Female Desire: Power, Darkness & Pleasure
Female desire has been shrouded in mystery and fear for many hundreds of years.
This episode traces the ways in which patriarchy has suppressed the wild feminine, her uncontainable power, her darkness, and her hunger. We explore the role of epigenetics which has many “liberated” modern women still shackled by internalised shame and misogyny.
Journeying through fictional depictions of female desire in the novels Jane Eyre and Lady Chatterley’s Lover, we land on second wave feminism and Betty Friedan’s seminal book The Feminine Mystique which voiced, for the first time, the desire women had not just for pleasure but also for power, agency, influence and self-actualisation beyond the role of wife and mother.
Desire is part of a spectrum of feminine expression which includes darker emotions such as anger, which girls are typically socialised from a very young age not to express. We discuss darkness and destruction as inherent aspects of the feminine, stemming from the womb space, which demand to be reckoned with if we want to fully embody our power.
Finally the conversation turns to sexual desire, the orgasm gap, female viagra, and why eliminating shame and claiming your right to pleasure are essential pillars of female empowerment.
If you want to go deeper, my newsletter is the place where I share my deepest insights, longform writing and exclusive subscriber-only offers, you can sign up at www.madeleineeliza.com
As always if you enjoyed the show, don’t forget to rate and review and share with your friends to get the word out there.
References
Chaplin, T & Aldao, A. 2013 Gender Differences in Emotion Expression in Children: A Meta-Analytic Review, Psychological Bulletin, 139(4), 735–765 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3597769/
Fortune Business Insights 2024 Female Sexual Dysfunction Treatment Market Size, Share & COVID-19 Impact Analysis https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/industry-reports/female-sexual-dysfunction-treatment-market-100850
Frederick, D, St John, K, Garcia, J. & Lloyd, E. 2018 Differences in Orgasm Frequency Among Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Heterosexual Men and Women in a U.S. National Sample, Archives of Sexual Behaviour https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28213723/
International Society for Sexual Medicine 2021 How long does it take a woman to reach orgasm? https://www.issm.info/sexual-health-qa/how-long-does-it-take-a-woman-to-reach-orgasm
Lowy, M. 2020 Ask the Doc: What’s a ‘normal’ length of time to last during sex?, HealthyMale.org.au
https://healthymale.org.au/ask-the-doc/whats-a-normal-length-time-to-last-during-sex
Mintz, L. 2023 The orgasm gap and why women climax less than men, The Conversation https://theconversation.com/the-orgasm-gap-and-why-women-climax-less-than-men-208614
Wetzel, G & Sanchez, D. 2022 Heterosexual Young Adults’ Experience With and Perceptions of the Orgasm Gap: A Mixed Methods Approach, Psychology of Women Quarterly Vol. 46 Iss. 2 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/03616843221076410?casa_token=EIMMOZmLRmwAAAAA%3AKmP6abzrDfsJRvoSO5LN9EOWUgnXBZGQepNAw9oFPzf-dZE-T-6g9HU1vScVwyNrNdGEuzaGslo&journalCode=pwqa
