Zoe Strimpel on Good Slut: How Money, Sex and Power Set Women Free

Zoe Strimpel is a writer who regularly explores issues of gender and intimacy. In this special Bookshop Barnie – a salon-style discussion that challenges the author to justify their work – we explore her latest book, Good Slut, a romp through women’s contemporary autonomy. She says that ‘true liberation comes not from fear or shame, but from making the most out of the intertwined forces of money, power and, of course, sex’.

Good Slut is a broadside at feminists of all stripes, whether trad wives, trans allies or gender-critical feminists. In it, Strimpel argues that women have never had it so good and throws up a range of questions. Was #MeToo a game changer or a hindrance? Is sex work empowerment or just exploitation? Is sociobiology bollocks? For Strimpel, forget fear, loathing, caution and chastity – women are not fragile victims but robust equals.

Reviewing the book, The Times says ‘Strimpel doesn’t just attack gender-critical and conservative women. She also attacks left-wing ones’, while The Observer called it a ‘scattergun criticism’. The Daily Telegraph claimed that it was ‘the feminist manifesto we should all read’, while The New Statesman called it an ‘orgy of contradictions’.

You decide… or maybe ask the man next to you to do it for you.

This will be a rigorous exploration of Strimpel’s arguments. She will present the core arguments of the book in a brief introduction, followed by several questions from the chair, and then it’s out to the audience for your questions and contributions.