Screwed: How Women Are Set Up to Fail at Sex

By Lili Boisvert

When it comes to sex and desire, women are screwed.

In film, on the page, in fashion, and in everyday life, women’s desire is routinely shown as subordinate to men’s — when it isn’t suppressed altogether. Lili Boisvert argues that there is one dominant principle behind heterosexual encounters: that desire is a male phenomenon and women are merely its object. To change this alienating system, she contends, we must start by facing it head-on.

From clothing to flirting, from our fascination with youth and innocence to the orgasm gap, every aspect of women’s lives is dictated by their status as sex objects. Is it any wonder that they are feeling sexually unfulfilled? In a series of explorations of what desire looks like under patriarchy, Screwed sketches the contours of what could be true sexual liberation for women, inside — and outside — the bedroom.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dundurn
• Release date: Feb 23, 2019
• ISBN: 9781459743588

Lili Boisvert

Lili Boisvert is a journalist, columnist, and television host. She hosted the show Sexplora, broadcast on ICI Explora, and is the co-creator of the feminist webseries Les Brutes on Télé-Québec. Lili lives in Montreal.

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