The Sex Myth
The Gap Between Our Fantasies and Reality
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
From a bold new feminist voice, a book that will change the way you think about your sex life.
Fifty years after the sexual revolution, we are told that we live in a time of unprecedented sexual freedom; that if anything, we are too free now. But beneath the veneer of glossy hedonism, millennial journalist Rachel Hills argues that we are controlled by a new brand of sexual convention: one which influences all of us—woman or man, straight or gay, liberal or conservative. At the root of this silent code lies the Sex Myth—the defining significance we invest in sexuality that once meant we were dirty if we did have sex, and now means we are defective if we don’t do it enough.
Equal parts social commentary, pop culture, and powerful personal anecdotes from people across the English-speaking world, The Sex Myth exposes the invisible norms and unspoken assumptions that shape the way we think about sex today.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
New York based Australian journalist Hills explores the sex lives of Millennials across the English-speaking world in this incisive look at contemporary sexual realities. According to Hills, media hype and other factors have created a "myth" of hypersexual young adults who measure their worth by how often they hook up. Drawing from research, an informal survey, conversations with 200 men and women (primarily those in their 20s), and more than a thousand emails, Hills tells a different story: plenty of Millennials aren't extraordinarily active sexually, yet those who aren't often worry that they are somehow abnormal. Borders between "normal" and "deviant" sexual behaviors have been redrawn over time: once, "too much" sex was considered abnormal; now, "not enough" is considered a problem. In numerous interviews, Hills shares the intimate details of her subjects' lives, examining how they feel about themselves as they encounter, explore, and come to terms with their sexual identities. Hills calls for another bold change in cultural attitudes toward sex, arguing that in order for upcoming generations to be truly sexually empowered and liberated, they must first reject mistaken ideas linking sexual prowess and frequency to one's overall value as a human being.