Words, Freud once wrote, are like magic. Nowhere have words been more magical than in the writing of sexuality. Through words we learn what is good or bad, pleasurable or painful, significant and insignificant. The words used about sexuality do not simply describe something out there. They help shape what sexuality is. A clearly written presentation of complex ideas, this book provides a pathway to further reading. Arranged alphabetically it is a compendium of one hundred words that are key to the understanding of contemporary sexualities and intimacies.This fascinating book becomes a personal exploration of meanings, as reflected through key words by a renowned theorist of sexuality. It is both a valuable text through which to explore individual meanings of key concepts; and part of a long-term project to investigate the fluid, shifting, ever evolving meanings of the erotic. "Throughout Weeks" shows how meanings change, their need to be contextualized, and how they can become 'magical' in the unfolding of sexual meanings.