The Latest in the Gender & Sexuality Section

With an almost fifty year history of radical politics, October Books’ gender and sexuality section is the perfect place to find the kind, progressive voices we’ve been elevating since day one. 

Up first, we have V by Florence Schechter. A richly illustrated panorama of yonic related material. Taboo shattering, without ever becoming heavy or self-serious, this new release charts the cultural history of the vulva and offers an encyclopaedia of useful and interesting information (for both vulva-owners and non-vulva-owners alike). Are you one of the 50% of adults who doesn’t know where the vagina actually is? This, and more, revealed inside…

The wealth of fantastic material (theory, poetry, essays) working at the intersection of gender and sexuality can sometimes feel overwhelming. The anthology After Sex (edited and introduced by Edna Bonhomme and Alice Spawls) is a wonderful distillation of the last fewl decades of feminist theory. With a particular emphasis on reproductive rights, this collection sits established feminist writers next to emerging voices, to create an impressive choir - these essays, short stories and poems trace the debates and tell the stories. Together, they ask us to consider what reproductive justice might look like, and how it could reshape sex.

Finally we have Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller’s Bad Gays. An incredibly entertaining and insightful foray into queer history, Bad Gays breaks free of the somewhat tired tendency to memorialise and create martyrs of historical queer people. Instead, this refreshing book tells the colourful, sometimes bloody, stories of history's gay villains. From fascist thugs and famous artists, to austere puritans and debauched bon viveurs; this book is a celebration of queer humanity in all its (occasionally depraved) inhumanity.

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