Sexing the Citizen

"How did marriage come to be seen as the foundation and guarantee of social stability in Third Republic France? In Sexing the Citizen, Judith Surkis shows how masculine sexuality became central to the making of a republican social order. Marriage, Surkis argues, affirmed the citizen's masculinity, while also containing and controlling his desires. This ideal offered a specific response to the problems -- individualism, democratization, and rapid technological and social change -- associated with France's modernity.

This cultural and intellectual history provides new insights into how concerns about sexuality shaped the Third Republic's pedagogical projects. Surkis's analyses of republican moral philosophy and Emile Durkheim's sociology illustrate the cultural weight of these concerns and provide an account of modern French thinking about society. More broadly, Sexing the Citizen illuminates how sexual norms continue to shape the meaning of citizenship"--Jacket.