The sexual self-help genre constitutes an ever-expanding market for the modern heterosexual couple, influenced by decades of `personal growth' therapy, literature and television. John Gray's (1992) best-seller Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, for example, claimed to offer some ostensibly ground-breaking insights into differences between men and women, and into the means by which heterosexual communication in relationships covvvvbe imprnved. It also paved the way for a series of popular sequels. This article employs feminist critique, influenced by poststructuralism, in order to examine the kinds of discursive strategies employed in Gray's recent (1995) Mars and Venus in the Bedroom: A Guide to Lasting Romance and Passion. In particular, this analysis seeks to demonstrate how the text attempts to regulate and normalize heterosexual behaviours, and how it functions to construct its predominantly female audience as female.
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