Sex And Power

‘Sex underlies human existence, and if human life is sacred, how can sex not be?’ As squeamish as India is today about sex, this is also the land where queens once copulated with head horses at religious ceremonies, where the art of love-making was declared the revelation of the gods and recorded in elaborate detail in the kama sutras and prostitution was a form of sacred offering at temples adorned with erotic sculptures. Using India as a paradigm, Rita Banerji illustrates that sexual morality is not an absolute but a facet of living that undergoes periodic upheavals. She delineates four major periods in Indian history when there were significant shifts in the collective social perception of sex and sexuality, and the associated customs and beliefs. What causes this revision in sexual ethos? To explain this, Sex and Power proposes a modified version of Nietzsche’s slave versus master morality theory. The theory, which is tested against the dynamics of each of the four defined periods, establishes that the moral overview of any given period is determined not by a set of pre-existing ethics but by the existent power structure of the period in question. The accepted moral code actually serves the party in power. How would this theory play out in the context of India today? Banerji examines this question at length as one of extreme urgency, and concludes that the three most burning issues facing the country today—population explosion, AIDS and female genocide—are the manifestations of a collective sexual malfunctioning of society and need to be redressed in the context of an existent social and economic power hierarchy.

Can power be wielded with integrity and responsibility? How do we oppose domination and power without using force or escalating conflict? Author and former UNESCO consultant Scilla Elworthy, Ph.D., takes on these timely and important issues in her groundbreaking book. Dr. Elworthy calls upon men and women to replace their distorted notions of "male" power and domination with a new, inner power, developed through the body, mind, and spirit. This power, she asserts, is available equally to men and women; it is rooted in the power of union, balancing the male and female elements in everyone. This union also offers men and women a more natural and fearless approach to sex and sensuality. In Power and Sex, we see how in both personal and public life, the inner fusion of masculine and feminine energies are the answer to the kind of power the world needs today. Readers can use this book to bring power into their lives without taking it away from others. With it, you can transform yourself and your world.

As in the bestselling The Alphabet Versus the Goddess, Leonard Shlain’s provocative new book promises to change the way readers view themselves and where they came from. Sex, Time, and Power offers a tantalizing answer to an age-old question: Why did big-brained Homo sapiens suddenly emerge some 150,000 years ago? The key, according to Shlain, is female sexuality. Drawing on an awesome breadth of research, he shows how, long ago, the narrowness of the newly bipedal human female’s pelvis and the increasing size of infants’ heads precipitated a crisis for the species. Natural selection allowed for the adaptation of the human female to this environmental stress by reconfiguring her hormonal cycles, entraining them with the periodicity of the moon. The results, however, did much more than ensure our existence; they imbued women with the concept of time, and gave them control over sex—a power that males sought to reclaim. And the possibility of achieving immortality through heirs drove men to construct patriarchal cultures that went on to dominate so much of human history. From the nature of courtship to the evolution of language, Shlain’s brilliant and wide-ranging exploration stimulates new thinking about very old matters.

An outline of how power, an inherent feature of social interactions, operates and affects close relationships.

In her new book, Women, Sex, Power & Pleasure, Evelyn Resh, a sexuality counselor and certified nurse-midwife, takes an innovative approach to helping women create the lives – and sex lives – they want. With a funny and compassionate, yet tell-it-like-it-is style, she looks at the relationship between feeling powerful in life and accessing life’s pleasures, and their combined effect on sexual desire. Resh introduces six essential qualities that women must have to live healthfully, stating that when these are out of balance women seem to exist in lives devoid of pleasure, self-empowerment, and sex. These markers of emotional well-being are: • Self-confidence and self-esteem • Healthy Habits • Spiritual Satisfaction • Creativity • Self-assurance/re-assurance • Compassion and Empathy Once the six traits are laid out, Resh devotes the rest of the book to exploring how, when one or more of a woman’s markers of emotional well-being are off kilter, their reasons for avoiding sex mount exponentially. She looks at some of the most common excuses she’s heard over her many years as a sexuality counselor – I Feel Nothing, It’s All He Thinks About, I’m Too Busy!, I’m Too Fat to Have Sex – and outlines the specific imbalances that create this void of sexual desire and activity. With practical guidance, self-assessment questions, and stories from her practice and personal life, Resh explains to modern women how to regain their emotional wellness and live a powerful life that includes a steady relationship with pleasure and sexual satisfaction. This book is a must read for all women. From housewives to sophisticated urban corporate types, from new moms to post-menopausal women – this book will help any woman who feels estranged from her sexual energy and a sense of empowerment, and deprived of pleasure, or who views sex as just another thing to tick off her overwhelming to-do list.

No issues touch us more profoundly or universally,' writes Richard Foster. 'No topics cause more controversy. No human realities have greater power to bless or curse. No three things have been more sought after or are more in need of a Christian response.' Money, Sex and Power discerns the biblical principles that enable us to live out a relevant and authentic response to the three greatest temptations of our age. Gerard Kelly writes: 'Foster follows a road few in recent years have travelled, and does so with depth, wit and down-to-earth wisdom. Don't assume for one moment that this book is anti-money, anti-sex or anti-power: the author has a healthy respect and admiration for all three as sacred gifts of a loving creator. What he does urge us to do, though, is to "live rightly" in respect of these key ares, and so to be freed into a life of creative celebration.'

Money, sex, and power. The world tends to worship them. Christians are often suspicious of them, And yet God made us to enjoy them. Discover how to keep these three dangerous opportunities in the orbits that they were designed for, experiencing them in a way that satisfies you, serves the world, and glorifies God. This fresh, refreshing book will wake you up to the blazing glory of Christ, and inspire you to make him the gravitational center of your life. And when that happens, everything changes. Book jacket.

Drawing on actual incidents, in-depth research, and his extensive professional expertise, the author of Sex in the Forbidden Zone presents an indispensable manual on sexual harassment--what it is, why it occurs, and how to prevent it.