You Call This Love? : The Real Reason Women Don’t Like Sex

Author: Lisa Bisque

You Call This Love? : The Real Reason Women Don’t Like Sex by Lisa Bisque. Lincoln, Nebraska: iUniverse.Com, 2000. 121pages. www.iuniverse.com. $10.95. Review by J. Steven Svoboda.

I devoutly wish this book were better than it is. The author’s heart is clearly in the right place. Bisque, a mother of three and a licensed practical nurse, offers us very short chapters discussing such issues as hygiene arguments for circumcision, its impact on sexuality, consent issues, legal issues, a spiritual context, and other matters. Unfortunately, this sounds better than it actually is because Bisque rarely manages to plunge beneath the surface of the various issues she skirts past.

The sad truth is that there is little here for anyone with any exposure to the issue of male circumcision. The book is short on facts and long on liberal philosophy, with much of which I personally happen to agree but most of which is superfluous and smacks of preaching to the converted. The book ends with 27 pages of letters and article written to and about the author, so the reader may be forgiven for wondering why he or she is being asked to pay eleven bucks for 94 very sparse pages of philosophizing and scattered facts.

I don’t mean to sound overly harsh. Lisa Bisque’s book may have some marginal value for two categories of potential readers: 1) newcomers to the movement who agree with her underlying philosophy but haven’t applied it to the subject of male circumcision much, and 2) friends and relatives of activists who also share a liberal New Age-oriented philosophy but need educating about male circumcision. Still even for folks in these two categories I would much prefer Ronald Goldman’s superb fact-filled masterpieces, or alternatively the classic, highly accessible and recently updated Doctors Re-Examine Circumcision by Denniston and Ritter. I appreciate the author’s dedication but must admit I can’t recommend the book as a worthwhile purchase.