Carole S. Vance

Pleasure and Danger (subtitled "Exploring Female Sexuality") is a collection of conference papers given at the Barnard Sexuality Conference in 1982 - something I didn't realise when I reserved the book from the library. What I was looking for was a book that explored the development of sexuality (especially sexuality that develops outside of the norm and why) in human beings - and especially in women - something more along the lines of developmental psych.

What I got was a collection of highly political feminist (although I grant you, the politics did span a reasonable spectrum within the bounds of 'feminism', at least for the early 1980's) essays. Despite being not what I was originally looking for, it still made for some interesting reading, so I kept going with it. The 'pleasure' and 'danger' of the title are basically about the good and bad stuff associated with sex, and how each is approached and/or avoided by feminist thinkers of all stripes - or how it was back when the conference was held.

One thing it taught me is that my 'academic reading muscle' is out of practice - again! Most of these papers are heavy reading: filled with polysyllabic words and meandering sentences that spanned multiple lines. I felt the intense need to rewrite whole tracts of the book, just to make them readable for a lay-reader (which, after all, I am, in this case). I also found it interesting comparing some of the writings to experiences I've had, and people I know have had; and seeing what's still valid nearly 40 years later and another hemisphere away, and what isn't. And my conclusions are that we (or at least I) do live in a different world now - but that I have no doubts that some of what's written is still true for at least some sectors and subcultures of Western society.

I think all up I'd give Pleasure and Danger a 5/10 - it really strikes me as the kind of thing you'd only read if you were actively researching the subject of female sexuality from a political standpoint.… (meer)