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A New Guide to Sex in the 21st Century: The Young Adult Adaptation of 'The Case Against the Sexual Revolution'
The bestselling feminist book, now adapted for a young adult audience
Before the 1960s, sex before marriage was frowned upon and pornography was difficult to get hold of. We are now much freer to do what we like – there has been a ‘sexual revolution’. This must be a good thing, right?
Wrong, argues Louise Perry. These changes have had many negative consequences, especially for girls and women. The main winners from a world of rough sex, hook-ups and freely available porn are a tiny minority of rich and powerful men. Women have been forced to adapt to these changes in ways that often harm them.
Louise Perry carefully guides readers through the difficulties of sex in the 21st century. Her advice will be invaluable to all young women and men who may be feeling lost in a world where ‘doing it’ can sometimes seem dangerous or confusing.
Before the 1960s, sex before marriage was frowned upon and pornography was difficult to get hold of. We are now much freer to do what we like – there has been a ‘sexual revolution’. This must be a good thing, right?
Wrong, argues Louise Perry. These changes have had many negative consequences, especially for girls and women. The main winners from a world of rough sex, hook-ups and freely available porn are a tiny minority of rich and powerful men. Women have been forced to adapt to these changes in ways that often harm them.
Louise Perry carefully guides readers through the difficulties of sex in the 21st century. Her advice will be invaluable to all young women and men who may be feeling lost in a world where ‘doing it’ can sometimes seem dangerous or confusing.
176 pages, Paperback
First published March 10, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 13, 2025
Louise Perry bravely sheds light on the widely accepted narrative of women’s liberation and the sexual revolution with insight that counters society’s widely accepted beliefs. While all forms of media and pop culture continue to peddle sex without consequences, Perry outlines the very real consequences that have never disappeared despite our progressive beliefs.
I bought this book hoping to be able to give it to my daughters as this is marketed as a teen-friendly adaptation of the original. I don’t think my girls are quite old enough to handle the gravity of the material Perry covers including rape and porn. I did highlight one chapter extensively that talks about the emotional ramifications of hookup culture and how it affects the genders differently. I think this is valuable information that I don’t want my girls to learn the hard way.
Overall, I applaud Perry for taking the unpopular vantage point and tackling this difficult topic. I wish the book would have been a little less explicit, with a younger audience in mind. Perhaps we can get a tween friendly version for girls going through puberty?
I bought this book hoping to be able to give it to my daughters as this is marketed as a teen-friendly adaptation of the original. I don’t think my girls are quite old enough to handle the gravity of the material Perry covers including rape and porn. I did highlight one chapter extensively that talks about the emotional ramifications of hookup culture and how it affects the genders differently. I think this is valuable information that I don’t want my girls to learn the hard way.
Overall, I applaud Perry for taking the unpopular vantage point and tackling this difficult topic. I wish the book would have been a little less explicit, with a younger audience in mind. Perhaps we can get a tween friendly version for girls going through puberty?
January 20, 2026
I picked up this book expecting an engaging exploration of modern sexuality and the many complexities that have emerged alongside social media. However, what this book actually presents itself as is a deeply reactionary and anti-feminist text that repackages conservative sexual morality in the language of concern for women. Perry argues that modern sexual freedom has harmed women, that sex has been stripped of meaning, and that liberal “sex-positive” feminism has naively ignored biological realities. While critiques of hookup culture and pornography are not in themselves anti-feminist, Perry’s analysis consistently shifts responsibility away from male behaviour and structural power and onto women’s choices, producing a narrative that feels less like liberation and more like moral regression.
One of the most disturbing aspects of the book is its treatment of sexual violence. Perry repeatedly leans on evolutionary psychology to frame rape as a biological phenomenon connected to male sexual drives rather than as an expression of power, violence and misogyny. This framing risks collapsing the moral distinction between sex and rape altogether. The implication that “if there is no meaning to sex, there is no meaning to rape” is not only philosophically incoherent but ethically alarming. Rape is not made meaningful by sexual norms; it is defined by the absence of consent and the presence of power and harm. Any analysis that blurs this line undermines decades of feminist work insisting that sexual violence is neither natural nor inevitable.
Throughout the book, Perry repeatedly places the burden of managing male behaviour onto women. Rather than demanding changes in how men are socialised and held accountable, she advises women to restrict themselves. To delay sex, avoid intoxication, seek monogamy, accept diminished expectations. Women’s attempts to enjoy sex for pleasure are framed as self-deception or moral error, as though desire itself were a trap women fall into rather than a legitimate expression of autonomy. This approach closely mirrors traditional sexual double standards, where men’s desires are treated as fixed and women’s freedom as the variable that must be controlled.
Feminism has long argued that women’s liberation requires bodily autonomy and sexual agency, not a return to norms that historically constrained women’s lives in the name of safety or meaning. By treating women’s sexual freedom as the problem rather than patriarchal structures, Perry echoes conservative critiques of feminism while sidestepping the material conditions that shape sexual harm: inequality, entitlement, misogyny and the failure to hold men accountable.
The book’s logic also sits uncomfortably close to incel ideology, even if it never names it directly. The concept of being 'involuntary celibate' itself rests on a deeply misogynistic assumption: that access to women’s bodies is something men can be unjustly denied, rather than something that must always be freely given. No one is owed sex, intimacy or romantic attention, and framing celibacy as an imposed condition rather than the outcome of social dynamics and personal behaviour transforms women into gatekeepers of a resource rather than autonomous subjects. Incels are not a coherent social class or oppressed group; they are a political identity formed around entitlement and resentment. By naturalising male sexual frustration and treating it as an inevitable force that women must manage through self-restriction, Perry’s framework risks legitimising the same logic incel communities rely on: that men’s desires are fixed and urgent, while women’s autonomy is negotiable. This not only excuses male entitlement but reinforces the dangerous idea that women bear responsibility for male anger, loneliness, or violence. A premise feminism has long and rightly rejected.
Ultimately, this book was a complete disappointment. It offers not a radical critique of modern sexuality but a cautionary tale about how easily feminist language can be used to justify regressive ideas. Its insistence that women must curtail their desires to protect themselves, and its troubling treatment of rape as a by-product of biology rather than violence, make it less a guide to sexual ethics than a defence of restraint disguised as concern. Far from empowering women, Perry’s vision asks them to shrink; sexually, socially, and politically, while leaving the deeper structures of power intact.
One of the most disturbing aspects of the book is its treatment of sexual violence. Perry repeatedly leans on evolutionary psychology to frame rape as a biological phenomenon connected to male sexual drives rather than as an expression of power, violence and misogyny. This framing risks collapsing the moral distinction between sex and rape altogether. The implication that “if there is no meaning to sex, there is no meaning to rape” is not only philosophically incoherent but ethically alarming. Rape is not made meaningful by sexual norms; it is defined by the absence of consent and the presence of power and harm. Any analysis that blurs this line undermines decades of feminist work insisting that sexual violence is neither natural nor inevitable.
Throughout the book, Perry repeatedly places the burden of managing male behaviour onto women. Rather than demanding changes in how men are socialised and held accountable, she advises women to restrict themselves. To delay sex, avoid intoxication, seek monogamy, accept diminished expectations. Women’s attempts to enjoy sex for pleasure are framed as self-deception or moral error, as though desire itself were a trap women fall into rather than a legitimate expression of autonomy. This approach closely mirrors traditional sexual double standards, where men’s desires are treated as fixed and women’s freedom as the variable that must be controlled.
Feminism has long argued that women’s liberation requires bodily autonomy and sexual agency, not a return to norms that historically constrained women’s lives in the name of safety or meaning. By treating women’s sexual freedom as the problem rather than patriarchal structures, Perry echoes conservative critiques of feminism while sidestepping the material conditions that shape sexual harm: inequality, entitlement, misogyny and the failure to hold men accountable.
The book’s logic also sits uncomfortably close to incel ideology, even if it never names it directly. The concept of being 'involuntary celibate' itself rests on a deeply misogynistic assumption: that access to women’s bodies is something men can be unjustly denied, rather than something that must always be freely given. No one is owed sex, intimacy or romantic attention, and framing celibacy as an imposed condition rather than the outcome of social dynamics and personal behaviour transforms women into gatekeepers of a resource rather than autonomous subjects. Incels are not a coherent social class or oppressed group; they are a political identity formed around entitlement and resentment. By naturalising male sexual frustration and treating it as an inevitable force that women must manage through self-restriction, Perry’s framework risks legitimising the same logic incel communities rely on: that men’s desires are fixed and urgent, while women’s autonomy is negotiable. This not only excuses male entitlement but reinforces the dangerous idea that women bear responsibility for male anger, loneliness, or violence. A premise feminism has long and rightly rejected.
Ultimately, this book was a complete disappointment. It offers not a radical critique of modern sexuality but a cautionary tale about how easily feminist language can be used to justify regressive ideas. Its insistence that women must curtail their desires to protect themselves, and its troubling treatment of rape as a by-product of biology rather than violence, make it less a guide to sexual ethics than a defence of restraint disguised as concern. Far from empowering women, Perry’s vision asks them to shrink; sexually, socially, and politically, while leaving the deeper structures of power intact.
March 12, 2025
Interesting breakdown of the fallacy of sexual freedom = female liberation. Discusses the different ways men and women have been impacted by the sexual revolution in the West, and how the argument of consent cannot itself protect women from harassment or violence. The conditioning of the liberal woman to accept sexual disenchantment as a wanted reality and the real impacts this has had on women in hookup culture and the sex trade.
Upholds the stark reality of womanhood and the consequences of sex, the differences between the sexes, and the need for practical anti-rape practices. Explains why rape happens in the first place, why rape victim and perpetrator statistics skew the way they do, and why Fifty Shades earns so much money.
After all, Marilyn Monroe was a victim of — as much as she was a pioneer for — the sexual revolution.
Upholds the stark reality of womanhood and the consequences of sex, the differences between the sexes, and the need for practical anti-rape practices. Explains why rape happens in the first place, why rape victim and perpetrator statistics skew the way they do, and why Fifty Shades earns so much money.
After all, Marilyn Monroe was a victim of — as much as she was a pioneer for — the sexual revolution.
February 20, 2026
There are certain social goods that Christians and non-Christians alike can agree to and pursue together. Refraining from casual sex and valuing monogamous marriage should be such things, and Louise Perry has written a helpful (and courageous) book for young people of our day.
Some readers (maybe Christians) might find some of her reasoning based on evolution unconvincing, even while agreeing with her concluding proposals. Others might feel her conclusions unpalatable, while finding her arguments hard to fault. Either way, if we're honest and open to what Perry presents as whole, we'd come away with a better understanding of current social ills and even a solution.
It seems young women were primarily on her mind as she wrote this book, but it should be helpful for men as well.
Some readers (maybe Christians) might find some of her reasoning based on evolution unconvincing, even while agreeing with her concluding proposals. Others might feel her conclusions unpalatable, while finding her arguments hard to fault. Either way, if we're honest and open to what Perry presents as whole, we'd come away with a better understanding of current social ills and even a solution.
It seems young women were primarily on her mind as she wrote this book, but it should be helpful for men as well.
September 8, 2025
A great book - hard hitting and - I think - a clear minded polemic against both a feminist understanding of male-female sexuality, and the unbridled sex culture largely driven by men's (frankly) lust. It's not a comfortable read as a bloke - but then it's not really meant for me: her understanding of an almost animal sex-drive in men that needs restraint begs the question - 'could that be me?' As a father of three daughters however, I think they should read it - it counters the tacit narrative of the culture in which they swim, and helps them to ask questions of it, which can never be a bad thing.
May 2, 2025
This look at sex and sexuality in hook up culture was really good. The science and research behind it was all things I’ve read or was hearing for the first time in new way. This is a much more manageable read than her original. But I want the original so yes I bought it.
This is a good read for young adults, teenagers. Especially those going off to college who are not raised in a religious home, or without any strict moral codes on sex and sexuality. This is very scientific about what women want and need out of sex and how to protect yourself and live a happy fulfilling sex life. Very good.
This is a good read for young adults, teenagers. Especially those going off to college who are not raised in a religious home, or without any strict moral codes on sex and sexuality. This is very scientific about what women want and need out of sex and how to protect yourself and live a happy fulfilling sex life. Very good.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews