Telling the Truth About Sex
Dr. Gloria Brame’s book, “The Truth About Sex,” is a timeless sex primer for everyone.
A while back I wrote a post about a book I consider a standout among sexuality books, The Truth About Sex: A Sex Primer for the 21st Century Volume I: Sex and the Self (paid link), by Gloria G. Brame, Ph.D. At the time, I wrote that despite its focus being ostensibly about the topic of masturbation, it was also a superb primer about sexuality generally.
In my original review of the book, I wrote this.
Everyone should read this book. I mean everyone.
I stand by that statement. The story of sexuality as told through the lens of the private, solo activity of masturbation ends up revealing the profound beauty and intricacies of sex itself.
The book is described elsewhere this way.
Brame addresses the most intimate, complicated questions about sex in page-turning, warmly empathic prose. Using cutting-edge sex and medical studies, historical research, and composite case studies from her private practice, she teaches adults how to make sexual ecstasy a reality.
That’s the entire book in as close to a concise nutshell as one might craft. It’s just such a good book.
Dr. Gloria Brame is a friend. I’ve long admired her sound mind and wonderful writing. I consider her one of the most refreshing and qualified voices in the world of sexuality today. Reading anything by her is a joyful experience.
When I revisited the book recently, I was again struck by how relevant and applicable it is today. Its information, advice, and wisdom have stood the test of time over the 13 years since its initial publication.
I asked Dr. Brame if in hindsight she would have made any additions to the book. This was her response.
The only addition I could make is that since the publication of the book, all my theories have been scientifically proven to be true.
There are still theories in book two (The Truth About Sex, A Sex Primer for the 21st Century Volume II: Sex for Grown-Ups – paid link) that people totally resist (specifically about gender and sexual diversity being norms throughout human history), but all the stuff on masturbation has proven true.
I should say "about masturbation and the physiological necessity of orgasms" to overall human health and longevity.
In 2012, Brame and I were honored to be interviewed by Diane Anderson Minshall which was published in The Advocate magazine as “Sex Writers Race Bannon and Gloria Brame Share Their Passions.” Brame said this in the interview.
I want to change the world. Is that asking too much? I started my writing life as a poet, and poets think of writing as holy and powerful enough to move people, and I think that fanciful dream underlies all my work, that somehow my writing will help foment meaningful change. I see myself as part of the great collective of sex activists, rights activists, feminists, and intellectually untrammeled thinkers who are working, each in their own ways, to create positive change and advance the cause of sexual freedom. My new book series, The Truth About Sex, is really my life work: it's all my thoughts and theories about how sex is lived by real people, as opposed to how the anti-sex prudes and propagandists pretend sex works.
Brame’s life work has been a gift to us all and this book is one of many gems in that larger gift.
If you’re simply curious about your own sexuality or sexuality generally, read this book. If you have anything to do with teaching or counseling about sexuality, read this book. If you know professors teaching human sexuality classes, suggest this as required reading. If you know of anyone struggling with negative feelings about their own sexuality, give them this book. It has my unequivocal highest recommendation.
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