Introduction

Abstract

Abstract Oscar Wilde, the master of paradox, once intoned, “I adore the simple pleasures, they are the last refuge of the complex.” Unfortunately, sexual pleasure, as Wilde discovered, is seldom simple. In many ways, Wilde is emblematic of the vagaries of sexual politics, having been disgraced and jailed for his homosexuality. What started as a simple (but brazen) libel trial—initiated by Wilde against the Marquess of Queensbury for claiming that Wilde was “posing as a sodomite” and thereby adversely influencing his son, Lord Alfred Douglas—ultimately backfired against Wilde when evidence obtained from previous lovers irrefutably demonstrated that he was, in fact, a “sodomite.” This is a book about sex, and about sexual pleasure in particular. In it we assert the obvious—that sex is pleasurable—and examine the myriad implications of this seemingly innocuous assertion for evolutionary, cultural, and psychological theories of human sexual expression.