cover image Insatiable Wives: Women Who Stray and the Men Who Love Them

Insatiable Wives: Women Who Stray and the Men Who Love Them

David J. Ley. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., $39.95 (291pp) ISBN 978-1-4422-0030-2

Clinical psychologist Ley forges into new territory to examine the long-lived, but little-known ""hotwife phenomenon."" In extensive interviews with couples, Ley discovers educated, successful individuals with strong, healthy marriages in which wives are allowed, and expected, to sleep with other men. These couples demonstrate high degrees of communication and mutual respect while also asserting that the lifestyle, initiated by the wives, has strengthened their marriages. Interviews lead Ley to track the origins of monogamy and the reasons why ""female sexuality was constrained in our society and history,"" including analysis of the term ""cuckoldry,"" the evolution of laws designed to protect the family, and the Madonna/whore dichotomy, alongside the medical and societal costs of keeping women under sexual lock-and-key. Well-written and thoroughly researched, Ley's survey of an evolving marriage lifestyle highlights qualities vital to any relationship, especially honest and consistent communication.