Full Description
Hard to Get is a powerful and intimate examination of the sex and love lives of the most liberated women in history - twenty-something American women who have had more opportunities, more positive role models, and more information than any previous generation. Drawing from her years of experience as a researcher and a psychotherapist, Leslie C. Bell takes us directly into the lives of young women who struggle to negotiate the complexities of sexual desire and pleasure, and to make sense of their historically unique but contradictory constellation of opportunities and challenges. In candid interviews, Bell's subjects reveal that, despite having more choices than ever, they face great uncertainty about desire, sexuality, and relationships. Ground-breaking and highly readable, Hard to Get offers fascinating insights into the many ways that sex, love, and satisfying relationships prove surprisingly elusive to these young women as they navigate the new emotional landscape of the 21st century.
Contents
Acknowledgments 1. The Paradox of Sexual Freedom Part I. The Sexual Woman 2. The New Taboo: Katie 3. The Bad Girl: Jayanthi 4. A Pill to Kill Desire: Claudia Part II. The Relational Woman 5. The Good Girl: Alicia 6. On Not Having It All: Phoebe Part III. The Desiring Woman 7. How Does She Do It? Maria and Susan 8. Maybe She's Born with It: Sophia and Jeanette 9. Conclusion: What's a Modern Woman to Do? Appendix I. Splitting Appendix II. Clinical Interviewing Appendix III. Demographic Information about Respondents Notes References Index
