The Pleasure Gap

“A joy to read, and an important conversation about our right to pleasure: how we fake and perform, instead of value our actual sensations, cutting ourselves off from our own sexual enjoyment, which is our birthright. No one should deny themselves pleasure, nor the pleasure of this book, and its inevitable aftermath in their lives.”–Julie Holland, author of Moody Bitches: The Truth About the Drugs You’re Taking, the Sleep You’re Missing, the Sex You’re Not Having, and What’s Really Making You Crazy“If I could force everyone to read this book, I would. All of us, especially men who are confused about their partners’ sexual response, need it, and need it now.”–Eric Berkowitz, author of Sex and Punishment: Four Hundred Years of Judging Desire “In The Pleasure Gap, Katharine Rowland takes on a feminist issue that has not received the attention it deserves: the inequality between women and men in the fraught and intimate area of sexual pleasure. Well-written and deeply researched, this book illuminates a topic that has profound implications for women’s personal happiness and well-being.”–Elaine Tyler May, author of America and the Pill: A History of Promise, Peril, and Liberation“In The Pleasure Gap, Katherine Rowland takes a candid and unflinching look at the factors that drive sexual desire deficits for cis, heterosexual women. Sweeping away the cobwebs of dusty explanations for women’s ‘loss of sexual drive.’ … She closes the deal with the reader by offering frank insights into ways to close the gap, with a welcome focus on how we can mute the voices of our society and listen to our own bodies and minds.”–Emily Willingham, coauthor of The Informed Parent: A Science-Based Resource for Your Child’s First Four Years“Tasteful and open-minded … Rowland skillfully synthesizes many different ideas and approaches, and encourages women to embrace a broader understanding of their own sexual desire as an ongoing process of self-discovery and self-assertion.”–Publishers Weekly

Katherine Rowland was previously the publisher of Guernica. She was a National Science Foundation fellow in medical anthropology at Columbia University and an assistant to a clinical sex therapist at Memorial Sloan Kettering. Her writing has been featured in Nature, the Financial Times, Green Futures, the Guardian, the Independent, Aeon, Psychology Today and elsewhere. Rowland lives in New York.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.