The Etherized Wife

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 womens 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 havebeen judged normal to the degree they match mens 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 exemplars of the disciplines 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 males side. The Etherized Wife shows how the sex therapydiscipline has upheld male sexuality as the model of normal, natural, healthy sexuality.