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Oedipus Revisited: Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male Today
Librarian note: An alternative cover for this ISBN can be found here.
Challenging the standard Freudian interpretation of the Oedipus myth, this study, based on a decade of research, offers a revolutionary framework for understanding modern masculinity. All aspects of contemporary male sexuality are discussed, including how men relate to their fathers, sexual partners, coworkers, and society at large. Topics such as the metrosexual male, the aging male, and homosexuality are also explored. Drawing conclusions from more than 10,000 interviews with men in all parts of the world, the common notions of masculinity are overturned and it is posited that every young boy is pressured by society not to merely separate from his mother at puberty, but also to reject and humiliate her--often in a public or ritualized manner. She then explores how the legacy of this betrayal is later manifested in violence and discrimination against women. As with her previous groundbreaking studies, every issue is tackled head-on, including sexual behavior, violence, female sexuality, masturbation, and religious fundamentalism.
Challenging the standard Freudian interpretation of the Oedipus myth, this study, based on a decade of research, offers a revolutionary framework for understanding modern masculinity. All aspects of contemporary male sexuality are discussed, including how men relate to their fathers, sexual partners, coworkers, and society at large. Topics such as the metrosexual male, the aging male, and homosexuality are also explored. Drawing conclusions from more than 10,000 interviews with men in all parts of the world, the common notions of masculinity are overturned and it is posited that every young boy is pressured by society not to merely separate from his mother at puberty, but also to reject and humiliate her--often in a public or ritualized manner. She then explores how the legacy of this betrayal is later manifested in violence and discrimination against women. As with her previous groundbreaking studies, every issue is tackled head-on, including sexual behavior, violence, female sexuality, masturbation, and religious fundamentalism.
184 pages, Hardcover
First published February 16, 2006
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79 people want to read
About the author
Shere Hite
51 books83 followersShere Hite (born November 2, 1942, Saint Joseph, Missouri) is an American-born German[1] sex educator and feminist. Her sexological work has focused primarily on female sexuality. Hite builds upon biological studies of sex by Masters and Johnson and by Alfred Kinsey. She also references theoretical, political and psychological works associated with the feminist movement of the 1970s, such as Anne Koedt's The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm. After attacks on herself and her work, she renounced her United States citizenship in 1995 to become German.
Hite graduated from Seabreeze High School in Daytona Beach, Florida. She received a masters degree in history from the University of Florida in 1967. She then moved to New York City and enrolled at Columbia University to work toward her Ph.D. in social history. Hite attributes the non-completion of this degree to the conservative nature of Columbia at that time. She later completed a Ph.D. at Nihon University (Tokyo, Japan) and another Ph.D. in clinical sexology at Maimonides University, North Miami Beach, Florida.
Shere Hite has focused on understanding how individuals regard sexual experience and the meaning it holds for them. Hite has criticised Masters and Johnson's work for uncritically incorporating cultural attitudes on sexual behaviour into their research. For example, Hite's work showed that 70% of women do not have orgasms through in-out, thrusting intercourse but are able to achieve orgasm easily by masturbation or other direct clitoral stimulation. Only 30% of the women in her study reported ever experiencing orgasm during thrusting intercourse. She has criticised Masters and Johnson's argument that enough clitoral stimulation to achieve orgasm should be provided by thrusting during intercourse, and the inference that the failure of this is a sign of female "sexual dysfunction." Whilst not denying that both Kinsey and Masters and Johnson have been a crucial step in sex research, she believes that we must understand the cultural and personal construction of sexual experience to make the research relevant to sexual behaviour outside the laboratory. She offered the criticism that limiting test subjects to "normal" women who report orgasming during coitus was basing research on the faulty assumption that having an orgasm during coitus was typical, something that her own research strongly refuted.
Hite graduated from Seabreeze High School in Daytona Beach, Florida. She received a masters degree in history from the University of Florida in 1967. She then moved to New York City and enrolled at Columbia University to work toward her Ph.D. in social history. Hite attributes the non-completion of this degree to the conservative nature of Columbia at that time. She later completed a Ph.D. at Nihon University (Tokyo, Japan) and another Ph.D. in clinical sexology at Maimonides University, North Miami Beach, Florida.
Shere Hite has focused on understanding how individuals regard sexual experience and the meaning it holds for them. Hite has criticised Masters and Johnson's work for uncritically incorporating cultural attitudes on sexual behaviour into their research. For example, Hite's work showed that 70% of women do not have orgasms through in-out, thrusting intercourse but are able to achieve orgasm easily by masturbation or other direct clitoral stimulation. Only 30% of the women in her study reported ever experiencing orgasm during thrusting intercourse. She has criticised Masters and Johnson's argument that enough clitoral stimulation to achieve orgasm should be provided by thrusting during intercourse, and the inference that the failure of this is a sign of female "sexual dysfunction." Whilst not denying that both Kinsey and Masters and Johnson have been a crucial step in sex research, she believes that we must understand the cultural and personal construction of sexual experience to make the research relevant to sexual behaviour outside the laboratory. She offered the criticism that limiting test subjects to "normal" women who report orgasming during coitus was basing research on the faulty assumption that having an orgasm during coitus was typical, something that her own research strongly refuted.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 6, 2015
Maybe you had to be a man to read this, but it left me cold and I'd thought it might be spicy and make me hot!
February 4, 2012
Really 2.5 stars, but I didn't like it enough to give it 3. A lot of this book was an interesting read, and the author poses some good ideas, but there was too much in it that annoyed me for me to rate it any higher. Mainly three things: 1) I felt she generalised far too much about things not necessarily answered by her survey and didn't provide any evidence to back these generalisations up. 2) Too much repetition. This book could have been half the length. Occasionally I'd read a sentence or two and realise I'd read the exact same sentence just a page or two before, or a chapter before. Sometimes she didn't seem to answer the questions she posed, just repeated things she'd already stated. And 3) being just plain scientifically wrong over some things. I didn't pay too much attention to the footnotes, but the one chapter I looked at, she gave two incorrect scientific "facts". One of these was a "correction" to a man who in the survey had actually got the thing right. I can understand getting obscure scientific facts incorrect, but some of the things she got wrong were basic facts that a secondary-school student could tell you.
Overall this was interesting but sloppily written and too long. Maybe good as a first draft.
Overall this was interesting but sloppily written and too long. Maybe good as a first draft.
April 30, 2014
An interesting perspective into the sexual behaviour of men, what they feel, think, the pressure put on them "to perform."
The author has exhaustively researched her topic and includes so many issues and topics and even uses historical and Biblical references to highlight the role of men and women and our sexual behaviour and attitudes through the ages.
Thought provoking and overall a fascinating read and though this volume is aimed I think by the title at a male audience as a sort of "self help" book it raises issues that affect women and many society precepts and traditions aimed at how women are viewed sexually so this can be of value and interest to both audiences.
Well worth reading.
The author has exhaustively researched her topic and includes so many issues and topics and even uses historical and Biblical references to highlight the role of men and women and our sexual behaviour and attitudes through the ages.
Thought provoking and overall a fascinating read and though this volume is aimed I think by the title at a male audience as a sort of "self help" book it raises issues that affect women and many society precepts and traditions aimed at how women are viewed sexually so this can be of value and interest to both audiences.
Well worth reading.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews