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Best Sex Writing 2008 (Best Sex Writing)
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Product Description
The best sex journalism of the year in one unforgettable book.
Do Jewish girls give better blowjobs? What does it mean to be a modern-day eunuch? Does abstinence-only sex education work? Would you want to work in the pink ghetto or live in the glass closet? How “hung” are African-American men? What happens to a celebrity sex tape star in Iran? Best Sex Writing 2008 answers these questions (and raises many more) as it probes the inner lives of those on the front lines — political, personal, and cultural — of lust.
From dangerous dildos to professional submissives, the erotic appeal of twins, sex work, pornography and much more, these authors delve into the underbelly of eroticism. Probing stereotypes, truths, and the tricky areas in between, Best Sex Writing 2008 opens the bedroom door and explores the complexity of modern sexuality with thought-provoking, cutting-edge essays and articles.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #699773 in Books
- Published on: 2007-11-28
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Paperback
- 224 pages
Customer Reviews
About Almost Everything Else...
The problem with "Best Sex Writing 2008" is that so little of it is about, well, sex. Gael Greene's essay about her affair with '70s porn star Jamie Gillis is hot and funny and perceptive, and Rachel Kramer Bussel's essay is, as usual, a delight. The final piece-- on the pitfalls of hiring a professional submissive is a lovely and thoughtful comic piece. But so much of the writing here steps away from sex and into the merely...dull. There are two essays that are little more than tabloid panic-mongering and hysterical puritanism: "Older women are corrupting high school boys! The net is full of predators!" Eisenstadt's essay on why wedding nights shouldn't be about sex is...whiny--- about what could've been a funny topic. Michael Musto is strident and bitchy and self-righteous about closeted celebrities.
The Esfandiari-Buskin piece on "Sex in Iran" is fascinating-- and it's an essay that should be reprinted out in the mainstream world. Other essays-- about the safety hazards of dildos and the issue of "hung" black porn stars and the old "Jewish girls and oral sex" legend are...well...one wonders about the point.
I can only give "Best Sex Writing 2008" three stars--- and those only really because of Gael Greene's piece and the "Sex in Iran" essay. The two predator-fear scare-pieces and Musto's bitchiness did a great deal to make me think that somewhere there must be essays and articles about sex in 2008 that are actually about sex. Still--- Rachel Kramer Bussel's anthologies are always worth reading--- and this does have two very good essays which make putting up with many of the other collected pieces possible.
Unexpected Aspects of Sex
"If I had my way," says a professor in the Human Sexuality Department at San Francisco State University, "sexuality studies would take over the entire university, because everything relates to sexuality." You might accuse her of special pleading coming from a particular professional viewpoint, but she is quoted within the book _Best Sex Writing 2008_ (Cleis Press), edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel. Bussel says in the introduction that the 21 chapters included here, all by different authors on different subjects, "... taken as a whole, give a broader view of sex than you've likely ever considered, dealing as they do with biology, gender, crime, politics, the environment, health, religion, race, and much more." Indeed, everything relates to sex! Be warned that this is a collection of sex reporting and essays; it may have an erotic black-and-white photo on the front involving high heels and a thong, but these aren't bawdy stories, and unless you have a sexual kink for expressive and well-written reportage, you will find little titillation here. What you will find is plenty to think about, and if some of your fun in sexual issues is thinking deeply about them, this will be a very satisfying book for you.
Some of the reports here made me extremely uncomfortable. Take "Battle of the Sexless" by Ashlea Halpern. It starts with a description of how much blood a fellow lost the first time he tried to castrate himself. The first time. Further discomfort can be found in Kevin Keck's "Double Your Panic", wherein he describes how karma has returned for his adolescent fantasies of sexual liaisons with identical twins: his wife is now expecting twins. In "Dangerous Dildos", Tristan Taormino investigates the problem of the toxins called phthalates, often found in soft plastics, but banned from kids' toys or dogs' toys, not adults' toys. Trixie Fontaine in "Menstruation: Porn's Last Taboo" tells the difficulties of breaking boundaries by including menstrual blood in her on-line shows ("I'm just going to keep on offending in whatever ways sound like fun.") All is not darkness and fretting. Rachel Shukert has a funny chapter, "Big Mouth Strikes Again: An Oral Report", about society's view of the oral skills of Jewish women. Kelly Rouba in "Tough Love" reports good news for handicapped people who are interested in sex; a spinal injury doctor says, "There's always a way around the disability," and rehab centers are counting sexual needs as important. Especially remarkable is the chapter "Sex in Iran" by Pari Esfandiari and Richard Buskin, which has to do with fallout from a notorious celebrity sex tape released into that fundamentalist society. Non-procreative sex and the man's need to satisfy his sex drive are acknowledged by Islam, but the film shows a woman obviously enjoying herself. It has changed minds, has hit the governmental status quo, and has broken Iranian film profit records.
Readers who look for good articles on sexual topics may recall some of these, as most are reprints from newspapers, magazines, or websites. It is a stimulating collection, however, with evaluations of unexpected aspects of sexuality that are surprising, shocking, and funny.
Well-written, fascinating subject matter - Two Thumbs Up!
I thoroughly enjoyed Rachel Kramer Bussel's collection of essays and other works that make up 2008's Best Sex Writing anthology, though it wasn't quite what I was expecting. With cover artwork displaying a black stiletto heel hooked around a thong pulled from a taut derriere, I was thinking Best Sex Writing 2008 would be more Penthouse Letters, only less...retarded.
The subject matter is certainly diverse, running the gamut from the sexual appeal of twins to the behind closed (and veiled) door sex parties of Iranian youth to the politics of porn's messiest taboo, menstruation porn. While the writing is probing and stimulates my favorite sex organ, the brain, masturbation fodder this ain't. What you get instead is a well-researched, albeit brief, peek into a fascinating array of topics that your average sex book tends to ignore.
I've worked in the sex industry for the past 5 years and consider myself pretty well-educated when it comes to sexuality. It was exciting to find myself voraciously reading with the joy of discovering something new. This book is an education in all walks of sexual life and left me wanting to research several topics further. Castration that doesn't involve gender reassignment? Hiring a professional submissive? As Rachel Kramer Bussel hoped for in the introduction, Best Sex Writing 2008 definitely succeeded in leaving me wanting more.
