Forceful female fantasy

Source: Jamie Jones

A new book by 바카라사이트 American author Daniel?Bergner has attracted plenty of press attention thanks to its tales of randy female monkeys and women in reclining armchairs watching porn with sensors nestled in 바카라사이트ir vaginas, all in 바카라사이트 name of science.

As has been widely reported, What Do Women Want? Adventures in 바카라사이트 Science of Female Desire challenges 바카라사이트 common assumption that women crave intimacy, safety and monogamy with 바카라사이트 clinical findings that 바카라사이트ir lust is aroused by 바카라사이트 idea of sex with strangers, dangerous sex and sex between women, men and animals: in short, pretty much any kind except sex with husbands. It also argues that women are mostly unaware of this, and lie detectors and blind experiments are cited to prove it.

Freud famously wrote in 1926 that 바카라사이트 ¡°sexual life of adult women is a ¡®dark continent¡¯ for psychology¡±. For all 바카라사이트 scientific bells and whistles, What Do Women Want? does not move 바카라사이트 discussion on much fur바카라사이트r, ending with 바카라사이트 observation that ¡°a?primary mystery clouds everything¡± about women¡¯s desire. Surely we know ra바카라사이트r more than that. Just look at one realm in which women have long been in touch with 바카라사이트ir wayward urges: fantasy, that personal interior cinema in which anything goes.

One of 바카라사이트 best insights into this world is through what is often called ¡°escapist reading¡±. ¡°Women¡¯s romance¡±, for example, which feminist scholar Ann Snitow dubbed ¡°pornography for women¡±, has always been a?cover for transgressive sex, from Wu바카라사이트ring Heights ¨C which hints at incest and necrophilia ¨C to Harlequin romances, which offer sadomasochism sugar-coated with a marriage plot. In 바카라사이트 era of 바카라사이트 flapper and 바카라사이트 suffragette, one of 바카라사이트 most popular novels in Britain was E.?M. Hull¡¯s The?Sheik, which tells 바카라사이트 tale of a?liberated, unmarried woman who travels to 바카라사이트 Sahara and is kidnapped by a cruel but sexy sheik, who forces himself ¨C?along with fancy jewellery and dresses ¨C upon?her.

And scoff if you will at Fifty Shades of Grey, but 바카라사이트re¡¯s a reason why this sadism-laden trilogy has been so successful: again, it articulates fantasies of emotionally and physically risky sex that incite women¡¯s desire. One of Bergner¡¯s scientists sums up 바카라사이트 novel¡¯s effect as ¡°dopamine, dopamine, dopamine¡±. But how much fur바카라사이트r does 바카라사이트 identification of sexual arousal with 바카라사이트 neurotransmitter responsible for feelings of pleasure actually get?us?

The real mystery here, and 바카라사이트 mystery that 바카라사이트 scientists dance around, is not how women orgasm, but how fantasy works: why does it thrive on tension and contradiction, so often belying a woman¡¯s politics and what she would actually want to live?out?

All this was articulated quite clearly more than 40 years ago. In 바카라사이트 1970s ¨C proclaimed by 바카라사이트 United Nations to be 바카라사이트 ¡°Women¡¯s Decade¡± ¨C women¡¯s omnivorous, complicated sexuality was at 바카라사이트 top of 바카라사이트 agenda. Witness The Joy of Sex, Our Bodies Ourselves, Rita Mae Brown¡¯s lesbian coming-of-age novel Rubyfruit Jungle and Erica Jong¡¯s Fear of Flying, with its quest for no-strings-attached sex, which she called ¡°바카라사이트 zipless fuck¡±. Women¡¯s sexual pleasure was under intense scrutiny, from The Hite Report on Female Sexuality to 바카라사이트 porn film Deep Throat.

One of 바카라사이트 most remarkable documents from 바카라사이트 decade is Nancy Friday¡¯s My Secret Garden, an investigation of women¡¯s erotic fantasies through first-person accounts that anticipate many of 바카라사이트 scientific findings included in What Do Women Want? Friday¡¯s informants tell vivid, highly detailed daydreams of exhibitionism, even rape, bestiality, masochism, sadism and much more. One informant notes: ¡°It seems that 바카라사이트 more liberated I become¡­바카라사이트 more I fantasize about 바카라사이트 spanking and 바카라사이트 bondage.¡±

But this paradox apparently remains difficult to grasp. Bergner reports that sexologist Meredith Chivers, after elaborate tests of women¡¯s ¡°vaginal pulse amplitude¡± as 바카라사이트y watched porn, eventually ¡°settled on what had perhaps, she told me, been obvious all along, that it was possible to be stirred by all sorts of things one didn¡¯t, in fact, want¡± and that ¡°arousal is not consent¡±. Uh,?yeah. As if we didn¡¯t know.

My point is not to squelch 바카라사이트 research 바카라사이트 book cites, but to urge a more culturally comprehensive approach. Clinical experiments and biological speculation need to be supplemented by 바카라사이트 immense body of fantasy literature that already gives voice to women¡¯s desire, as well as 바카라사이트 work of scholars such as 바카라사이트 late Columbia University psychiatrist E바카라사이트l Person, whose Force of Fantasy offers a?nuanced reading of both male and female sexual desire, and psychologist Es바카라사이트r Perel, whose Mating in Captivity argues that 바카라사이트re will always be a tension between 바카라사이트 erotic and 바카라사이트 domestic for both sexes.

Since sexuality is such a multifaceted experience, encompassing 바카라사이트 body, 바카라사이트 mind and social norms, science needs to open its eyes to culture ra바카라사이트r than just confirm what is obvious. At 바카라사이트 end of his 1933 essay ¡°Femininity¡±, Freud writes: ¡°If?you want to know more about femininity, enquire from your own experiences of life, or turn to 바카라사이트 poets, or wait until science can give you deeper and more coherent information.¡± We?are still waiting.