Bettina Arndt: What Men Want in Bed
Published 28 September 2010
Across the world, the story is the same. Sex scandal. Media frenzy. Another prominent man caught with his pants down. So, why do men take such risks for sex?
Bettina Arndt’s new book, “What Men Want – in bed”, is all about why sex matters so much to men. More than 150, mostly older, men kept diaries for her, talking about what it is like to live with that constant sparking sexual energy – relentless, uncontrollable, all-consuming.
Their painfully honest, confronting, often hilarious stories explain their quest for sexual adventure, their secret delights, the thrill of giving pleasure, why some men turn to pornography and men’s delight in the Viagra revolution. They also share their dysfunction and disappointments.
Extraordinary his-and-hers diaries reveal how partners react to this bumpy journey showing the fallout when a man seeks a new lease of sexual life when his wife just wants him to hang up his spurs.
With every second man over fifty dealing with erection problems, Bettina offers advice on the wondrous new treatments giving men a new lease of sexual life. Her diarists explain what it is like to pop the little blue pills, or inject their best friend, or face impotence after prostate cancer treatments.
For the 20,000 men each year diagnosed with prostate cancer, their ordeal is made far worse by the lack of government support for the expensive treatments needed to regain their sexual functioning.
At this National Press Club talk, Arndt launches a campaign to end this discrimination against male cancer victims, a move backed by The Urological Society of Australian and New Zealand and the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia.
Bettina Arndt is a sex therapist, journalist and clinical psychologist who has been talking about sex for over thirty years. In 2009, she published her book “The Sex Diaries” which became an international best-seller. This was based on the diaries of 98 couples talking about how they negotiate sex and deal with mismatched desire. She followed this up with another diary project, looking at male sexuality, which lead to her latest book, “What Men Want – in bed”. Arndt has served on a number of committees advising the Australian government on policy matters, including the Family Law Pathways Advisory Group, the National Advisory Committee on Ageing, the Assisted Reproductive Technologies Review Team and the Child Support Review Reference Group.