Male Fantasies

From the bestselling author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments—one of Margaret Atwood’s most unforgettable characters lurks at the center of this intricate novel like a spider in a web. The glamorous, irresistible, unscrupulous Zenia is nothing less than a fairy-tale villain in the memories of her former friends. Roz, Charis, and Tony—university classmates decades ago—were reunited at Zenia’s funeral and have met monthly for lunch ever since, obsessively retracing the destructive swath she once cut through their lives. A brilliantly inventive fabulist, Zenia had a talent for exploiting her friends’ weaknesses, wielding intimacy as a weapon and cheating them of money, time, sympathy, and men. But one day, five years after her funeral, they are shocked to catch sight of Zenia: even her death appears to have been yet another fiction. As the three women plot to confront their larger-than-life nemesis, Atwood proves herself a gleefully acute observer of the treacherous shoals of friendship, trust, desire, and power.

Nominated for the 2022 Gradiva® Award! This book presents the first in-depth study of online misogyny and the manosphere from a psychoanalytic perspective. The author argues that the men of the manosphere present contradictory thoughts, desires and fantasies about women which include but also go beyond misogyny. They are in a state of dis/inhibition: torn between (un)conscious forces and fantasies which erupt and are defended against. Dis/inhibition shows itself in self-victimization and defensive apathy as well as toxic agency and symbolic power and expresses itself in desire for and hatred of other bodies. The text draws on the psychoanalytic thinkers Klaus Theweleit, Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, Jessica Benjamin and Wilhelm Reich to present detailed analyses of the communities within the so-called manosphere, including incels, Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW), alt-right YouTubers and NoFap users. Drawing on wider discussions about the status of sexuality in contemporary neoliberal technoculture since the sexual revolution of the late 1960s, it illuminates how sexuality, racism and images of the white male body shape the fantasies and affects of many men on the internet and beyond. Integrating a unique theoretical framework to help understand how today’s increase in online misogyny relates to the alt-right and fascism, Online Misogyny and the Manosphere is an important resource for academics in a variety of fields including psychoanalysis, media and communication studies, internet studies, masculinity research and more.

Shocking, fun, and illuminating all at once, this book dares to break the silence as men across the nation share their uncensored fantasies and innermost wants without reservation. Challenging myths about men and sexuality, over seventy fantasies from over 500 men provide reassurance to men that they are not alone -- and offer unique insight to women as to what really makes men tick!

The #1 New York Times–bestselling author’s “groundbreaking” work on women’s sexual fantasies (Publishers Weekly). First published in 1973, My Secret Garden ignited a firestorm of reactions across the nation—from outrage to enthusiastic support. Collected from detailed personal interviews with hundreds of women from diverse backgrounds, this book presents a bracingly honest account of women’s inner sexual fantasy lives. In its time, this book shattered taboos and opened up a conversation about the landscape of feminine desire in a way that was unprecedented. Today, My Secret Garden remains one of the most iconic works of feminist literature of our time—and is still relevant to millions of women throughout the world. “The author whose books about gender politics helped redefine American women’s sexuality.” —The New York Times

An extraordinary, explicitly masculine journey, Men In Love develops a startlingly honest portrayal of what it means to be a man in contemporary America. Here are the unexpurgated dreams, fantasies and fetishes that excite and obsess men today. In creating this historic study, Nancy Friday listened--without disapproval, apology or censorship--to the candid responses of thousands of men aged fourteen through sixty. She gave them a legitimate arena where they could share their "secret gardens"--the hidden and forbidden but nonetheless real and true. Much more than a litany of erotica, this unique volume doesn't tell us how men should love. It tells us how men do love--a stunning insight into the desires that dwell within men's psyches... and their hearts.

Dr. Patrick Suraci has taught police psychology for many years. Because of his long-standing relationship with police officers and their trust in him, he was able to produce this unprecedented work. The police embody extreme concepts of masculinity in American society. Dr. Suraci was struck by the contradiction between their super-masculine image and the passive aspects of their sexuality. If the police had passive aspects to their sexuality, what would we find in men in less stereotypically masculine occupations? Dr. Suraci conducted personal interviews with police officers and with men in other occupations. In these case studies we get an intimate look into that very private world of conflict among a man's sexual feelings, fantasies, desires, beliefs, fears and behavior. The author discovered that men have a passive component--a desire to relinquish the burden of active, dominant, masculine sexuality. The rape fantasy is a dramatic example of this: many men have a fantasy not only of raping but of being raped, not only by a woman but sometimes even by a man.--Adapted from bok jacket.