Why do men tend to keep love letters in files along with their other correspondence, whereas women keep them with their clothes? And if a letter is written but not posted, at whom is it really directed? As psychoanalyst Darian Leader shows, such questions go to the heart of sexual desire, which is never addressed to our flesh and blood companion, but always to something beyond him or her. In an engaging, at times startling, enquiry into the fundamental loneliness of each sex, Leader asks why relationships frequently run aground on the trivial question, 'What are you thinking?' If a man chooses as his partner a woman unlike his mother, why does he try to make her behave towards him exactly as his mother did, when he was a boy? And why might a woman decide not to spend the night with a man, after one glimpse of his apartment?

Was haben wir aus der sexuellen Befreiung gemacht? Nach 50 Jahren sexueller Revolution ist so viel Sex im oeffentlichen Raum wie seit der Antike nicht mehr. Doch wie beeinflusst dies die heutigen Jugendlichen? Dieses Buch deckt Auswirkungen und Zusammenhange der sexuellen Befreiung auf. Basierend auf langjahriger Erfahrung in der schulischen Sexualaufklarung und gestutzt durch viele anschauliche Beispiele schildert die Autorin minutioes und bisweilen erfrischend malizioes, was und wie Jugendliche und junge Erwachsene heute uber Sexualitat denken. Obwohl sich diese sexuell befreit fuhlen, unterliegen sie doch vielfaltigen Zwangen. Ohne ein Blatt vor den Mund zu nehmen vermittelt die Autorin anhand von vielen Beispielen, welche Auswirkungen Faktoren wie eine Bagatellisierung der Porno-Kultur, permanentes Leistungsstreben, hormonelle Verhutung und eine zwanghafte Suche nach sexueller Orientierung nach sich ziehen. Dabei wird deutlich, dass es ein Irrglaube ist, dass sich die Sexualitat als Konsumgut instrumentalisieren und beherrschen, padagogisch vermitteln, sozial konstruieren sowie pharmazeutisch und chirurgisch optimieren lasst. Das reale Liebesleben koennte sonst viel Leere, Frustration, Verunsicherung und Einsamkeit erfahren. Das Buch regt dazu an, das Wagnis einzugehen, sich den damit verbundenen Fragen des Lebens zu stellen und den Lernprozess der Sozialisierung im Bereich von Liebe, Sex und Beziehungen neu zu uberdenken.

NOTE: AUTHORS WANT THE FOLLOWING LINE IN ALL CATALOG AND ADVERTISING COPY:

Based on extensive research on gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and heterosexuals, Dual Attraction provides the first major study of bisexuality.

Feminists have long differed in their view of prostitution. While some regard it as a classic form of exploitation and degradation, others offer a more sympathetic interpretation of women's involvement in the sex industry. In this important new book, Maggie O'Neill seeks to explore the theoretical debates on prostitution and the relevance of these to the everyday lived experiences of women working on the streets.

Based upon her own ethnographic research - defined as ethno-mimesis - the author seeks to undermine and demystify stereotypical images of prostitutes. She explores the narratives offered by prostitutes themselves, as well as other forms of their representation in film, art and photography, and shows how these various mediums may be used to shed light on the socio-economic processes and structures which lead women into prostitution. These personal accounts produce what O'Neill refers to as 'a politics of feeling', which, she argues, may be used to transform attitudes, policy and practice in relation to female prostitution. By relating these individual experiences to critical feminist theory, the book deepens our understanding of the phenomenon of prostitution in contemporary society.

The book will be of particular interest to students and scholars in gender studies, feminist theory and sociology.

Researchers and theorists who attempt to generalize about sexuality and sexual orientation in both men and women simultaneously often take male experiences as the norm and ignore unique aspects of women's lives. The purpose of this issue is to focus attention on scientific research and theory about aspects of women's sexualities, with special emphasis on sexual orientation. A new paradigm is presented that recognizes the great diversity of women's erotic experiences and the many sociocultural factors that shape women's sexuality and sexual orientation across the lifespan.

Is our sexuality determined primarily by our genes? Or is it shaped by the social norms and expectations we happen to be born into. This Very Short Introduction provides an accessible, thoughtful and thought-provoking introduction to major debates around sexuality in the modern world, highlighting the social and political aspects of sexuality. It critically explores different ways of defining and thinking about sexuality and shows that many of our assumptions about what is "natural" in the sexual domain have, in reality, varied greatly in different historical or cultural contexts. The volume also examines ways in which governments have tried to regulate citizens' sexualities in the past-through policies and laws concerning public health, HIV/Aids, prostitution, and sex education-paying special attention to the particular zeal with which women's sexuality has been policed. The volume concludes by discussing political activism around sexuality more widely, focusing on the ways in which feminists, lesbians and gay men, as well as religious fundamentalists have transformed our ways of thinking about sexuality in the past few decades.
About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.

"Common women" in medieval England were prostitutes, whose distinguishing feature was not that they took money for sex but that they belonged to all men in common. Common Women: Prostitution and Sexuality in Medieval England tells the stories of these women's lives: their entrance into the trade because of poor job and marriage prospects or because of seduction or rape; their experiences as street-walkers, brothel workers or the medieval equivalent of call girls; their customers, from poor apprentices to priests to wealthy foreign merchants; and their relations with those among whom they lived. Through a sensitive use of a wide variety of imaginative and didactic texts, Ruth Karras shows that while prostitutes as individuals were marginalized within medieval culture, prostitution as an institution was central to the medieval understanding of what it meant to be a woman. This important work will be of interest to scholars and students of history, women's studies, and the history of sexuality.

Masters and Johnson on Sex and Human Loving, written by the internationally acclaimed sex researchers William H. Masters, Virginia E. Johnson, and Robert C. Kolodny, is a comprehensive, warm, and highly readable survey that includes the most current findings on the remarkable range of complexities--biological, psychological, and social--that make up human sexuality.

What exactly is love? How many different kinds of love are there? Have the metaphors for love changed much over the centuries? What are the best classical love stories? Is love universal? In this fascinating and lovely little book, packed with rare and beautiful pictures, Jason Martineau takes us on a journey through the landscape of love, combining ideas from both ancient and modern sources to explore life's most prominent and provocative theme. WOODEN BOOKS are small but packed with information. "Fascinating" FINANCIAL TIMES. "Beautiful" LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS. "Rich and Artful" THE LANCET. "Genuinely mind-expanding" FORTEAN TIMES. "Excellent" NEW SCIENTIST. "Stunning" NEW YORK TIMES. Small books, big ideas.

Following the success of Pink Therapy (1996 Open University Press) as a practical guide for therapists, counsellors and others in related professions working with lesbian, gay and bisexual clients in affirmative ways, this volume is the first to address how this can be approached from ten of the major therapeutic perspectives. Each approach is discussed with regard to its historical and theoretical relationship to these client groups and how the approach can be beneficial or negative. Guidelines for using the perspective supportively or practically are given, along with references for further study. The volume marks an important step in the dialogue between theoretical approaches and in the future development of, and debate about, these increasingly important fields in contemporary therapy.

The author turns his attention to sex and the reasons why we are driven constantly to analyze and discuss it. An iconoclastic explanation of modern sexual history.

Whether straight or gay, most men start their relationships desiring monogamy. This is rooted in the pervasive notion that monogamy exists as a sign of true love. Yet despite this deeply held cultural ideal, cheating remains rampant. In this accessible book, Eric Anderson investigates why 78% of men he interviewed have cheated despite their desire not to. Combining 120 interviews with research from the fields of sociology, biology, and psychology, Anderson identifies cheating as a product of wanting emotional passion for one's partner, along with a steadily growing desire for emotionally detached recreational sex with others. Anderson coins the term "the monogamy gap" to describe this phenomenon, suggesting that monogamy is an irrational ideal because it fails to fulfil a lifetime of sexual desires. Cheating therefore becomes the rational response to an irrational situation. The Monogamy Gap draws on a range of concepts, theories, and disciplines to highlight the biological compulsion of our sexual urges, the social construction of the monogamous ideal, and the devastating chasm that lies between them. Whether single or married, monogamous or open, straight or gay, readers will find The Monogamy Gap to be an enlightening, intellectually compelling, and provocative book.

For decades, the field of gender, sex, and sexualities has been a focal point of increasing interest. This inquiry has been ignited by successive waves of dramatic social change, chief among them: the re-emergence of feminist movements in the U.S. and Europe in the late 1960s; the sustained (and increasingly successful) bids for legal, social, and religious acceptance of non-heterosexual sexualities in many parts of the world; and the burgeoning number of people (whether cisgendered, gender-variant, trans, or questioning) whose individual and collective experiences of gender and sexuality warrant deeper understanding and further progress toward a fuller realization of human potential and civil rights. In psychology, the intellectual project of understanding gender, sex, and sexualities encompasses a variety of subfields spanning neuroscience and developmental, cognitive, social, and cultural psychology, as well as critical theory. As such, these approaches have inspired new and different psychological questions, as well as increased interest in previously unfamiliar topics of investigation. Edited by Nancy K. Dess, Jeanne Marecek, and Leslie C. Bell, Gender, Sex, and Sexualities offers both students and scholars the tools they need to consider and approach such questions as: how do children come to embrace (or repudiate) gendered activities and identities; how do people experience intimacy, desire, and sexual arousal; and what strategies can psychologists use to de-center their own points of view and effectively contribute to a decolonial psychology? As a result, this volume will open new avenues of inquiry as well as cross-disciplinary conversations for readers everywhere.

Published by Sinauer Associates, an imprint of Oxford University Press. In this textbook, Simon LeVay and Janice Baldwin aim to help students understand the diversity of human sexual expression as well as the diversity of perspectives from which sexuality can be studied. Well known for its high-quality presentation of biological aspects of sexuality, Human Sexuality, Fourth Edition, devotes rich coverage to the insights gained from cognitive science, social psychology, sociology, feminism, and cross-cultural studies, along with both moral and political discourse on sexual themes. The fourth edition provides up-to-date coverage of all topics, ranging from gay marriage in New York to the latest developments in contraceptive technology and exciting findings on pre-exposure prophylaxis against HIV. Still the leader in terms of its biological coverage, the fourth edition also has expanded coverage of many other issues, ranging from sex-therapy exercises to learning theories of gender and paraphilias.

Mit diesem Jahrbuch informiert die gemeinnutzige Gesellschaft uber ihre Aufgaben und Ziele. Sie pflegt und foerdert mit ihren 310 Mitgliedern die Zusammenarbeit unter den im Grossraum Berlin tatigen Wissenschaftlern aller Disziplinen und Institutionen, bietet besonders dem Nachwuchs aller Facher ein Diskussionsforum, verleiht Preise fur ausgezeichnete Leistungen und greift in die hochschulpolitischen Auseinandersetzungen ein, um der Politik und der OEffentlichkeit eine bessere Meinungsbildung zu ermoeglichen. Im Verlauf des Jahres werden Vortrage aus unterschiedlichen Wissenschaftsbereichen angeboten.

Why do males and females frequently differ so markedly in body size and morphology?
Sex, Size, and Gender Roles is the first book to investigate the genetic, developmental, and physiological basis of sexual size dimorphism found within and among the major taxonomic groups of animals. Carefully edited by a team of world-renowned specialists in the field to ensure a coherence of style and approach between chapters, it presents a compendium of studies into the evolution, adaptive significance, and developmental basis of gender differences in body size and morphology. Adaptive hypotheses allude to gender-specific reproductive roles and associated differences in trophic ecologies, life history strategies, and sexual selection. This "adaptationist" approach is balanced by more mechanistic studies of the genetic, developmental and physiological basis of sexual size dimorphism to provide a comprehensive and authoritative overview of the subject. Throughout the volume the emphasis is on sexual dimorphism in overall size; however, the scope of enquiry encompasses gender differences in body shape, the size and structure of secondary sexual characteristics, patterns of growth (ontogeny), and patterns of gene regulation.
This advanced, research level text is suitable for graduate level students and researchers in the fields of evolutionary biology, behavioral ecology, physiology, developmental biology, and genetics. It will also be of relevance and use to non-biologists from fields such as anthropology and gender studies.
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Brenda Almond throws down a timely challenge to liberal consensus about personal relationships. She maintains that the traditional family is fragmenting in Western societies, and that this fragmentation is a cause of serious social problems. She urges that we reconsider our attitudes to sex and reproduction in order to strengthen our most important social institution, the family, which is the key to ensuring healthy relationships between parents and children and a secure upbringing for the citizens of the future.
Anyone who is concerned about how the framework of society is changing, anyone who has to face difficult personal decisions about parenthood or family relationships, will find this book compelling. It may disturb deep convictions, or offer an unwelcome message; but it is compassionate as well as controversial.

Some love affairs mark our lives forever. Whether we call them "la grande passion, " tragic romance, or "l'amour fou, " they remain indelible because they are impossible. Why do we fall in love at the wrong time, in the wrong place, and with the wrong person? Why do we put up with the anxiety, the pain, the shame, and the longing never fulfilled?

This brilliant book explores the nature of these "marvelous disasters" and finds a deeper necessity in the betrayals, taboos, and excesses of impossible love. Using perhaps the greatest of all tragic romances-the passion between Heloise and Abelard-as a psychological scaffold, Jan Bauer examines the erotic structures of irresistible attraction with love stories from the lives of men and women today. This is an exceptional study of love's chaotic mystery.

Jan Bauer, author of "Women and Alcoholism, " is a Jungian analyst in private practice in Montreal. She holds degrees from Zurich, Boston, and Paris and has taught in Tunisia as well as the University of Montreal. She has served as chair of Admissions as well as Training Director for the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts. Bauer is currently President of the Association of Jungian Psychoanalysts of Quebec.

Sex is cheap. Coupled sexual activity has become more widely available than ever. Cheap sex has been made possible by two technologies that have little to do with each other-the wide uptake of the Pill and high-quality pornography-and its distribution made more efficient by a third, the uptake of online dating. Together, they drive down the cost of real sex, have created a massive slow-down in the development of significant relationships, put women's fertility at risk, and have even taken a toll on men's marriageability. What the West has witnessed of late is not the social construction of sexuality or marriage or family forms toward different possibilities as a product of political will, but technology-driven social change. This revolution in sexual autonomy also ushered in an era of plastic sexuality and prompted the flourishing on non-heterosexual identities. This book takes readers on a tour inside the American mating market, and highlights key patterns that characterize young adults' experience today, including the early timing of first sex in relationships, overlapping partners, the hazards of online dating, frustrating returns on their relational investments, and a failure to link future goals like marriage with how they are conducting their current relationships. Drawing upon several large nationally-representative surveys, in-person interviews with 100 men and women, and the assertions of scholars ranging from evolutionary psychologists to gender theorists, what emerges is a story about social change, technological breakthroughs, and the unintended consequences of women's economic success. Sex and its satisfactions are becoming increasingly important in contemporary life. No longer playing a supporting role in enduring relationships, sex has emerged as a central priority in relationship development and continuation. But unravel the layers, and it is obvious that the emergence of "industrial sex" is far more a reflection of men's interests than women's.