Amazon.com Review
Watching Barbara Walters's interview with Monica Lewinsky was like being caught in a tractor beam of horrified prurience. It boggled the mind that the leader of the free world would risk so much for... well, you know. The interview was many things, including funny, and that was mainly due to the enormous chasm between interviewer and interviewee regarding the heart of the matter: sex. When Walters asked, "And there were things that were done that made you as a woman happy and content?" it took women under 40 a few moments before they realized to what Walters was so coyly referring. The women of Generation (Se)X don't talk to each other like that. Even in public. They are a lot more explicit.
In Her Way, journalist Paula Kamen traces what she calls a sexual evolution, a slow but profound change in how women relate to their sexualities. Thirtysomething Kamen uses surveys (some more scientific than others), scholarly and popular literature, pop entertainment, and her own open-ended interviews with a wide variety of women to paint a picture of younger women who are more confident about their sexual selves (be they virginal or promiscuous) and in negotiating what they want in bed and their love relationships.
In keeping with the book's sex-positive message, the emphasis is on women's agency and on further possibilities for broadly satisfying sexual and interpersonal relationships. There is little about, for example, sexual violence, including date rape. Kamen has distilled a wealth of research in an engaging and accessible form, and she does not shy away from a more subtle commentary that notes the persistence of a sexual double standard for men and women. She also points out that we are still operating on "basic male definitions of sex or sexual freedoms" and asks whether, perhaps, in the words of the bumper sticker, "Women who strive to be equal to men aren't ambitious enough." --J. Riches
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Publishers Weekly
With intelligence and flair, Gen-X feminist, journalist and playwright Kamen (Feminist Fatale) presents an exhaustive study of the sexual mores of the women in her generation. Based on 100 interviews and a wealth of statistics, Kamen persuasively argues that ever since the sexual revolution provided widespread access to birth control and information on topics ranging from masturbation to homosexuality, young women have been undergoing a slow, steady "sexual evolution." Today, she declares, college-age women's attitudes and behaviors closely resemble those of their male counterparts: on average they have almost as many partners as men and are less opposed to casual sex than previous generations. In Kamen's view, this trend indicates that Gen X women have achieved a high sexual comfort level. Consequently, while young women may have more sexual partners than they once did, virgins are also stepping proudly out of the closet, along with unmarried mothers, women who choose to remain single, lesbians and bisexuals. Their confidence has encouraged a new activism, as women insist on speaking out about once-taboo experiences, such as sexual harassment, molestation and rape. Kamen even goes so far as to suggest that President Clinton would have been in a better position if he had understood Monica's generational perspective on sex. (Jan.) Forecast: Critical yet nonjudgmental, Kamen's lively book is a welcome primer on contemporary sexual ethics. Bolstered by an author tour that will push her visibility beyond academic circles, it's sure to be a hit among feminists of all ages even while it raises eyebrows in other camps.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
