The Sex Myth

The Gap Between Our Fantasies and Reality

By: Rachel Hills

Narrated by: Callie Beaulieu

Fifty years after the sexual revolution, we are told that we live in a time of unprecedented sexual freedom: that if anything, we are too free now. But beneath the veneer of glossy hedonism, millennial journalist Rachel Hills argues, we are controlled by a new brand of sexual convention: one that influences all of us - woman or man, straight or gay, liberal or conservative. At the root of this silent code lies the sex myth - the defining significance we invest in sexuality that once meant we were dirty if we did have sex and now means we are defective if we don't do it enough.

Equal parts social commentary, pop culture, and powerful personal anecdotes from people across the English-speaking world, The Sex Myth exposes the invisible norms and unspoken assumptions that shape the way we think about sex today.

©2015 Rachel Hills (P)2015 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Here is a fresh voice and a welcome perspective, cutting through attitudes that are supposed to be progressive and liberating, but can too often oppress and stifle us just as effectively as older taboos." (Rebecca Traister, author of Big Girls Don't Cry)

Glad it was a woman who read (and wrote) this!

Very educational stuff, especially regarding how women label themselves within the structure of patriarchal society. Opened my eyes to how people are inundated throughout their lives regarding the do's and don'ts of being sexually active, regardless of orientation. Great read!

excellent information

I wish I had this information 20 or 30 years ago...I learned alot and found it to be priceless.

A Must-Read

What did you love best about The Sex Myth?

This book points out how the modern "sexually-liberated" ideals of our society and pop culture are scarcely different than the prudent, conservative ones from the past. Both ways of thinking, as Rachel Hills reveals, are just different means used by society to dictate how we have should have sex, whom we should have it with, how often we should be having it, etc. It is only when we realize that sex isn't some powerful force, either to be repressed or to be utilized, but just another thing that people do that we can actually be "free."