Public Sex: The Culture of Radical Sex

Who says sex doesn't make you think? These essays about sex and how it relates to pornography, eroticism, perversions, and prostitution do. A point of view rarely heard, from a "sex radical". A defense of consensual enjoyment.

The title is pretty explanatory; the book is a collection of essays about radical sex. What makes a person a sex radical. Califia touches a lot of subjects that are likely to offend people (support of NAMBLA (North American Man-Boy Love Association) being the first one that pops into my mind) but the reasoning is always well-thought-out and clearly explained. I think it's good mental exercise to hear articulate arguments defending positions we don't necessarily agree with.

This is a collection of essays; I read some but not all of them. I tore through all the essays about Califia's experiences with kinky sex, but left aside some of the early ones about AIDS education and prostitution, as well as some of the ones about teenage/child sexuality. The BDSM essays were killer, though, many of the describing really well what's so fascinating about kink. Recommended.

anti porn movement

From publisher: The most intelligent and outspoken commentator on sexual politics writing today, Pat Califia has been "fuming and fussing" about censorship and the rights of perverts for more than two decades. Whether writing about gender bending and transsexuality, lesbian relationships, S/M and leather sex, sex between lesbians and gay men, eroticizing latex and safer sex, prostitution, or sex in public, Califia's essays—clear consistent, provocative and eminently readable—set the standard for writing about sex.