Boston Marriages: Romantic But Asexual Relationships Among Contemporary Lesbians

[NexusXavier]

I was searching odd thngs in amazon.ca again when I came across this book. The title cought my intrest so I read the description. I'll highlight the parts of the decription that have persuade me to purchase.

I haven't read the book, but I might still buy it.

http://www.amazon.ca/Boston-Marriages-Roma...3827&sr=1-2

This collection of theoretical essays and personal stories is not just about "Boston marriages," a term referring to two women in a nonsexual but nonetheless deeply committed relationship. As the book so well concludes, there is no language for this type of relationship, not just for lesbians but for anyone--gay, straight, male, or female--who relates to others outside the traditional roles of friend, lover, spouse, or relative. Living in a society that invalidates a love that has not been sexually validated, the women subjects of this book speak passionately about relationships they have kept hidden even from their own lesbian community; the essays by well-known writers in the area of lesbian studies pale in comparison. This book's apparently specific nature should not deter academics and others interested in the study of human relationships. For academic libraries and women's studies collections.

- Patricia Sarles, Brooklyn P.L.

Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

[rubix]

I just checked my university library and they have three copies! Definitely adding this to my must-read list.

Thanks for the tip :)

[Satori]

I have this book and I was so excited to find it but to be honest I only read about half of it, its written as though its one long research paper and it took what could have been a wonderful book and made it dreadfully dull :( To make it worse the title is very misleading, there all having sex, many with multiple partners, just not each other so there sexual needs are just getting met elsewhere is all. It sounds like what she's considering a Boston marriage is really just to roommates who are emotionally close but are acting like "typical lesbians" and out having sex with everyone else.

[BrainDamage]

I ordered this book thru Amazon 5-6 years ago. It only caught my eyes by accident, as suggestions that at Amazon they throw at u. I read the whole book and I thought it was a good one, but I also agree with Satori. It seems that u have to take 'asexual relationships' both together, meaning 'asexual' is only an adjective for 'relationships', and doesn't necessarily mean that the people in this study are asexual.

[Hallucigenia]

I read the book while writing a paper for women's studies. I found it fascinating.

It's true that some of the relationships in the book were the way Satori describes, but I seem to remember there being some women who were simply not having sex at all, at least for a certain period of time. You have to remind yourself that the book is written from a perspective where it's assumed that everyone is sexual... and that the people written about in the book were also people who had always believed that everyone is sexual. Considering the number of "mixed" relationships that begin with sex, I don't think it's unlikely that some of those women really may have been asexual. Or maybe not - after all, I don't know them.

And I didn't think it was written in a dull way... or at least not nearly as dull as some of the other stuff I had to read for women's studies. (Or in my computing and math textbooks, come to think of it.)