Best Sex Writing 2012: The State of Today’s Sexual Culture

April 8th, 2012 § 25 Comments

I’m going to nutshell it for you: sluts, politics, pleasure, religion, cash, queerness, STDs, youth, age, crime, violence, body image, history, lust, leather, blow jobs and F bombs. What else do you need to know?

In her introduction, Susie Bright aligned the curation of this anthology with the childhood fun of building a time capsule in a Tupperware bowl, to be buried for posterity. I can see that. There are pieces that exemplify our times. But there are also essays I believe will stand the test of time.

My favorites being To All the Butches I Loved between 1995 and 2005: An Open Letter about Selling Sex, Selling Out, and Soldiering On by Amber Dawn. And not just because we toured together for a month while performing with the Sex Workers Art Show back in 2004. (OMG… best tour mate ever!) But because Amber writes from her heart and with a perspective that is raw yet inviting. She’s easy to love.

I also love the warmth of Lynn Harris’ Dating with an STD. Gone were the scare tactics and judgments. Left behind were her words of kindness and notes on the realities of lives touched by STDs.

I was soaking in nostalgia as I read Abby Tallmer’s Losing the Meatpacking District: A Queer History of Leather Culture, as the ol’ NYC meatpacking district was once one of my beloved, gritty stomping grounds. (Where else could one chat up a transgender hooker and a blood splattered meat packer while wearing greasepaint? And that was just a normal course of my work day!)

I also enjoyed Rachel Kramer Bussel’s Penis Gagging, BDSM, and Rape Fantasy: The Truth about Kinky Sexting where she addresses the hotness of sexting and how, when taken out of context, lustful words can be twisted in the worst ways.

Selected and introduced by Susie Bright, edited by the very prolific Rachel Kramer Bussel, inside you’ll find this book to be a very thoughtful collection of essays on sex.

Leave a comment to this post (before 11:29pm (eastern time) on 4/8) and you are entered to win a copy of Best Sex Writing 2012! (Contest is over. CONGRATULATIONS to Heather! Much thanks to everyone who entered… there will be more contests. I promise. xo)

Buy it.Learn more.


You might also enjoy: Books My Friends Have Written | Phone Sex OperatorsDisaster Was My God: The Outlaw Life of Arthur Rimbaud

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You are currently reading Best Sex Writing 2012: The State of Today’s Sexual Culture at Lipstick Stains on Your Pillow.

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