In recent years there has been a marked increase in both the volume and diversity of sexual imagery and talk on television, condemned by some as a ‘rising tide of filth’, celebrated by others as a ‘liberation’ from the regulations of the past.

Television and Sexuality questions both these responses through an examination of television’s multiple channels and genres, and the wide range of sexual information and pleasures they provide. The book explores the way that sexual citizenship and sexual consumerism have been defined in the digital era to reveal the underlying assumptions held by the television industry about the tastes and sexual identities of its diverse audiences. It draws on the work of key thinkers in cultural and media studies, as well as feminist and queer theory, to interrogate the political and cultural significance of these developments.

With topics including the regulation of taste and decency, sex scandals in the news, the biology of sex in science programmes, and gay, lesbian and postfeminist identities in ‘quality’ drama, this book is key reading for students in cultural and media studies and gender studies.