Investors searching for the next big thing should look at vibrators and sex-ed talks, according to this starry-eyed business manifesto.
Debut author Barrica, a former venture capitalist and CEO and founder of the website O.school, argues that the world is sunk in a mire of sexual ignorance and dissatisfaction thanks to inadequate school sex-ed courses and society’s embarrassed reluctance to talk about sex. She sees a crying need for private companies to step in and supply a market for “sexual wellness” that she estimates could be worth $122 billion by 2026. Barrica extols business opportunities in two sectors: nice, respectable, female-friendly retail outlets selling sex aids like vibrators and pre-warmed lubricant dispensers—she praises San Francisco’s pioneering Good Vibrations boutique—and media sources providing frank but nonpornographic information on sex. (Her O.school site offers videos, livestreams, and comments by sex educators on many topics, including sexually transmitted infections, BDSM–related topics, and proper cunnilingus technique.) To get there, she warns, investors and entrepreneurs must surmount barriers, including venture capital firms’ limited-partner agreements with morals clauses and wary payment processors. The book concludes with a savvy primer on growing a sextech startup, including advice on scoring venture capital (“it takes 100 meetings for every one million dollars you want to raise”) and keeping your bank from freaking out about your business. (“Keep it vague.”) Barrica’s prose has the flavor of an investment prospectus—“By shifting the message away from prurience and toward wellness, it allows us to access a much broader market”—written from a very woke-capitalist perspective. She offers tips on trans-inclusive sextech terminology—don’t say “women,” say “vulva owners”—and bemoans the “orgasm gap” that sees straight women climaxing just 65% of the time compared with straight men’s 95%. Barrica’s unblushing confrontations with sociosexual issues—“No one is talking to their kids about responsible consumption of porn”—may make readers squirm, but they also remind us why we might need a website to talk about these things with kids so that we don’t have to. An impassioned and cogent, though boosterish, case for market-based sexual therapeutics.
Pub Date: Nov. 22, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5445-0491-9
Page Count: 204
Publisher: Lioncrest Publishing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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