Laqueur argues that the emergence of masturbation as a morally and medically exigent practice of sexuality in the eighteenth century brought women to the center of debates about the ethics of self. He explains why female masturbation became the paradigmatically dangerous instance of this universal practice in the eighteenth century and why there developed a politically important divergence of the meaning of male and female autoeroticism in the century after Freud.

This talk is held in conjunction with the Fifth Annual Graduate Symposium on Women's and Gender History.

Hosted by: Department of History, Women's and Gender History Graduate Symposium Organizers

In conjunction with: The Fifth Annual Graduate Symposium on Women's and Gender History is supported by more than 50 campus units.