Why Women Have Sex: Understanding Sexual Motivations from Adventure to Revenge (and Everything in Between)
Selected Book Details
- Hardcover
- Author: Cindy M. Meston, David M. Buss
- Publisher: Times Books
- Release Date: September 2009
- ISBN-10: 0805088342
- ISBN-13: 9780805088342
- List Price: $25.00
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Summaries and Customer Reviews provided by Amazon
SummaryAn 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. |
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
The Latest Survey on Sex
Rating:
This "never-before-reported study of why women have sex was conducted online between June 2006 and April 2009.....The survey began by asking the women if they had ever had sex for one of the 237 reasons we identified in our original study." The study involved 1,006 women from a variety of backgrounds.
"The basic biochemistry of attraction is the number one reason women give for why they have sex." Women unconsciously utilize two types of evolutionary instincts to seek out and find their mates--they are "Genetic benefits" that "are the high-quality genes that can endow a woman's children with a better ability to survive and reproduce." "'Resource benefits,' are the second type that include food, shelter from the hostile forces of nature, and physical protection from aggressive men, help a woman and her children survive and thrive."
This is a fascinating non-fiction book. It's full of information that most readers will never have even imagined. One of the book's first examples of this is "the scent of sexiness." Women's sense of smell enables them to help select their best possible mates by the odor of the males "pheromones." A male's scent enables women to identify good hygiene and clues to the male's immune system and body symmetry and whether mating with them will produce superior offspring.
That's only a tiny sample of the fascinating information supplied by this book. What will surprise many readers is many of the secondary 236 reason's women have sex. This book also seems to prove that sex can greatly relieve stress and also cure many of women's headaches. Surprise, surprise-the fact seems exactly opposite of the public's beliefs.
Women also have sex to gain or regain self-respect, to gain status, to be popular, to attract a mate and sometimes just because she wants to find out "what all the fuss is about." Loneliness, revenge, charity, to protect their partner from other predatory women, and simple boredom are also important reasons. This book should be required reading for women because of the insights it provides them into human sexuality and motivation, but it's also fascinating information for males. Once a man understands the information in this book he will become a much more successful sexual partner with much happier partner(s).
The book includes excellent notes, sources and a good index. Somewhat surprising to this reviewer, the book is definitely a page-turner. It's excellent.
This book will also help readers of another recently published book by Eve Kingsley that I can't name unless I don't want this review published. It is listed on the Amazon listing for this book as a possible combination purchase as well as separately. The Kingsley book is also fascinating, but this book helps explains the thought processes behind its subject matter. I'd suggest the reader refer to my review of the Kingsley tome, but Amazon, or it's computer programs(?) doesn't seem to allow any reader reviews of it to be published?
Interesting, thought provoking
Rating: 
Very interesting book, in part because of the references. It covers a lot of ground, and mentions a number of studies, so that if you run across one that is of particular interest, you can go find it. That way you don't get bogged down reading about the areas that are not of much interest. Much of it may be things you've already thought about, but there are sure to be some "motive" that haven't crossed your mind, and when you read those, it will make you think, "Oh, yeah, that's why she did that." Of course, I'm reading from a male point of view- women may see it differently.
Wonderful book!
Rating:
I absolutely loved it! Very well written; I thought it was academic, in an intellectual sense, and incredibly readable. Very entertaining read. It is amazing how science can take the best out of the most fun things- the fun part. I thought the book was a nice balance between reading for enjoyment and reading to learn something new.
And Kudos to Dr. Meston for studying female sexuality.
Tame for this author
Rating:
I love David Buss, who I consider one of the fathers of evolutionary psychology (EP). This, though, is not one of his best. Basically, he gives an EP gloss to what seems to be a Shere-Hite-like survey of sexual behavior.
There was very little that was new here. If you've never been exposed to EP before, you'll love it. If you have, though ... That said, it is a good compilation of all the research on a particular topic. There are some good monographs like this one out there these days - Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior, The Murderer Next Door: Why the Mind Is Designed to Kill, etc.
One thing that I did not like at all about this book was the emphasis on research subjects who are college students. Every little blurb seemed to be from a female age 19, 23, 21, 25, 20, etc. Very typical of academic research. It just doesn't fit the subject matter for this one though. There's a lot to learn about sex after college. ;^)
Read it for the general knowledge; read it to understand; read it to relate - just read it
Rating:
Every now and again a book crosses my desk for review that goes well beyond my likes or dislikes. `Why Women Have Sex' is such a book. You'll like it. Or, at least, I can't imagine the `you' who wouldn't. But better even that that, this is a book you *should* read, and that includes you - the woman, the man, the married, the single... in short anyone who has a curiosity or vested interest in women's sexuality.
On a topic that can easily be taboo or overly clinical, Drs. Meston and Buss, labored over a years-long study into why women have sex. The 237 reasons they found sparked a research paper that's been laid out brilliantly for regular people. It's fascinating and funny; revealing and confirming. And it's likely not what you think.
Get the book, by all means, and if you'd like to know a bit more, the good doctors took the time to speak with me for PsychJourney dot com in a wonderful interview on a few issues related to, `Why Women Have Sex.' Look us up!
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