What is at stake in women's sexual desire for men? Can women express their pleasure in sex without increasing men's power? These questions are central to the author's challenge to the current confusions and evasions - and feminist orthodoxies - surrounding the topic of women's heterosexual pleasure. Over the last quarter of a century, passionate debates about sexuality have raged within the feminist movement. Powerful voices have launched a critique of heterosexuality as the basis of men's exploitation of women. Critically surveying recent literature from sexology, psychoanalysis and queer theory, this book looks at the place of sex in our lives, searches for a positive account of female heterosexuality and suggest ways in which straight women seek social empowerment and pleasure.