Description
Book SynopsisMy guilty pleasure wasn't just reading low-brow fiction or even female-authored fiction, it was being femme itself.
What is it about ribald romance novels, luxurious interior design, and frothy wedding dresses that often make women feel their desires come with a shadow of shame? In Avidly Reads Guilty Pleasures, Arielle Zibrak considers the specifically pleasurable forms of feminine guilt and desire stimulated by supposedly lowbrow aesthetic tendencies. She takes up the overwhelming preoccupation with the experience of being humiliated, dominated, or even abused that has pervaded the stories that make up women's culturefrom eighteenth-century epistolary novels to popular twentieth-century teen magazine features to present-day romantic comedies.
In three chaptersRough Sex, Expensive Sheets, and Saying Yes to the Dressthat mirror the plot structures of feminine fictions themselves, this book tells the story of the desires that only the guiltiest of pleasures ev
Trade Review
"Funny, smart, engrossing. I fell head over heels for this exploration of guilty pleasures. Zibrak writes with both an academic's acute eye for pattern and depth and the intimacy of the very works she explores. I feel like I've been laughing with my best friend in a closet, and I can't wait to give a copy to every single one of my friends. I urge you to read it and give it to your friends, too" * Barbara O'Neal, bestselling author of When We Believed in Mermaids *
"Reading Arielle Zibrak’s witty and charming survey of what she calls “femme fiction” offers all pleasure and no guilt. Diving into the complex topic of “guilty pleasures,” she mines low and popular culture for nuggets of wisdom about gender, race, class, fiction and fantasy. You will love this book if you need the encouragement to indulge guilty pleasures. You will love it even more if you make no apologies for those pleasures. Enjoy!" * Jack Halberstam, author of Gaga Feminism and The Queer Art of Failure *
"Arielle Zibrak’s Guilty Pleasures is such a fun and fast conversation that reading it feels like having brunch with a hilarious dear friend." * Popmatters *
