Author Description

This text explores female heterosexuality from a historical perspective. It argues that the so-called mass media is currently way ahead of theory in terms of recognition of women's diverse desires and pleasures. In both psychoanalytic and sexological writing, there appears to be an assumption that a woman who wants sex, particularly bad or slutty sex, is in some way masculine - that she identifies with men rather than women. This assumption is reproduced in feminist writing which sees a sexually active woman as either duped or colluding with the oppressor.