The love goddess

I am talking to ten women, the youngest is 26 and the oldest, 66. We are talking about something researchers call the "sexual peak" - you know, that moment in your life when you feel as if your love emanates from you. You're vibrating with it.

The 44-year old woman says she's reached hers just now. Sexually active throughout her 20s but not emotionally secure till now, feels she's scaled a kind of developmental Mt. Everest - brimming with sexual energy, with a lover who loves her and can handle it; no small children to interrupt. And yet, she says, nothing marks her arrival at this sexual summit! Where, she wonders, are the perfectly simultaneous orgasms? The mini-explosions in some as-yet-unawakened region of her lower body? The gold star to celebrate her triumphant appearance at the pinnacle of her sexuality?

And there's the rub: The term "sexual peak" is anxiety-provoking and always will be. Read More »