Perv by Jesse Bering

The author has laid a fantastic case for analysing current moral based laws against laws which cause physical or emotional harm. Perverse sexual habits and their perceptions were truly debated in this convincing study complete with historical references. Homosexuality as a natural behaviour was boldly compared with other perverse behaviours like paedophilia and necrophilia,

foot-philia and a number of other gut wrenching and seriously sick human habits in evolutionary terms. So why is homosexuality all legal while paedophilia is still pretty much illegal was the obvious question for me which the author tackles by explaining that as long as there is no harm inflicted, which made sense to me initially. But then the author gives examples of some of his own sexual encounters and their emotional effects left on him, I felt like he was contradicting himself. To claim that any intimate personal sexual perverse encounter has no emotional harm even when the subjects are adult is wrong in my humble opinion. Which means that there has to be some value still attached to the moral based laws out there. Surely humping a sheep just because it cannot complain has to be considered morally wrong? I think the author is clearly prejudiced towards homosexuality as he is himself a homosexual and in order to paint homosexuality as normal also done a great disservice to the whole moral vs harm based law debate by including every known sexual perversity in the same mix.   

The historical attitudes to various sexual trends over the period of past 200 years is nicely covered by the author in order to demonstrate the changing trends in cultural perception. The author makes a compelling argument that 50 years from now people will look back with astonishment and wonder at our sanity when considering our current sexual taboos.

Also the rather long and detailed descriptions of sexual paraphernalia was rather tedious and monotonous.

The author has put together a compelling case, which forced me to dig deep and gave me an insight into this very intriguing and relevant debate. But lay people might find the book hard to finish as the details are really meant for academia with a nice veneer of authors wit and candour, which has become a hallmark for most openly homosexual writers.