Sons of Neptune

The Sons of Neptune: Tracing the Archetype of the Erotic Sailor explores the evolving image of the sailor as both cultural icon and erotic figure—one that has remained curiously omnipresent and yet critically underexamined in maritime literature and popular culture. By the nineteenth century, the sailor had been cast as both working-class hero and romantic rogue—a masculine ideal that embodied loyalty, rebellion, and desire in equal measure. In the twentieth century, this figure increasingly appeared in erotic literature and visual culture, solidifying his place in the imagination as a symbol of fluidity, subversion, and sexual transgression. Author Jessica M. Floyd traces this archetype from the eighteenth century through the post-Stonewall era, revealing how the sailor became a canvas for fantasies of gender and sexual ambiguity. At the heart of the book lies a deep interrogation of cultural desire—a fascination with the sailor’s paradoxical role as both agent and object, stable figure and shapeshifter. Navigating the complex waters of masculinity, queerness, and iconography, The Sons of Neptune brings into focus a ubiquitous yet understudied figure whose legacy still ripples through literature, art, and cultural history.

Jessica M. Floyd is professor of English at the Community College of Baltimore County where she teaches undergraduate writing and literature. She is also adjunct instructor in the Departments of History and Gender, Women’s, Sexuality Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where she teaches undergraduate courses on gender and sexuality. She is an interdisciplinary scholar who critically analyzes the expression of gender and sexuality in erotic cultural artifacts. She is author of Cabin Boys, Milkmaids, and Rough Seas: Identity in the Unexpurgated Repertoire of Stan Hugill, published by University Press of Mississippi.