Hard to Get: Twenty-Something Women and the Paradox of Sexual Freedom [Hardcover]

Hard to Getis a powerful and intimate examination of the sex and love lives of the most liberated women in historytwenty-something American women who have had more opportunities, more positive role models, and more information than any previous generation. Drawing from her years of experience as a researcher and a psychotherapist, Leslie C. Bell takes us directly into the lives of young women who struggle to negotiate the complexities of sexual desire and pleasure, and to make sense of their historically unique but contradictory constellation of opportunities and challenges. In candid interviews, Bells subjects reveal that, despite having more choices than ever, they face great uncertainty about desire, sexuality, and relationships. Ground-breaking and highly readable,Hard to Getoffers fascinating insights into the many ways that sex, love, and satisfying relationships prove surprisingly elusive to these young women as they navigate the new emotional landscape of the 21st century.

Leslie C. Bell is a sociologist and psychotherapist who specializes in women's development and sexuality. She maintains a private practice in Berkeley, California.

Acknowledgments

1. The Paradox of Sexual Freedom

Part I. The Sexual Woman
2. The New Taboo: Katie
3. The Bad Girl: Jayanthi
4. A Pill to Kill Desire: Claudia
Part II. The Relational Woman
5. The Good Girl: Alicia
6. On Not Having It All: Phoebe
Part III. The Desiring Woman
7. How Does She Do It? Maria and Susan
8. Maybe Shes Born with It: Sophia and Jeanette
9. Conclusion: Whats a Modern Woman to Do?

Appendix I. Splitting
Appendix II. Clinical Interviewing
Appendix III. Demographic Information about Respondents

Notes
References
Index

In this moving book, Leslie Bell gives us insight into the hearts and minds of 20-something women confronted with the emotional challc"