Orgasmic Bodies The Orgasm in Contemporary Western Culture [Paperback]

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. Engaging with both science and popular culture it examines the meanings given to orgasmic bodies in contemporary heterosex.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
Endnotes

'Hannah Frith's outstanding examination of the historical, biological and cultural 'meanings' of heterosexual orgasm exposes our deep-seated assumptions, prevailing anxieties and hopeful pleasures regarding orgasms. Eloquently reviewing the different theoretical approaches attempting to 'make sense' of this intimate embodied experience (from Freud and Masters and Johnston to feminist poststructuralist theory and even covering the new biomedical push to market 'pink Viagra'), Frith's 'orgasm is not a 'natural act''. She cleverly demonstrates how popular cultural texts such as Cosmo and Men's Health, which claim to 'inform' readers about the 'truths' of female and male orgasmic experience, actually do more to highlight the inconsistencies and uncertainties of people's understandings and experiences of sexual pleasure. Indeed, Frith's analysis reveals how much 'work' and what kinds of 'performances' must go into producing 'authentic' and 'faux' orgasms in heterosexual contexts. Importantly, Hannah Frith brings previous scholarship on the orgasmic imperative up to date by turning to the pleasures of the new neoliberal postfeminist female sexual subject. Written in a beautifully accessible and engaging way, Orgasml“ž