59 Non fiction books about sexuality

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex is a 2008 book by Mary Roach. It follows the winding history of science and its exploration of human sexuality, going back as far as Aristotle and finally ending with recent discoveries about the origination and anatomy of the female orgasm. Throughout, Mary Roach provides a humorous and often very personal view—both as a participant and observer—of humans, scientists, animals, and sex machines. Of the book's numerous accounts, Roach discusses artificial insemination of sows in Denmark, the notorious history of sex machines, as well as providing commentary on Kinsey's notorious attic sex experiments. Her footnotes provide additional humor: as in a sentence that includes several DSM diagnoses listed as acronyms, she adds, "And from HAFD ". In the book, Roach describes a session in which she and her husband, Ed, volunteer to have sex while being recorded by a groundbreaking 4D ultrasound, in the interests of science. During the experiment, a doctor looks on, making suggestions, and finally telling Ed that he "may ejaculate now".

Bringing Down the Colonel: A Sex Scandal of the Gilded Age, and the "Powerless" Woman Who Took On Washington is a 2018 book by Patricia Miller, a journalist for Religion Dispatches. The book describes the late-19th century political sex scandal between Kentucky politician William Breckinridge and Madeline Pollard, a student. It details the affair and subsequent legal battle over Breckinridge's breach of contract, and discusses the resulting change in public opinion towards women and sex.

Deal With It! A Whole New Approach to Your Body, Brain, and Life as a gURL is a 1999 teen advice and sex education book written by Esther Drill, Heather McDonald, and Rebecca Odes, the creators of the American website Gurl.com. Using the same format of the original website, the book was published by Pocket Books and released on September 1, 1999.

Hannah Lisa Witton is an English YouTuber, broadcaster, and author. Witton creates video blogs and informational content which is mostly based around relationships, sex and sexual health; liberation and welfare issues; literature; and travel.

Dude, You're a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School is a 2007 book by the sociologist C. J. Pascoe. Through ethnographic research, Pascoe examines masculinity in high schools. Pascoe's work proposes that masculinity is defined primarily through dominance and control. Further, masculinity is established by high school boys through their use of the fag (faggot) epithet. This book explores masculinity as enacted by male- and female-bodied students, the consequences of a strict gender system, heteronormativity within the school system, racialized masculine ideals, and acts of resistance to the gendered social order. Pascoe conducted fieldwork for a year and a half at "River High School", conducted formal interviews with fifty students, and informal interviews with many other students, administrators and faculty members.

The Ethical Slut: A Guide to Infinite Sexual Possibilities is an English language non-fiction book by Dossie Easton and Janet Hardy.

Harry Hamilton Laughlin was an American educator and eugenicist. He served as the Superintendent of the Eugenics Record Office from its inception in 1910 to its closing in 1939, and was among the most active individuals in influencing American eugenics policy, especially compulsory sterilization legislation.

The Evolution of Desire: Strategies of Human Mating is a 1994 book by evolutionary psychology professor David Buss. It is the first book to present a unified theory of human mating behaviour "based not on romantic notions... but on current scientific evidence." In the largest study of human mating at the time, 10,047 people were surveyed in 37 cultures across six continents and five islands. Buss expands on Donald Symons' The Evolution of Human Sexuality (1979) by examining all the actions that occur before and after sexual activity: strategies of mate competition, mate attraction, mate selection, mate retention, mate poaching, sexual conflict, mate ejection, and remating over a lifespan.

Female Husbands: A Trans History is a history book by Jen Manion, a professor of History and Sexuality, Women's and Gender Studies at Amherst College, published in 2020 by Cambridge University Press. The book won the Best Book prize from the British Association of Victorian Studies and was a finalist for the Lawrence W. Levine Award.

Femalia is a book of 32 full-color photographs of human vulvas, edited by Joani Blank and first published by Down There Press in 1993. A reprint edition was published by Last Gasp in 2011. The photographs were taken by Tee Corinne, Michael Perry, Jill Posener, and Michael A. Rosen. The photographs are presented without commentary, except for Blank's brief introduction to the volume as a whole. The author wanted to present accurate images of the subject, in contrast to pornographic or medical ones.

Glossarium Eroticum is a Latin-language dictionary of sexual words and phrases, and of many pertaining to the human body or considered to be obscene, by Pierre-Emmanuel Pierrugues, published in 1826. It lists definitions and excerpts Old Latin and Classical Latin writers such as Plautus, Juvenal, Petronius, and Seneca in examples, and includes some Medieval Latin as well.

Human Sexuality is a textbook by Simon LeVay and Sharon Valente, first published in 2003 by W. H. Freeman and Company. Subsequent editions have been published by Sinauer Associates, with the fourth edition appearing in 2012. Starting with the third edition, Valente was replaced by Janice Baldwin as a co-author.

Intercourse is a 1987 book by Andrea Dworkin, in which the author presents a radical feminist analysis of sexual intercourse in literature and society. Dworkin is often said to argue that "all heterosexual sex is rape", based on the line from the book that says "violation is a synonym for intercourse." However, Dworkin has denied this interpretation, stating, "What I think is that sex must not put women in a subordinate position. It must be reciprocal and not an act of aggression from a man looking only to satisfy himself. That's my point."

The Kinsey Reports are two scholarly books on human sexual behavior, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953), written by Alfred Kinsey, Wardell Pomeroy, Clyde Martin, and Paul Gebhard and published by W.B. Saunders. The two best-selling books were immediately controversial, both within the scientific community and the general public, because they challenged conventional beliefs about sexuality and discussed subjects that had previously been taboo. The validity of Kinsey's methods were also called into question. Kinsey was a zoologist at Indiana University and the founder of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction.

Liberty's Prisoners: Carceral Culture in Early America is a history book by Jen Manion, a professor of History and Sexuality, Women's and Gender Studies at Amherst College, published in 2015 by the University of Pennsylvania Press. The book was awarded the 2016 Mary Kelley Book Prize by the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic.

The Lolita Effect: The Media Sexualization of Young Girls and What We Can Do About It is a 2008 book by Meenakshi Gigi Durham. The book's title refers to a term coined by Durham, the Lolita effect, which refers to the theory that media sexualization hinders the healthy development of pre-adolescent and adolescent girls. Its title is derived from Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Lolita, where a middle-aged professor becomes obsessed with the titular 12-year-old girl. The term Lolita effect has since come to refer to the blame that can be put on young females for their part in abuse or harassment that they face, similar to the phrases "slut-shaming" or "victim-blaming".

Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk About Sexuality And Intimacy is a 2003 book by Tricia Rose. It comprises 20 oral histories by African-American women from different socio-economic backgrounds and ages telling their stories about various aspects of sexuality.

Making Chastity Sexy: The Rhetoric of Evangelical Abstinence Campaigns is a 2011 book by Christine Gardner, a professor at Wheaton College. In it, Gardner states that sexual abstinence teachings by evangelicals are currently "using sex to sell abstinence" by promising more satisfying sexual activity within marriage for those who abstain from premarital sex; she argues that this rhetoric reinforces selfish desires for gratification, sets people up for divorce and dissatisfaction with marriage, and simply adapts "secular forms for religious ends".

Married Love or Love in Marriage is a book by British academic Marie Stopes. It was one of the first books openly to discuss birth control.

A Mind of Its Own: A Cultural History of the Penis is a non-fiction book by New York-based columnist and author David M. Friedman that details the history of the human penis.

My Secret Garden: Women’s Sexual Fantasies is a 1973 book compiled by Nancy Friday, who collected women's fantasies through letters and taped and personal interviews. After including a female sexual fantasy in a novel she submitted for publishing, her editor objected, and Friday shelved the novel. After other women began writing and talking about sex publicly, Friday began thinking about writing a book about female sexual fantasies, first collecting fantasies from her friends, and then advertising in newspapers and magazines for more. She organized these narratives into "rooms", and each is identified by the woman's first name, except for the last chapter, "odd notes", which is presented as the "fleeting thoughts" of many anonymous women. The book revealed that women fantasize, just as men do, and that the content of the fantasies can be as transgressive, or not, as men's. The book, the first published compilation of women's sexual fantasies, refuted many previously accepted notions of female sexuality.

The Myth of Monogamy: Fidelity and Infidelity in Animals and People is a 2001 book by psychologist David P. Barash and psychiatrist Judith Eve Lipton.

New Directions in Sex Therapy: Innovations and Alternatives is a 2001 book by the Canadian sexologist Peggy J. Kleinplatz. It provides alternatives to the then conventional clinical strategies of treating sexual problems with medical and drug interventions.

Not Gay: Sex Between Straight White Men is a 2015 book by Jane Ward, in which the author details the phenomenon of straight men seeking out sex with other straight men despite not identifying as gay, bisexual, or bi-curious.

Our Bodies, Ourselves is a book about women's health and sexuality produced by the nonprofit organization Our Bodies Ourselves. First published in 1970, it contains information related to many aspects of women's health and sexuality, including: sexual health, sexual orientation, gender identity, birth control, abortion, pregnancy and childbirth, violence and abuse, and menopause. The most recent edition of the book was published in 2011. The book was revolutionary in that it encouraged women to celebrate their sexuality, including chapters on reproductive rights, lesbian sexuality, and sexual independence. The move towards women's active engagement with their actual sexual desires was contradicting the popular gendered myth of “women as docile, and passive,” and “men as active and aggressive” in a sexual relationship.

Patterns of Sexual Behavior is a 1951 book by anthropologist Clellan S. Ford and ethologist Frank A. Beach, in which the authors integrate information about human sexual behavior from different cultures, and include detailed comparisons across animal species, with particular emphasis on primates. The book received positive reviews and has been called a classic. It provided the foundation for the later research of Masters and Johnson. A revised edition, titled Human Sexuality in Four Perspectives, was published in 1977.

The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with Virginity Is Hurting Young Women (2009) is a book about virginity by feminist author Jessica Valenti. The book was first released onto hardback on March 24, 2009, through Seal Press. Valenti argues that there is a prevalent false notion promoted within the United States that a woman's worth is predicated upon whether or not she is sexually active, implying that the loss of virginity can negatively affect her. A DVD tie-in titled The Purity Myth: The Virginity Movement's War Against Women was released in 2011.

A Quick & Easy Guide to Sex & Disability is a non-fiction comic book written and illustrated by A. Andrews. The book shares information on how to communicate and navigate sex for disabled audiences. It was published by Limerence/Oni Press in May 2020.

Sambia Sexual Culture: Essays from the Field is a 1999 book about the Sambia people and their sexual practices by the anthropologist Gilbert Herdt. The book received negative reviews, accusing Herdt of being biased in his approach and his conclusions.

Sex and Reason is a 1992 book about human sexuality by the economist and federal judge Richard Posner, in which the author attempts to explain sexual behavior in economic terms and discusses a range of controversial subjects related to sex, proposing reforms in American laws.

Sex and the Love Life by the American author William J. Fielding (1886-1974) is a non-fictional book published in 1927 in New York. It deals with the contemporary understanding of sexuality and its relation to the love life in many fields of life.

Sex and the Single Girl is a 1962 non-fiction book by American writer Helen Gurley Brown, written as an advice book that encouraged women to become financially independent and experience sexual relationships before or without marriage. The book sold two million copies in three weeks, was sold in 35 countries and has made the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and Time bestseller lists.

Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality is a 2010 book about the evolution of human mating systems by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá. In opposition to what the authors see as the "standard narrative" of human sexual evolution, they contend that having multiple sexual partners was common and accepted in the environment of evolutionary adaptedness. The authors contend that mobile, self-contained groups of hunter-gatherers were the norm for humans before agriculture led to high population density. Before agriculture, according to the authors, sex was relatively promiscuous and paternity was not a concern. This dynamic is similar to the mating system of bonobos. According to the book, sexual interactions strengthened the bond of trust in the groups. Far from causing jealousy, social equilibrium and reciprocal obligation were strengthened by playful sexual interactions.

Brenda Louise Romero, previously known as Brenda Brathwaite, is an American game designer and developer in the video game industry. She was born in Ogdensburg, New York and is a graduate of Clarkson University. Romero is best known for her work on the Wizardry series of role-playing video games and, more recently, the non-digital series The Mechanic is the Message. She has worked in game development since 1981 and has credits on 49 game titles.

Sex Object: A Memoir is a 2016 memoir and the sixth book written by Jessica Valenti. Valenti shares personal stories recounting her childhood and adolescence regarding her treatment as a sex object and the pernicious influence of sexism in her daily encounters. She paints an image of an adult whose identity has been shaped by these experiences. Valenti argues that most women face a similar reality of being shaped by—and making everyday decisions to minimize—male aggressions and sexual assault. Valenti was able to use Sex Object: A Memoir as a platform to focus on sharing experiences with readers, helping them understand how prevalent sexism is for young girls and women, and shedding light on the sheer size of this cultural problem.

Sex Offenders: An Analysis of Types is a 1965 book about sex offenders by the anthropologist Paul Gebhard, the sociologist John Gagnon, the sexologist Wardell Pomeroy, and Cornelia Christenson. It was a publication of the Institute for Sex Research.

Sex Power Money is a 2019 book by Sara Pascoe and the name of a related podcast which Pascoe hosts. The book discusses sex through the medium of evolutionary psychology, sex work and public perceptions towards it and the role of money and capital in modern heterosexual relationships. It is Pascoe's second book, following Animal (2016). In the podcast, Pascoe has conversations with sex workers, academics and comedians. The book and podcast received positive critical reception and the book entered The Sunday Times' bestseller list.

Sex Tips from Rock Stars: In Their Own Words is a book by Paul Miles that quotes answers from 23 rock stars to many questions on a broad range of sexual topics. The editors claim that the book is the world's first confessional by rock stars on their sexual adventures.

Sex, Drugs and Magick: A Journey Beyond Limits is a book by Robert Anton Wilson, first published in 1973 as Sex and Drugs: A Journey Beyond Limits by Playboy Press. It was Wilson's intention to call the book Sex, Drugs and the Occult, however the 'occult' was removed at the insistence of Playboy head Hugh Hefner. The updated title stems from the 1987 revision which included a new preface by the author. Wilson added another preface to the 2000 edition. The book focuses on the connection between sex, the use of drugs and occult practices and how these can be combined for maximum benefit. This is illustrated with examples from history, religion and his own personal experience. Wilson also details the potential dangers of drugs use.

Sexual Education of the Young Woman is an educational book, published in 1923 and written by a psychiatrist and author David H. Keller. The book provides sexual education guidelines for the girls above the age of six years old. The guidelines concern biological knowledge about the female and male bodies, discussed in the context of prevailing moral and social norms. The book is intended to be read by the young girl herself or conveyed by her parents. As such, it is not only a source of knowledge but also a parenting tool. Sexual Education of the Young Woman contains 13 chapters, each dealing with a different topic of sexual education. It has clear views on the issues of morality and social norms- women are depicted as fundamentally different from men. The author suggests that the life purpose of a woman is giving birth and raising children as well as assuring a cozy and relaxing life for her husband. However, Dr. Keller stresses the importance of proper general and sexual education, and the influence it has on the happiness of a future mother and wife. Sexual Education of the Young Woman is a part of a 10 volume collection The Sexual Education Series released in 1928.

The Sexual Life of Savages in North-Western Melanesia is a 1929 book by anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski. The work is his second in the trilogy on the Trobrianders, with the other two being Argonauts of the Western Pacific (1922) and Coral Gardens and Their Magic (1935).

Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson is a 1990 work about sexual decadence in Western literature and the visual arts by scholar Camille Paglia, in which she addresses major artists and writers such as Donatello, Sandro Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, Emily Brontë, and Oscar Wilde. Following Friedrich Nietzsche, Paglia argues that the primary conflict in Western culture is between the binary forces of the Apollonian and Dionysian, Apollo being associated with order and symmetry, and Dionysus with chaos, disorder, and nature. The book received critical reviews from numerous feminist scholars, but was praised by numerous literary critics.

Sexual Preference: Its Development in Men and Women (1981) is a book about the development of sexual orientation by the psychologist Alan P. Bell and the sociologists Martin S. Weinberg and Sue Kiefer Hammersmith, in which the authors reevaluate what were at the time of its publication widely held ideas about the origins of heterosexuality and homosexuality, sometimes rejecting entirely the factors proposed as causes, and in other cases concluding that their importance had been exaggerated. Produced with the help of the American National Institute of Mental Health, the study was a publication of the Institute for Sex Research. Together with its Statistical Appendix, Sexual Preference was the conclusion of a series of books including Homosexuality: An Annotated Bibliography (1972) and Homosexualities: A Study of Diversity Among Men and Women (1978), both co-authored by Bell and Weinberg.

Die Sexualität im Kulturkampf, 1936, is a work by Wilhelm Reich. The subtitle is "zur sozialistischen Umstrukturierung des Menschen", the double title reflecting the two-part structure of the work.

Sperm Wars is a popular science book by evolutionary biologist Robin Baker about sperm competition. Originally published in English in 1996, it has since appeared in 25 languages and in 2006 a 10th anniversary edition was published in the United States.

Streetlife: The Untold History of Europe's Twentieth Century is a 2011 book by the British academic Leif Jerram.

Studies in the Psychology of Sex Vol. 2 is a book published in 1900 written by Havelock Ellis (1859–1939), an English physician, writer and social reformer. The book deals with the phenomenon of sexual inversion, an outdated term for homosexuality. It is part of Ellis' seven-volume series Studies in the psychology of sex. The book has seven chapters describing the prevalence, nature and theories in the 19th century about sexual inversion in men and women. Various case studies are presented and discussed. Ellis recognised a need to address the topic of sexual inversion especially in England:... in England, more than in any other country, the law and public opinion combine to place a heavy penal burden and a severe social stigma on the manifestations of an instinct which to these persons who possess it frequently appears natural and normal.

Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, sometimes titled Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex, is a 1905 work by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, in which the author advances his theory of sexuality, in particular its relation to childhood.

Three Women is a 2019 non-fiction book by Lisa Taddeo. It is her debut book and was published on July 9, 2019, by Avid Reader Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. It covers the sexual and emotional lives of three women from different backgrounds and regions of the United States. It debuted at number one on The New York Times non-fiction best sellers list and received mostly positive reviews from critics.

Thy Neighbor's Wife is a non-fiction book by Gay Talese, published in 1981 and updated in 2009.

Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout is an autobiography by Laura Jane Grace, co-written with Noisey editor Dan Ozzi and published by Hachette Books on November 15, 2016. Informed by extensive journal records, it covers Grace's childhood and early involvement in anarcho-punk, and her role as frontperson of Against Me! from the band's founding to her publicly coming out as a transgender woman in 2012.

The Velvet Underground is a paperback by journalist Michael Leigh, published in September 1963, that reports on paraphilia in the USA.

When God Writes Your Love Story: The Ultimate Approach to Guy/Girl Relationships is a 1999 book by Eric and Leslie Ludy, an American married couple. After becoming a bestseller on the Christian book market, the book was republished in 2004 and then revised and expanded in 2009. It tells the story of the authors' first meeting, courtship, and marriage. The authors advise single people not to be physically or emotionally intimate with others, but to wait for the spouse that God has planned for them. The first edition was packaged with a CD single by the Ludys: "Faithfully", a song they had written specifically to accompany the book.

Why Is Sex Fun? The Evolution of Human Sexuality is a 1997 book about the evolution of human sexuality by the biologist Jared Diamond.

Woman Hating: A Radical Look at Sexuality is a 1974 book by American radical feminist author and activist Andrea Dworkin.

Women Don't Owe You Pretty is a 2020 book by the British activist and illustrator Florence Given. On the topic of intersectional feminism, Given writes about relationships, body image and self-esteem for women. The book sold 100,000 copies within six months of publication and was listed on The Sunday Times' bestsellers list for twelve consecutive weeks, peaking at second place.

Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women's Sexual Fantasies is a 1991 book by Nancy Friday. In it she continues her research into women's sexual fantasies, following on from My Secret Garden and Forbidden Flowers. The book is divided into three sections: A "Report from the erotic interior", a section on masturbation, and the fantasies themselves. The fantasies in turn are divided into three chapters:Seductive, Sometimes Sadistic, Sexually Controlling Women Women With Women Insatiable Women: The Cry For "More!"