Main 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.

Contents:

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