Wallowing in Sex

Elana Levine is Assistant Professor in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.

• Acknowledgments viiIntrodution 11. KIDDIE PORN VERSUS ADULT PORNInter-Network Competition 172. NOT IN MY LIVING ROOMTV Sex That Wasn’t 463. THE SEX THREATRegulating and Representing Sexually Endangered Youth 764. SYMBOLS OF SEXTelevision’s Women and Sexual Difference 1235. SEX WITH A LAUGH TRACKSexuality and Television Humor 1696. FROM ROMANCE TO RAPESex, Violence, and Soap Operas 208CONCLUSION 253NOTES 261BIBLIOGRAPHY 299INDEX 309

“Wallowing in Sex is important work: it pushes us to understand the institutional terrain of 1970s American television in the context of the sexual revolution and emergent feminist and gay liberation movements in a manner that no other scholarly work has done before.”-Tim J. Anderson, author of Making Easy Listening: Material Culture and Postwar American Recording “Wallowing in Sex is a groundbreaking and important examination of television’s significant role in the increasingly sexualized culture of the 1970s. Painstakingly researched and smartly written, it is a crucial addition to the field of television history and, more generally, to the history of popular culture of the recent past. And if you grew up with 1970s television, Wallowing in Sex will make you look at the programming of the era in a thoroughly new light.”-Aniko Bodroghkozy, author of Groove Tube: Sixties Television and the Youth Rebellion “Wallowing in Sex is an excellent contribution to the fields of television studies, gender studies, and popular culture. Levine’s blend of textual, historical, and industrial analysis paints a thorough picture of ‘the new sexual culture of 1970s America,’ making it a necessary text for any and all students of the decade. Moreover, her extremely thorough coverage of all aspects of 1970s television, and its peculiar obsession with female sexuality make an important intersection between feminist theory and broadcast history. In this vein, Wallowing in Sex is on par with such germinal texts as Lynn Spigel’s Make Room for TV and Julie D’Acci’s Defining Women, making it an important and exciting addition to the canon of feminist media studies.” - Mary E. Pagano (Jump Cut) “Levine makes a substantial contribution to television scholarship . . . . This is a significant book that television scholars, in particular those with an interest in feminism, cannot afford to overlook.” - Hilary Radner (Journal of American History) “Levine’s book successfully reexamines televised representations of sexuality during a watershed decade of American culture marked by the rise of the feminist and gay movements. . . . Written in a straightforward and clear manner, [Levine] passionately guides the reader through the different issues and ambivalences that televised sexuality encountered during the 1970s. . . . Levine’s work should be appreciated not only as an historical overview of screened sexualities, but also as a critical inquiry into a-historical processes of regulation, prohibition and shame which are affecting what can and cannot be displayed on screen.” - Frederik Dhaenens (Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television)