Showing results for "The Awakening" in Human Sexuality

In Smitten, Rodney Hessinger examines how the Second Great Awakening disrupted gender norms across a breadth of denominations. The displacement and internal migration of Americans created ripe conditions for religious competition in the North. Hessinger argues that during this time of religious ferment, religious seekers could, in turn, play the missionary or the convert. The dynamic of religious rivalry inexorably led toward sexual and gender disruption.

What happens to a woman who seeks to rediscover her sexuality at 70? Does she visit a sex store? Does she buy toys and porn? Does she push her boundaries to even greater extremes by joining a sex chat website? She does all of this and a whole lot more! Interweaving a repressed and intimidating upbringing with her lively and uncensored search for sexual liberation (complete with writing erotic stories), Rosenberg discovers it’s never too late to find freedom and begin life anew.