![]() As an historian with a vast knowledge of queer politics and history, Chenier is well placed to provide a careful analysis of this period that appreciates the injustice of condemning sexual minorities such as homosexuals, bisexuals, and transgendered peoples to the same fate as those who commit sexual violence against others. In doing so, Chenier is able to reveal how all these people were viewed as sexual outsiders requiring medical treatment and/or imprisonment. As a result she considers people who molest children, who rape women, or who define as homosexual within the category of sexual deviance, just as the experts, media, and public did in the postwar era. She casts a critical gaze on the entire system of sexual classification. While her case study is situated in one geographic area, Chenier demonstrates that the study of sexual deviancy in Ontario was highly influenced by international sex experts and popular discourse far beyond its borders.Ĭhenier asks some critical questions about how our society views sexuality in its entirety through this case study. Elise Chenier, with her strong knowledge of feminist theory and sexual history/politics, attempts to shed light on the theories, treatment, and public discourse on sexual deviancy in the postwar era. Clearly, sexual deviancy continues to provide high media drama and to be of popular concern. I read this important book about sexual deviancy in the postwar era at the same time that a high-ranking army general was charged with numerous local sex murders, the provincial government proposed and then quickly rescinded its new, more comprehensive sex education program due to public outcry, and the international cover-up of sexual abuse by Catholic priests was further exposed.
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