Sexual Fluidity: Understanding Women's Love And Desire

Description

This unsettling and original book offers a radical new understanding of the context-dependent nature of female sexuality. Lisa Diamond argues that for some women, love and desire are not rigidly heterosexual or homosexual but fluid, changing as women move through the stages of life, various social groups, and, most important, different love relationships. "[Diamond] delves into the brain science behind lust, love and infatuation, revealing that what draws women toward a particular partner is as much a function of biology as it is anything else... With her compassionate, understated approach, she has stepped up the business of gender research." - Lily Burana, Washington Post Book World "Captivating, nuanced, and rigorous... Diamond's work is vital precisely because sexual fluidity is not a new concept - Freud called his version 'polymorphous perversity' - but merely one that is typically dismissed. Nor is it news to women, particularly not to a generation for whom a nonspecific 'queer' affiliation, or no affiliation at all, is increasingly common. What is so important is not that this fluidity exists, but that someone has finally paid it systematic attention and found that it is in fact not the exception, but may well be the rule." - Hanne Blank, Ms.

Author description

Lisa M. Diamond is Associate Professor of Psychology and Gender Studies at the University of Utah.