A deep dive for sex nerds and informative fun for everyone else.
A snarky romp through the “elastic, adaptable, catch-as-catch-can, DIY-friendly, totally open-source method of reproduction and social connection that keeps the world as we know it spinning.”
Popular Science executive editor Feltman could talk your ear off about koala chlamydia, and while she understands that her topic won’t appeal to everyone, this raucous book is sure to have something to fascinate most readers—even those who think they’re experts on all things sex-related. Rather than an in-depth examination of one or two specific elements, she offers “a smattering, a taste, a mere assortment of amuse-bouches of sexual expression and queer existence and horny exuberance through history.” Beginning with the introduction, “Everything Weird Is Normal—Everything Normal Is Weird,” the author demonstrates that she is equally confident discussing bacterial reproduction techniques, the history of heterosexual mating rituals, and contemporary human identities and politics, and there are numerous moments of laugh-out-loud amazement and eyebrow-raising surprise. The chapter on human reproduction is especially well detailed, taking the standard “sperm-meets-egg” story and complicating it almost to the point of absurdity, and Feltman’s exploration of animal biology and reproductive habits is similarly eye-opening. Many of the author’s choices are affirming and diverse—e.g., referring to “people with uteruses” and consistently including nonbinary people. Some of the humor is grating or overworked, including certain sections that will confuse older, less-internet-savvy readers, or will quickly become outdated, as in passages of meme-ready language. Feltman’s jokey tone works well for shorter pieces but becomes exhausting over a full-length book. Consequently, many readers will choose to read a chapter or two at a time. On the whole, though, the book is entertaining and educational. Before presenting a helpful section of further reading, the author notes, “this book is meant to merely be a humorous primer, a lighthearted introduction, a romp through the basics.” It’s an apt description.
A deep dive for sex nerds and informative fun for everyone else.Pub Date: May 17, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-64503-716-3
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Bold Type Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 23, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
A master class in how gender has been weaponized in support of conservative values and authoritarian regimes.
A deeply informed critique of the malicious initiatives currently using gender as a political tool to arouse fear and strengthen political and religious institutions.
In their latest book, following The Force of Nonviolence, Butler, the noted philosopher and gender studies scholar, documents and debunks the anti-gender ideology of the right, the core principle of which is that male and female are natural categories whose recognition is essential for the survival of the family, nations, and patriarchal order. Its proponents reject “sex” as a malleable category infused with prior political and cultural understandings. By turning gender into a “phantasmatic scene,” they enable those in positions of authority to deflect attention from such world-destroying forces as war, predatory capitalism, and climate change. Butler explores the ideology’s presence in the U.S., the U.K., Uganda, and Hungary, countries where legislation has limited the rights of trans and homosexual people and denied them their sexual identity. The author also delves into the ideology’s roots among Evangelicals and the Catholic Church and such political leaders as Donald Trump and Viktor Orbán. Butler is particularly bothered by trans-exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs), who treat trans women as “male predators in disguise.” For the author, “the gap between the perceived or lived body and prevailing social norms can never be fully closed.” They imagine “a world where the many relations to being socially embodied that exist become more livable” and calls for alliances across differences and “a radical democracy informed by socialist values.” Butler compensates for the thinness of some of their recommendations with an astute dissection of the ideology’s core ideas and impressive grasp of its intellectual pretensions. This is a wonderfully thoughtful and impassioned book on a critically important centerpiece of contemporary authoritarianism and patriarchy.
A master class in how gender has been weaponized in support of conservative values and authoritarian regimes.Pub Date: March 19, 2024
ISBN: 9780374608224
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.
The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.
“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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