‘If you have ever felt different, other, or just weird when it comes to love, sex, or intimacy, read Untrue. Wednesday Martin bulldozes the sexual stereotypes that have silenced women for eons. By bringing the voices of women who love in a range of ways to the surface, she shows us all that it's not us and our desires that are abnormal: it is a system that has constrained and shamed women. I love this book.’
Rachel Simmons, co-founder of Girls Leadership and author of Odd Girl Out
‘Wednesday Martin understands female sexuality — from the #MeToo movement and polyamory to women's prehistoric and cultural heritage. She goes far beyond our current psychological understanding of women's infidelity to tell the real story of women's ubiquitous, tenacious, and primordial sexual strategies. And her writing is not only informative, timely, and refreshing but wonderfully engaging. Brava, Wednesday.’
Helen Fisher, author of The First Sex and Why We Love
‘For centuries, men have been telling the story of female sexuality. Unsurprisingly, it was was riddled with condescension, bias, and sheer ignorance. With Untrue, Wednesday Martin sets the record straight, shining a light on some of the female researchers reshaping our understanding of what turns women on, and why. This is an important story, beautifully told. Highly recommended.’
Christopher Ryan, co-author of Sex at Dawn
‘Great fun … Martin is a lively, witty and engaging writer … She moves seamlessly between suburban housewives, “rock star” academics, macaque monkeys, and indigenous tribes. Her narrative is studded with surprises and even some cliffhangers … Fascinating’
Christina Patterson, The Sunday Times
‘[Martin] presents compelling food for thought on the very structures upon which our sexual identities are built, and the resistance from science itself that women, at their sexual core, may be more about rollicking adventure than romance and scented candles.’
Suzanne Harrington, Irish Examiner
‘A simultaneously frothy and substantive tour of female sexual desire … An indispensable work of popular psychology and sociology.’ STARRED REVIEW
Kirkus Reviews
‘At times playful, the narrative teems with fascinating commentary about everything from bonobos and paleolithic gender roles to Craigslist ads, as Martin examines how female sexuality continues to be shaped and stigmatised by artificial social constructions, sociopolitical values, and economics, all under the guise of ‘natural’ female biology and desire. A timely take on femininity and sexuality.’ STARRED REVIEW
Emily Bowles, Library Journal
‘Dr Martin suggests that if you’re struggling with dissatisfaction in your relationship, you should communicate that to your partner and explore other options, such as a consensual relationship with someone outside the relationship … If we’re open, honest and able to communicate effectively, non-monogamy isn’t all that radical.’
Georgia Aspinall, Grazia
‘The popular myth is that ‘men stray while women stay’, but New York social researcher Wednesday Martin sets out to expose that myopic, Western view … This is a fascinating and surprising book.’ FOUR STARS
Rosie Wilby, The Mail on Sunday
‘[An] eminently readable treatise on the lies society has been fed about female sexuality, agency, and infidelity. With each chapter, Martin builds a case for the primacy of female infidelity and for a societal reckoning with that truth. Step by step, she shows that she's thought deeply about her subject, and that all of these seemingly disparate intellectual threads are related and worthy of having been braided together. The sui generis quality of Untrue is the author's forte.’
Deb Copaken, The Atlantic
‘A provocative exploration of our biases about promiscuous women, with some psychology, primatology and lit-crit thrown in.’
Johanna Thomas-Corr, Evening Standard
‘Combining Barbara Ehrenreich’s immersive reporting style and Carrie Bradshaw’s savoir faire, [Wednesday Martin] dispels many myths about female desire.’
O, The Oprah Magazine
‘Chapters cover topics like infidelity, open marriage, polyamory, and even cuckolding to show that women are not the demure, sex-hating bearers of morality that history and long-standing research (by men) would lead us to believe.’
Kathy Sexton, Booklist
‘Wednesday Martin deconstructs many of the false beliefs that have negatively affected the way women's sexuality is viewed … This book turns everything we think we know about women and sex completely on its head, essentially undressing the falsehoods of female sexuality to reveal what lies beneath the layers of distortion women operate under.’
Kerri Jarema, Bustle
Insights gleaned during her anthropological deep-dive, gave Martin newfound appreciation for statistics indicating that women cheat about as often as men do.
Nell Beram, Shelf Awareness
‘Wednesday Martin has torn up the old established manual about how the world believes women view sex and revealed what’s really going on … With this book, a new sexual dawn is breaking.’
Weekend Sport
‘Riveting.’
Stephen A Russell, The New Daily
