Research Catalog

Orgasmic bodies : the orgasm in contemporary Western culture

Title
Orgasmic bodies : the orgasm in contemporary Western culture / Hannah Frith.
Author
Frith, Hannah, 1971-
Publication
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York, NY : Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.

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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextUse in library JFD 15-4138Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315

Details

Description
x, 192 pages; 23 cm
Summary
"Engaging both with science and popular culture, this book examines the meanings given to orgasmic bodies in contemporary heterosex. Starting from the assumption that orgasm is not a 'natural' or pre-social experience, Orgasmic Bodies argues that the meaning of 'orgasmic experience' must be learned - sometimes through explicit pedagogical instruction which is wrapped up in gendered ideologies. Despite detailed attention to 'knowing' the orgasmic body, especially the female body, embodied experience remains ambiguous and ineffable even as scientific and lay discourses seek to make it concrete and unmistakable. The dominance of an 'orgasmic imperative' where orgasm is essential to 'good sex', combined with evidence that women experience fewer orgasms than men, generates differing obligations to produce, work on, and enact, orgasm. Orgasmic Bodies explores how bodily experiences of orgasm are worked up as present/absent, complicated/straightforward, too slow/too fast, fake or real, in the doing of masculinities and femininities"--
Subject
  • Orgasm
  • Sex
  • Female orgasm
  • Women > Sexual behavior
  • PSYCHOLOGY / Human Sexuality
  • PSYCHOLOGY / Social Psychology
  • SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / Marriage & Family
  • SOCIAL SCIENCE / Pornography
  • SOCIAL SCIENCE / Media Studies
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (pages 172-190) and index.
Contents
1. What Is An Orgasm and Why Does It Matter? -- 2. The Orgasmic Imperative -- 3. Complicated Women, Straightforward Men -- 4. Coming Together: The Timing Of Orgasm -- 5. Orgasmic Labour: Training The Body For Orgasmic Success -- 6. Performing Orgasm: Blurring The 'Real' and the 'Fake' -- 7. Embodying Orgasmic Sensation -- 8. The Climax: Conclusions and Reflections -- Appendicies.
Call Number
JFD 15-4138
ISBN
  • 9781137304360 (paperback)
  • 1137304367 (paperback)
  • 9781137304353 (hardback)
  • 1137304359 (hardback)
LCCN
2015002359
OCLC
900031271
Author
Frith, Hannah, 1971- author.
Title
Orgasmic bodies : the orgasm in contemporary Western culture / Hannah Frith.
Publisher
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York, NY : Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
Type of Content
text
Type of Medium
unmediated
Type of Carrier
volume
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 172-190) and index.
Research Call Number
JFD 15-4138
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