'Absolutely vital reading' - Stylist
Pleasure explores why so many women feel disconnected from their bodies and from sex, and what it takes to change that.
Part memoir, part cultural investigation, the book traces Emma-Louise Boynton's journey from being unable to orgasm and battling a years-long eating disorder, to rebuilding her relationship with sex, desire and intimacy. The story begins in the sex therapy room, where Boynton first discovered that her struggle with bulimia was deeply entangled with her experience of sexual numbness. From there, Pleasure expands outward - drawing on expert interviews, cultural analysis and immersive research (including four days on a porn set) - to reveal that this rupture between women and their bodies is not a personal failure, but a systemic one.
From narrow ideals around desirability and sexist narratives about aging, to the policing of women's pleasure, and the emotional alienation of app-based intimacy, Boynton interrogates the forces that teach women to mistrust their bodies and perform rather than feel their pleasure.
Crucially, Boynton offers a clear and practical roadmap for rebuilding desire, confidence and connection. Provocative, intimate and timely, Pleasure reframes women's relationship to sex and embodiment, arguing that reclaiming pleasure is not indulgent, but essential.
