Nineteenth-century America saw numerous campaigns against masturbation, which was said to cause illness, insanity, and even death. Riotous Flesh explores women’s leadership of those movements, showing how a desire to transform the politics of sex created unexpected alliances between groups that otherwise had very different goals.

Littauer traces the origins of the “sexual revolution” of the 1960s, arguing that sexual liberation was much more than a reaction to 1950s repression because it involved the mainstreaming of a counterculture already on the rise. From World War II–era “victory girls” to teen lesbians in the 1940s and 1950s, nonconforming women and girls navigated and resisted intense social and interpersonal pressures to fit existing mores, using the upheavals of the era to pursue new sexual freedoms.

“With meticulous archival research, including access to oral histories, Michael Helquist presents this generous, passionate, and complicated woman in a respectful way. A splendid contribution to both feminist and lesbian history.” Bettina Aptheker, Professor, Feminist Studies Department, University of California, Santa Cruz