At long last, somebody writes intelligently about the post-AIDS sexual climate. Katie Roiphe analyzes recent sexual history - from the sexual revolution to the present day (1999) - by weaving together anecodotes, criteques, and examples from such diverse sources as Vogue, Magic Johnson, French cinema, and her own family. She particularly excels in exposing the hidden agenda of the "new moralists," who attempt to use the current climate of sexual paranoia to return our society to the repressive values of the past. Her lively pen and deadpan wit serve her well in her quest to deconstruct sexual media myths. And while some will fault Roiphe for the lack of an all-encompassing solution/conclusion to her arguements, others (like myself) will applaud her smarts in recognizing that there can be no easy answers in such a diverse and complicated time. Rather then resort to the pontification all-too-prevelant in our talk-show age, she instead relies on common sense: "We struggle with the desire to... be careful and not careful, to be free and not free... and it's in the uneasiness and confusion of this struggle that most of us love and are loved." You go girl.
This review originally appeared in The Weekly Alibi.
© Todd Meigs
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