Slut-Shaming, Whorephobia, and the Unfinished Sexual Revolution

by Meredith Ralston

The sexual revolution is unfinished. A sexual double standard between men and women still exists, and society continues to punish bad girls and reward good ones. Until we eliminate good-girl privilege and bad-girl stigma, women will not be fully free to embrace their sexuality.In Slut-Shaming, Whorephobia, and the Unfinished Sexual Revolution Meredith Ralston looks at the common denominators between the #MeToo movement, the myths of rape culture, and the pleasure gap between men and women to reveal the ways that sexually liberated women threaten the patriarchy. Weaving in history, pop culture, philosophy, interviews with sex workers, and personal anecdotes, Ralston shows how women cannot achieve sexual equality until the sexual double standard and good girl/bad girl binary are eliminated and women viewed by society as "whores" are destigmatized. Illustrating how women's sexuality is policed by both men and women, she argues that women must be allowed the same personal autonomy as the freedom to make sexual decisions for themselves, to obtain orgasm equality, and to insist on their own sexual pleasure.Dispelling the myth that all sex workers are victims and all clients are violent, Slut-Shaming, Whorephobia, and the Unfinished Sexual Revolution calls out Western society's hypocrisy about sex and shows how stigma and the marginalization of sex workers harms all women.

Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism, Philosophy, Sexuality

232 pages, Hardcover

Published June 16, 2021

Reviews

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn't realize this book would be primarily about sex workers, but it was a super interesting topic nonetheless! Ralston does tend to be a bit repetitive, seemingly making the same points over and over again, but it was a good read regardless!

[Diana Montaño · Rating 3 out of 5]

I agree with several ideas exposed by the author, however, I constantly thought that the book lack statistical data or numbers to prove that the experience of Lucy wasn´t the exception or actually more frequently than a person outside sex work can imagine. I think the author's arguments are not well developed and repetitive, so even though I learned about the good girl/bad girl dichotomy I didn't entirely convince myself of the legitimacy of prostitution as work.