Wading through books in a field not my own
I’m currently on the search for a good book or two on the topic of sexuality and/or sexology. The discussions of the last few posts have been wonderful, and I’d love to broaden my knowledge on these things, benefitting from folks who have given entire careers to studying and contemplating them.
So…please feel free to offer suggestions. I’d love to find a book that gives an overview of perspectives on sex and sexuality that have been held through time - maybe something sociological? anthropological? Jenell (or anyone else…) - anything from your teaching or studies come to mind? I’d love the book/s to be current, too, as things even 5 or 10 years old can be based on outdated research.
Once I settle on a book or two, I’ll let you know the titles so that if anyone else is interested in reading them at the same time and discussing them, we can do that too.
March 17th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
well, i have 3 books to recommend to you, altho they may seem strange, not exactly, directly about sexuality …. the 1st: Sex in the Forbidden Zone, by Paul Rutter, it is out of print, but can be found (used and semi-reasonable) on Amazon. It is about the draw of sex in power-imbalanced relationships, but it gets into men’s and women’s fantasies about this…certainly it keeps it in perspective, as being a growing problem, this abuse of power. It is timeless and i wish everyone would read it, so for the life of me i do not know why it is out of print.
2nd: Paulo Coehlo’s: 11 minutes. Prostitution, love, intimacy. Ok, i know fiction is not what you had in mind. 3rd: just for fun, Sex in America, the most recent study of people’s sexual habits, and trends in U.S. now, prob out of date.
I guess i need some updated books, yikes! but i love these.
March 19th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
These you may already know, but for the sake of others reading this here are a few. Note they are very religio-centric:
1. Mike Mason’s _The Mystery of Marriage_ (cheesy title, poetic and insighful writing)
2. Leon Kass’s _The Beginning of Wisdom_ (at least the beginning applies, referring to the book of Genesis)
3. John Paul II’s _The Theology of the Body_ (some amazing stuff in here in my opnion)
additionally I have been reading bits of a book called _Every Woman’s Battle_. I would be curious if others have read this and what they think about it. It is essentially a tale of how women’s sexuality may look different than men’s, insofar as women’s sexuality is so often about the heart, sentiments, affections, as opposed to physical attraction. I find this interesting at least to consider.
March 19th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
Thank you Atticus and Julianne! I’ll look into these.
March 21st, 2007 at 5:37 am
julianne, i have read Every Woman’s Battle, and it is an honest look at women’s temptation to look outward and as you say, our longing for that sentimental stuff/soulful intimacy. However, it said a few things that bothered me. it implied that any misconduct on the part of a man, is to be construed as prob the woman’s fault. i certainly agree there is much we can do to guard our boundary, but as my therapist told me, we cannot guard others’ boundaries. Men are in charge of theirs.