A review by butchriarchy
Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again: Women and Desire in the Age of Consent by Katherine Angel

Mostly an oversight of the larger discussion to be had about women and sex. She had a tiny disclaimer which read more to me like a cop-out stating that things may be different for LGBT people but really just moves on from that point to talk exclusively about white cis straight women. I think it's a disservice especially to trans women who may certainly feel even greater pressures and obligations revolving around sex, especially as Angel does mention sex workers (very off-handedly) and how the idea of obligatory affirmative consent may be convoluted for their profession and rights, thus complicating things even further as trans women are often employed as sex workers.

Another thing I felt was lacking was the consideration of race, ability, and socioeconomic status. She does mention them in... one sentence... to say, again, that things are different for women affected by those factors, and does frequently pause to say things along the lines of, "Of course, things are different for Black women..." mentions people like bell hooks, yet stops there. I thus found it a bit insulting that at one point she uses a quote of Audre Lorde's to advance her thesis without taking Black women into account within those paragraphs. It's not great, to put it lightly, to outright state that most of what you're saying only applies to white cis straight women. It makes it seem like the burden is too great for you as a white cis straight woman to ponder or investigate the conditions of people different than you under the guise of "I'm staying in my lane."

I do think her points are very solid and had me thinking a lot about the current state of feminism, specifically confidence and consent culture, how women are expected to take charge in sex and elsewhere because if not, well, they had it coming to them, and they're not advancing the state of affairs for women everywhere. I just feel like it would have been even more fruitful to explore all women's relationships to sex, including sex with each other--how do these perceptions and enforcements of men's expectations of sex with women eventually transform and influence how women have sex with other women? How do they treat each other in a sexual relationship, casual and long-term, based on what they've internalized on how they must service men, how sex is supposed to feel and be?

How women perceive and desire sex is also very interesting to me. It's not a topic I am comfortable discussing with others so to read something about it was refreshing for me, as I don't typically like to think about it on my own. I do feel like the book was too short to cover so great a topic. It felt more like a primer more than anything, and again, it really should've opened the door for a discussion on LBT women and sex.