Come as You Are: The Surprising New Science that Will Transform Your Sex Life

An essential exploration of why and how women’s sexuality works—based on groundbreaking research and brain science—that will radically transform your sex life into one filled with confidence and joy.
Researchers have spent the last decade trying to develop a “pink pill” for women to function like Viagra does for men. So where is it? Well, for reasons this book makes crystal clear, that pill will never be the answer—but as a result of the research that’s gone into it, scientists in the last few years have learned more about how women’s sexuality works than we ever thought possible, and Come as You Are explains it all.
The first lesson in this essential, transformative book by Dr. Emily Nagoski is that every woman has her own unique sexuality, like a fingerprint, and that women vary more than men in our anatomy, our sexual response mechanisms, and the way our bodies respond to the sexual world. So we never need to judge ourselves based on others’ experiences. Because women vary, and that’s normal.
Second lesson: sex happens in a context. And all the complications of everyday life influence the context surrounding a woman’s arousal, desire, and orgasm.
Cutting-edge research across multiple disciplines tells us that the most important factor for women in creating and sustaining a fulfilling sex life, is not what you do in bed or how you do it, but how you feel about it. Which means that stress, mood, trust, and body image are not peripheral factors in a woman’s sexual wellbeing; they are central to it. Once you understand these factors, and how to influence them, you can create for yourself better sex and more profound pleasure than you ever thought possible.
And Emily Nagoski can prove it.
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Community Reviews
On the one hand, I think every adult human with a sexuality (all of us) should read this book. There are real nuggets of pure gold in here. On the other hand, this is a dumbed down version of the actual science (weird, given the full title of the book) into an easily digestible version that has cringey turns of phrases and really painful "dialogue" from her made up patients.
I listened to the book and while I appreciate and respect Nagoski as a sex educator, her writing and voice talent skills weren't where they ought to be to get the full five stars.
I listened to the book and while I appreciate and respect Nagoski as a sex educator, her writing and voice talent skills weren't where they ought to be to get the full five stars.
Great read. Really helped me understand that I am normal and nothing is wrong with me or my partner. Other amazing gems that I think should be required reading for teen girls.
My takeaway; it depends, and you're not brocken, you're perfect
I loved this book! I love how Emily Nagoski makes the science of female sexuality accessible. I cannot recommend this highly enough!
This book was recommended to me by Holly in Peru. I loved this book. I loved how in the first chapter it simply reviewed anatomy. I loved how it dispelled beliefs that we were brought up to believe regarding what is "normal" and how it "should work". I think learning about non-concordance was really important for me and I want everyone to learn about it. The one issue with the book, which the author does acknowledge, it is written mainly based on the heterosexual afab experience. Thank you so much for this recommendation Holly. It has definitely helped with my confidence.
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