Jaclyn Friedman

Harvard Book Store welcomes writer, performer, and activist JACLYN FRIEDMAN for a discussion of her latest book, Unscrewed: Women, Sex, Power, and How to Stop Letting the System Screw Us All. This event is co-sponsored by Mass NOW and Our Bodies Ourselves.

About Unscrewed

What bestselling authors like Sheryl Sandberg and Brigid Schulte have done for women's work lives, Jaclyn Friedman does here for women's sexuality: spark a culture-wide rethink about what's accepted as normal, urging us all to try for something better. Not only that: she does it with warmth, irreverence, and candor reminiscent of Roxane Gay in Bad Feminist, and the fiery conviction of her own co-edited anthology Yes Means Yes!.

In Unscrewed, Friedman reveals that the anxiety and fear women in our country feel around issues of their sexuality are not, in fact, their fault, but instead are side effects of our toxic culture. Dubbed the "era of fauxpowerment," that culture gives women the illusion of sexual power, with no actual power to support it. Exploring where media, religion, politics, and education overlap with feminist issues, Unscrewed breaks down the causes and signs of fauxpowerment, then gives readers tools to take it on themselves.

Praise

"This book should be required reading in schools across the US. Honest, sometimes painful, and brimming with empathy. It couldn't have come at a better time. Jaclyn draws you into a world of possibility. I am hopeful reading her writing. There is so much work to do to change the systems in which we live and Jaclyn gives us practical applicable ways of doing it." —Tatiana Maslany, Emmy-winning star of Orphan Black

"Unscrewed is not just a book you should read, it's a book you'll love to read. Jaclyn Friedman's writing sings and makes thinking about necessary and important issues a real pleasure. I can't wait to read it again." —Jessica Valenti, author of the New York Times bestselling Sex Object

"In this visionary and necessary book, Jaclyn Friedman cuts through the hypocrisy, mixed messages, and confusion about sex, women, and power. Unscrewed is firmly pro-pleasure, but also bitingly critical of the same old sexism dressed up in the language of "empowerment"—it's power, Friedman argues, that matters, and she neatly eviscerates the formal and informal barriers that keep women from accessing it. Required reading for anyone who cares not just about women and sex, but about building a better society, Unscrewed will leave you with just one question: Can Jaclyn lead the new sexual revolution and unscrew us all?" —Jill Filipovic, author of The H-Spot

"From the very first page, I realized that 'it isn't just me'. Other women struggle with how to have the hot empowered sex feminists are always raving about. I wish I'd had this book when I was 20. I'm so glad to have it now, to read, to teach to my students and share with my homegirls. Jaclyn doesn't just lay out all the problems with contemporary discourses on sex. She also shows us the way forward by profiling some of the path-breaking feminist badasses that are leading the way. It goes without saying that Jaclyn herself is one of these badasses. Every chapter reminds us in tangible ways, that these problems can be solved. We can get this right. There is hope. And the very first step is to get and read Unscrewed." —Brittney Cooper, Crunk Feminist Collective co-founder and author of Eloquent Rage