The Etherized Wife

Privilege and Power in Sex Therapy Discourse

Leslie Margolin

Provides a comprehensive, historical examination of sex therapy case studies
Suggests specific linkages between sex therapy and women's oppression
Features examples of sex therapy conducted in an egalitarian, non-oppressive way

The Etherized Wife

Privilege and Power in Sex Therapy Discourse

Leslie Margolin

Description

The Etherized Wife seeks to provide a comprehensive examination of the evolution of sex therapy through the prism of gender. It focuses, in particular, on how sex therapists "treat" women's sexual problems, arguing that these practices have actually enshrined male sexuality and supremacy by advocating for heterosexual intercourse as the pinnacle of a healthy sex life. It holds that in sex, like other domains of life in which men set the standard of normality, women have been judged normal to the degree they match men's expectations.

To support these claims, Margolin maps a series of case studies drawn from the sex therapy literature--the articles and books that have been, and continue to be treated as exemplar's of the discipline's collective consciousness. Through examination of case studies which focus on discrepancies in sexual desire, where the male partner wants more sex and the female wants less, the book shows how therapists have favored the male's side. The Etherized Wife shows how the sex therapy discipline has upheld male sexuality as the model of normal, natural, healthy sexuality.

The Etherized Wife

Privilege and Power in Sex Therapy Discourse

Leslie Margolin

Introduction

Part 1: Sex Therapy Pre-history

1. Freud, Dora, and Compulsory Sexuality
2. The Frigidity Epidemic

Part 2: Birth of Sex Therapy

3. Masters and Johnson, and the Primacy of Intercourse
4. Male Identification
5. Docile Bodies

Part 3: Contemporary Sex Therapy

6. Doublethink
7. Men's Free Will
8. Women's Duty
9. Sex Therapy without Male Privilege and Power
10. Discontinuities, Deviations, and Reversals
11. Conclusion

Notes
Bibliography
Index

The Etherized Wife

Privilege and Power in Sex Therapy Discourse

Leslie Margolin

Author Information

Leslie Margolin is a professor of rhetoric, sexuality, and counselling at the University of Iowa. Margolin's previous books include Goodness Personified: The Emergence of Gifted Children and Under the Cover of Kindness: The Invention of Social Work.

The Etherized Wife

Privilege and Power in Sex Therapy Discourse

Leslie Margolin

Reviews and Awards

"This is a book everyone should read because it addresses common misconceptions concerning sexual desire. I think anyone who reads the book — if they really think about the content--will be changed in how they view sexuality including their own." -- Eileen Gambrill, Professor of the Graduate School, School of Social Welfare, University of California at Berkeley

"In The Etherized Wife, Les Margolin offers brilliant, pro-feminist insights into the role of sex therapy in reinforcing normative sex roles through its entrenched imposition of phallogocentric standards on women's sexuality. Lucidly written, deeply theorized, historically grounded, and analytically adept, this book signals a welcome and radical paradigm shift in counseling therapy, theories of sexuality, and feminist studies - one with the potential for a progressive transformation, not just of therapeutic practice, but of society." -- Meenakshi Gigi Durham, University of Iowa