‘Baby, I'm not quite finished’: postfeminism and the negotiation of sexual boundaries in the contemporary erotic memoir

Abstract

This article explores the ‘postfeminist’ sensibilities of female sexual liberation in three contemporary erotic memoirs: Abby Lee's Girl with a one track mind: confessions of the seductress next door, Catherine Townsend's Sleeping around: secrets of a sexual adventuress and Suzanne Portnoy's The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker. Analysing these texts' conceptual representations of sexual politics and their material representations of sexual practices, I argue that despite their celebration of women's autonomous sexual decision making these recent erotic memoirs nevertheless reflect a saturation of, and submission to, the male-dominated sexual values prescribed by the mainstreaming of the sex industry.

Keywords:

• empowerment
• erotic memoir
• postfeminism
• romance
• sexual politics

Notes

1. Whilst Walter stands by her positive view of the potential of heterosexual relations, it is important to bear in mind that in her later book Living dolls: the return of sexism (2010), she acknowledges that her general position in The new feminism (1999) was far too optimistic: ‘I believed that we only had to put in place the conditions for equality for the remnants of old-fashioned sexism in our culture to wither away. I am ready to admit that I was entirely wrong’ (1999, p. 8).

2. Abby Lee, pseudonym of Zoe Margolis.

3. Whilst mainstream television programmes such as HBO's Sex in the city celebrate female sexual expression and autonomy, all of its female characters ultimately pursue a life partner.