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Acknowledgments I have learned so much about research, rhetoric, sex education, and, most importantly, the generosity of others throughout the process of writing this book. I am glad to have this opportunity to think back on and thank those who have played a role in bringing this project to fruition. I am thankful for the editorial assistance of Karen Ross, the editor of Communication, Culture , and Critique, who published an earlier version of part of chapter 1 (1.4 [2008]), and Susanna Hornig Priest, the editor of Science Communication, who published an earlier version of part of chapter 2 (29.2 [2007]). This book’s claims are grounded in sources housed in several excellent archival repositories. I am indebted to the staff of the Social Welfare History Archives at the University of Minnesota, especially head archivist David Klaassen, for helping me to access such amazing primary sources. My thanks also go to the dedicated individuals overseeing the Special Collections Library at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Illinois Archives in Urbana-Champaign. Funding for this project came from an Illinois Project for Research in the Humanities (IPRH) fellowship at the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign , a Clarke Chambers Travel Fellowship from the Social Welfare History Archives at the University of Minnesota, and a Marianne A. Ferber Scholarship from the Gender and Women’s Studies Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The support and encouragement I garnered from individuals representing these organizations, especially Matti Bunzl and Christine Catanzarite at the IPRH, helped me to find my scholarly voice. Cara Finnegan repeatedly offered me excellent feedback and encouragement , and I am honored to call her both my mentor and my friend. For as long as I have known her, Cara has modeled for me what it means to be a wonderful mentor, a dedicated member of the scholarly community, and an altogether mighty and awesome woman.These are lessons I will always hold close. Thank you, Cara. I also extend my warmest thanks to Dale Brashers, Stephen Hartnett, and Leslie Reagan for helping me to shape this project when it was in its earliest stages. I initially envisioned this project while I was at the University of Illinois in the Department of Speech Communication (now the Department of Communication). During this time, friends and colleagues enlightened me, entertained me, and did not seem to mind my inherent corniness—perhaps because we were, after all, in the land of corn. My new friends and colleagues at Purdue University in the Department of Communication have fostered an ideal environment for me to hone in on the questions at the heart of this book (and also to laugh and enjoy myself some along the way). I feel very blessed to have the support of a wonderful family, and my scholarship has benefited exponentially from that support. In fact, this book would probably not have been completed if my mom had not supplied me with an endless stream of Grand Bagels, if Nana had never taught me to read “da books” many years ago, if Rosemary Jan had not been such an accommodating first student, and if Diana and Bob Jensen had not expressed interest in its content from start to finish. I owe a great debt to Kendra Boileau, the senior acquisitions editor at the University of Illinois Press, as well as to Susan Zaeske, both of whom went to great lengths to make this book far better than it ever would have been otherwise.And I am also grateful to two anonymous reviewers who provided me with excellent feedback on earlier versions of this manuscript. Most importantly, I am thankful to and for Jakob Jensen, who was there all along,listening,brainstorming,asking questions,thinking of titles,searching for images, and sustaining me with his dimples and his love. In the words of the novelist George R. R. Martin, “I dreamed of you.” x / acknowledgments ...

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