What Do Women Want?: Adventures in the Science of Female Desire

by Daniel Bergner Narrated by Charles Pasternak

Overview

When it comes to sex, common wisdom holds that men roam while women crave closeness and commitment. But in this provocative, headline-making book, Daniel Bergner turns everything we thought we knew about women's arousal and desire inside out. Drawing on extensive research and interviews with renowned behavioral scientists, sexologists, psychologists, and everyday women, he forces us to reconsider long-held notions about female sexuality.

This bold and captivating journey into the world of female desire explores answers to such thought-provoking questions as: Are women perhaps the less monogamous sex? What effect do intimacy and emotional connection really have on lust? What is the role of narcissism-the desire to be desired-in female sexuality? Are political gains for women ("No means no") detrimental in the bedroom? And is the hunt for a "female Viagra" anything but a search for the cure for monogamy?

Bergner goes behind the scenes of some of the most groundbreaking experiments on sexuality today and confronts us with controversial, sometimes uncomfortable findings. Incendiary, profoundly insightful, and brilliantly illuminating, What Do Women Want? will change the conversation about women and sex, and is sure to spark dynamic discussion for years to come.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Suspicious of evolution-based assumptions about female desire—such as the views that women prefer monogamy and that women find emotional connections key to physical satisfaction—Bergner (The Other Side of Desire) looks to past and current scientific and social research, as well as interviews with everyday women, to uncover the truth behind female sexuality. In accessible and informative prose, the author addresses topics as wide-ranging as scientific studies of female rats and monkeys, the implications of biological differences between the sexes (does the fact that women have a limited quantity of reproductive material—as opposed to men’s regenerative supply of sperm—offer insight into the discrepancies between the male and female libidos?), the role of narcissism in desire, the effects of orgasm on the brain, and what happens when women—not men—are the ones to switch seats during a speed-dating session. Bergner isn’t afraid to take on the most taboo of subjects (such as rape fantasies), but he does so through a critical lens that seeks to reveal the why behind the phenomenon under investigation. This page-turning book will have readers questioning some of their most ingrained beliefs about women, men, society, and sex. Agent: Suzanne Gluck, William Morris Endeavor. (June)

From the Publisher

This book should be read by every woman on earth... a must-read for anyone with even a remote erotic interest in the female gender.”—Salon.com — Salon.com

“...Shatters many of our most cherished myths about desire.”—The Atlantic — The Atlantic

“Daniel Bergner has written a keenly intelligent book about a subject that often exceeds our intelligence: What Do Women Want?” — Gay Talese

Totally engrossing.”—New York magazine — New York magazine

“Fascinating.... Threatens to disrupt all the modern stereotypes of female sexuality.”—Slate — Slate

“At last, we have a new perspective on the wilds of female desire, in rousing tableaux, as women, men, sexologists, bonobos, erotic gurus, and many others provide frank, vivid answers to the question that has haunted [us] for far too long: What do women want? The answer will fascinate all.” — Diane Ackerman, author of A Natural History of Love

“Accessible and informative prose . . . this page-turning book will have readers questioning some of their most ingrained beliefs about women, men, society, and sex.” — Publishers Weekly

“It’s everything you wanted to know about sex but didn’t know to ask. Daniel Bergner upends long-standing myths about women and sex—everything from nature of attraction and pursuit to prevalence of taboo fantasies to monogamy itself.” — New York Post

“What Do Women Want? adds both steam and explosives into the national conversation-or preoccupation-with what it means to be a woman today.” — Vogue

“Bergner lays out the history of this brainwashing and then debunks it in his entertaining new book, What do Women Want?. He recaps ingenious studies that have plumbed our desires, including those we deny or hide from ourselves.” — Elle

New York magazine

Totally engrossing.”—New York magazine

Gay Talese

Daniel Bergner has written a keenly intelligent book about a subject that often exceeds our intelligence: What Do Women Want?

Vogue

What Do Women Want? adds both steam and explosives into the national conversation-or preoccupation-with what it means to be a woman today.

Diane Ackerman

At last, we have a new perspective on the wilds of female desire, in rousing tableaux, as women, men, sexologists, bonobos, erotic gurus, and many others provide frank, vivid answers to the question that has haunted [us] for far too long: What do women want? The answer will fascinate all.

New York Post

It’s everything you wanted to know about sex but didn’t know to ask. Daniel Bergner upends long-standing myths about women and sex—everything from nature of attraction and pursuit to prevalence of taboo fantasies to monogamy itself.

Slate

Fascinating.... Threatens to disrupt all the modern stereotypes of female sexuality.”—Slate

Elle

Bergner lays out the history of this brainwashing and then debunks it in his entertaining new book, What do Women Want?. He recaps ingenious studies that have plumbed our desires, including those we deny or hide from ourselves.

The Atlantic

...Shatters many of our most cherished myths about desire.”—The Atlantic

Salon.com

This book should be read by every woman on earth... a must-read for anyone with even a remote erotic interest in the female gender.”—Salon.com

New York Post

It’s everything you wanted to know about sex but didn’t know to ask. Daniel Bergner upends long-standing myths about women and sex—everything from nature of attraction and pursuit to prevalence of taboo fantasies to monogamy itself.

Slate

Fascinating.... Threatens to disrupt all the modern stereotypes of female sexuality.”—Slate

Atlantic Review

...Shatters many of our most cherished myths about desire.”—The Atlantic

Kirkus Reviews

Accessible, engaging inquiry into the boundaries of the female libido by New York Times Magazine contributor Bergner (The Other Side of Desire, 2009, etc.). The author's multifaceted exploration travels across varied terrain, ranging from the varieties of female orgasms and the effect of monogamy on lust to the development of a female desire drug. Bergner combines into a cogent whole vast amounts of information on female sexuality gleaned from interviews, academic papers, scores of books and data gathered from conversations with researchers. He begins with Meredith Chivers, whom Bergner describes as a bold sexologist and a careful statistician whose always-scrupulous work explores women's primal and essential selves. One of the author's provocative conclusions, arrived at after years spent talking with Chivers and her subjects, explodes one of society's ingrained concepts: "Women are supposed to be the standard's more natural allies, caretakers, defenders, their sexual beings more suited biologically, to faithfulness. We hold tight to the fairy tale." Bergner devotes a chapter to the varied ways female sexuality has been perceived since classical times, then probes societal and cultural mores that have pegged women as the less lustful gender. Using scientific studies as a scaffolding, he translates data from studies performed on monkeys and rats, explaining how its interpretation over the years has negated information regarding female sexuality. "What science had managed to miss in the monkeys--what it had effectively erased--was female desire," he writes. In another example of his adroit translation of technical material into entertaining and erudite reading for curious readers, the author distills a highly entertaining chapter on speed dating from a 2009 article titled, "Arbitrary social norms influence sex differences in romantic selectivity." Stylishly written and cogently organized, making it easy and rewarding for lay readers to understand and appreciate some fairly complex science.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170411740
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	06/12/2013
Edition description:	Unabridged

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