Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach
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Book Reviews of Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex
Book Review: Interesting, but a little scattershot (3.5 *s)
Summary: 3 Stars
The author in this book basically researches sex researchers and their work: sexual anatomy, function, and response. She does this with certain misgivings, as sex research, even in modern times, has largely had to fly under the radar. Researchers often have to battle insinuations that they "enjoy" their work just a bit too much.
She travels widely to investigate any number of relevant topics. The subjects are both human and animal; and the use of a variety of technologies from MRIs, ultrasound, and personal devices receives attention. A major focus of the author is on the understanding and overcoming of sexual dysfunction, ranging well beyond recent obsessions with ED.
She does all of this with understated humor, even volunteering herself and her husband for some not-so-discreet ultrasound imaging. The book is definitely not without merit and is interesting, but it is scattershot - a little bit of this, a little bit of that. It tends to bounce along the surface alternating among the scenario, equipment, the science, the researcher, the participant, etc. More focus and organization are needed, but is still a pretty good contribution to a field that seemingly cannot be discussed forthrightly in the pseudo moralistic US.
Book Review: Tough topic handled fairly well
Summary: 3 Stars
Mary Roach treats her topics with a healthy blend of disrespect and appreciation for the experts she harvests and repackages and adds her own somewhat glib take on their perspectives. This may be the only way to tackle this culturally heavily laden subject and make it readable.Book Review: You'll never view sex quite the same
Summary: 5 Stars
BE FOREWARNED:
The following review has some adult-type language that may
offend some readers . . . if that be the case, please skip
this review; the book is probably NOT for you.
BONK by Mary Roach is a book that is probably not for
everybody, in that it deals with the subject of (dare I say it?) S-E-X.
It does so, however, do so in a way that is both enlightening and
quite funny in many parts . . . for example, here's how she
describes her meeting with one of Egypt's top sex researchers:
* Dr. Ahmed Shafik wears three-piece suits with gold watch fobs
and a diamond stick pin in the lapel. His glasses are the thick,
black rectangular style of the Nasser era. He owns a Cairo hospital
and lives in a mansion with marble walls. He was nominated for
a Nobel Prize. I don't care about any of this Shafik won my heart by
publishing a paper in European Urology in which he investigated the
effects of polyester on sexual activity. Ahmed Shafik dressed lab
rats in polyester pants.
There were seventy-five rats. They wore their pants for one year. Shafik
found that over time the ones dressed in polyester or poly-cotton blend
had sex significantly less often than the rats whose slacks were cotton
or wool. (Shafik thinks the reason is that polyester sets up troublesome
electrostatic fields in and around the genitals. Having seen an illustration
of a rat wearing the pants, I would say there's an equal possibility that
it's simply harder to get a date when you dress funny.)
As if that's not enough for you to learn, check out what she has to say
about what women find appealing:
* I have a better suggestion for Cutler's customers. Stop wearing
cologne. Women don't find it attractive. If you don't believe me,
here is a quote from a press release from the Smell and Taste
Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago: "Men's colognes
actually reduced vaginal blood flow." Foundation director Al Hirsch
hooked women up to a vaginal photoplethysmograph and had
them wear surgical masks scented with ten different aromas
or combinations of aromas. (to be sure the women weren't just
getting aroused by dressing up in surgical masks, Hirsch put
unscented masks onto a control group.) In addition to the smell
of cologne, the women were turned off by the scent of cherry and
of "charcoal barbeque meat." At the top of the women's turn-on list
was, mysteriously, mixture of cucumber and Good 'n' Plenty candy.
It was said to increase vaginal blood flow by 13 percent.
Though I'm not so sure about that last recommendation or whether
I'd ever try it, I do give the author a lot of credit for the research that
she did . . . in fact, she sometimes even recruited her husband:
* "Regarding the position," he says when we return in our johnny tops.
He wants us on our sides, spoons-style. (This was explained, sort of,
in the instruction sheet: We will ask the penis to be inserted into the
vagina from his partner's back.) "I think facing the wall is better," says
Dr. Deng. As opposed to facing him. "That will be more romantic,"
he adds. On the wall, someone has hung a painting of a hillside harbor town.
As though by looking at it we could convince ourselves that we were
off on the Amalfi Coast-or, just as good, that Dr. Deng was. "And
I will switch off the lights."
"Where are the candles and soft music?" says Ed.
"Oh, I am sorry," says Dr. Deng, straight-faced, chagrined. Then he
brightens. "I can turn on my laptop. I have the soundtrack to Les Miz."
His efforts are sweet though pointless. There is no way to make this
situation romantic, normal, sexual. It feels like a medical procedure,
something to be got through.
Dr. Deng goes next door and returns with a 9-by-11 envelope and
hands it to Ed. Inside is a copy of a U.K. version of Maxim. "This is
very erotic," he assures Ed. The implication being, I suppose, that the
sight of one's wife in a baggy knee-length hospital Johnny and threadbare
socks is not.
I'm still laughing at that description.
There's much to like about BONK, including some great chapter
titles . . . I also liked Roach's explanations of scientific studies . . . my
only criticism is that the book could have used an index.
Book Review: Sure, the author is funny, but this is not for the squeemish
Summary: 2 Stars
Okay, I am as interested in sex as the next person and reading about the science of sex from a humorous perspective sounded intriguing. The book started off well, with witty accounts of research by noted sex scientists Kinsey and Masters & Johnson. However, the book deviated from human sexuality with huge sections on animal sexuality, of which I didn't have an interest in.
I'm far from prude but there is a graphic nature to this that readers need to be aware of. Are you ready to read about animals having sex, or to find out what percentage of farm boys try mating with these animals? The graphic nature extends beyond the barnyard with tales of clitorectomies, including a woman who had her clitoris moved. Then there's various forays into the objects people have attempted to insert into their urethras as well as the woman whose hymen was so tough that she ended up using her urethra as a vagina instead. If these tales don't disturb you, then by all means this book may be for you.
Book Review: Interesting, humorous, and well-written
Summary: 4 Stars
Ms. Roach provides an entertaining look at the science of sex. It appears to be quite complete and up-to-date. As it is science though, portions of the book are not 110% engaging. All and all it was well worth a read.