Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

First of all, I love this book for a lot of reasons: it's sex positive, giving women and some gay men a voice about what being a slut means and why casual sex can be a positive experience.   (One essay is from an author too neurotic to have casual sex, but who respects, and is even jealous of, those who are able to enjoy casual sex.)

That being said, a couple essays felt really scattered, and at one point the word maybe was used instead of many.   There were some 'essays' that were really answers to questions: when were you called a slut, what men think of women who put out on first dates.   The statistics themselves were nice, but some commentary might have made this better.   Telling us the answers to the 'when were you called a slut' question are heartbreaking doesn't quite do it justice to the girl who was raped, or beaten, or was told they were a slut because they were wearing a coat their mom made them when they were 10 or so.   (Many were as young as ten or twelve.)  The answers themselves were telling, but it felt a bit... eh, lazy, shallow?   I don't know.   I was expecting more, more about what slut shaming does to us as a society, what it means for women, especially the young women, or those who were shamed for their sexuality because they turned someone down. 

Not only that, but this felt put together haphazardly.   That is, you jumped from one subject to another, back again, then to another topic.   If the like essays were grouped together, it would have had more of an effect that reinforced what the authors were saying.   I thought the structure - or lack thereof - didn't benefit the essays themselves.   So, yes, I liked a lot of what this book said, but I also saw a lot of room for improvement.  

I do suggest downloading it if it's still free: what I thin of as 'the Hamm essay' satirizing the pictures taken of his penis in his tight, tight pants was hilarious because it's true.   No man would put up with the way we blame women as a whole, and by putting those justifications in such a ridiculous context, it succeeded in both making me laugh and making me aware of how wrong they are.   That was probably the best one of the bunch, to be honest.   While some essays were less effective for me, or a little more scattered, there were enough gems in this to make it a pleasure to read despite the editing issues.