The Real Effects Of “No Strings Attached” - Louise Perry

If it's really the case that sex work is work, then what is the problem with being asked by your boss to give him a blow job? It's work. It's just a service. It's like being asked to do overtime or make a coffee. No one actually thinks that it's just like making a coffee.

(wind blows) Louise Perry, welcome to the show.

Thank you so much for having me.

Given your political background, how does it feel to have Ben Shapiro quote-tweeting your work?

I, (laughs) I didn't know he had.

Did you not see this?

No.

Let me tell you.

(laughs)

So, there is a tweet that, uh, someone put out a couple of days ago, explaining about how don't kink-shame the naked men doing parades in front of children and twerking in front of cops.

Mm-hmm.

And that was one photo, which was a news story, and the other photo was the chapter list from your book.

(laughs)

Which said things-

Oh, that oh, that's-

... like men and women are different-

No.

... and, uh, loveless sex is not empowering. And it said-

Yep, yep.

... um, uh, "People of the West, choose your future." Something like that.

(laughs) Oh, wow. Okay. That, yeah, okay, that no- that, that explains things. I have a no- I have quite a h- like, a heavy notification filter on on Twitter, so I don't always see everything. Um, the Contents page though completely blew up, like, three months ago, long before the book was published. It had just ... The publisher just put up online the cover, the title, the fact that Kathleen Stock wrote the forward, 'cause she's got a kind of existing reputation among, among her haters, my haters, and the Contents page, and that was enough to have like a several-day Twitter storm-

Why do you think that was?

... by those statements. I mean, I guess because ... I mean, I did, I did write the chapters with the knowledge that they're like, they're simultaneously obvious and also incredibly provocative, which was, which was like precisely my intention. Because to some, 'cause some people read it, I mean, some people read the whole book, s- but some people read the chapter titles in particular, and they're like, "Yeah?" And other people read them as like, fascist, basically. I mean, like, e- like, s- like, so politically outrageous. I mean, I'd say that the response to the book so far, it's only been out for a couple of weeks in the UK and not yet in the States, is, um, like 80% really positive and 20% complete outrage, and not very much in the middle (laughs) .

I think ... Well, what do you think is gonna happen when it comes out in America?

(sighs) That's a good question. I mean, the, the, like, the culture war is more intense in America in every way. It's so similar, I think, to what we have here. I mean, actually I think we import it really, but, um, yeah, I don't know. I mean, I'm, I, like, I did l- That, like, British political context is different from American, right? And I write for the new Statesman Magazine, for instance, which is a, like, traditionally left-wing outlet. Um, I have come from the left, even if I wouldn't necessarily consider myself still a part of the left and so on. So like, I hope that the book doesn't just get treated as, like, yet another socially conservative take on the sex revolution.