Articles
In 1972 the Joy of Sex mentioned the Clitoris in passing on only a few occasions; in the soon to be released,...
RedHotPie Editor | September 15 2008
The New Joy of Sex - Exclusive RedHotPie interview
In 1972 the Joy of Sex mentioned the Clitoris in passing on only a few occasions; in the soon to be released, The New Joy of Sex, the clitoris gets two whole section devoted to it – just one of the welcome updates made by Susan Quilliam, the sexpert behind the modernizing of the western world’s most successful sex manual, The Joy of Sex.
Written by Dr Alex Comfort and released to the world in 1972, The Joy of Sex was a revelation, and open and graphic portrayal or physical relations between men and women. The book pulled no punches, exploring what intimacy between couples could really be. Obviously, the book struck a nerve with the free love generation as it went on to sell over 8 million copies.
The new edition of the classic lover’s guide promises to be as relevant to readers today as it was when first released. As you can imagine, with society changing quite a bit over the last three and a half decades, there will be quite a few overhauls… The panel beating has been done by Susan Quilliam, one of the UK’s best known agony aunts. Susan’s relationship advice can be found everywhere from AOL.co.uk to That’s Life and RedHot Pie caught up with Susan to ask her a few questions about The New Joy of Sex, her part in it and what it will mean to a new generation.
(RHP) How do you approach the up-dating of a classic like The Joy of Sex?
(Susan Quilliam) You first get clear whether what you're updating is updatable - or far too out of date. I read the book through several times and realised that though the science had changed, in many ways Joy of Sex was ahead of its time! The original author Alex Comfort was all for women taking the initiative, for sex being playful, for long, wonderful foreplay, and for taking multiple partners.
What has been added and what has been removed in the new edition?
I made the decisions about what to remove first. Out went the now-unfashionable (wet look trousers, chastity belts); the now unsafe (motorcyle sex) and the outdated (saying that most people hang on to their virginity until marriage, or that prostitution is a life choice.) As to adding sections, Alex Comfort reflected what was current in 1972 but since then things have moved on. We now have the Internet. We now know how important the clitoris is. We have sex toys, sex shops and sex shows. So I added 43 separate sections ranging from fantasy to phone sex.
What has changed the most in our sexual realities between 1972 and today?
There's a new hedonism - nowadays we're at ease with masturbation, with striptease and with swinging. And there are far more opportunities to have sex - with more people, in more situations.
But there's also a new puritanism. In the 70s there was quite a lot of pressure to go the whole way - for women, having sex was regarded as a nice way to thank a man for buying you dinner! We're now much more respectful of each other, much more determined to have the sex we want with who we want.
And, while we are more aware of the problems of sex - the challenge of sexually transmitted infections, the dangers of infidelity - there are far more solutions - medical and emotional. We've never lived in a time of more sexual opportunity.
How far reaching was the book in regards to impacting the collective consciousness after its initial release?
The original book not only reflected attitudes - it created them. The sexual revolution was well under way in 1972, but Joy of Sex spread the word; its influence was huge, and almost everyone has their own "Joy of Sex" story, which usually involves discovering it in their parents' bedside cabinet and realising for the first time that their parents actually had a love life!
The book's sold eight and a half million copies - and looks set fair to sell the same number again!
What does the updated version offer readers today?
There are lots of sex books around now - but Joy of Sex still offers a unique blend of information and inspiration. It's what the Japanese call a 'pillow book', that you keep handy before during and after the act.
The text not only reminds you that sex is about enjoyment, fun and joy -it also takes sex seriously; the book's subtitle is 'a thinking person's guide to sex".
The new illustrations show you clearly what can be done - the new photographs are beautiful in their own right and arousing too. The design makes it a book that you could keep on the coffee table as well as the bedside table!
How did you research for the re-working? Dinner party conversations? Random polling in the streets?
The basic research for the book is in two parts - the library research and the 'talking to' research. My team and I hit the libraries (and the web) for over a year, getting all the up to date information. But I also spent nearly as long talking in general to people and gaining a sense of our current attitudes to sex. Added to that, of course, I'm an agony aunt who gets up to 25000 letters a year - so I already had a pretty good idea of how we think nowadays!
Was there anything considered too hot to broach in the updating of The Joy of Sex?
As this book is for general sale, I didn't want to go into too much detail about out-of-mainstream sexuality - although I did carry on the Joy of Sex tradition of covering bondage and discipline. However we have a new series of books coming out from 2009 - and one of the first I've written is called The Joy of Sex - The Adventurous Lover. This is a no-holds barred book that contains lots of 'too-hot-to-handle' topics!
The New Joy of Sex is available from October, 2008 through Mitchell Beazley.
Written by Dr Alex Comfort and released to the world in 1972, The Joy of Sex was a revelation, and open and graphic portrayal or physical relations between men and women. The book pulled no punches, exploring what intimacy between couples could really be. Obviously, the book struck a nerve with the free love generation as it went on to sell over 8 million copies.
The new edition of the classic lover’s guide promises to be as relevant to readers today as it was when first released. As you can imagine, with society changing quite a bit over the last three and a half decades, there will be quite a few overhauls… The panel beating has been done by Susan Quilliam, one of the UK’s best known agony aunts. Susan’s relationship advice can be found everywhere from AOL.co.uk to That’s Life and RedHot Pie caught up with Susan to ask her a few questions about The New Joy of Sex, her part in it and what it will mean to a new generation.
(RHP) How do you approach the up-dating of a classic like The Joy of Sex?
(Susan Quilliam) You first get clear whether what you're updating is updatable - or far too out of date. I read the book through several times and realised that though the science had changed, in many ways Joy of Sex was ahead of its time! The original author Alex Comfort was all for women taking the initiative, for sex being playful, for long, wonderful foreplay, and for taking multiple partners.
What has been added and what has been removed in the new edition?
I made the decisions about what to remove first. Out went the now-unfashionable (wet look trousers, chastity belts); the now unsafe (motorcyle sex) and the outdated (saying that most people hang on to their virginity until marriage, or that prostitution is a life choice.) As to adding sections, Alex Comfort reflected what was current in 1972 but since then things have moved on. We now have the Internet. We now know how important the clitoris is. We have sex toys, sex shops and sex shows. So I added 43 separate sections ranging from fantasy to phone sex.
What has changed the most in our sexual realities between 1972 and today?
There's a new hedonism - nowadays we're at ease with masturbation, with striptease and with swinging. And there are far more opportunities to have sex - with more people, in more situations.
But there's also a new puritanism. In the 70s there was quite a lot of pressure to go the whole way - for women, having sex was regarded as a nice way to thank a man for buying you dinner! We're now much more respectful of each other, much more determined to have the sex we want with who we want.
And, while we are more aware of the problems of sex - the challenge of sexually transmitted infections, the dangers of infidelity - there are far more solutions - medical and emotional. We've never lived in a time of more sexual opportunity.
How far reaching was the book in regards to impacting the collective consciousness after its initial release?
The original book not only reflected attitudes - it created them. The sexual revolution was well under way in 1972, but Joy of Sex spread the word; its influence was huge, and almost everyone has their own "Joy of Sex" story, which usually involves discovering it in their parents' bedside cabinet and realising for the first time that their parents actually had a love life!
The book's sold eight and a half million copies - and looks set fair to sell the same number again!
What does the updated version offer readers today?
There are lots of sex books around now - but Joy of Sex still offers a unique blend of information and inspiration. It's what the Japanese call a 'pillow book', that you keep handy before during and after the act.
The text not only reminds you that sex is about enjoyment, fun and joy -it also takes sex seriously; the book's subtitle is 'a thinking person's guide to sex".
The new illustrations show you clearly what can be done - the new photographs are beautiful in their own right and arousing too. The design makes it a book that you could keep on the coffee table as well as the bedside table!
How did you research for the re-working? Dinner party conversations? Random polling in the streets?
The basic research for the book is in two parts - the library research and the 'talking to' research. My team and I hit the libraries (and the web) for over a year, getting all the up to date information. But I also spent nearly as long talking in general to people and gaining a sense of our current attitudes to sex. Added to that, of course, I'm an agony aunt who gets up to 25000 letters a year - so I already had a pretty good idea of how we think nowadays!
Was there anything considered too hot to broach in the updating of The Joy of Sex?
As this book is for general sale, I didn't want to go into too much detail about out-of-mainstream sexuality - although I did carry on the Joy of Sex tradition of covering bondage and discipline. However we have a new series of books coming out from 2009 - and one of the first I've written is called The Joy of Sex - The Adventurous Lover. This is a no-holds barred book that contains lots of 'too-hot-to-handle' topics!
The New Joy of Sex is available from October, 2008 through Mitchell Beazley.
