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Sex on the Couch: What Freud Still Has To Teach Us About Sex and Gender
by Richard BoothbyFirst published in 2006. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Sex Outside the Lines: Authentic Sexuality in a Sexually Dysfunctional Culture
by Chris DonaghueIs Your Sex Life Normal?Boy meets girl. The connection is electric. They fall in love, marry and have amazing sex. Soon there are children, and then grandchildren. They grow old, loving one another for the rest of their lives. What's wrong with this picture? Absolutely nothing, if you are one of the relatively small group of people whose lives work out this way.What's wrong is that we've defined this as "normal," which makes most of us "abnormal."In Sex Outside the Lines, Dr. Chris Donaghue describes the holes in society's definition of "normal," taking a sharp eye to institutions such as marriage, cheating, virginity, identity, and sexual orientation. He also examines all the ways that accepting society's "truths" have led to the demise of long-term relationships and sexual pleasure. All of this misinformation is showing up in your bedroom and preventing you from having the sex life you're entitled to.In Donaghue's years of training in sex and couples therapy, he has developed highly successful methods for freeing clients from sexual hang-ups, enabling them to let go of shame and embarrassment. Donaghue pulls apart cultural phobias with a "sex positive" therapy practice, a kind of sexual deprograming that helps people see and accept the desires they have-even if they don't align with societal expectations-are really natural, healthy, and part of having a great sex life.
Sex Over 50 (Updated and Expanded)
by Joel D. BlockThere are 78 million people now crossing the 50-year mark-and they're redefining middle age and creating a new vision of what a fulfilling sex life means. Sex Over 50 speaks to this legion of gracefully aging Americans who are looking for professional, practical advice on how to make the transition to deeper, richer, more sophisticated sexual relationships. This edition includes a new chapter on the dating scene for Boomers, as well as updated information on hormone replacement therapy and erectile dysfunction.
Sex Plays
by Eric Bogosian"A born storyteller with perfect pitch."--The New York Times "Greatly and bilaterally talented . . . spiky, stinging, caustic without cauterizing. And funny."--New York One of America's premier performers and most innovative and provocative artists offers his two newest plays: Skunkweed details the culture clash between a Los Angeles screenwriter and a working-class girl and her rural Florida clan in a hotel room, and 1+1 explores desire, greed, and responsibility to others through the lives of an aspiring actress, assistant restaurant manager, and a photographer. About the characters in 1+1, Eric Bogosian recently stated, "Bri, Phil, and Carl are based on people I've found intensely interesting my whole life: a good-looking hustler, an ambitious pretty girl, and a 'good guy' who always seems to finish last. . . . The story is a parable. All my plays are. My plays are not expositions of a specific time and place. Rather, I try to find a way to set them so that the audience can immerse itself in a situation. I don't have answers. I have questions." Eric Bogosian is a writer and actor who has authored five full-length plays and created six full-length solos for himself, including Talk Radio; subUrbia; Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll; Pounding Nails in the Floor with My Forehead; and Drinking in America. He is the recipient of three OBIE Awards and a Drama Desk Award, and has toured throughout the United States and Europe.
Sex-Pol
by Lee Baxandall Wilhelm Reich Anna BostockThis volume contains the first complete translations of Wilhelm Reich's writings from his Marxist period. Reich, who died in 1957, had a career with a single goal: to find ways of relieving human suffering. And the same curiosity and courage that led him from medical school to join the early pioneers of Freudian psychoanalysis, and then to some of the most controversial work of this century--his development of the theory of the orgone--led him also, at one period of his life, to become a radical socialist.The renewed interest in Reich's Marxist writings, and particularly in his notions about sexual and political liberation, follows the radical critiques of Herbert Marcuse, Frantz Fanon and Paul Goodman, the political protest movements toward personal liberation in the present decade.
Sex Positive: Redefining Our Attitudes to Love & Sex
by Dr. Kelly NeffOffering a new take on the psychology of human sexuality, Sexpositive integrates modern day themes such as technology and the use of social media with self-help. This is the book that millennial's will turn to in order to rewrite the story of their love lives.Life on this planet would not exist if it weren&’t for one thing, sexual intercourse! Developing our understanding sexual consciousness; defined as an awareness of each other and ourselves as sexually conscious beings, is key if we want to see humanity evolve and thrive through our energetic awareness of one another. The SexPositive movement has its roots in this founding ideology. It is a social, political and philosophical movement that promotes and embraces sexuality and sexual expression, with an emphasis on safe and consensual sex. Never before has there been a stronger cultural narrative about the awakening of our sexual consciousness and the crucial importance of building #SexPositive relationships. For the first time ever, Dr. Kelly Neff offers readers a ground-breaking self help book that fuses scientific sexology research, psychological theorizing, Eastern & Western philosophies, and stories from around the world, all in the context of the world&’s massive social and political shifts surrounding sex, love and identity. The first part of the book address our personal growth as sexually conscious beings in our current cultural climate, unpacking the constructs of gender and sexual orientation, social conditioning via mass media, whilst exploring non-monogamous relationships, the Techno sexual Revolution, as well as looking at sex as an energetic experience. The second part of the book takes a more practical approach providing tools, tips and exercises to help create and maintain SexPositive relationships.
Sex-Positive Social Work
by SJ DoddSocial workers engage with sex and sexuality in all kinds of practice settings and with a variety of client populations. However, conversations about healthy sexuality and sexual well-being are all but absent from social work literature, education, and practice. Many social work professionals have internalized sociocultural taboos about talking about sexuality and tend to avoid the topic in their practice.This book provides an overview of key sexuality-related topics for social workers from a sex-positive perspective, which encourages agency in sexual decision making and embraces consensual sexual activity as healthy and to be enjoyed without stigma or shame. It discusses a wide range of topics including physiology, sexual and gender identity, sex in older adulthood, BDSM and kink; nonmonogamous and polyamorous relationships, and ethical considerations, including erotic transference. The book is designed to embolden social workers to engage discussions of sexuality with clients and to provide an opportunity for self-reflection and professional growth. Accessible to students as well as social workers and mental-health professionals at all levels, Sex-Positive Social Work emphasizes the relationship between sexual well-being and overall well-being, giving social workers the tools to approach sex and sexuality actively and positively with clients.
Sex Positivity and White-Sex Supremacy: Ending Complicity in Black Body Erasure (Leading Conversations on Black Sexualities and Identities)
by Carole ClementsThis text critically examines, argues, and demonstrates how the sex-positive movement is complicit in the perpetuation of White Supremacy and anti-black bias in the field of human sexualities, offering white sexuality professionals embodied ethical antiracist strategies for sexual inclusion and transformational change. In a world where whiteness is considered the sexual and bodily norm, Carole Clements proposes that the sex-positive movement has failed to examine how it maintains White Supremacy through the guise of inclusivity, and how the lack of a critical understanding of what "sex-positive" means has caused harm to black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) individuals and communities alike. Pivoting away from a sex-positive/sex-negative binary, this book establishes a sex-critical discourse by introducing and operationalizing the term "White-sex Supremacy" to produce a racially just and embodied sexual ethic. Chapters begin by looking at sexual science and its racial origins, recounting how both the science of sex and that of race strived for positivist legitimacy in the same historical moment. Moving from the social construction of racial and sexual hierarchies, chapters look at eugenics and sexology’s early "sex-positive" pioneers, such as Margaret Sanger and Havelock Ellis, before examining the establishment of a race-evasive yet distinctly white sexual normality reliant on sex-positive framing. It shows how sex positivity became a popularized term without a clear definition other than "good," and how the legacy of white fragility leads to complicit white silence and the erasure of Black sexualities. Theoretical, practical, and accessible, it offers tangible methods for white sexuality professionals and scholars to learn accompliceship (over allyship) to promote antiracist sexual justice activism. This book is essential reading for white sexuality professionals, including sex educators, sex therapists, marriage and family therapists, licensed professional counselors, psychotherapists, gynecologists, and nurses, who are committed to examining their whiteness in the context of their commitment to sex positivity.
Sex, Power, and Partisanship: How Evolutionary Science Makes Sense of Our Political Divide
by Hector A. GarciaAn evolutionary psychologist traces the roots of political divisions back to our primate ancestors and male-dominated social hierarchies.Through the lens of evolutionary science, this book offers a novel perspective on why we hold our political ideas, and why they are so often in conflict. Drawing on examples from across the animal kingdom, clinical psychologist Hector A. Garcia reveals how even the most complex political processes can be influenced by our basic drives to survive and reproduce--including the policies we back, whether we are liberal or conservative, and whether we are inspired or repelled by the words of a president. The author demonstrates how our political orientations derive from an ancestral history of violent male competition, surprisingly influencing how we respond to issues as wide-ranging as affirmative action, women's rights, social welfare, abortion, foreign policy, and even global warming. Critically, the author shows us how our instinctive political tribalism can keep us from achieving stable, functioning societies, and offers solutions for rising above our ancestral past.
Sex Power and the Games
by Kath WoodwardThis book explores the social and cultural impact of the Olympic Games, examining gender and sport, the inequalities between nations and people and at what the Games offer and how they are changing, in relation to spectacles, spectatorship and culture, including the links between art and sport.
Sex Research and Sex Therapy: A Sociological Analysis of Masters and Johnson (Routledge Advances in Sociology #Vol. 32)
by Ross MorrowGynaecologist William Howell Masters and psychologist Virginia Eshelman Johnson pioneered research into the nature of human sexual response and the diagnosis and treatment of sexual disorders and dysfunctions from 1957 until the 1990s. This book examines their influential scientific sex research and its groundbreaking implications for sex therapy and the study of human sexuality. Until now, these developments have been largely ignored in sociology. The book illuminates how Masters and Johnson have constructed their apparently scientific ideas about sexual function and dysfunction with reference to dominant Western discourses about sexuality. In addition, the book will explore some of the wider theoretical, conceptual and historical issues relating to the study of human sexuality. These will include a critical evaluation of conventional accounts of the history of the sociology of sex, particularly in the United States, major theoretical frameworks used in the study and understanding of human sexuality, and some of the key concepts underpinning sex research and sex therapy.
Sex Rules!: Astonishing Sexual Practices and Gender Roles Around the World
by Janice Zarro Brodman PHD“[Brodman] shares the results of years of research and world travel to show . . . just how wildly divergent ideas about sexuality and gender roles can be.” —Vice This book is a humorous glimpse of a wide range of stereotype-busting sexual, relationship, and romantic mores around the world. It is fun, interesting, and eye-opening! For example, places where women control the mating game, set marriage rules, and marry one another for political power. The fact that it’s all true also makes it fascinating. Take a romp through a rollicking worldwide tour with LOL views of extraordinary sexual customs. It will astound and regale you. At the same time, it proves sex is like happiness—universally sought but subjectively enjoyed. “This is the world’s weirdest and funniest reality show. But it’s more. It’s fascinating and smart, and all true.” —Richard Bangs, adventurer, author, and TV personality “It’s a scientific fact! Women have better orgasms with funny partners. Read this hilarious book and you’ll have more and better sex, happier relationships and a healthier libido!” —Joanne Sandler, former Deputy Executive Director of the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), senior associate of Gender@Work, co-producer of the popular podcast Two Old Bitches “Fresh, intriguing and of course titillating . . . delve into rarely seen corners of the world, enjoy a good laugh, and learn from a trained scholar as she takes you on this journey that reveals ‘Sex Rules’ in all their staggering variety.” —Ed Robbins, award-winning director-writer-producer and digital journalist
Sex, Sexuality and Sexual Health in Southern Africa (Sexuality, Culture and Health)
by Deevia BhanaThis book—Sex, Sexuality and Sexual Health in Southern Africa—is structured around four major themes: gender and sexuality diversity; love, pleasure and respect; gender, sexual violence and health; and sexuality, gender and sexual justice. Chapters in this book analyse sexuality in relation to recent developments in the Southern African region and what this might mean for contemporary theory, policy and practice. Sex, sexuality and sexual health are often viewed through a narrow biomedical lens, ignoring the fact that they are profoundly social and historical in character. The contributors in this book bring to light the entanglements of sexuality with respect, recognition, rights and mutual respectful pleasure. Authors draw attention to partnerships, allyships and feminist, queer and trans coalitions in the pursuit of sexual health and justice in the region. The book will be of interest to final-year undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers and activists as well as those working in Women and Gender Studies, Critical Sexuality Studies, Sexual and Reproductive Health, Development Studies, Public Health, Psychology, Education, Sociology and Anthropology.
Sex, Sexuality and the Autism Spectrum
by Wendy LawsonWritten by an 'insider', an openly gay autistic adult, Wendy Lawson writes frankly and honestly about autism, sex and sexuality. In her new book, she draws upon her own experience to examine the implications of being autistic on relationships, sex and sexuality. Having discussed subjects such as basic sex education and autism, the author goes further to explore the wider issues of interpersonal relationships, same sex attraction, bisexuality and transgender issues. She also examines the unspoken rules that exist between people in relationships and explains why these rules can be difficult and confusing for people with autism. This book will give courage and information to adults with autism or Asperger Syndrome and provide essential insights to those living and working with them.
Sex, Sexuality and Therapeutic Practice: A Manual for Therapists and Trainers
by Catherine ButlerSexuality is an important area of clients’ lives yet it is often neglected, both in the consulting room and in training. This book examines issues of sexuality in a positive and affirming light and considers how sexuality-related issues can be introduced into therapy and training. Sex and sexuality are important to consider in psychotherapy, psychology, counselling and health provision across a variety of contexts and are relevant to clinicians and therapists working in health and mental health settings as well as in specialist services such as sexual and reproductive health and HIV. Sex, Sexuality and Therapeutic Practice opens with a general discussion of sex and sexuality before considering how the therapists can think and talk about sexuality in practical and self-reflective ways in different circumstances. Each chapter in the book focuses on a specific topic with areas covered including: sexual diversity across the lifespan health and disability sexual and gender minority issues how culture and sexuality interact. The manual provides up-to-date information, further reading, handouts for clients, self-reflective exercises and examples of training exercises for workshops and teaching. It is an essential resource for health professionals, therapists, clinicians, academics and trainers, and will support the practicing therapist as well as those in training.
Sex, Sexuality, and Trans Identities: Clinical Guidance for Psychotherapists and Counselors
by S. J. Langer Kelly Wise, PhD, LCSW, CST Dulcinea Pitagora, PhD, MA, MEd, CST Jessica Kosciewicz Lcsw Asher Pandjiris Andrew Zarate Laura A. Lcsw Jane Fleishman Msw Julie Mencher Katherine Rachlin Tobias B.D. Wiggins D. M. Maynard Bkin Olivia Fischer Aahivs Ronica Mukerjee Gail Knudsen Mister CrisA specialist book for mental health professionals, sex therapists and educators to develop and improve their clinical work with trans clients with regards to their sexual relationships and sexuality. It provides an interdisciplinary exploration of the subject, and relates to both clinical practice and theory.Topics explored include the shifting of sexual orientation during or following gender transition; gender dysphoria and co-occurring autism spectrum disorder; negotiating issues of sexuality with partners during transition; eating disorders; and an exploration of the intersection of trans identities and disability. It uniquely touches on perspectives from the field of sex therapy, featuring chapter authors from disciplines including social work, marriage and family counseling, early childhood education, sex therapy, sex education, psychology, and women's studies.
Sex, Social Justice, and Intimacy in Mental Health Practice: Incorporating Sexual Health in Approaches to Wellness
by Erin Martinez-GilliardThis book aims to equip mental health professionals to integrate discussions of sexual identity, health, wellness, and intimacy into the scope of their client’s mental health, ensuring they are well-prepared to incorporate sexual functioning into core assessment, interventions, and treatment. We exist in societies that are scared to discuss sexual health, identity, and relationships, and the stigma surrounding these topics saturates our mental health professions. Sex, intimacy, and sexual identity have historically been relegated as “specialized” topics when training new clinicians, which has led to professionals feeling unable and unskilled to speak about a core part of their client’s psychological, biological, physical, and relational health. Viewing this as a social justice issue, this book addresses a movement in the counseling field to incorporate sexual health into therapy as well as providing new ways of foundational teaching. Chapters begin exploring the history of sex therapy and the problems that have previously been addressed as concerns for the sex therapy field only, before discussing issues surrounding transference and countertransference. Encouraging self-reflection regarding values, bias, and attitudes related to topics of sexuality, the book moves to discussing strategies and integrative approaches to co-occurring conditions, such as trauma, diagnosis of sexual difficulties, stigma and societal messages, biopsychosocial treatment, networking, and coordination of care and spiritual health and healing. Including journaling exercises, assessment tools and case studies of how to weave approaches addressing sexual concerns into practice, this book will provide graduate courses and continuing education instructors with the core material to assist the training and development of future and established professionals.
Sex, Society, and the Making of Pornography: The Pornographic Object of Knowledge
by Jeffrey EscoffierHardcore pornographic films combine fantasy and real sex to create a unique genre of entertainment. Pornographic films are also historical documents that give us access to the sexual behavior and eroticism of different historical periods. This book shows how the making of pornographic films is a social process that draws on the fantasies, sexual scripts, and sexual identities of performers, writers, directors, and editors to produce sexually exciting videos and movies. Yet hardcore pornographic films have also created a body of knowledge that constitutes, in this digital age, an enormous archive of sexual fantasies that serve as both a form of sex education and self-help guides. Sex, Society, and the Making of Pornography focuses on sex and what can be learned about it from pornographic representations.
Sex Sounds: Vectors of Difference in Electronic Music
by Danielle Shlomit SoferAn investigation of sexual themes in electronic music since the 1950s, with detailed case studies of &“electrosexual music&” by a wide range of creators. In Sex Sounds, Danielle Shlomit Sofer investigates the repeated focus on sexual themes in electronic music since the 1950s. Debunking electronic music&’s origin myth—that it emerged in France and Germany, invented by Pierre Schaeffer and Karlheinz Stockhausen, respectively—Sofer defines electronic music more inclusively to mean any music with an electronic component, drawing connections between academic institutions, radio studios, experimental music practice, hip-hop production, and histories of independent and commercial popular music. Through a broad array of detailed case studies—examining music that ranges from Schaeffer&’s musique concrète to a video workshop by Annie Sprinkle—Sofer offers a groundbreaking look at the social and cultural impact sex has had on audible creative practices. Sofer argues that &“electrosexual music&” has two central characteristics: the feminized voice and the &“climax mechanism.&” Sofer traces the historical fascination with electrified sex sounds, showing that works representing women&’s presumed sexual experience operate according to masculinist heterosexual tropes, and presenting examples that typify the electroacoustic sexual canon. Noting electronic music history&’s exclusion of works created by women, people of color, women of color, and, in particular Black artists, Sofer then analyzes musical examples that depart from and disrupt the electroacoustic norms, showing how even those that resist the norms sometimes reinforce them. These examples are drawn from categories of music that developed in parallel with conventional electroacoustic music, separated—segregated—from it. Sofer demonstrates that electrosexual music is far more representative than the typically presented electroacoustic canon.
Sex, Tech, and Faith: Ethics for a Digital Age
by Kate OttA values-based, shame-free, pleasure-positive discussion of Christian ethics in response to a range of pressing issues in the digital age—including online pornography, dating apps, sexting, virtual-reality hookups, and sex robots.Digital innovation has rapidly changed the landscape of sexual experience in the twenty-first century. Rules-based sexual ethics, subscribed to by many Christians, are unable to keep up with new developments and, more often than not, seem effective at little other than generating shame.Progressive ethicist Kate Ott steps into this void with an expansive yet nuanced approach that prioritizes honesty and discernment over fear and judgment. Rather than producing a list of don&’ts, Ott considers the possibilities alongside the potential harm in everything from the use of internet porn to the practice of online dating to human-robot intimacy. With the aid of thought-provoking anecdotes and illuminating research, Ott invites readers to wrestle with the question of how to practice a just and flourishing sexuality in the digital age—and does so by drawing on core values of the Christian tradition.A rich resource for both individuals and groups, Sex, Tech, and Faith includes discussion questions at the end of each chapter for those considering these issues in community, as well as extensive youth study guides for parents, pastors, and teachers in need of age-appropriate means of beginning these difficult conversations with teens. Readers of all backgrounds and identities will be challenged to consider how their choices and habits in the digital world can lead to sexual health, wholeness, dignity, and fulfillment—for themselves and those in relationship with them.
Sex, Teens, and Everything in Between: The New and Necessary Conversations Today's Teenagers Need to Have about Consent, Sexual Harassment, Healthy Relationships, Love, and More
by Shafia ZaloomThe only book you need to start a conversation with your kids about sexual harassment, consent, #metoo, and moreMany American teens are steeped in a culture that sends unsettling messages about sex, through everything from politics to music to the normalization of porn. In today's environment, it's crucial that teens be able to ask hard questions about how to take care of themselves, make decisions that reflect their values, and stay safe. In Sex, Teens, and Everything in Between, veteran teen sex educator and mother of three Shafia Zaloom helps you discuss a wide variety of sex-related topics with your teens, including: How to get and give consent What it means to have "good" sex How to help prevent sexual harassment and assault How to stay safe in difficult situations The legal consequences of sexual harassment and assault, and what to do if a teen experiences assault or is accused of it Stories from survivors of sexual assaultApproachable, engaging, and with real-life scenarios and discussion questions in every chapter, Sex, Teens, and Everything in Between is a must-have resource that gives parents and educators the tools they need to have meaningful conversations with teens about what sex can and should be.
Sex Therapy: The Basics (The Basics)
by Cate CampbellSex Therapy: The Basics offers an introduction to modern sex therapy and is essential reading for anyone working professionally with sexual issues or just interested in sex. This book contains all you need to know to get started, find more information or learn how and when to refer. Current approaches to sex therapy are described, along with detailed interventions and approaches which address an array of sexual issues to bring qualified sex therapists up to date and introduce learners to the essentials. Helping the reader make informed choices about professional development and to find the most appropriate solutions for patients and clients, this book answers all your sex therapy questions. As well as being essential reading for those considering or interested in sex therapy, this book is a valuable resource for both trainee and experienced therapists, offering contemporary information and advice about assessing and treating a wide range of sexual problems.
Sex Therapy with Erotically Marginalized Clients: Nine Principles of Clinical Support
by Damon Constantinides Shannon Sennott Davis ChandlerSex Therapy with Erotically Marginalized Clients: Nine Principles of Clinical Support provides a clinical guide to relational sex therapy with individuals, partnerships, polyships, and alternative family structures where one or more of the clients are erotically marginalized. This term refers to people who are at risk of being pathologized and oppressed both outside and inside the clinical setting due to their gender identities, sexual orientations, or sexual practices. The book outlines nine principles for therapeutic practice which meet the needs of erotically marginalized clients, whose forms of sexuality and desire are rarely spoken about and for whom there is a dearth of language in therapeutic contexts. Each principle concludes with a series of ‘key points’ and then followed by illustrative clinical case studies, contributed by sex therapists and clinicians who self-identify as erotically marginalized and who also work with erotically marginalized clients. The book also provides a full glossary, ‘Defining Erotically Marginalized Identities’. The authors and case contributors use a radical and affirming lens to examine erotically marginalized identities that are often neglected. The book bridges gaps between the past, present, and future in the field of sex therapy and greatly expands the diversity of experiences and identities within the field, particularly the experience of multiple oppressions. The book marks a valuable contribution not only to sex therapists but to the wider clinical and therapeutic community.
Sex Therapy with Religious Patients: Working with Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Communities
by Caleb JacobsonSex Therapy with Religious Patients is a comprehensive guidebook for mental health professionals who work with those struggling with sexual issues within a religious context. The book provides practical guidance on how to approach sensitive topics related to sex and religion, including addressing religious beliefs and values that may impact sexual behavior, beliefs, and attitudes.Drawing on research and clinical experience, the book offers a range of evidence-based interventions for working with individuals from different Jewish, Christian, and Muslim backgrounds. It also explores the unique challenges and opportunities presented by patients’ religious beliefs and provides strategies for integrating spirituality into the therapeutic process.The book is written in an accessible and engaging style, with real-life case examples and exercises that can be used in therapy sessions. It is an essential resource for mental health professionals seeking to enhance their skills in working with religious individuals who are seeking sex therapy.
Sex, Time, and Power: How Women's Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution
by Leonard ShlainAs in the bestselling The Alphabet Versus the Goddess, Leonard Shlain’s provocative new book promises to change the way readers view themselves and where they came from. Sex, Time, and Power offers a tantalizing answer to an age-old question: Why did big-brained Homo sapiens suddenly emerge some 150,000 years ago? The key, according to Shlain, is female sexuality. Drawing on an awesome breadth of research, he shows how, long ago, the narrowness of the newly bipedal human female’s pelvis and the increasing size of infants’ heads precipitated a crisis for the species. Natural selection allowed for the adaptation of the human female to this environmental stress by reconfiguring her hormonal cycles, entraining them with the periodicity of the moon. The results, however, did much more than ensure our existence; they imbued women with the concept of time, and gave them control over sex—a power that males sought to reclaim. And the possibility of achieving immortality through heirs drove men to construct patriarchal cultures that went on to dominate so much of human history. From the nature of courtship to the evolution of language, Shlain’s brilliant and wide-ranging exploration stimulates new thinking about very old matters. .