In her new book, Women, Sex, Power & Pleasure, Evelyn Resh, a sexuality counselor and certified nurse-midwife, takes an innovative approach to helping women create the lives – and sex lives – they want. With a funny and compassionate, yet tell-it-like-it-is style, she looks at the relationship between feeling powerful in life and accessing life’s pleasures, and their combined effect on sexual desire. Resh introduces six essential qualities that women must have to live healthfully, stating that when these are out of balance women seem to exist in lives devoid of pleasure, self-empowerment, and sex. These markers of emotional well-being are: • Self-confidence and self-esteem • Healthy Habits • Spiritual Satisfaction • Creativity • Self-assurance/re-assurance • Compassion and Empathy Once the six traits are laid out, Resh devotes the rest of the book to exploring how, when one or more of a woman’s markers of emotional well-being are off kilter, their reasons for avoiding sex mount exponentially. She looks at some of the most common excuses she’s heard over her many years as a sexuality counselor – I Feel Nothing, It’s All He Thinks About, I’m Too Busy!, I’m Too Fat to Have Sex – and outlines the specific imbalances that create this void of sexual desire and activity. With practical guidance, self-assessment questions, and stories from her practice and personal life, Resh explains to modern women how to regain their emotional wellness and live a powerful life that includes a steady relationship with pleasure and sexual satisfaction. This book is a must read for all women. From housewives to sophisticated urban corporate types, from new moms to post-menopausal women – this book will help any woman who feels estranged from her sexual energy and a sense of empowerment, and deprived of pleasure, or who views sex as just another thing to tick off her overwhelming to-do list.

Text lust -- Body and erotic power -- Heterosexuality: contested ground --Lesbianism: a country that has no language --Bisexuality: coping with sexual boundaries -- Pornography: not for men only -- Imagining desire -- Pleasure and ethics.

This pioneering collection explores the ways in which positive, pleasure-focused approaches to sexuality can empower women. Gender and development has tended to engage with sexuality only in relation to violence and ill-health. Although this has been hugely important in challenging violence against women, over-emphasizing these negative aspects has dovetailed with conservative ideologies that associate women’s sexualities with danger and fear. On the other hand, the media, the pharmaceutical industry, and pornography more broadly celebrate the pleasures of sex in ways that can be just as oppressive, often implying that only certain types of people - young, heterosexual, able-bodied, HIV-negative - are eligible for sexual pleasure. Women, Sexuality and the Political Power of Pleasure brings together challenges to these strictures and exclusions from both the South and North of the globe, with examples of activism, advocacy and programming which use pleasure as an entry point. It shows how positive approaches to pleasure and sexuality can enhance equality and empowerment for all.

Winner, Sociology of the Body and Embodiment Best Publication Award, given by the American Sociological Association Honorable Mention, 2021 Sexualities Section Book Award, given by the American Sociological Association The first inside look at how sex workers use webcams to make a living The erotic webcam industry, also known as “camming,” is a thriving global business. Angela Jones takes readers inside this multi-billion dollar industry, revealing how its workers experience intimacy, community, empowerment—and, as she compellingly argues, pleasure. Drawing on in-depth interviews, survey data, web analytics, and more, Jones highlights not only the dangers, but also the rewards, of working in one of the most taboo corners of the Internet. She provides an inside look at the public and private shows between cam models and their customers, from exotic dancing and pornographic videos, to masturbation shows and erotic chatrooms. A fascinating, much-needed glimpse into the lives of cam models, Camming takes us behind the webcam lens to experience the power of erotic labor in the twenty-first century.

Riane Eisler shows us how history has consistently promoted the link between sex and violence—and how we can sever this link and move to a politics of partnership rather than domination in all our relations.

Text lust -- Body and erotic power -- Heterosexuality: contested ground --Lesbianism: a country that has no language --Bisexuality: coping with sexual boundaries -- Pornography: not for men only -- Imagining desire -- Pleasure and ethics.

This best-selling book is for anyone who wants to experience intimate, powerful lovemaking without anxiety or pressure. It starts with the first principle of intimacy: to experience deep sexual pleasure, you must explore and enjoy-openly and sensually enjoy-basic human touch and caressing. This approach is also unique because it encourages you to focus on your own sexual desire rather than looking for ways to please your partner. Being more in touch with your own enjoyment will lead naturally to greater passion, sensitivity, and pleasure for both partners. Sexual Pleasure takes the reader through a series of stimulating exercises, done alone and with a partner, to increase sensual awareness and experience sexual ecstasy. These exercises can be used by people of any sexual orientation, and by those who may have physical limitations, or who are just learning about their sexuality-anyone seeking the secrets of strong and fulfilling sex.