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xandra_lyn's review
challenging
emotional
funny
informative
medium-paced
5.0
Such an amazing book!! So many take aways - I highly recommend this to everyone who wants to learn more about their body. Even if you have great sex, you are bound to learn something with this
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual content
Sexual assault is never graphically described but is discussed frequently as it is the reality of the female experience and impacts women's sex lives. Sexual content isn't graphic, per say, but it is obviously discussed a lot.bhnmt61's review against another edition
4.0
I had the same problem with this book that I have with almost all non-fiction: the amount of genuinely interesting new information might be enough to fill one or maybe two long-form magazine articles. There is some great stuff in here, but you have to wade through pages of chatty prattle to get to it. we’ll talk about that in chapter 8! Maximizing yum—with science! For realsie reals! on the plus side, that means you can skim through it and slow down when she gets to a topic that interests you, so it doesn’t take long to read. But seriously, if she has a Ted talk, or maybe she’s been on somebody’s podcast, you’d save yourself a whole bunch of time if you could just hear her explain SES vs SIS, nonconcordance, and non-judgmental acceptance of your sexuality as it is. It would probably take 15 or 20 minutes.
sarahheidmann's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
kschuster's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
samwescott's review against another edition
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
4.0
So, it turns out that the Dildorks podcast that recommended this book to me had also pretty much taught me all that the parts that were really gonna rock my world (mainly the difference between spontaneous and responsive desire), so the experience of reading this was a little bit of disappointment at the 101 feeling of a lot of the content. But I had the luck to be taught sex ed mostly through intense self-directed study of reputable sources to combat my religious upbringing in my late teens. I also grew up on sex-positive tumblr, so the ethics of sex and pleasure were more expansively discussed than in my childhood, so I don’t want to blame the book for covering ground that so many people need. And that so many people may not even know they need. I can think of a lot of older acquaintances and people who shared my religious upbringing who might greatly benefit from a book like this.
Similar to how it didn’t quite meet me where I was with content, it didn’t quite meet me where I am with tone. I found the chattiness of the writing to feel a little bit infantilizing and the constant warnings that some “big nerdy sex geek science” was coming to be unnecessary and very exaggerative. There was nothing difficult to understand in here, so the very noticeable hand-holding was a little insulting.
But again, I can see someone like my mom really warming up to that tone and it being super helpful to carry her through an embarrassing (to her) topic, so again, I think this is more a mismatch between the book and myself than an inherent flaw.
It is certainly a book about cis anatomy and experiences specifically, which the author acknowledges. But she also explained that she wanted to pull from evidence-based scientific consensus and that just is not available about trans and gender-expansive folks in any volume. It sucks, but I don’t blame the author for it and am glad she made an effort to note the lack.
Highly recommend for people who need the info and will like the tone, which is difficult to tell before you dive in! I would recommend getting it from the library first to see if it will be helpful for you.
Similar to how it didn’t quite meet me where I was with content, it didn’t quite meet me where I am with tone. I found the chattiness of the writing to feel a little bit infantilizing and the constant warnings that some “big nerdy sex geek science” was coming to be unnecessary and very exaggerative. There was nothing difficult to understand in here, so the very noticeable hand-holding was a little insulting.
But again, I can see someone like my mom really warming up to that tone and it being super helpful to carry her through an embarrassing (to her) topic, so again, I think this is more a mismatch between the book and myself than an inherent flaw.
It is certainly a book about cis anatomy and experiences specifically, which the author acknowledges. But she also explained that she wanted to pull from evidence-based scientific consensus and that just is not available about trans and gender-expansive folks in any volume. It sucks, but I don’t blame the author for it and am glad she made an effort to note the lack.
Highly recommend for people who need the info and will like the tone, which is difficult to tell before you dive in! I would recommend getting it from the library first to see if it will be helpful for you.