops to segregation as though they were equally unjust. He was dismissive of the link between the porn industry and trafficking, and said other questionable stuff. Instead of engaging in a well thought out debate he often minimized his opponents argument. I'd rather read a well thought out argument I disagree with than read a poor argument I agree with.
All that said nothing in here is groundbreaking. I don't think anyone who disagrees with him will read the book and if they do I don't think his tone is going to change any mind. Also I don't think anyone who is interested in this topic is ignorant to anything he wrote. If you want to read about healthy sexuality I would recommend you look elsewhere.
October 3, 2008
Yet another shining example of how the government is way too involved in our everyday lives. This book should make you absolutely furious (if it doesn't then I think perhaps there's a lot of life that you are missing out on).
Marty Klein writes about the ways the government is systematically encroaching on our sexual freedoms both locally and nationally. It also details ways that the political system is being stacked to promote more of these anti-sex policies, including the invigoration of the faulty abstinence-only education programs. For as heavy as the material is, the book is written in a surprisingly light manner. I read the book in no time flat as I didn't want to put it down.
Marty Klein writes about the ways the government is systematically encroaching on our sexual freedoms both locally and nationally. It also details ways that the political system is being stacked to promote more of these anti-sex policies, including the invigoration of the faulty abstinence-only education programs. For as heavy as the material is, the book is written in a surprisingly light manner. I read the book in no time flat as I didn't want to put it down.
June 26, 2019
Very informative but also very hyperbolic.
Read
July 25, 2025* The book presents an in-depth critique of how American public policy, media, and religious activism have collaborated to restrict sexual freedom and expression.
* Klein organizes the book into key “battlegrounds” where the cultural and political war on sex is most aggressively waged, using case studies, legal analysis, and direct counterpoints to commonly accepted narratives.
* The second edition updates these battlegrounds with new data and developments, continuing the argument that U.S. institutions promote fear and misinformation in order to regulate private sexual behavior.
---
### **Key Themes and Examples**
* **Sex Education**
* Abstinence-only programs, widely promoted and publicly funded, are critiqued as scientifically inaccurate and harmful to youth.
* Example: Programs falsely equating condom use with failure and promoting shame-based messaging.
* **Reproductive Rights**
* Attacks on contraception and abortion access are analyzed as ideologically driven efforts to control bodies, especially women’s.
* Example: Legislation designed to close clinics or impose unnecessary medical requirements.
* **Censorship and "Indecency"**
* Laws regulating broadcast content and internet materials are shown to be vague, moralistic, and inconsistently applied.
* Example: Federal Communications Commission actions that fine content creators for brief nudity or language, while ignoring context.
* **Pornography and Adult Media**
* Klein argues that the demonization of legal adult entertainment has no empirical basis in harm but is used politically to rally conservative agendas.
* Example: Proposals to label pornography as a “public health crisis” despite lack of scientific support.
* **Sexual Privacy and the Internet**
* Surveillance and restriction of online sexual content are critiqued as violations of personal liberty and ineffective at protecting minors.
* Example: Internet filtering laws that also block educational resources and LGBTQ+ content.
* **The “Sexual Disaster Industry”**
* Klein defines a coordinated network of religious groups, advocacy organizations, and legislators that profit from generating moral panic.
* Example: Fabricated statistics about child predators and trafficking used to justify expansive and punitive laws.
* **LGBTQ+ Rights and Adult Consensual Behavior**
* Efforts to criminalize or stigmatize non-heteronormative relationships and consensual adult sex acts are situated within the broader war on liberty.
* Example: Laws that penalize sex work or same-sex encounters under the guise of public morality.
---
### **Tone and Writing Style**
* **Tone:** Bold, confrontational, and rationalist.
* **Writing Style:**
* Structured as a polemic supported by legal cases, media analysis, and clinical expertise.
* Direct, accessible prose with pointed rhetorical questions and clearly stated theses.
* Uses repetition of core principles to reinforce urgency and clarity.
**How the Style Supports the Content:**
The assertive and unapologetic style matches the book’s message: that public sexual policy in the U.S. is grounded in fear, not fact. Klein’s clarity and repetition emphasize the contrast between what is claimed in public discourse and what is supported by evidence.
---
### **Author Qualifications and Their Impact**
* Marty Klein, Ph.D., is a licensed sex therapist and certified sexologist with decades of clinical experience working with individuals and couples.
* He has testified as an expert witness in numerous obscenity, censorship, and sex education cases.
* His qualifications give the book authority to challenge legal and political misinformation surrounding sexual behavior.
* Klein’s role as both clinician and policy advocate allows him to connect the personal consequences of repression with the structural forces that enable it, strengthening the book’s analysis of how law and ideology shape public sexuality.
* Klein organizes the book into key “battlegrounds” where the cultural and political war on sex is most aggressively waged, using case studies, legal analysis, and direct counterpoints to commonly accepted narratives.
* The second edition updates these battlegrounds with new data and developments, continuing the argument that U.S. institutions promote fear and misinformation in order to regulate private sexual behavior.
---
### **Key Themes and Examples**
* **Sex Education**
* Abstinence-only programs, widely promoted and publicly funded, are critiqued as scientifically inaccurate and harmful to youth.
* Example: Programs falsely equating condom use with failure and promoting shame-based messaging.
* **Reproductive Rights**
* Attacks on contraception and abortion access are analyzed as ideologically driven efforts to control bodies, especially women’s.
* Example: Legislation designed to close clinics or impose unnecessary medical requirements.
* **Censorship and "Indecency"**
* Laws regulating broadcast content and internet materials are shown to be vague, moralistic, and inconsistently applied.
* Example: Federal Communications Commission actions that fine content creators for brief nudity or language, while ignoring context.
* **Pornography and Adult Media**
* Klein argues that the demonization of legal adult entertainment has no empirical basis in harm but is used politically to rally conservative agendas.
* Example: Proposals to label pornography as a “public health crisis” despite lack of scientific support.
* **Sexual Privacy and the Internet**
* Surveillance and restriction of online sexual content are critiqued as violations of personal liberty and ineffective at protecting minors.
* Example: Internet filtering laws that also block educational resources and LGBTQ+ content.
* **The “Sexual Disaster Industry”**
* Klein defines a coordinated network of religious groups, advocacy organizations, and legislators that profit from generating moral panic.
* Example: Fabricated statistics about child predators and trafficking used to justify expansive and punitive laws.
* **LGBTQ+ Rights and Adult Consensual Behavior**
* Efforts to criminalize or stigmatize non-heteronormative relationships and consensual adult sex acts are situated within the broader war on liberty.
* Example: Laws that penalize sex work or same-sex encounters under the guise of public morality.
---
### **Tone and Writing Style**
* **Tone:** Bold, confrontational, and rationalist.
* **Writing Style:**
* Structured as a polemic supported by legal cases, media analysis, and clinical expertise.
* Direct, accessible prose with pointed rhetorical questions and clearly stated theses.
* Uses repetition of core principles to reinforce urgency and clarity.
**How the Style Supports the Content:**
The assertive and unapologetic style matches the book’s message: that public sexual policy in the U.S. is grounded in fear, not fact. Klein’s clarity and repetition emphasize the contrast between what is claimed in public discourse and what is supported by evidence.
---
### **Author Qualifications and Their Impact**
* Marty Klein, Ph.D., is a licensed sex therapist and certified sexologist with decades of clinical experience working with individuals and couples.
* He has testified as an expert witness in numerous obscenity, censorship, and sex education cases.
* His qualifications give the book authority to challenge legal and political misinformation surrounding sexual behavior.
* Klein’s role as both clinician and policy advocate allows him to connect the personal consequences of repression with the structural forces that enable it, strengthening the book’s analysis of how law and ideology shape public sexuality.
May 31, 2019
Mr. Klein pulls no punches as to how well he sets up his arguments involving sexual freedom of expression and liberty that all Americans should be able to enjoy on a personal basis. He is excellent in his power of reason and logic and skilled in his presentation of important facts. With a level of intellectual professionalism he brings forth the arguments and tactics of the Anti-sex communities, organizations, and misguided leaders. He reveals their biases and hatreds and sets them against the cold hard facts in regards the 'American Democratic Covenant', where we all agree, as Americans, to accept the discomfort that the choices of others give us for the greater benefit--that is being able to live together as a single pluralistic society. But as Mr. Klein brings out, many on the religious left believe that sexuality falls outside of this covenant, and patently refuse to accept the discomfort that some individual's sexual choices cause them, even though these people accept the discomfort that the choices of the left cause them. Mr. Klein does an excellent job in clarifying one fact that is for certain: this war on sex is not just limited to the sexual choices of a segment(s) of American society, but ALL choices of ALL Americans because to succeed, the anti-sex groups have to attack, directly, the pillars of the Constitution, the foundation of this great nation.
August 21, 2019
Who hurt you, Marty??
This book’s message is important and most of its concerns are well-founded - which is why the author’s tone and lack of academic professionalism are so disappointing. Over and over, he offers sweeping generalizations, Us vs. Them narrative, and melodramatic hand-wringing. That the Religious Right attempts to restrict sexual freedom is a case that can easily be made without resorting to the type of lamenting Klein fills almost every page with. He also ignores the fact that, while US society is still extremely sex negative in many ways, sexual freedom and open-mindedness have arguably improved more rapidly in the last few decades than at any other time in Western history. That’s not to say we don’t have a long ways to go, and War on Sex does occasionally highlight areas of serious discrimination quite effectively. But Klein’s sub-academic rhetoric and methods make it hard to know what portions of his book to take seriously. For instance, in reference to public libraries being required to use internet search filters, the reader is given this bit of analysis: “You might as well melt down the Statue of Liberty and use the metal to fashion jail bars, or chastity belts for the mind.”
Will be looking for a similarly themed book, minus the theatrics.
This book’s message is important and most of its concerns are well-founded - which is why the author’s tone and lack of academic professionalism are so disappointing. Over and over, he offers sweeping generalizations, Us vs. Them narrative, and melodramatic hand-wringing. That the Religious Right attempts to restrict sexual freedom is a case that can easily be made without resorting to the type of lamenting Klein fills almost every page with. He also ignores the fact that, while US society is still extremely sex negative in many ways, sexual freedom and open-mindedness have arguably improved more rapidly in the last few decades than at any other time in Western history. That’s not to say we don’t have a long ways to go, and War on Sex does occasionally highlight areas of serious discrimination quite effectively. But Klein’s sub-academic rhetoric and methods make it hard to know what portions of his book to take seriously. For instance, in reference to public libraries being required to use internet search filters, the reader is given this bit of analysis: “You might as well melt down the Statue of Liberty and use the metal to fashion jail bars, or chastity belts for the mind.”
Will be looking for a similarly themed book, minus the theatrics.
December 3, 2020
Another book that sounded interesting but was a tad disappointing.
March 4, 2016
America's War on Sex: The Continuing Attack on Law, Lust, and Liberty by Marty Klein ISBN 1440801282 (ISBN13: 9781440801280)
from the library
hard for me to read, even though I know so much of what this says and it certainly is readable, I hurt emotionally when I read this. so much oppression.... who cares what people do sexually?! of course that is a question I started asking when I began studying sex in 1980!
(from the library computer) Contents:
Introduction to second edition: From Bush to Obama : little or no relief from the war on sex --
You're the target : why a war on sex? --
Battleground : sex education-where children come second --
The most powerful "minority" in the United States --
Battleground : reproductive rights --
In honor of the 42nd anniversary of Roe v Wade I requested “Before Roe v. Wade: Voices That Shaped the Abortion Debate Before the Supreme Court’s Ruling” from the library.Linda Greenhouse1/22/15
The sexual disaster industry --
Battleground : broadcast "indecency" --
Yes, they really said that --
Battleground : adult entertainment-feverish dreams, real estate nightmares -- How they do it : ammunition in the war on sex --
Battleground : the internet --
America does not guarantee your right to be comfortable : the lowest common erotic denominator project --
Battleground : the war on "pornography" --
Extreme religion and public policy --
Battleground : sexual privacy and sexual minorities-civil rights or immoral privileges? --
Revolutionizing American government-bad news for democracy.
from the library
hard for me to read, even though I know so much of what this says and it certainly is readable, I hurt emotionally when I read this. so much oppression.... who cares what people do sexually?! of course that is a question I started asking when I began studying sex in 1980!
(from the library computer) Contents:
Introduction to second edition: From Bush to Obama : little or no relief from the war on sex --
You're the target : why a war on sex? --
Battleground : sex education-where children come second --
The most powerful "minority" in the United States --
Battleground : reproductive rights --
In honor of the 42nd anniversary of Roe v Wade I requested “Before Roe v. Wade: Voices That Shaped the Abortion Debate Before the Supreme Court’s Ruling” from the library.Linda Greenhouse1/22/15
The sexual disaster industry --
Battleground : broadcast "indecency" --
Yes, they really said that --
Battleground : adult entertainment-feverish dreams, real estate nightmares -- How they do it : ammunition in the war on sex --
Battleground : the internet --
America does not guarantee your right to be comfortable : the lowest common erotic denominator project --
Battleground : the war on "pornography" --
Extreme religion and public policy --
Battleground : sexual privacy and sexual minorities-civil rights or immoral privileges? --
Revolutionizing American government-bad news for democracy.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 16, 2013
An excellent exploration of an issue that most American's don't want to acknowledge--how the religious establishment and the government are colluding to eliminate the separation of church and state in the most basic of American's rights. Reviews relationships between repression of sexual expression and civil rights, in particular, the rights of women and children.
December 18, 2011
Lucid book on an under-researched subject
December 16, 2007
A gutsy book!
September 4, 2012
The ideas were very interesting but I found this very slow reading.
reading-slowly-come-back-to
September 10, 2018This is really interesting but my husband stole my copy at about 15% in and I haven't seen it since. Might have to take it out of my currently reading. I was going to buy the Kindle but it is $30!
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