In Naked, a celebrated burlesque performer, sex educator,
and social worker bares it all, with incisive and hilarious essays
about selling, performing, and consuming desire.
Fancy
Feast draws back the curtain to reveal a world that most denizens of
the daytime never see. Part exclusive backstage pass, part long-form
literary striptease, these essays confront our culture’s tightly
held beliefs—like so many clutched pearls—about sex,
communication, power, and the messiness of life on the margins of
respectability. In “Dildo Lady,” Fancy recounts her time
compensating for the failures of the American sex education system
while working retail at a sex toy store. In “Doing Yourself,”
Fancy tackles fatphobia and dating, self-love, and fantasies. In
“Yes/No/Maybe,” Fancy brings the reader from sex parties to
polyamorous relationships as she contrasts the undeniable sexiness of
enthusiastic consent with the devastating effects of miscommunication
and entitlement.
Fancy
Feast does this all as a fat woman who makes a living taking off her
clothes—a triumphant punch-back at a culture that wants fat people
to be self-hating or sexless. For fans of Lindy West and Melissa
Febos, Naked
is by turns splashy, vulnerable, and always powerful.