Dr. James Aston is a lecturer in Film at the University of Hull. His PhD was on cinematic representations of the past and has published on post 9/11 apocalyptic cinema. Dr Basil Glynn is a Lecturer in Film Studies in the Department of Media, Film & Communications, Liverpool Hope University.
Eleven essays analyze sex and sexuality in contemporary television programming (three focusing on the vampire genre), with two of the chapters presenting material from beyond the familiar Anglophone world... Television, Sex and Society is welcome for what it adds to our knowledge of the relationship between these three vast subjects, to how it employs the existing literature in its analyses, and especially for bringing a couple of non-English-language programs and genres to the attention of English-speaking scholars and students. Television scholars have surely embraced the medium's engagement with sexuality, but Television, Sex and Society brings a much needed focus on the sex act (or lack thereof) itself. It deftly examines issues of production, reception, and text while breaking down the televised portrayal of sex through sensitive engagements with areas such as class (Channel 4's Shameless), nation and genre (BBC's Tipping the Velvet and South Korea's My Lovely Sam-Soon), sexualized power relations (British pornography and Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and abstinence (Pushing Daisies). It's surely a much welcome collection addressing an overlooked facet of today's highly sexualized television landscape. --Kelly Kessler, PhD, Assistant Professor of Media and Cinema Studies, DePaul University Anthropology Reviews Database