Download or read book The Pleasure Gap written by Katherine Rowland and published by Seal Press. This book was released on 2020-02-04 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American culture is more sexually liberal than ever. But compared to men, women's sexual pleasure has not grown: Up to 40 percent of American women experience the sexual malaise clinically known as low sexual desire. Between this low desire, muted pleasure, and experiencing sex in terms of labor rather than of lust, women by the millions are dissatisfied with their erotic lives. For too long, this deficit has been explained in terms of women's biology, stress, and age. In The Pleasure Gap, Katherine Rowland rejects the idea that women should settle for diminished pleasure; instead, she argues women should take inequality in the bedroom as seriously as we take it in the workplace and understand its causes and effects. Drawing on extensive research and interviews with more than one hundred women and dozens of sexual health professionals, Rowland shows that the pleasure gap is neither medical malady nor psychological condition but rather a result of our culture's troubled relationship with women's sexual expression. This provocative exploration of modern sexuality makes a case for closing the gap for good.

Download or read book Women of the Pleasure Quarters written by Lesley Downer and published by Crown. This book was released on 2002-01-08 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From critically acclaimed author and Japanese scholar Lesley Downer, an enchanting portrait of the mysterious world of the geisha. Ever since Westerners arrived in Japan, they have been intrigued by Japanese womanhood and, above all, by geisha. This fascination has spawned a wealth of extraordinary fictional creations, from Puccini's Madama Butterfly to Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha. The reality of the geisha's existence, though, whether today or in history, has rarely been addressed. Contrary to popular opinion, geisha are not prostitutes but, literally, "arts people." Their accomplishments include singing, dancing, playing a musical instruments; but above all, they are masters of the art of conversation, soothing the worries and stroking the egos of the wealthy businessmen who can afford their attentions. It is this which imbues the geisha with such power—and which makes absolute secrecy such a crucial aspect of their work. As denizens of a world defined by silence and mystery, geisha are notoriously difficult to meet and even to find. Lesley Downer, an award- winning writer, Japanese scholar, and consummate storyteller, gained more access into this world than almost any other Westerner ever has and spent several months living among them. In Women of the Pleasure Quarters, she weaves together intimate portraits of modern geisha with the romantic legends and colorful historical tales of geisha of the past. From Sadda Yakko, who dined with American presidents and had her portrait painted by Picasso, to Koito, a modern-day geisha who maintains her own website, geisha throughout history step out of the pages of Women of the Pleasure Quarters to become living, breathing creatures. Looking into such traditions as mizuage, the ritual deflowering which was once a rite of passage for all geisha, and providing colorful depictions of the geisha's dress, training, and homes, Downer, with grace, elegance, and respect, transforms their reality in a captivating narrative that both informs and entertains. At once a symbol of a bygone age and an institution more quintessentially Japanese than any other, geisha are a society at a crossroads, struggling to reinvent their place in the new millennium while honoring the traditions of the past. Both instructive and evocative, Women of the Pleasure Quarters is an enthralling portrait of a world unlike any other.

Download or read book Geisha written by Lesley Downer and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ever since Westerners arrived in Japan, we have been intrigued by geisha. This fascination has spawned a wealth of fictional creations from Madame Butterfly to Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha. The reality of the geisha's existence has rarely been described. Contrary to popular opinion, geisha are not prostitutes but literally arts people. Their accomplishments might include singing, dancing or playing a musical instrument but, above all, they are masters of the art of conversation, soothing worries of highly paid businessmen who can afford their attentions. The real secret history of the geisha is explored here.

Download or read book More Orgasms Please written by The Hotbed Collective and published by Random House. This book was released on 2019-07-04 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A FRANK, FUNNY AND EMPOWERING CELEBRATION OF FEMALE PLEASURE An orgasm will help you sleep and keep you looking younger, it doesn’t cost money and isn’t a scarce resource. So why is it that, like the pay gap, there is an ‘orgasm gap’ between women and men? The Hotbed Collective began life as a podcast with a mission ‘to make life better one orgasm at a time’. Their debut book, More Orgasms Please is an open, honest and at moments hilarious dive into all aspects of sex for women. It covers feminist porn, body image, menopause and much more. Like the podcast that inspired it, More Orgasms Please is like the best sort of chat between friends: punchy and playful, normalising and educating. It is an eye-opening read that puts women’s bodies and our right to pleasure firmly on the map. Think of it as ‘Couch to 5k’ ... for orgasms.

Download or read book Girls Sex written by Peggy Orenstein and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2017-03-07 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A generation gap has emerged between parents and their girls. The mothers and fathers of tomorrow’s women have little idea what their daughters are up to sexually or how they feel about it. Drawing on in-depth interviews with more than seventy young women and a wide range of psychologists, academics, and experts, renowned journalist Peggy Orenstein goes where most others fear to tread, pulling back the curtain on the hidden truths, hard lessons, and important possibilities of girls’ sex lives in the modern world.

Download or read book Shopping for Pleasure written by Erika Rappaport and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-06-08 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Shopping for Pleasure, Erika Rappaport reconstructs London's Victorian and Edwardian West End as an entertainment and retail center. In this neighborhood of stately homes, royal palaces, and spacious parks and squares, a dramatic transformation unfolded that ultimately changed the meaning of femininity and the lives of women, shaping their experience of modernity. Rappaport illuminates the various forces of the period that encouraged and discouraged women's enjoyment of public life and particularly shows how shopping came to be seen as the quintessential leisure activity for middle- and upper-class women. Through extensive histories of department stores, women's magazines, clubs, teashops, restaurants, and the theater as interwoven sites of consumption, Shopping for Pleasure uncovers how a new female urban culture emerged before and after the turn of the twentieth century. Moving beyond the question of whether shopping promoted or limited women's freedom, the author draws on diverse sources to explore how business practices, legal decisions, and cultural changes affected women in the market. In particular, she focuses on how and why stores presented themselves as pleasurable, secure places for the urban woman, in some cases defining themselves as instrumental to civic improvement and women's emancipation. Rappaport also considers such influences as merchandizing strategies, credit policies, changes in public transportation, feminism, and the financial balance of power within the home. Shopping for Pleasure is thus both a social and cultural history of the West End, but on a broader scale it reveals the essential interplay between the rise of consumer society, the birth of modern femininity, and the making of contemporary London.

Download or read book How To Give Her Absolute Pleasure written by Lou Paget and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2016-08-25 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ever felt confused about female sensuality? Puzzled as to what women really want? Now there is no need for guesswork. Packed full of tips and tricks How to Give Her Absolute Pleasure is sure to produce mind-blowing sex for both you and your partner. Written by one of America's most popular sexperts' Lou Paget, How to Give Her Absolute Pleasure will guide you all the way from foreplay to orgasm. Drawing on the experiences of real clients, Paget explains the best toys, lubricants and positions so you can start enjoying safe, breath-taking sex today.

Download or read book Futbolera written by Brenda Elsey and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2019-05-21 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Latin American athletes have achieved iconic status in global popular culture, but what do we know about the communities of women in sport? Futbolera is the first monograph on women’s sports in Latin America. Because sports evoke such passion, they are fertile ground for understanding the formation of social classes, national and racial identities, sexuality, and gender roles. Futbolera tells the stories of women athletes and fans as they navigated the pressures and possibilities within organized sports. Futbolera charts the rise of physical education programs for girls, often driven by ideas of eugenics and proper motherhood, that laid the groundwork for women’s sports clubs, which began to thrive beyond the confines of school systems. Futbolera examines how women challenged both their exclusion from national pastimes and their lack of access to leisure, bodily integrity, and public space. This vibrant history also examines women’s sports through comparative case studies of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico, and others. Special attention is given to women’s sports during military dictatorships of the 1970s and 80s as well as the feminist and democratic movements that followed. The book culminates by exploring recent shifts in mindset towards women’s football and dynamic social movements of players across Latin America.

Download or read book The Pleasure s All Mine written by Julie Peakman and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2013-10-15 with total page 473 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Handcuffs, paddles, whips—the words alone are enough to make a person blush. Even by our society’s standards, the practice of things like BDSM is still very hush-hush, considered deviant sexual behavior that must be kept hidden. But the narrow view of what is thought of as “normal” sex—a vanilla act performed by one man and one woman—is more and more contested these days. And as Julie Peakman reveals, normal never really existed; for everyone, different kinds of sex have always offered myriad pleasures, and almost all sexual behaviors have traveled between acceptance and proscription. The Pleasure’s All Mine examines two millennia of letters, diaries, court records, erotic books, medical texts, and more to explore the gamut of “deviant” sexual activity. Delving into the specialized cultures of pain, necrophilia, and bestiality and the social world of plushies, furries, and life-size sex dolls, Peakman considers the changing attitudes toward these, as well as masturbation, “golden showers,” sadomasochism, homosexuals, transvestites, and transsexuals. She follows the history of each behavior through its original reception to its interpretation by sexologists and how it is viewed today, showing how previously acceptable behaviors now provoke social outrage, or vice versa. In addition, she questions why people have been and remain intolerant of other people’s sexual preferences. The first comprehensive history of sexual perversion and packed with both color and black and white images, The Pleasure’s All Mine is a fascinating and sometimes shocking look at the evolution of our views on sex.

Download or read book This Is Pleasure written by Mary Gaitskill and published by Pantheon. This book was released on 2019-11-05 with total page 97 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Starting with Bad Behavior in the 1980s, Mary Gaitskill has been writing about gender relations with searing, even prophetic honesty. In This Is Pleasure, she considers our present moment through the lens of a particular #MeToo incident. The effervescent, well-dressed Quin, a successful book editor and fixture on the New York arts scene, has been accused of repeated unforgivable transgressions toward women in his orbit. But are they unforgivable? And who has the right to forgive him? To Quin’s friend Margot, the wrongdoing is less clear. Alternating Quin’s and Margot’s voices and perspectives, Gaitskill creates a nuanced tragicomedy, one that reveals her characters as whole persons—hurtful and hurting, infuriating and touching, and always deeply recognizable. Gaitskill has said that fiction is the only way that she could approach this subject because it is too emotionally faceted to treat in the more rational essay form. Her compliment to her characters—and to her readers—is that they are unvarnished and real. Her belief in our ability to understand them, even when we don’t always admire them, is a gesture of humanity from one of our greatest contemporary writers.

Download or read book The Pleasure Plan written by Laura Zam and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2020-05-05 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Fifty percent of adult women have some form of sexual dysfunction at some point of their lives, preventing them from enjoying soul-satisfying sex. Such was the case with Laura Zam, who suffered the blame, shame, and embarrassment of being a terrible lover. For her, sex meant physical pain, zero desire, and emotional scars from being molested in her early years. However, in her late forties, after meeting and marrying the love of her life, Zam was determined to finally fix her sensual self. The Pleasure Plan is what happened when she decided to challenge her hopelessness. In partnership with her initially reluctant husband, she visited a variety of healers and tried an array of pleasure-enhancing methods: from dilators and dildos, to hypnosis and hosting a sex brunch, to cleansing chakras, to making love to her husband in front of a geriatric Tantric goddess. Packed with humor, heart, and a healthy dose of prescriptive advice, this book chronicles Zam's insight as she confronts many issues-from mismatched libidos to female erection enlightenment. Throughout this journey, she and her husband grow as individuals and as a couple, both in and out of the bedroom"--

Download or read book Choose Your Own Disaster written by Dana Schwartz and published by Grand Central Publishing. This book was released on 2018-06-19 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A"hilarious and heartbreaking" (Jo Piazza) and unflinchingly honest memoir about one young woman's terrible and life-changing decisions while hoping--and sometimes failing--to find herself, in the style of Never Have I Ever and Adulting. Join Dana Schwartz on a journey revisiting all of the awful choices she made in her early twenties through the internet's favorite method of self-knowledge: the quiz. Part-memoir, part-VERY long personality test, Choose Your Own Disaster is a manifesto about the millennial experience and modern feminism and how the easy advice of "you can be anything you want!" is actually pretty fucking difficult when there are so many possible versions of yourself it seems like you could be. Dana has no idea who she is, but at least she knows she's a Carrie, a Ravenclaw, a Raphael, a Belle, a former emo kid, a Twitter addict, and a millennial just trying her best. This long-form personality quiz manages to combine humor with unflinching honesty as one young woman tries to find herself amid the many, many choices that your twenties have to offer.

Download or read book Girl Boner written by August McLaughlin and published by Amberjack Publishing. This book was released on 2018-08-07 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a culture where female empowerment is used to sell everything from sex toys to soap, most sex education continues to bypass pleasure. The results are stark; we've grown accustomed to slut- and prude-shaming and allowed others to dictate how a "good girl" is meant to feel, act, and look. In Girl Boner: The Good Girl's Guide to Sexual Empowerment, August McLaughlin offers an inclusive, unfiltered blend of personal narrative and practical tips on relationships, solo play, journaling, gender issues, and more. From the perks of "Jilling off" to the 7 types of 'gasms, Girl Boner will "empower you to own your sexual self and enjoy ... your whole life a great deal more."

Download or read book Enjoy written by Joyce J. Penner and published by Focus on the Family. This book was released on 2017-01-01 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do you want a stronger, more exciting sex life with your husband? As a married woman, you have the power to increase sexual fulfillment for you and your husband--if you aren't stymied by false assumptions about a wife's role in sex. In Enjoy: The Gift of Sexual Pleasure for Women, Dr. Clifford and Joyce Penner dispel assumptions that can keep women from accepting and expressing their God-given sexuality in marriage. After more than forty years as sex therapists and educators, the Penners have learned what helps couples build lasting, mutually enjoyable sex in marriage. Their knowledge is culled from the stories of thousands of individuals and couples who sought help with frustrations and have found relief and mutual fulfillment. In this book they share step-by-step, practical ways for wives to move from duty and disappointment to pleasure and fulfillment. Learn how the woman's biblical role for sex in marriage is to pursue all of who she is sexually and share her sexuality with her husband, which will, in turn, increase his satisfaction. Be empowered as a woman to embrace your sexuality and find deeper enjoyment with your husband. This title is a companion to The Married Guy's Guide to Great Sex, also by the Penners.

Download or read book The Pleasure Zone written by Stella Resnick and published by Conari Press. This book was released on 1998-12-01 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discusses the eight core pleasures--primal pleasure, pain relief, the pleasures of play and humor, and mental, emotional, sensual, sexual, and spiritual pleasure--and how they can enrich one's life

Download or read book The Secret Lives of Girls written by Sharon Lamb and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2002-03 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From playground games of " chase and kiss" to rough-and-tumble soccer games, from slumber party stripteases to romantic fantasies behind closed doors, author Sharon Lamb coaxes out girls' true stories with uncommon sensitivity and focus. The result of more than 125 fascinating interviews with pre-teens, teenagers, and adult women, The Secret Lives of Girls reveals the ways that girls use their minds and bodies for private sexual play, mischief, and hidden aggression. To truly understand what little girls are made of, Lamb suggests, we must listen not only to what they say to us but also to what they don't say, taking into account their hidden selves and the lives that we adults don't see. Yes, girls are known to be " good, " but they manage to act out in decidedly ungirlish ways and, despite many parents' fears, be the better for it. What's most remarkable about Lamb's conclusions is that we needn't join the chorus of voices deploring a " girl-poisoning" culture for damaging our daughters. Instead, Lamb finds reason to celebrate girls' resilience in the face of pressures to conform -- and she does it by l

Download or read book All We Know of Pleasure written by Enid Shomer and published by Blair. This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A groundbreaking anthology of well-known female poets that broadens traditional notions of erotic poetry.