Boys & Sex: Young Men on Hook-ups, Love, Porn, Consent and Navigating the New Masculinity

The New York Times Bestseller

‘Blows your mind on every page’ - Caitlin Moran

‘Should be mandatory reading for anyone who cares about the next generation’ - Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone

Peggy Orenstein broke ground with her bestselling Girls & Sex, exploring young women’s right to pleasure and agency in sexual encounters. Now she turns her focus to boys with an examination of how young men are navigating sexual culture in these changing times - and what we need to do to help them.

Drawing on comprehensive interviews with young men, psychologists and experts in the field, Boys & Sex dissects ‘locker room talk’; pornography as the new sex education; the role of empathy; boys’ understanding of hookup culture and consent; and their experience as both perpetrators and victims of sexual assault.

By presenting young men’s experience in all its complexity, Orenstein unravels the hidden truths, hard lessons and important realities of young male sexuality in today’s world. The result is a provocative and paradigm-shifting work that offers a much-needed vision of how boys can truly move forward as better men.