Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again: Women and Desire in the Age of Consent

Written by Katherine Angel

Narrated by Cat Gould

Women are in a bind. They are told that in the name of sexual consent and feminist empowerment, they must proclaim their desires clearly and confidently. Sex researchers tell us that women don't know what they want. And men are on hand to persuade women that what they want is, in fact, exactly what men want. In this environment, how can women possibly know what they want—and how can they be expected to?



In this book, Katherine Angel surveys medical and psychoanalytic understandings of female desire, from Freud to Kinsey to present-day science; MeToo-era debates over consent, assault, and feminism; and popular culture, TV, and film to challenge our assumptions about female desire. Why, she asks, do we expect desire to be easily understood? In contrast to the endless exhortation to know what we want, Angel proposes that sex can be a conversation, requiring insight, interaction, and mutual vulnerability.



Angel urges that we remake our thinking about sex, pleasure, and autonomy without any illusions of perfect self-knowledge. Only then will we bring about Michel Foucault's sardonic promise, in 1976, that "tomorrow sex will be good again."



Contains mature themes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Mar 2, 2021
• ISBN: 9781666102826

Katherine Angel

Katherine Angel, the author of Unmastered: A Book on Desire, Most Difficult to Tell (FSG), is a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for the History of Medicine at Warwick University. She has written on sexuality, pornography, and the relationship between culture and desire for The Independent, Prospect, and The Observer, among others. She lives in London.

Reviews for Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again

[greeniezona · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a fairly short but very interesting exploration of the ways we talk about sex right now, especially in feminist and progressive communities. This is focused primarily on women in heterosexual relationships.

I found it very thought provoking, particularly the discussion of the focus on consent in sex positive circles. (Especially enthusiastic consent.) I was a little disappointed that the book didn't have more to offer in the way of constructive ideas for action, but I still was very glad to have spent the time with it that I did. These arguments could bring some much needed nuance to the ways that we talk about sex.

I gave myself some days for my thoughts to settle on this, but they are still whirling! I think that is a pretty good indicator of a good book by itself.