Including recent literary analysis and material currently at the forefront of Classics, "Sex and the Second-Best City" deals with the topic of sex and society in the "Laws" of Plato with recourse to historical context and modern critical theory. Examining reconstructions of ancient sexualtiy to increas clarifcation, the text of the "Laws" is considered along wih many of its literary qualities, influences and the utopian plan it proposes. Studying how Plato's narrator outlines a theory by which sexuality can be controlled by manipulation of people's thoughts, "Sex and the Second-Best City" deals extensively with: * education in the hypothetical polis (Magnesia) and the part that it is designed to play in terms of sex-role stereotyping * how the "Laws" puts manliness as the ideal model for citizens to imitate in the mandatory pursuit of virtue * the 'brave new femininity' in which women must become more like the idealized man and how men must become less like women * the law that was drafted to attempt to ban same-sex activites Showing how psychology, propaganda, religion, education, the family and the government all work together to shape the moral hygiene of Magnesia, this book will prove very useful reading for students of classical studies the English-speaking world over.