Book details

Why Women Have Sex

Understanding Sexual Motivations from Adventure to Revenge (and Everything in Between)

Author: Cindy M. Meston and David M. Buss

Why Women Have Sex

Why Women Have Sex

$11.99

About This Book

An unparalleled exploration of the mysteries underlying women's sexuality that rivals the culture-shifting Kinsey Report, from two of America's leading research psychologists

Page Count
336
Genre
On Sale
09/29/2009

Book Details

An unparalleled exploration of the mysteries underlying women's sexuality that rivals the culture-shifting Kinsey Report, from two of America's leading research psychologists

Do women have sex simply to reproduce or display their affection? When University of Texas at Austin clinical psychologist Cindy M. Meston and evolutionary psychologist David M. Buss joined forces to investigate the underlying sexual motivations of women, what they found astonished them.

Through the voices of real women, Meston and Buss reveal the motivations that guide women's sexual decisions and explain the deep-seated psychology and biology that often unwittingly drive women's desires—sometimes in pursuit of health or pleasure, or sometimes for darker, disturbing reasons that a woman may not fully recognize. Drawing on more than a thousand intensive interviews conducted solely for the book, as well as their pioneering research on physiological response and evolutionary emotions, Why Women Have Sex uncovers an amazingly complex and nuanced portrait of female sexuality. They delve into the use of sex as a defensive tactic against a mate's infidelity (protection), as a ploy to boost self-confidence (status), as a barter for gifts or household chores (resource acquisition), or as a cure for a migraine headache (medication).

Why Women Have Sex stands as the richest and deepest psychological understanding of female sexuality yet achieved and promises to inform every woman's (and her partner's) awareness of her relationship to sex and her sexuality.

Imprint Publisher

Times Books

ISBN

9781429955225

In The News

“Occasionally poetic, always candid. The book is filled with insights with which to start conversations.” —Psychology Today

“Why Women Have Sex is an endlessly well informed and irresistibly readable book. The candor of the women's responses and the authors' knowledge of all that has been happening in the world of sex research for the past few decades combine to make it the most fascinating and illuminating look at female sexuality since Kinsey's Sexual Behavior in the Human Female.” —Mary Roach, author of Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex

“What an excellent book! You will come away from reading Why Women Have Sex with a better understanding of what turns women on or off, the physiology underlying desire and arousal, the likely consequences when sex is undertaken to thwart or titillate a partner, and the complexity of sexual desire. There is not much more one can ask for--to be at once enlightened and entertained by two trustworthy and sympathetic experts.” —Sandra R. Leiblum Ph.D., author of Getting the Sex You Want

“Why Women Have Sex is full of fascinating research that will help everyone better understand and appreciate their sexual selves.” —Christiane Northrup, M.D., author of The Secret Pleasures of Menopause and The Wisdom of Menopause

“Why Women Have Sex is a captivating tour of what psychology and biology can tell us about women's sexual motivation. Meston and Buss are first-rate scientists and skilled writers who actually answer the question that everyone was afraid to ask.” —Daniel Gilbert, professor of psychology, Harvard University, and author of Stumbling on Happiness

About the Creators

Why Women Have Sex

Why Women Have Sex

$11.99