2007 Choice Outstanding Academic Title

At her best, Moore has a frank, breezy manner that may be partly due to her practical experience outside academe. . . . Sperm Counts is a lively, funny read.
—Camille Paglia in The Chronicle Review

While nearly every point she makes about the hidden significance of sperm is a home run, ultimately, this is an academic sociological study written in an appropriately starchy style. . . . [that] results in a fascinating read packed with conclusions. — City Paper

So fascinating and fresh. . . . Should be required reading for scholars in sexuality/queer studies, womens and gender studies, social studies of science and cultural studies. . .. Essential.—Choice

Sperm Counts is careful to include the history of semen research, as well as examining its role today. . . . [Moore] approach[es] the topic of semen with precision and diligence.
—Bitch

Cartoon line-drawings of sperm wriggle over each page of text in this dissection of the ways societal views of sperm shape culture. A feminist account backed by sociological and scientific research, Moores academic tome is accessible to the masses.
—Bust

Moore has analyzed religious, social, erotic and medical-scientifc investments in sperm, singular and plural.—Feminist Review

In Sperm Counts, Moore's new book about the cultural meanings of sperm, she tells this story to illustrate her own childhood naivet about a substance that, as she now sees it, is far from simple. These days, according to Moore, sperm has tremendous cultural meaning—and looking at it in its many contexts, from children's books to pornography, can tell us a great deal about the skittish state of American masculinity. . . . Sperm Counts is a serious book, and the first on its subject. But it also includes anecdotes from Moores life, lending it a more conversational tone than most academic works. The books margins are even squiggled with sketches of sperm—flip the pages and they swim around. (This is a subject matter, after all, that requires a certain degree of levity.) Moore happily lists spermatic nicknames (baby gravy, gentlemens relish, pimp juice) before skewering, in a later chapter, the burgeoning home sperm-test industry (sample ad slogan: I dont know how that semen got in my underwear!).
—Salon.com

“You may never look at the family jewels the same way again”
—Conceive Magazine

“Written from a cultural, social, gender study standpoint, and provides useful insights for an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural examination of masculinity. . . . Anyone interested in semen, sperm, sperm donation, sex education or pornography will have something to learn.”
—Sex Roles

[Moore] examines how sperm is seen through a variety of social lenses, including pornography, sperm banking, childrens books on reproduction and criminal DNA evidence.
—Between the Lines Magazine

Irresistable. . . . A really rich read.
—feministing.com

Incredibly well researched and captivating read.
—Girlwithpen.blogspot.com

A clever yet comprehensive look at the substance of manhood. Moore goes where few scholars dare to tread, and uses bodily fluids as a revealing window through which to observe the current nature of sexuality and gender relations.
—Michael S. Kimmel, author of Manhood in America: A Cultural Study

Sperm Counts is a serious book, and the first on its subject. But it also includes anecdotes from Moore's life, lending it a more conversational tone than most academic works. The book's margins are even squiggled with sketches of sperm — flip the pages and they swim around. (This is a subject matter, after all, that requires a certain degree of levity.) Moore happily lists spermatic nicknames ("baby gravy," "gentlemen's relish," "pimp juice") before skewering, in a later chapter, the burgeoning home sperm-test industry (sample ad slogan: "I don't know how that semen got in my underwear!").
—Salon.com

"In this intriguing feminist sociological account of sperm, Moore takes a subject we think we knew all about and proceeds to examine the multi-dimensional facets of its cultural subtexts. What is so unusual about this provocative book is the way Moore meshes history, technology, medicine, criminology, gender studies, children's books, and porn in her depiction of sperm as a manifestation of masculinity. Sperm Counts is witty, erudite, and informative— a gem of social constructionist scholarship."
—Judith Lorber, author of Paradoxes of Gender and Breaking the Bowls

Moore has crafted a smart and surprisingly funny book about semen. Original and refreshing, Sperm Counts follows the little guys through laboratories, childrens books, sex work, crime scenes, and bodies, illuminating varied meanings and representations of manhood and masculinity. This is engaged feminist scholarship at its best.
—Monica J. Casper, author of The Making of the Unborn Patient: A Social Anatomy of Fetal Surgery

It has been called sperm, semen, seed, cum, jizz, spunk, gentlemen's relish, and splooge. But however the "tacky, opaque liquid that comes out of the penis" is described, the very act of defining "sperm" and "semen" depends on your point of view. For Lisa Jean Moore, how sperm comes to be known is based on who defines it (a scientist vs. a defense witness, for example), under what social circumstances it is found (a doctor's office vs. a crime scene), and for what purposes it will be used (in vitro fertilization vs. DNA analysis). Examining semen historically, medically, and culturally, Sperm Counts is a penetrating exploration of its meaning and power.

Using a "follow that sperm" approach, Moore shows how representations of sperm and semen are always in flux, tracing their twisting journeys from male reproductive glands to headline news stories and presidential impeachment trials. Much like the fluid of semen itself can leak onto fabrics and into bodies, its meanings seep into our consciousness over time. Moore's analytic lens yields intriguing observations of how sperm is "spent" and "reabsorbed" as it spurts, swims, and careens through penises, vaginas, test tubes, labs, families, cultures, and politics.

Drawn from fifteen years of research, Sperm Counts examines historical and scientific documents, children's "facts of life" books, pornography, the Internet, forensic transcripts and sex worker narratives to explain how semen got so complicated. Among other things, understanding how we produce, represent, deploy and institutionalize semen-biomedically, socially and culturally-provides valuable new perspectives on the changing social position of men and the evolving meanings of masculinity. Ultimately, as Moore reveals, sperm is intimately involved in not only the physical reproduction of males and females, but in how we come to understand ourselves as men and women.

Lisa Jean Moore is Associate Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies and Coordinator of the Gender Studies Program at Purchase College, State University of New York. Her most recent book, co-authored with Judith Lorber, is Gendered Bodies: Feminist Perspectives.