Sex Is Not A Natural Act & Other Essays

This newly updated collection features over 50% new material, spotlighting many of Leonore Tiefer's popular as well as professional writings on the social construction of sexuality. It includes a new section on the creation of "female sexual dysfunction" (FSD), as well as new treatments of medicalization, feminist sex therapy, sex and humor, sexology and the pharmaceutical industry, and "The Kiss." Tiefer's background as a sexologist is unusually broad, including animal mating behavior research, medical research, sex therapy, theories about the classification of dysfunctions, and feminist and cultural analysis. Her wit and passion are evident in such recent essays as "Doing the Viagra Tango: Sex Pill as Symbol and Substance," "The McDonaldization of Sex," and "A New Sexual World-Not," as well as the now classic pieces "Six Months at the Daily News," "Women's Sexuality: Not a Matter of Health," and "Am I Normal? The Question of Sex." This revised collection treats complex and controversial aspects of sexuality in colorful, perceptive, and memorable ways.