Tomorrow sex will be good again Women and desire in the age of consent

Angel (Daddy Issues), a lecturer in creative writing at Birkbeck, University of London, delivers four thought-provoking essays on female sexuality in contemporary culture. Though consent is "crucial, and the bare minimum" for sexual encounters, Angel writes, the insistence that women vocalize their desires can work against them in cases of rape or sexual assault and fails to recognize that people don't always know what they want. Reviewing recent sex research, she contends that studies categorizing women's desire as mostly responding to men's "urgent biological drive," rather than arising spontaneously, "risk turning sexual desire into something towards which women must strive--even when they don't want to," and casts doubt on theories about women's arousal that are based on vaginal lubrication in artificial laboratory conditions. "We should prioritize what women say, in all its complexity," Angel argues, "rather than fetishizing what their bodies do in the name of a spurious scientism." By fixating on "yes" and "no," "consent culture" inhibits the potential for mutual exploration, curiosity, uncertainty, and growth, Angel concludes. Her jargon-free prose and nuanced readings of popular culture and postmodern theory enlighten. Readers will value this lively and incisive inquiry into the sexual dynamics of the #MeToo era. (Feb.)

As this slim yet philosophically dense volume suggests, consent doesn't guarantee enjoyable sex--and may in fact inhibit it. British academic Angel considers the relatively new concept that sexual interaction should rely on a man asking for, and a woman granting, permission for each sequential act involved. (For the purposes of this book, she focuses on cis men and women: "The particular quandaries affecting trans people's experience of sex, as well as those in same-sex relationships will, I hope, find some resonance and recognition in the dynamics I explore here, but the fine-grained texture of those quandaries are not mine to explore, and others are better placed to be doing (and to have done) that vital work.") In chapters about consent and vulnerability, the author makes the point that "we do not always know what we want" and that clearly stating your desires does nothing to prevent "miserable, unpleasant, humiliating" sex. The book's ironic title--borrowed from a 1976 essay by French philosopher Michel Foucault that criticized contemporary "sexual liberationists"--suggests that positive sexual interactions cannot be willed into existence. Rather, they depend on "conversation, mutual exploration, curiosity, uncertainty--all things, as it happens, that are stigmatized within traditional masculinity." Angel argues that sexual relationships don't have much to do with the conscious and the verbal but, especially for women, with what goes on beneath the surface of consciousness. The one certainty she returns to repeatedly is that "we shouldn't have to know ourselves in order to be safe from violence." Because she builds her case on her own observations and experiences more than scholarly research, some readers may be skeptical about her authority while others will find the logical arguments that she makes convincing. Some might also wish for even more personal stories to be woven into what is generally a cerebral and abstract book. Still, Angel raises intriguing questions about commonly accepted assumptions, and she offers reassurance to female readers. A provocative counterargument to recent feminist dogma. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.