Two high school seniors believe their love to be so strong that it will last forever.

Mating in Captivity examines the tension between emotional security, domestic life, and erotic desire in long-term relationships. Drawing on Esther Perel's clinical experience as a psychotherapist, the book explores why sexual desire may diminish even in loving relationships and discusses ways couples can maintain intimacy, passion, curiosity, and erotic connection. The twentieth-anniversary edition includes a new preface in which Perel reflects on the origins of the book and cultural changes since its original publication.

You're no dummy when it comes to sex, right? And yet there are sexual partners who don't know how to please themselves or each other, thousands of sexually transmitted diseases spread, and a million unwanted prognancies each year in the U.S. That's why for more than 20 years, Dr. Ruth K. Westhiemer has traveled the world bringing her message of sexual literacy to millions of people who need informaiton on love, relationships, and sex, but have been too afraid to ask. Now, For Dummies has partnered with world-famous sex maven, Dr. Ruth, to bring you this down-to-earth, educational, and informative guide to sex in the '90s. Starting with the basics, Dr. Rugh covers it all, from procreation to puberty to courtship and commitment. She gives you no-nonsense tips, advice, techniques, and suggestion for how to find the right partner, how to keep the romance alive, how to enjoy sex well into the golden years, and how to explore your own sexuality. With helpful case studies and icons, Dr. Ruth cuts thorough all the jargon and medical terminology to provide you with clear and concise information in a fun and easy-to-read format. Inside, you'll discover how to: Talk to kids and teenagers about safer sex Keep the romantic fires burning with gifts, getaways, and more Explore family planning options Discuss the topic of HIV and AIDS with your partner Make foreplay and afterplay a normal part of your lovemaking Avoid catching a sexually transmitted disease Address male and female "problems" like impotency and infertility Maintain an active sex life in the face of medical or physical disabilities Explore sex on-line: fun for you, safety for your kids

Author of the New York Times bestseller Useful Idiots and popular columnist Mona Charen takes a close, reasoned look at the aggressive feminist agenda undermining the success and happiness of men and women across the country In this smart, deeply necessary critique, Mona Charen unpacks the ways feminism fails us at home, in the workplace, and in our personal relationships--by promising that we can have it all, do it all, and be it all. Here, she upends the feminist agenda and the liberal conversation surrounding women's issues by asking tough and crucial questions, such as: Did women's full equality require the total destruction of the nuclear family? Did it require a sexual revolution that would dismantle traditions of modesty, courtship, and fidelity that had characterized relations between the sexes for centuries? Did it cause the broken dating culture and the rape crisis on our college campuses? Did it require war between the sexes that would deem men the "enemy" of women? Have the strides of feminism made women happier in their home and work life. (The answer is No.) Sex Matters tracks the price we have paid for denying sex differences and stoking the war of the sexes--family breakdown, declining female happiness, aimlessness among men, and increasing inequality. Marshaling copious social science research as well as her own experience as a professional as well as a wife and mother, Mona Charen calls for a sexual ceasefire for the sake of women, men, and children.

A strange and surprising journey around the world to examine how and why people cheat on their spouses. From Memphis to Moscow, people cheat on their spouses with astonishing frequency--but even illicit love has rules, and these rules differ radically from country to country. Acclaimed journalist Druckerman decided to investigate extramarital affairs all around the world to discover how different cultures deal with adultery--and her research leads her to believe that both the concept and the consequences of infidelity are far less rigid outside the United States. Americans, she decides, are the least adept at having affairs, have the most trouble enjoying them, and, in the end, suffer the most as a result of them. The rules of fidelity aren't as strict in many other parts of the world because many cultures acknowledge that adultery is an expected, if not acceptable, part of the marriage contract.--From publisher description. --

A guide to sexual behavior for the twenty-first century argues that modern sexuality must strike a balance between love and desire, and between adventure and commitment, and discusses such topics as rejection, pornography, and adultery.

In Kosher Sex, his celebrated international blockbuster, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach pioneers a revolutionary approach to sex, marriage, erotic attraction, and personal relationships, drawing on traditional Jewish wisdom. Using his experiences counseling individuals and couples, the author breaks down sexual taboos and openly, yet respectfully, discusses the meanings, emotions, and hidden power of sex. With his unique anecdotal style, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach illustrates each and every point, using real couples who have discovered the joys of "Kosher Sex"- sex that blends passion and intimacy. He profiles the two most common types of couples - best friends and passionate lovers- and suggests revolutionary ways of synthesizing the best that each type has to offer. At a time when half of all marriages fail and one third are sexless and platonic, Kosher Sex will have an astonishing and electrifying impact.

"From Teen Vogue sex and love columnist Nona Willis Aronowitz, a blend of memoir, social history, and cultural criticism that probes the true meaning of desire and sexual freedom in today's age. At thirty-two years old, everything in Nona's life, and in America, was in extreme disarray. Her marriage was falling apart. Her nuclear family was slipping away. Her heart and libido were suffering from overexposure. Embroiled in an era of fear, reckoning, and reimagining, her assumptions of what "sexual liberation" meant were suddenly up for debate. It was in that moment of personal and political sea change that Nona turned to the words of history's sexual revolutionaries-including the writing of her late mother, early radical pro-sex feminist Ellen Willis. At a time when sex has never been more accepted and feminism has never been more mainstream, Nona asked herself: What, exactly, do I want? And are my sexual and romantic desires even possible amid the horrors and bribes of patriarchy, capitalism, and white supremacy? Bad Sex places Nona's intimate history alongside her family history and other stories stretching back nearly two hundred years: those of ambivalent wives and unchill sluts, Free Lovers and radical lesbians, sensitive men and woke misogynists, women who risk everything for sex, who buy sex, reject sex, have bad sex and good sex. The result is a brave, bold, and vulnerable exploration of the enduring barriers to sexual freedom. This book lays bare the triumphs and flaws of contemporary feminism and also helps shine a light on universal questions of desire"--

"A fiercely argued, keenly insightful, hilarious investigation of the impact of COVID-19 on sexual and romantic relationships, in which the author situates her own and others' coupled lockdown experiences against larger backdrop: the politics of the virus, economic disparities, changing gender relations, the ongoing institutional crack-ups prompted by #MeToo and #BLM"--

Using Lady Gaga as a symbol for a new kind of feminism, this “provocative and pleasurable romp through contemporary gender politics . . . is as fun as it is illuminating” (Ariel Levy, New Yorker ) Why are so many women single, so many men resisting marriage, and so many gays and lesbians having babies? Gaga Feminism answers these questions while attempting to make sense of the tectonic cultural shifts that have transformed gender and sexual politics in the last few decades. This colorful landscape is populated by symbols and phenomena as varied as pregnant men, late-life lesbians, SpongeBob SquarePants, and queer families. So how do we understand the dissonance between these real experiences and the heteronormative narratives that dominate popular media? We can embrace the chaos! With equal parts edge and wit, J. Jack Halberstam reveals how these symbolic ruptures open a critical space to embrace new ways of conceptualizing sex, love, and marriage. Using Lady Gaga as a symbol for a new era, Halberstam deftly unpacks what the pop superstar symbolizes, to whom and why. The result is a provocative manifesto of creative mayhem—a roadmap to sex and gender for the twenty-first century—that holds Lady Gaga as an exemplar of a new kind of feminism that privileges gender and sexual fluidity. Part handbook, part guidebook, and part sex manual, Gaga Feminism is the first book to take seriously the collapse of heterosexuality and find signposts in the wreckage to a new and different way of doing sex and gender.

Legendary porn star Nina Hartley's guide to thrilling, liberating, mind-blowing, soul-fulfilling, and intimacy-building sex! Witty, smart, and frankly provocative, Nina Hartley knows sex. As a sex performer, sexual adventurer, and sex educator, she's done the fieldwork and has taken extensive notes. Now, she's ready to share her research. Let's just say that she's had all the sex-the good, the bad, and the indifferent-so you won't necessarily have to! Nina Hartley's Guide to Total Sex is for sexual pioneers and enthusiastic novices. Unabashedly erotic, the book covers a lot of territory, allowing readers to sample the whole smorgasbord or just nibble at what they see as the choicest bits. To start things off, Nina includes explicitly detailed chapters on foreplay, oral sex, masturbation, toys, and games. Sexual adventurers (and voyeurs) will find chapters on swinging, three-ways, anal sex, erotic domination, sensual submission, and much more. Nina is a strong advocate of safe sex, physically and emotionally, and she helps readers establish personal ground rules. But as a sexual liberationist and a feminist, her core belief is that, between consenting adults, all sexual behaviors are a matter of personal choice. Whether you're trying to reignite the passion with a longtime spouse, or explore new terrain with a new lover, Nina offers a variety of ideas to achieve exhilarating, deeply satisfying, intimate, and profoundly liberating sex.

More than one million radio listeners and MTV viewers get their answers to love, sex, and dating questions from Loveline. Now cohosts Dr. Pinsky and Adam Carolla have written a complete guide for their vast audience, giving a generation that's never been afraid to ask everything they need to know.

In this empowering, accessible guide, Jaclyn Friedman—co-editor of Yes Means Yes—gives young women the tools to decipher the modern world’s confusing, hypersexualized, sometimes dangerous landscape so they can define their own sexual identity. Friedman decries the hypocrisy and mixed messages of our culture (we’re failures if we don’t act sexy, but we’re sluts if we actually pursue sex; we need to be protected from rapists lurking in bushes, but deserve “whatever we get” if we have a drink at a party and wear a skirt), and encourages readers to separate fear from fact, decode the damaging messages all around them, and discover a healthy personal sexuality. Educational and interactive, What You Really Really Want includes revealing quizzes, creative exercises, and reality-based advice about sex and sexuality today. With Friedman’s informed advice to guide them, readers will build new skills for safely expressing their sexuality with lovers and explore effective ways to talk about tricky issues with family and friends—and learn how to make the world a little safer for everyone else’s sexuality along the way.

In a series of funny, touching, unabashed and uninhibited vignettes, Levenson--aided and abetted by the incomparable Whitney Darrow, Jr.--quotes the lovely, innocent logic of little people as they express their views of the big people's world. (dust cover).

The first English translation of Maria de Naglowska’s essential treatise on the spiritually transformative power of sex, La lumière du sexe • Reveals mystic sexual practices for growth of the soul and enlightenment • Explains the inner workings of the sex magic rituals of La confrérie de la Flèche d’Or [The Brotherhood of the Golden Arrow], the notorious occult order of 1930s Paris • Translated from the original French with an Introduction and Notes by Donald Traxler Never before available in English, The Light of Sex expounds the tenets of the revolutionary religious system conceived by Maria de Naglowska--Russian mystic, occultist, esoteric high priestess, rumored lover of Julius Evola, and self-styled “Satanic Woman” of 1930s Paris. Centered on what she called the Third Term of the Trinity, in which the Holy Spirit of the classic Christian trinity is recognized as the divine feminine, her practices aim to bring about a reconciliation of the light and dark forces in nature through the union of the masculine and feminine. Revealing the spiritually transformative power of sex, she shows how--through mystic sexual practices and veneration of the feminine spirit--growth of the soul, regeneration of the world, and enlightenment of humankind can be achieved. This mystic treatise and guide to the sexually charged rituals that were a cause célèbre in 1930s Paris was required reading for those seeking to be initiated into Naglowska’s magical group La confrérie de la Flèche d’Or [The Brotherhood of the Golden Arrow]. It reveals Naglowska to be a powerful visionary, whose psychic powers were legendary, and an important figure in the continuing evolution of the Western Mystery tradition.

In all three Abrahamic faiths, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, marriage is part of God's plan for humanity, as illustrated in the Hebrew Scriptures, the New Testament, and the Koran as well as the religious literature of these three traditions. It is viewed as a sacred bond as well as a means to personal fulfilment. It is more than a legal contract, rather an institution with cosmic significance, legitimized through divine authority. In Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the purpose of marriage is to build a home, create a family and thereby perpetuate society. Yet, despite the similarity of perception in the great monotheistic faiths, there are important differences. In this book three scholars outline sex law, betrothal and marriage, family life and the understanding of divorce in these traditions and discuss the differences between them in a student-friendly and accessible way. -- Publisher

In his many years working with gay patients, psychiatrist Richard Isay has found that regardless of the original reasons they seek help, the majority of gay men eventually bring up their problems with romantic love. Some have difficulty falling in love and even more find it hard to sustain a loving, romantic relationship. If you experience these issues in your life, Commitment and Healing offers hope. Filled with fascinating case histories drawn from Dr. Isay's practice, this compassionate and inspiring book examines how parental rejection or a lack of empathy with the needs of a homosexual child may later on inhibit a gay man's capacity to feel and express his need for love. Some gay men grow habituated to the means they have relied on to seek happiness without intimacy or intimacy without commitment. Many feel unworthy of romantic love or remain unaware of it until midlife. In Commitment and Healing , Isay writes that a loving relationship over many years is the antidote for the loneliness and the rejection most gay men have experienced in their lives. While the book is a clear and empathetic exploration of the barriers many encounter, Isay shows that it is indeed possible for this generation of gay men to overcome their fear of commitment and learn how rewarding a loving, long-term relationship can be.

When it comes to sex, what do women want? In this eye-opening collection, Erica Jong reveals that every woman has her own answer. Susan Cheever talks about the "excruciating hazards of casual sex," while Gail Collins recounts her Catholic upbringing in Cincinnati and the nuns who passionately forbade her from having "carnal relations." Jennifer Weiner explores how, in love, the body can play just as big a role as the heart. The octogenarians in Karen Abbott's sharp-eyed piece possess a passion that could give Betty White a run for her money. Molly Jong-Fast reflects on her unconventional upbringing and why a whole generation of young women have rejected "free love" in favor of Bugaboo strollers and Mommy-and-me yoga. Sex, it turns out, can be as fleeting, heavy, mundane, and intense as the rest of life. Indeed, as Jong states in her powerful introduction: "the truth is--sex is life."--From publisher description.

With his approval of masturbation, premarital sex and mutual adultery, the articles of Albert Ellis continue to provoke modern readers, as much as they did when he wrote them in the 50s, with his logical, humanistic approach to the taboo subject of sex. This updated collection of articles explores current myths about love, sexual inadequacies and sex fears.

"Somehow I woke up one day and found myself in bed with a stranger." Meant literally or figuratively, this statement describes one of the best-known plots in world mythology and popular storytelling. In a tour that runs from Shakespeare to Hollywood and from Abraham Lincoln to Casanova, the erudite and irrepressible Wendy Doniger shows us the variety, danger, and allure of the "bedtrick," or what it means to wake up with a stranger. The Bedtrick brings together hundreds of stories from all over the world, from the earliest recorded Hindu and Hebrew texts to the latest item in the Weekly World News , to show the hilariously convoluted sexual scrapes that people manage to get themselves into and out of. Here you will find wives who accidentally commit adultery with their own husbands. You will read Lincoln's truly terrible poem about a bedtrick. You will learn that in Hong Kong the film The Crying Game was retitled Oh No! My Girlfriend Has a Penis . And that President Clinton was not the first man to be identified by an idiosyncratic organ. At the bottom of these wonderful stories, ancient myths, and historical anecdotes lie the dynamics of sex and gender, power and identity. Why can't people tell the difference in the dark? Can love always tell the difference between one lover and another? And what kind of truth does sex tell? Funny, sexy, and engaging, The Bedtrick is a masterful work of energetic storytelling and dazzling scholarship. Give it to your spouse and your lover.