In her new book, Women, Sex, Power & Pleasure, Evelyn Resh, a sexuality counselor and certified nurse-midwife, takes an innovative approach to helping women create the lives – and sex lives – they want. With a funny and compassionate, yet tell-it-like-it-is style, she looks at the relationship between feeling powerful in life and accessing life’s pleasures, and their combined effect on sexual desire. Resh introduces six essential qualities that women must have to live healthfully, stating that when these are out of balance women seem to exist in lives devoid of pleasure, self-empowerment, and sex. These markers of emotional well-being are: • Self-confidence and self-esteem • Healthy Habits • Spiritual Satisfaction • Creativity • Self-assurance/re-assurance • Compassion and Empathy Once the six traits are laid out, Resh devotes the rest of the book to exploring how, when one or more of a woman’s markers of emotional well-being are off kilter, their reasons for avoiding sex mount exponentially. She looks at some of the most common excuses she’s heard over her many years as a sexuality counselor – I Feel Nothing, It’s All He Thinks About, I’m Too Busy!, I’m Too Fat to Have Sex – and outlines the specific imbalances that create this void of sexual desire and activity. With practical guidance, self-assessment questions, and stories from her practice and personal life, Resh explains to modern women how to regain their emotional wellness and live a powerful life that includes a steady relationship with pleasure and sexual satisfaction. This book is a must read for all women. From housewives to sophisticated urban corporate types, from new moms to post-menopausal women – this book will help any woman who feels estranged from her sexual energy and a sense of empowerment, and deprived of pleasure, or who views sex as just another thing to tick off her overwhelming to-do list.

This pioneering collection explores the ways in which positive, pleasure-focused approaches to sexuality can empower women. Gender and development has tended to engage with sexuality only in relation to violence and ill-health. Although this has been hugely important in challenging violence against women, over-emphasizing these negative aspects has dovetailed with conservative ideologies that associate women’s sexualities with danger and fear. On the other hand, the media, the pharmaceutical industry, and pornography more broadly celebrate the pleasures of sex in ways that can be just as oppressive, often implying that only certain types of people - young, heterosexual, able-bodied, HIV-negative - are eligible for sexual pleasure. Women, Sexuality and the Political Power of Pleasure brings together challenges to these strictures and exclusions from both the South and North of the globe, with examples of activism, advocacy and programming which use pleasure as an entry point. It shows how positive approaches to pleasure and sexuality can enhance equality and empowerment for all.

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.

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.

Wonderful sex does more than melt both body and soul; it brings power, energy, and deep satisfaction to all aspects of our lives. In this unique book, women who consider themselves highly sexually responsive talk in intimate detail about what gives them the greatest pleasure. They redefine sex—based on how women really experience sexual pleasure—confirming what every woman knows instinctively, while creating a new language that every woman will understand. Based on extensive one-on-one interviews conducted by Dr. Ogden with hundreds of women, this thought-provoking, wise, and unprecedented book transforms how we view sex by giving us new ways to think about sexual pleasure. To learn more about the author, Gina Ogden, go to www.ginaogden.com.

Text lust -- Body and erotic power -- Heterosexuality: contested ground --Lesbianism: a country that has no language --Bisexuality: coping with sexual boundaries -- Pornography: not for men only -- Imagining desire -- Pleasure and ethics.

Winner, Sociology of the Body and Embodiment Best Publication Award, given by the American Sociological Association Honorable Mention, 2021 Sexualities Section Book Award, given by the American Sociological Association The first inside look at how sex workers use webcams to make a living The erotic webcam industry, also known as “camming,” is a thriving global business. Angela Jones takes readers inside this multi-billion dollar industry, revealing how its workers experience intimacy, community, empowerment—and, as she compellingly argues, pleasure. Drawing on in-depth interviews, survey data, web analytics, and more, Jones highlights not only the dangers, but also the rewards, of working in one of the most taboo corners of the Internet. She provides an inside look at the public and private shows between cam models and their customers, from exotic dancing and pornographic videos, to masturbation shows and erotic chatrooms. A fascinating, much-needed glimpse into the lives of cam models, Camming takes us behind the webcam lens to experience the power of erotic labor in the twenty-first century.

"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"--

Are you ready to fully embrace your sensual and erotic self? For centuries, women have been taught their sexuality was something to be ashamed of and their sexual pleasure was controlled. This wasn't always the case. Eons ago, a woman's sexuality was celebrated: Aphrodite in Greek mythology, Qetesh from Egypt, the Hindu Goddess Kunti, just to name a few. With this groundbreaking book, you will find the courage to leave fears behind, communicate your wants and desires, and set your own boundaries. You CAN unlock your sexuality and reclaim your right as a woman to enjoy sensual pleasures without being judged. If you want to experience every part of your sexual pleasure without shame and frustration, this book is for you. You will find your power to free yourself from society's antiquated and conflicting expectations of being a sexual woman. Within this book you will discover: How sex education programs in public schools continues to fail young women Your most important erogenous zone (hint: it isn't what you think) The amazing hidden secret to your lifeforce Reject shame and give yourself the power to R.E.C.L.A.I.M. your sexuality Breaking down myths about the big "O" once and for all Overcome excessive dryness with the G.L.I.D.E. technique How to find your eroticism and why it's essential to desire Why sex can and should be J.U.I.C.Y. How to give yourself permission for pleasure Awakening the G.O.D.D.E.S.S. inside of you How to take control of your sexual pleasure And much more... After reading this book, you will understand and know how to embrace your sexual pleasure.

Riane Eisler shows us how history has consistently promoted the link between sex and violence—and how we can sever this link and move to a politics of partnership rather than domination in all our relations.