Why Women Have Sex: Understanding Sexual Motivation - From Adventure to Revenge (And Everything in Between) by Cindy M. Meston, David M. Buss

From the Publisher

An unparalleled exploration of the mysteries underlying women’s sexuality that rivals the culture-shifting Kinsey Report, from two of America’s leading research psychologists

Do women have sex simply to reproduce or display their affection? When University of Texas at Austin clinical psychologist Cindy M. Meston and evolutionary psychologist David M. Buss joined forces to investigate the underlying sexual motivations of women, what they found astonished them.

Through the voices of real women, Meston and Buss reveal the motivations that guide women’s sexual decisions and explain the deep-seated psychology and biology that often unwittingly drive women’s desires—sometimes in pursuit of health or pleasure, or sometimes for darker, disturbing reasons that a woman may not fully recognize. Drawing on more than a thousand intensive interviews conducted solely for the book, as well as their pioneering research on physiological response and evolutionary emotions, Why Women Have Sex uncovers an amazingly complex and nuanced portrait of female sexuality. They delve into the use of sex as a defensive tactic against a mate’s infidelity (protection), as a ploy to boost self-confidence (status), as a barter for gifts or household chores (resource acquisition), or as a cure for a migraine headache (medication).

Why Women Have Sex stands as the richest and deepest psychological understanding of female sexuality yet achieved and promises to inform every woman’s (and her partner’s) awareness of her relationship to sex and her sexuality.

Publishers Weekly

Bringing together some of the interesting (and some not so interesting) research on women and sex, the author explain how Brown University researchers found that how someone smells is the single most important factor in a woman's choice of lover; Brazilian researchers discovered that women are aroused by men with whom they are genetically compatible. Collating such findings with their own online survey of 1,000 women of diverse backgrounds, the coauthors, psychology professors at the University of Texas at Austin, also discovered that women are sexually motivated by self-confident partners with a good sense of humor. Some women have sex out of feelings of obligation or revenge, to satisfy their curiosity, gain experience and enhance their self-esteem. Sexual activity can also provide health benefits—to relieve migraines and menstrual cramps, reduce the risk of endometriosis and prevent age-related vaginal atrophy. Although solidly researched, this book often treads familiar terrain and comes to fairly obvious conclusions. such as that women have sex to give or get love or a feeling of emotional connection and to enjoy the sensations of sexual arousal and orgasm. (Oct.)

Library Journal

What do women want? According to University of Texas at Austin psychology professors Meston (director, Sexual Psychophysiology Lab) and Buss (The Evolution of Desire), this is a perplexing question, particularly with respect to sex. In 11 chapters, they provide the answers generated by clinical research and survey responses from 1,006 women aged 18 through 86 in the United States, Canada, Germany, Belgium, France, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, and China. Interspersing quotations from the survey with state-of-the-art research, Meston and Buss demonstrate the surprising span of relevant motivating factors. They conclude that women want sex for the following reasons: pleasure, emotional and spiritual connection, the thrill of conquest, a means of guarding a mate or trading up, a sense of adventure, health rewards, to fulfill a sense of duty or responsibility, to bolster body image, and desire for sexual punishment, cruelty, and violence. VERDICT This study will intrigue and inform students and readers of Havelock Ellis, William Masters and Virginia E. Johnson, and Alfred Kinsey.—Lynne F. Maxwell, Villanova Univ. Sch. of Law Lib., PA

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