Main description:

This is not a textbook nor an encyclopedia; rather, it is a collection of papers representing a variety of points of view on contemporary is sues, controversies, and questions about female sexual development. The editor has a point of view, not a point of view as to which of the various authors' positions presented in this book is correct, or even the most useful, but a point of view about the format of such a book; namely, that the definitive answers, and the experts who will provide them, are not yet identified. Therefore, many voices should be heard from different areas of expertise, training, experience, and back ground. Inevitably there are contradictions and disagreements. There should be. Several authors who were asked to provide short discus sions for papers found themselves unable to answer in less than an ad ditional paper. The editor welcomed this response. This is an area full of ancient myths, new discoveries, and alternate perspectives. It is hoped that the book reflects these ambiguities and controversies and that it will stimulate as many questions as it provides answers. You will find represented in this volume, and its forthcoming companion volume on women's sexual experience, authors not gener ally found together between the covers. When useful and where pos sible, a discussion or an addendum to a paper has been included by an author who approaches the subject from a different base of infor mation or experience.

Contents:

1 * "Role, Jenny Jenkins, Roll": Little Girls and Maidens in American Folksongs-An Analysis of Sexual Attitudes.- 2 * The History of Female Sexuality in the United States.- Discussion * A Historian's Approach.- 3 * Physiological Aspects of Female Sexual Development: Conception through Puberty.- 4 * Physiological Aspects of Female Sexual Development: Gestation, Lactation, Menopause, and Erotic Physiology.- Discussion * Psychological and Physiological Concepts in Female Sexuality: A Discussion of Physiological Aspects of Female Sexual Development.- 5 * Some Suggested Revisions Concerning Early Female Development.- 6 * The Early Stages of Female Psychosexual Development: A Kleinian View.- 7 * Femininity.- 8 * Masturbation in Women.- Discussion * Another Point of View.- 9 * The Misnamed Female Sex Organ.- 10 * Finding Self in the Lesbian Community.- Discussion * Random Comments.- 11 * Daughters and Lovers: Reflections on the Life Cycle of Father-Daughter Relationships.- 12 * Role of the Father.- 13 * Sex Education versus Sexual Learning.- 14 * A Sex-Information Switchboard.- 15 * Self-Help for Sex.- Discussion * Self-Help in Gynecological Practice.- 16 * Young Women and the Sexual Revolution.