ABSTRACT
Sexuality today is spoken about, written about, debated and preached about as never before. Traditionally, who could legitimately speak of sexuality and the body was tightly regulated by Churches and states, priests and politicians, the medical profession and various types of experts, with others – whether poets or novelists, polemicists or preachers, reformers or activists – seeking spaces where they could. The many regimes of silence did not stop the masses thinking about it, or living and doing it, but their voices were rarely heard or when heard not listened to. Now increasingly we have a mass democracy speaking of sexuality: through the globalized media, on television, in chat shows, confessional programmes, soap operas, reality shows, documentaries and advertisements; in cyberspace via social networks, dating and pick up sites and apps, blogs, microblogs and vlogs, chat rooms, through to
the mysterious files of the ‘dark web’; and in the myriad forums and intimacies of everyday life. We can all claim to be experts today, true to ourselves in our own fashion.
