American Taboo: The Forbidden Words, Unspoken Rules, and Secret Morality of Popular Culture

America's often-unspoken morality codes make many topics taboo in "the land of the free." This book analyzes hundreds of popular culture examples to expose how the media both avoids and alludes to how we derive pleasure from our bodies.

Flatulence … male nudity … abortion … masturbation: these are just a few of the taboo topics in the United States. What do culturally enforced silences about certain subjects say about our society—and our latent fears? This work provides a broad yet detailed ...