The Pleasure Gap Audiobook By Katherine Rowland cover art

The Pleasure Gap

American Women and the Unfinished Sexual Revolution

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The Pleasure Gap

By: Katherine Rowland
Narrated by: Suzie Althens
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About this listen

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 100 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.

©2020 Katherine Rowland (P)2020 Seal Press
Sexual health Mental Health
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Critic reviews

"A joy to read, and an important conversation about our right to pleasure: how we fake and perform, instead of value our actual sensations, cutting ourselves off from our own sexual enjoyment, which is our birthright. No one should deny themselves pleasure, nor the pleasure of this book, and its inevitable aftermath in their lives." (Julie Holland, author of Moody Bitches: The Truth About the Drugs You're Taking, the Sleep You're Missing, the Sex You're Not Having, and What's Really Making You Crazy)

"In The Pleasure Gap, Katharine Rowland takes on a feminist issue that has not received the attention it deserves: the inequality between women and men in the fraught and intimate area of sexual pleasure. Well-written and deeply researched, this book illuminates a topic that has profound implications for women's personal happiness and well-being." (Elaine Tyler May, author of America and the Pill: A History of Promise, Peril, and Liberation)

"Tasteful and open-minded...Rowland skillfully synthesizes many different ideas and approaches, and encourages women to embrace a broader understanding of their own sexual desire as an ongoing process of self-discovery and self-assertion." (Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about The Pleasure Gap

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Phenomenal!

Every Woman and Man should read this book! It is amazing and informing! A Pleasure! ❤❤❤

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Incredible Enlightening.

As a dude this book insanely relevant. It is a very different view of self discovery and erotic love. If you are experiencing an issue with love or sex I would highly recommend.

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Truly needed investigation

So glad I listened to this book. Highly recommend it to all persons that care about sex.

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Good but technical.

Good review of women's challenges with sexuality and the many views in society. The author does a lot of research, but if you are looking for how to, help or direction, it is not here. What is here is a lot of information, understanding and different views on women's sexual health.

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Great Message on Sex Positivity Marred by Politics

The information in challenges women especially face enjoying sexual pleasure is useful and needed. Humans have distorted what should be a fun healthy safe practice in deference to social norms for time immemorial.
Unfortunately the author mixes in references to 3rd wave feminist tropes about the patriarchy, which contradicts her own evidence that much of sexual stigmas are from internalized attitudes, not active oppression. Other references to irrelevant political topics are scattered throughout. it's a shame that her politics intrude to distract from an otherwise strong work of scholarship.

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