What Do Women Want?: Adventures in the Science of Female Desire

“What Do Women Want? adds both steam and explosives into the national conversation-or preoccupation-with what it means to be a woman today.” — Vogue

Critically acclaimed journalist Daniel Bergner disseminates the latest scientific research and paints an unprecedented portrait of female lust: the triggers, the fantasies, the mind-body connection (and disconnection), the reasons behind the loss of libido, and, most revelatory, that this loss is not inevitable.

Bergner asks: Are women actually the less monogamous gender? Do women really crave intimacy and emotional connection? Are women more disposed to sex with strangers and multiple pairings than either science or society have ever let on? And is “the fairer sex” actually more sexually aggressive and anarchic than men?

While debunking the myths popularized by evolutionary psychology, Bergner also looks at the future of female sexuality. Pharmaceutical companies are pouring billions of dollars to develop a “Viagra” for women. But will it ever be released? Or are we not yet ready for a world in which women can become aroused at the simple popping of a pill?

Insightful and illuminating, What Do Women Want? is a deeper exploration of Daniel Bergner's provocative New York Times Magazine cover story; it will spark dynamic debates and discussions for years to come.

Critically acclaimed journalist Daniel Bergner turns everything we thought we knew about women's arousal and desire inside out. Drawing on extensive research and interviews with scientists and everyday women, he forces us to reconsider long-held notions about female sexuality.

As he explores the answers to a number of fascinating questions, Bergner debunks myths and looks at the future of female sexuality, including the possibility of a "female Viagra." He goes behind the scenes of some of the most groundbreaking experiments on sexuality today and confronts us with controversial, sometimes uncomfortable findings.

Incendiary, profoundly insightful, and brilliantly illuminating, What Do Women Want? will change the conversation about women and sex, and is sure to spark debate for years to come.

Praise for THE OTHER SIDE OF DESIRE: “Unsettling but riveting.... On one level, this book has all the elements of a top-rated HBO series -- provocatively graphic sex, humorous dialogue and moral ambiguity. But what makes it so powerful is that it’s as much about desire and what’s normal as it is an exploration of why we are the way we are, whether we like it or not.” - New York Times Book Review

“Bergner is the kind of author who is able to delve deeply into the darkest and most forbidden realms of the human psyche and behavior. By deftly blending curiosity and compassion in The Other Side of Desire, Bergner shows that, if he had not chosen a career as a journalist, he would have made an exceptionally good psychotherapist.” - San Francisco Chronicle

“Fully immersed in his subjects, Bergner elicits candor while keeping an ear out for those details that make subjects come to life.” - Time Out New York

“Bergner does what science cannot: He illuminates peculiar longings.” - Slate

“Girded with scientific data about the nature of sexual identity, The Other Side of Desire is a foray into extreme passion, in quest of the human soul.” - O, the Oprah Magazine

“Fascinating.... Threatens to disrupt all the modern stereotypes of female sexuality.”--Slate - Slate

Totally engrossing.”--New York magazine - New York magazine

“It’s everything you wanted to know about sex but didn’t know to ask..” - New York Post

“It’s everything you wanted to know about sex but didn’t know to ask. Daniel Bergner upends long-standing myths about women and sex—everything from nature of attraction and pursuit to prevalence of taboo fantasies to monogamy itself.” - New York Post

“What Do Women Want? adds both steam and explosives into the national conversation-or preoccupation-with what it means to be a woman today.” - Vogue

“Bergner lays out the history of this brainwashing and then debunks it in his entertaining new book, What do Women Want?. He recaps ingenious studies that have plumbed our desires, including those we deny or hide from ourselves.” - Elle

“This book should be read by every woman on earth... a must-read for anyone with even a remote erotic interest in the female gender.”--Salon.com - Salon.com

“...Shatters many of our most cherished myths about desire.”--The Atlantic - The Atlantic

“At last, we have a new perspective on the wilds of female desire, in rousing tableaux, as women, men, sexologists, bonobos, erotic gurus, and many others provide frank, vivid answers to the question that has haunted [us] for far too long: What do women want? The answer will fascinate all.” - Diane Ackerman, author of A Natural History of Love

“Daniel Bergner has written a keenly intelligent book about a subject that often exceeds our intelligence: What Do Women Want?” - Gay Talese

“Just as good as the various rave reviews promise.” - New York Observer

“Accessible and informative prose . . . this page-turning book will have readers questioning some of their most ingrained beliefs about women, men, society, and sex.” - Publishers Weekly