Sex and the Single Woman: 24 Writers Reimagine Helen Gurley Brown's Cult Classic – A Bold Anthology on Queer and Trans Experiences, Bodies, and Joy - Softcover

Smith, Eliza; Swanson, Haley

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0063071339 ISBN 13: 9780063071339

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2022

Synopsis

One of Bustle's Best Books of May

A feminist anthology inspired by legendary Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown’s Sex and the Single Girl, featuring twenty-four new essays on the triumphs and heartbreaks of modern singlehood from acclaimed and bestselling authors, including Kristen Arnett, Morgan Parker, Evette Dionne, and Melissa Febos.

Sixty years ago, Helen Gurley Brown's Sex and the Single Girl sent shockwaves through the United States, selling more than two million copies in three weeks. Helen’s message was radical for its time: marriage wasn’t essential for women to lead rich, fulfilling lives.

Now, in these critical, wry, and expansive essays, twenty-four writers reconsider Helen’s advice and how it applies to their own paths, fielding topics that she couldn’t—or wouldn’t—conceive of in 1962: contraception and abortion (an omission demanded by her publisher), queer and trans womanhood, polyamory, celibacy, interracial dating, bodies of all kinds, consent, sex work, IVF, and the pop culture that both saves and fails us.

Eliza Smith and Haley Swanson’s revisionist anthology honors Brown’s irreverent spirit while also validating our modern experiences of singlehood, encouraging us all to reclaim joy where it’s so often been denied.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0063071339
• ISBN 13: 9780063071339
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272