Introduction

In one ruling by the Supreme Court, sex has been declared as “a great and mysterious motive force in human life [that] has indisputably been a subject of absorbing interest” (in Demac, 1988: 41). As children, we have heard our parents speak euphemistically about the “birds and the bees” and as adolescents we may have shared late-night discussions with our friends about the “secrets” of intimacy; as adult North Americans, our concerns are expressed in an array of new “self-help” books on the subject, which flood the market every year. Problems with human sexuality such as sexual addictions and sexual desire disorders (lack of interest in sex) have captured the imagination of the television, radio, and Internet news media, as well as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV-TR (2000), the “Bible” of diagnostic criteria for mental health professionals in the United States since 1968 (Tiefer, 2004: 133). Obviously, the subject enthralls more than Dr. Phil and Oprah; controversies abound around sexrelated issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion in the United States. In addition, questions arise concerning the impact of rising HIV rates globally, and how access to sexually charged content through the Internet will affect human sexual expression today and in the future.