Author(s): Dr Ellwood-Clayton

Religon

For many women an active sex life is on the bottom of their 'must have' list. What's happened to their sexual urges? Is it a medical issue, or a matter of competing priorities? One of Australia's leading sexual anthropologists investigates. Is women's sexual desire in the western world at an all time low? When it comes to women's priorities, is sex on top? Recent studies tell us that lack of libido is women's most common sexual problem and that once in a secure relationship, women's sex drive begins to plummet. So, what's going on? Sexual anthropologist Dr Bella Ellwood-Clayton explores sexuality as it relates to body image, parenting, ageing, depression and the wear and tear of relationships. Traversing historical thought and contemporary culture, she argues that women are experiencing a mind-body disconnect in which they don't want sex because they don't feel sexy. At a time when women's libidos are being threatened by the wider forces of media, marketing and medication and our increasingly pressured work-places and lives, who can blame them? Sex Drive explores what our libido is, how it works, and why it is being depleted. Increasing numbers of women with 'low libido' are being diagnosed as sexually dysfunctional, but the definition doctors are using come from pharmaceutical company-funded research. With the race on to create a 'pink Viagra', a sex drug for women, the state of our sexual wellbeing is under siege. Bella examines the designer drugs Oprah and others are advocating that bottle youth and sex drive. Dr Bella asks: do we have unrealistic expectations about our sex drive, who defines what is normal and abnormal, and could 'low libido' in fact be the natural order of things? Perhaps it's not that we're sexually depleted or that our libido is 'low', but that our creative, vibrant energy is being directed elsewhere. Authoritative and engaging, Sex Drive: In pursuit of female desire is both fascinating reading and a book that is creating passionate debate.