A revised version of “The Joy of Sex” is written for women as much as for men.

By SARAH LYALL


With its forthright prose, erotic advice and amusing pictures of an ardent naked person known popularly as the Hairy Man,“The Joy of Sex”was a revolution in its time. Published in 1972, when sex was still supposed to take place in the dark and under the sheets, the book thrust itself into public consciousness. It was stunningly popular, a fixture of bedside tables across America.

The book, which was translated into 20 languages, has undergone various changes and expansions over the years. But now comes a completely revised version, written, for the first time, for women as much as for men. It tackles topics unheard of in the 1970s, like Internet pornography, AIDS and Viagra.

But still. In a society where people talk and think far too much about sex already, what is the point of reading anything else about it? Is there really anything new to say?

Yes, indeed, said Susan Quilliam, a British sexologist, advice columnist and relationship counselor who extensively revised the book, which will make its American debut next month (the British version came out in September). People need help in negotiating the culture’s bewildering sexual messages, she said.

“Because we are more sexualized, we need something that is credible, accurate and authoritative,”Ms.Quilliam said.

As pervasive as sex is, she said, society seems just as ignorant and nervous about it as ever. And who could blame people for being confused, bombarded as they are by explicit images, impossible expectations and contradictory, alarming information from an ever-expanding array of media promoting the notion that everyone should be having amazing, contortionistic sex all the time.

Ms.Quilliam, who is 58 and divorced, was hired to rewrite“The Joy of Sex” by its British publisher, Mitchell Beazley (the original book was British, as was its author, Dr.Alex Comfort, who died in 2000).

Ms.Quilliam noted that people have more sex with more partners and think nothing of talking about it the next day in Starbucks. College students “hook up” for casual encounters instead of dating. Sexual images loom down from billboards, leap out of television sets and beckon from computers. But Ms.Quilliam argues that with the new libertinism has come a parallel and opposing strand: a better understanding of the repercussions of casual sex.“We have a lot more freedom about sex, but at the same time we’re starting to realize that sex is serious,”she said.

Ultimately, Ms.Quilliam takes a practical approach, urging that we all keep things in perspective.

“Alex was debunking the idea that sex was dirty,”Ms.Quilliam said of Dr.Comfort and his revolutionary book.“I’m saying:‘Let’s normalize this. Most people don’t have screaming orgasms every weekend.’”

She continued:“Have fun, have love, have sex. But don’t give yourself a hard time if you’re not doing it 24-7.”