What Women Want What Every Man Needs to Know About SEX, Romance, Passion, and Pleasure

by Bechtel, Stefan; Stains, Laurence Roy

• ISBN13: 9781579540937
• ISBN10: 1579540937
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-04-22
• Publisher: Rodale Books

Summary

2,102 women invite you between these coversThese women want to share intimate secrets about their sex. Secrets that most mortal men never get to hear. You'll learn their real desires-- and exactly what it takes to woo, win, and please them, now and forever.What Women Want is the most comprehensive, revealing, fascinating study of women and sex ever undertaken on behalf of men like you. Inside, Laurence Roy Stains and Stefan Bechtel-- the authors of Sex: A Man's Guide, a million-copy bestseller-- report in eloquent, manly language on their findings from interviews with more than 2,100 women.These women let their hair down. They tell how often they fake orgasm and why. (You'll be surprised.) They talk about whether they are after your money, your soul, or both. They reveal what makes them hot and what turns them cold. And they confess that they like sex. They really do. And they really do like men. But they know better than to tell you that.For the first time, under one cover, you have in your hands the indisputable truth about what women think about love, men, sex, and relationships. Read this book, and you'll have an unfair advantage in matters of love-- where all is fair-- and in the war of the sexes-- where victory occurs only when everybody wins.

Author Biography

Laurence Roy Stains and Stefan Bechtel have coauthored two previous books, Sex: A Man's Guide, with more than one million copies in print, and The Good Luck Book. The two also were founding editors of Men's Health Magazine.

Stains has written for the New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, GQ, Money, Worth, USA Weekend, the Boston Globe, the Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday Magazine, and other publications. In 1980, as founding editor of the alternative-energy magazine, New Shelter, he hired an aspiring humorist named Dave Barry to write a monthly column. He lives with his family outside Philadelphia.

Bechtel has been married to his wife, Kay, for eighteen years and is the father of two above-average children, Adam and Lilly. He is the author of The Practical Encyclopedia of Sex and Health, which has more than one million copies in print and has been translated into Chinese, Korean, and Polish. He is also coauthor of Katherine, It's Time, a non-fiction novel. His articles have appeared in Esquire, Reader's Digest, American Way, the Washington Post, and other publications.

Excerpts

Chapter One

MORE DIFFERENT

THAN ALIKE

YOU STILL CAN'T FIGURE OUT WOMEN?

Well, guess what: They still can't fathom you. Of all

of the differences between the sexes, there are three

that annoy most women, most days of the week.

They have to do with talking and feeling and, well,

talking about feelings.

    Most women like men. Really. Despite the Bobbitt jokes, and despite the fact that they read books with titles like How to Dump a Guy, No Good Men , and Why It's Always the Guy's Fault .

    They want us, and they want to get along with us. Just as we want them. Despite the fact that they like to watch Ally McBeal once a week.

    But how? On that point, they're stuck. They're as clueless as we are.

    They are stumped by the Great Divide, and most of them have come to the sorry conclusion that men and women are more different than alike.

    Take "Vanessa," for instance. She's a 42-year-old interior designer from California. For her, the Great Divide is as clear as Rocky Mountain air.

My last husband was a doctor. We liked to ski. We were skiing in Aspen one Christmas, and we had just gotten on the hill when I blew my knee on a mogul field. I fell, and all of a sudden I hear this big "pow!" I try to stand on it and I can't. And I'm looking at the bottom of the mogul field, and he's there waving me down. "C'mon! Hurry up! We just got here!"

So I slid all the way down on my good knee and said, "I think I blew my knee. I mean, I can't stand on it or anything."

And he says, "Lay down. Take off your ski." He's rotating my whole leg 360 degrees, then he says, "Yeah! You tore your ACL."

I say, "What are we gonna do?"

He says, "Ski down to the next chairlift" So I skiied down on one leg while he was waiting very impatiently for me to catch up with him. "Okay," he says, "take the chairlift up to the top so they can put you on the gondola--and I'll see you later."

And I said, "Wait a minute: If you leave me here, when I get down to the bottom, I'm not seeing a doctor--I'm seeing a lawyer."

    He finally helped her down the hill, but the incident was the beginning of the end of that marriage. "There was no sympathy there at all," Vanessa said, looking back on it. "If that had been a woman I was skiing with, she'd have said, `Oh my God, your arm is hurt too! Let's get the ski patrol.' She would have been sympathetic. Women talk to each other. They're caring. They're listeners. They discuss each other's problems. Men talk about sports. That's it. Sports or their jobs."

    And she has come to a conclusion that goes straight to the heart of this book: "Men are totally different from women--and the only way we can deal with each other is by trying to communicate as much as possible."

Women don't understand us. Now you know why she always wants you to talk to her. Maybe, just maybe, she'll come away a teeny bit less flabbergasted.

    We mystify women. We all do. And at times, we seem so alike in our differences from them that they invent crazy theories for why this is so. Here's Vanessa's.

From day one, fathers give their little boys a book to read. It's called The Book of Dicks . It teaches you how to be a guy. That book is given to every little boy in the world. Now, I've never read it. But you can tell when a kid finally has. He changes over from a cute little boy to a guy--a guy who has read The Book of Dicks .

    Now that we've suffered through 30 years of feminism, are relations any better? Hardly. Now we have a new generation of women who grew up playing soccer and basketball, who wear men's boxers and Gap T-shirts and CK One cologne. And they ponder the age-old question: What makes men tick? As Cristin in Baltimore told us, "Men are foreigners to us sometimes."

    How swell if everyone could smile and say, " Viva la difference ." As a rule, people don't. Instead, someone starts sleeping on the sofa. Someone like you.

    Sorry, but you cannot ignore the Great Divide.

Ignoring the Great Divide doesn't work. If it did, you wouldn't be reading this book.

    So we're going to tackle it right here, right now. You're about to learn that--surprise--it isn't as big or as awful as some women make it out to be. Women, as we know all too well, can generalize and "awfulize" about men like nobody's business. We'll spare you all that and just break down this dilemma into some approachable pieces.

    Let's begin by recognizing that men and women are different in some ways more than others. This is exactly what one anonymous respondent wrote in the blank space at the end of her form.

In terms of basic needs, personalities, habits, etcetera, I think men and women are more alike than different. However, when it comes to dating, sex, and some marital expectations, men and women are more different than alike.

    Good point. Such a good point, in fact, that you'll see this book zero in on those very subjects that produce the most friction. We talked to women about dating; we talked to them about sex; and we examined the major roles in a married man's life: husband, father, and breadwinner.

We probed for ways in which men could make little adjustments and get big results. After all, you can no sooner change your ways than the leopard can change his spots.

    But you're more apt to make a few changes if you understand why you're making them and if you're pretty sure it won't kill you.

    In our New Woman magazine poll, our first questions read "What is it that men just don't get about women? What is it that women just don't get about men?"

    Several hundred women took the time to reply. Their gripes--and, oh, can they gripe--pretty much come down to a few big concerns. Think of these as the daily sore spots. And let's be thankful that the battle of the sexes can be broken down, at least for starters, into these three approachable problems.

    1. Talking. Or, to use her favorite word for it, communication . In essence, women talk and men don't. Or if you do, you interrupt her with some solution to the problem that she has placed before you. As we'll say again in chapter 14, don't do that. Let go of the burden of fixing it, because that's not why she's telling you all of this stuff anyway. She's telling you as a way to think out loud and to feel closer to you. Women talk to create intimacy. When you simply listen, she feels that you're taking her seriously.

    Here are some representative remarks on the subject from the women we surveyed.

[] "Women need to talk. It's that simple."

[] "When women talk, they aren't bitching; they just need to vent or discuss."

[] "Listen and let me vent."

[] "Our need to talk ... it makes us feel connected."

[] "We think out loud and we just want you to listen."

    It's definitely true that some men don't talk enough. (That used to be a good thing--the strong, silent type.) It's also true that some women, and we all know who they are, talk too much. They will not shut up. So when we read so many women commenting, "Listen to my problems without being judgmental and without giving advice unless asked," we have to wonder.... If you're enduring a steady stream, maybe she needs five little words of advice: Say less. Be heard more.

    2. Feelings. Women show emotions; men hide emotions. At least, that's the way they see it. Her emotions are more complicated. And she's more sensitive to the feelings of others. Whereas you're not as sensitive, especially when it comes to her feelings. You blurt and you hurt. You tease her about her feelings; you even tease her about expressing her feelings to her girlfriends.

    Again, some representative commentary:

[] "Women are more emotional. Men are more practical."

[] "Men don't get how emotional women are about things. Women don't get how men aren't."

[] "Women are emotionally connected to everything."

[] "A lot of men tend to not want to discuss emotions and feelings, and that's what most women thrive on."

[] "They expect us to just `suck it up,' like they do."

    One anonymous respondent makes an excellent point: "Men are notoriously quiet when something is bothering them, until they finally blow up, run away, or look for an escape." So when she talks vaguely about "good communication," maybe all she means is, tell her what's really bugging you before you go postal on her. Of course, she'd much rather hear nice feelings. Feelings like, you sure missed her when she went away last weekend. You can't read her mind; don't expect her to read yours.

    3. Romance and intimacy and relationships. She wants to be wooed. She wants to be that special someone. She wants attention. She wants time together. She wants affection, both physical and verbal. She needs the emotional security that comes of your constant reassurances. She needs to feel close to you--and you seem to have a spiteful determination not to fulfill her need.

    A sampling of the messages:

[] "We like sex, too, but what we really like is romance."

[] "We just want to be adored."

[] "Worship us!"

[] "We need a lot more attention than they think we need."

[] "We don't understand the way they express their love for us-- lack of cards, lack of gifts, lack of worry, etcetera."

[] "Listen to the radio. What women want is being broadcast daily."

    And here are helpful hints from Cindy in Naperville, Illinois: "Women need to be hugged or simply touched. In the video store or grocery store, give a little squeeze on the arm, or throw your arm around her waist." You're right, Cindy. That's not so hard. If it is, then she's not really the right gal for us, is she?

    There's one catch: your suggestion that we not be embarrassed to "talk in goofy voices" in public. There we draw the line. Can't we compromise? We'll squeeze you in the video store if you promise to stop the baby talk.

    Now, gentlemen, let us pause to ask you something. Have you noticed anything about this list? If you add item one together with items two and three, you realize what happens, don't you?

You get a guy's worst nightmare--that moment when a woman wants you to talk about your feelings about the relationship .

    Many women will ask, but few will receive. Most guys simply cannot do that. We were not engineered to process the question. Depending on our particular wiring, we either shut down or blow up.

    If she suddenly asks this ultimate of female questions, it's probably because she's thinking of having coffee with that guy in the art department and she's been checking your commitment level lately and you're 2 quarts low. But if she's consistently asking and you're consistently shutting down, try this.

Give her pieces of what she wants. Tonight, make her feel special. Tomorrow, don't dismiss her feelings. This weekend, let her vent.

    Maybe then the ultimate question won't come up as often.

    Women, of course, had lots more to say about lots of other things. Here are some of the biggies.

    [] "Women always worry."

    [] "Women can't come every time."

    [] "It is the little things that count."

    [] "We get bitchy sometimes."

    Whoa! Back up! Let's talk about that rhymes-with-witchy thing. Women want guys to know two things about PMS. First, PMS is hell.

    "PMS is real," we heard.

    "You just don't understand PMS," said Maria in Miami.

    "PMS means go away ," warned a lady in North Carolina.

    Second, don't blame every angry reaction on PMS. "Every time I get mad, my boyfriend blames it on PMS," said Edith, a 23-year-old student in Maine. "I do believe in PMS, but there are times when I get angry and it's not because of my hormones."

    Beyond what women wish we understood about them, our New Woman survey also asked what women don't get about men. Here's the litany of their woes. Basically, they want to know why we have such big egos and why we're so selfish and where we get off having such an inflated sense of self-worth. (Oh, yeah? We'll address who's selfish in the next chapter.) They want to know why we're so full of blarney. Why we have to compete with everyone, everywhere, every day. Why we're so controlling, yet so helpless in the kitchen. Why we can't tell them how we feel about anything, how it seems we really don't feel anything, and how they can acquire our nonchalance. They want to know why we have friends if we don't tell them anything. And why on Earth can't we read their minds?

    They'd love to know when science will discover the gene sequence that causes men to scream at the TV during sporting events. "If you'd get as excited about us as you do about sports, you'd have it made," advises a lady in Long Beach, California.

    If modern science ever solves that one, perhaps the answers to these enigmas are not far behind. (1) What is the deal with pro wrestling? And, (2) do we really think the Three Stooges are funny?

    There you go. Invaluable advice. You can wave it off as silly or sexist. You can ignore everything. But then what will happen?

    You'll be the guy sleeping on the sofa.

Copyright © 2000 Laurence Roy Stains and Stefan Bechtel. All rights reserved.