Sandra Glahn on Byrd in Your Box

Amen. With a caveat: Second-wave feminism explored topics that included sexuality, but few second-wave feminist authors framed sex as an “evolutionary drive” (e.g., as a biologically hardwired behavior). Rather, second-wave feminists objected to the emphasis on men’s pleasure being centered in the sex act in a way that women’s pleasure was not. (One can see such male-centered focus in books by and for Christians, such as Ed Wheat’s *Intended for Pleasure*.) Second-wavers often emphasized social, political, and cultural factors shaping women’s sexuality rather than a purely biological or evolutionary explanation. In fact many second-wave feminists were even critical of biological determinism, seeing it as a tool used to justify patriarchy.