{"product_id":"9780226139401","title":"Unlimited Intimacy: Reflections on the Subculture of Barebacking","description":"\u003cp\u003eBarebacking—when gay men deliberately abandon condoms and embrace unprotected sex—has incited a great deal of shock, outrage, anger, and even disgust, but very little contemplation. Purposely flying in the face of decades of safe-sex campaigning and HIV\/AIDS awareness initiatives, barebacking is unquestionably radical behavior, behavior that most people would rather condemn than understand. Thus the time is ripe for \u003ci\u003eUnlimited Intimacy\u003c\/i\u003e, Tim Dean’s riveting investigation into barebacking and the distinctive subculture that has grown around it.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAudacious and undeniably provocative, Dean’s profoundly reflective account is neither a manifesto nor an apology; instead, it is a searching analysis that tests the very limits of the study of sex in the twenty-first century. Dean’s extensive research into the subculture provides a tour of the scene’s bars, sex clubs, and Web sites; offers an explicit but sophisticated analysis of its pornography; and documents his own personal experiences in the culture. But ultimately, it is HIV that animates the controversy around barebacking, and \u003ci\u003eUnlimited Intimacy\u003c\/i\u003e explores how barebackers think about transmitting the virus—especially the idea that deliberately sharing it establishes a new network of kinship among the infected. According to Dean, intimacy makes us vulnerable, exposes us to emotional risk, and forces us to drop our psychological barriers. As a committed experiment in intimacy without limits—one that makes those metaphors of intimacy quite literal—barebacking thus says a great deal about how intimacy works.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWritten with a fierce intelligence and uncompromising nerve, \u003ci\u003eUnlimited Intimacy\u003c\/i\u003e will prove to be a milestone in our understanding of sexual behavior.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of Chicago Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47067572764912,"sku":"9780226139401","price":26.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780226139401_p0.jpg?v=1763674217","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780226139401","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}