Women Who Love Sex: An Inquiry into the Expanding Spirit of Women's Erotic Experience [Paperback]

Gina Ogden (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0967270502 | ISBN-13: 978-0967270500 | Publication Date: September 1999 | Edition: Revised

The book has been carried by A.com since 1999 and is already described, with relevant reviews etc.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A masterpiece of affirmation-refreshing, moving, and extraordinarily liberating. For sexuality professionals, for our students, patients, and clients, for anyone who loves women, and especially for any woman who loves sex (or wants to love sex), Women Who Love Sex is the freshest breath of air to come along in years." -- The Journal Of Sex Research

"An affirmative, useful guide for both women and men, enriched by smart clinical insights." -- Publishers Weekly

"An innovative approach. A truly significant contribution to the way in which we think about human sexuality." -- Wardell B. Pomeroy, Ph.D., co-author of the "Kinsey Reports"-Sexual Behavior in the Human Male and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female

"Fascinating, affirming, and down-to-earth. Gina Ogden skillfully weaves together women's stories with insight and wisdom to explore the magnitude of women's sexual experiences-their power, importance, and connection to spirituality. This book will get a lot of women talking about sex!" -- Charlotte Kasl, Ph.D., author of Women, Sex, and Addiction

"In my work with college women, I am witness to the wrestling match between young women's evolving self-definition and the relentlessly constricting messages imposed upon them by society. Women are warned about sexual negativity, but by refusing to acknowledge that women also possess the capacity for deep sexual joy, we have allowed only half the truth to be told. Women Who Love Sex tells the long-denied other half of that truth. Reading it was extraordinarily freeing, both for me and my students." -- Mary Krueger, Ph.D., Founding Director of the Bowling Green State University Women's Center

"This book is a remarkable contribution to the literature on female sexuality. Ogden sets out to destroy stereotypes of female sexuality, whether they are found in pop culture, the world of professional sexology, or in current, politically correct 'feminist' ideology. She succeeds by situating women's sexual phenomenology within an appropriate, theoretical context and by substantiating her propositions with empirical support." -- Canadian Journal Of Human Sexuality

"This is a warm, innovative book, full of sexual poetry from women's own stories about their lives. Ogden has an important message. Sex, especially woman-affirming sex, is about a whole lot more than intercourse and orgasm. It is about trust, sharing, spirituality, love, whole-body sensuality, and letting go of restrictive sex roles and oppressive sexual scripts." -- Naomi B. Mccormick, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology at the State University of New York at Plattsburg, and author of Sexual Salvation

From the Back Cover

"In a world in which abuse and exploitation mar too many women's experiences of sexuality, this readable and woman-affirming book breaks new ground with its broad understanding of the nature and power of women's sexual pleasure."-BOSTON WOMEN'S HEALTH BOOK COLLECTIVE, authors of Our Bodies Ourselves

"Women Who Love Sex explores a whole new landscape: the sexuality and sensuality of healthy women on their own terms-not simply in relationship to the male 'norm.' You will find inspiration and affirmation in this book."-CHRISTIANE NORTHRUP, M.D., author of Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom

"An unconventional exploration of female sexuality, from its earthiest to its most ethereal. Gina Ogden manages to enliven even the tired rhetoric of recovery, and she offers a feminist perspective on sexual pleasure for women that challenges the prevailing feminist preoccupation with sexual abuse." -WENDY KAMINER, author of I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional and True Love Waits

"In Women Who Love Sex we are invited to hear women's voices proudly, joyfully, honestly telling us what they want, what they love and what they know. In listening to these women, we gain clarity about our own desire. Gina Ogden helps open the way for a new understanding of women's sexual experience: not a 'relentless dash for orgasm' but a richly varied set of experiences building on empathy, vulnerability, engagement, ecstasy, humor, and increasing intimate connection. The nature of women's sexual desire, obscured for so long in writings on sexual development, comes alive in this courageous book." -JUDITH V. JORDAN, Ph.D., co-author of Women's Growth in Connection

"An expansive, warmhearted book that redefines and reframes women's sexual pleasure. Gina Ogden stays with these women-never judging, pathologizing, or abandoning them." -DALMA HEYN, author of The Erotic Silence of the American Wife and Marriage Shock

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Womanspirit Press; Revised edition (September 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0967270502
• ISBN-13: 978-0967270500
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,430,859 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

The most common question I hear from my sex therapy clients is: "Isn't there supposed to be something more?" What they mean is that they deeply desire more than just "thank-you-ma'am" sex that's driven by goals and performance. They are searching for sexual experiences that connect body, mind, heart, and spirit--that can transform their lives, at any age, even if they have a history of sexual disappointment or even abuse.

Helping these women connect deeply with themselves and their partners is what motivates me to conduct retreats, workshops, and teleseminars all over the world--and to write books where women (and men, too) can feel heard and understood--and discover new ways to reach for what they really want instead of just doing what they think will please others. See more details on www.GinaOgden.com. Please write to me and tell me what you think.

NEXT TELESEMINAR: The Return of Desire -- Getting the Sex You Want: A Teleseminar for Health Professionals, Part 4 - March -April 2010 - Get more info at http://ginaogden.com/media/Teleseminar_Ogden-Nelson_Spring2010.pdf

I come to my present work though more than three decades as a sex therapist and through responses from almost 4,000 women and men who answered my nationwide survey: "Integrating Sexuality and Spirituality" (ISIS). I am a licensed marriage and family therapist, a board-certified sex-therapy diplomate, a clinical member of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, the International Society for the Study Women's Sexual Health, and the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality. I am also an associate professor of sexology at the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality, and the continuing education editor of Contemporary Sexuality, the journal of the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists. I've been a consultant for Our Bodies, Ourselves and for the U.S. Surgeon General's 2001 "Call to Action for Healthy Sexual Behavior." I've written for magazines such as Parade, Ms., Networker, Ladies Home Journal, Fitness, New Woman, and New Age and I've been on the media from talk radio to Oprah. I've also published research in numerous academic books and journals. A peer-reviewed paper on the ISIS survey, "Sexuality and Spirituality in Women's Relationships," was published by the Wellesley Centers for Research on Women (www.wcwonline.org.). I live in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Below, I've listed some questions to consider when you read any of my books--"WOMEN WHO LOVE SEX," THE HEART AND SOUL OF SEX," and "THE RETURN OF DESIRE" Each book is different, but they all address these questions from different perspectives.

What do you think when you hear the title "the return of desire?"

--does that mean we've all lost it?

--is it true that we all lose desire as we grow older?

--can't we just rely on pharmaceutical prescriptions to bring back desire?

--are there other ways to bring desire back?

For you, what is "the heart and soul of sex?"

Is it true that women are less interested in sex than men?

Does the title "Women Who Love Sex" mean to you that these women are:

--bad girls?

--sluts and bimbos?

--women who love sex "too much?"

--high achievers?

--women with complex histories and desires, like most women in the world?

What happens to sexual desire after childbirth?

How may affairs affect your sexual desire?

Is desire different for heterosexual couples than for gay and lesbian couples?

What do you feel about solo sex--or "menage a moi"--?

What are some of the sexual messages we grow up with in this culture--how do you think they affect your sexual desire as adults?

How have violence and abuse affected your sexual desire?

How can emotional connection help sexual relationships?

What is sacred sexual union--and how can you create it?

What are the first steps you can take toward lasting sexual satisfaction?

How are sexuality and spirituality connected for you?

What are the differences between religion and spirituality--and why is it important to understand them?

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Women reclaiming sexuality, May 16, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Women Who Love Sex: An Inquiry into the Expanding Spirit of Women's Erotic Experience (Paperback)

Gina Ogden is opening this dialogue for women in a new way. It has long been OK for men to love sex. Locker room talk does not stay in the locker room. Men like sex and like to brag about liking it. A woman who admits to liking sex is likely to be labeled a loose woman or a hoar.

As a survivor of incent I was put off by the title thinking this was one more book about an area of my life that was uncomfortable, unsafe, unfulfilling. At a friends recommendation I read it, and I felt it was written for me.

These are women ranging in age from maiden to crone who love sex as an expanded term that takes in comfort and ease in talking about it, and the many hungers women feel for touch and emotional connectedness that are not included in the male performance model the word sex usually conjures.

The book is also told in womens way - as story. These are real women and the stories and experiences shared are wide ranging. It is a book that adds many new questions to the emerging dialog about a sexuality of women defined by women.

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book on sexuality I've ever read, June 25, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Women Who Love Sex: An Inquiry into the Expanding Spirit of Women's Erotic Experience (Paperback)

This book was very, very liberating and affirming for me. I have read many books on sexuality in an attempt to better understand my own experience. I found that most, no matter how broad-minded and inclusive they purport to be, tend to pathologize behavior that the authors don't define as sexually "correct" in some way. Also, if they include spirituality at all, it is corralled into a limited definition, such as "tantric" sex. Such books encouraged me to define my own sexuality as largely dysfunctional. By reading this book, which describes the experiences of women who define themselves as loving sex , I was able to recognize kernels of my own experiences in their's. For instance, I may not be able to "think myself off," as some of the women Dr. Ogden interviewed are able to do (have a no-hands orgasm) , but , by reading about them, I was able to better appreciate that I can "think myself on!" Dr. Ogden appreciates a wide variety of experiences as completely valid ways of loving sex. (For instance, there are women who take an hour to have an orgasm, who define themselves as being "highly orgasmic." A more conventional "expert" might deem that time frame as being sexually dysfunctional, and try to fix something that Dr. Ogden assures us ain't broke!) I'm sure that many men would recognize their experiences in this book as well as women. In fact, I've read many passages aloud to my husband. Thanks, Dr. Ogden, and all blessings to you.

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A surprising and eye-opening book, May 15, 2002

By 

Rob Dingman (Herkimer, N.Y.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Women Who Love Sex: An Inquiry into the Expanding Spirit of Women's Erotic Experience (Paperback)

I bought this book to "prove" to my wife that there are Women Who Love Sex. I was also hoping to get some ideas for improving our sex life. I was pleasantly surprised at what I found.
I am a male, 52, who's been married for 29 yrs. I started out liking this book and ended up loving it. The information and ideas presented deepened my understanding of, and respect for, all women. At my age I thought that I had learned quite a bit about female sexuality. However, Dr. Ogden took me on a tour into the depths of women's sexuality and showed me things beyond what I could have imagined. You come away from the book realizing that women are more "advanced" sexually and emotionally than the vast majority of men. A careful reading of the book will also show men that women are equal to men intellectually and "deeper" than us spiritually. Yes, guys, these things must be said. It's time that we gave women their due.
I highly recommend this book for women and men everywhere. I honestly believe that no man can consider himself to be sexually mature in his interactions with women until he understands and puts to use the revelations in Dr. Ogden's book.