WOMEN TALKING: Explorations in Being Female

by Justine Hill ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 6, 1976

Healthy with a vengeance is the word for this assembly of transcripts from a women's sex consciousness-raising group. The salubrious effect of total candor has become virtual dogma among groups of women who share their private sexual lives in detail that would delight a pornographer--and in the process do, in fact, dispel many secret fears and crippling misconceptions about ""am I normal and am I doing it right."" This offering is better-organized and more humane than most, because these fifteen women of diverse ages and histories met at the Center for Marital and Sexual Studies in Long Beach, California, at the instigation and under the guidance of a professional sex therapist who had suspected that ""there was more to sex and orgasm than what our eight-channel recorder measured."" Some of the women had been volunteer subjects in Masters/Johnson-type research, and their consequent Latinate familiarity with their anatomies (""I always put a lot of tension on the pubococcygeus muscle"") can be comic and unnerving, as can the brisk hygienic cheer of the pleasure scientists. Yet these women really do cover--or uncover--broad subjects of value and anxiety for the woman reader (and the male lover): the joys of just plain cuddling; the value of trust and communication between partners; how surprisingly much fun can be had with ""The Flaccid Penis""; natural sounds, smells, and secretions; biorhythms and mood cycles; the effects of mastectomy or hysterectomy on sex life; the spiritual aspects of sex. It adds up to a frank, free-ranging exploration of female nature, its chief flaw being that it touches upon too many subjects without going into them deeply enough.

Pub Date: Aug. 6, 1976

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Lyle Stuart

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1976

Categories: NONFICTION