With Pleasure: Thoughts on the Nature of Human Sexuality

by Paul R. Abramson, Steven D. Pinkerton

Challenging everything from the mandates of the Catholic Church to the hotly debated ethics of pornography, and from the controversy surrounding gay rights to issues of gender and feminism, With Pleasure explores a new theory of human sexuality that ignites every hot topic in the public domain. What role, authors Paul Abramson and Steven Pinkerton ask, does sexual pleasure play in our lives? Is the pursuit of sexual enjoyment in our blood? Our brains? Our very nature? Regardless of the source, it can be agreed that the joys of sex are widely appreciated. Why, then, is pleasure so often overlooked in discussions of sexual behavior, and why do cultural, historical, and religious treatises so often fail to emphasize, or outright ignore, this obvious aspect of human sexuality?
Responding to these and many other questions about our most private affairs, With Pleasure provides a profoundly original challenge to the cherished truisms of human sexuality. Abramson and Pinkerton proclaim the paramount importance of pleasure, while at the same time overthrowing traditional ideas about gender, pornography, contraception, homosexuality, abortion, and much more. Supported by rigorous research, With Pleasure argues that human sexuality cannot be understood if its significance is limited to reproduction alone. The authors posit that in humans reproduction itself occurs as a byproduct of pleasure--not the other way around--and that it is the strong drive for pleasure that makes people overcome many obstacles--and even life-threatening dangers such as AIDS--to have sex. Ranging from discussions about the church to current debates about pornography, and from evolutionary theory to questions about the future of sex and pleasure, Abramson and Pinkerton argue persuasively
that the pleasurability of sex cannot be restricted to purely reproductive behavior.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Sexuality, Gender and Sexuality, Sociology

328 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Shamu Wilson · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF @ 20%. I have tried and failed to read this book maybe 4-5 times, and I am now finally admitting defeat. I never get past 20%. Super boring.

[Tori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, but a bit dry at times.
Some good quotes:
"erotophobia...is negatively correlated with success in college-level human sexuality classes"
"We have no memory for sexual pleasure (or any other sort of pleasure, for that matter)"
"Although analogies to the enslavement of black Americans may have symbolic value, they ultimately diminish the true meaning of slavery and emancipation. Not all forms of discrimination are alike."

[Melissa]

it's a great book for my psychology of human sexuality. it focuses on sex as pleasure and trying to reduce many sexual stigmas.

the author is my professor!

[Pixie · Rating 1 out of 5]

a book for people who experience guilt trips when having sex. if you're not one of them, throw away this pretentious piece of shit.