(Erotic) Sexual Politics of War Revealed in Letters of an American Military Couple

• In Event: 220 - Section on the Sociology of the Family Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 07. Sexuality

Abstract

While much popular and academic attention has been paid to wars’ influence on gender sex roles, such as shifting economic and political roles of women, and on wars and sex politics, such as gays in the military, little attention has been given to the intersection of war and erotic sex. This paper looks at the erotic sex content found in the 553 letters home from war archived in the Joseph Gurfein Collection at the Library of Congress. In negotiating a long-distance sex life with his wife, the Gurfein letters reveal how the sexual politics and morals of the Korean and Second World Wars appeared at, and affected, the individual level.

Author

• Christina M. Knopf, State University of New York-Potsdam