Sluts by Michelle Tea
This edited anthology by Michelle Tea explores our social and cultural obsession with promiscuity
Sluts escape definition. Sluts, on the other hand, ventures to explore multiple interpretations of this elusive concept, the multifaceted label which has burdened women for centuries and, more recently, been reappropriated as a term of empowerment, self-acceptance and indulgence independent from gender.
Good, bad and outrageous, this anthology has it all. With pieces ranging from intimate personal essays and short stories about childhood first loves to transgressive autofiction about queer sex workers, Sluts does not attempt to take a stance on the morality of sluttiness. This anthology, featuring work by over 30 authors edited by Michelle Tea, examines promiscuity as it relates to race, class, identity, art and technology, to name only a few. Different expressions of sexuality are the common thread, but they also serve as a reference point from which to gauge a variety of larger social issues.
Then again, Sluts might be too comprehensive for its own good. There comes a point in any lengthy anthology where the stories start to blend with one another and, in this case, the pill-popping and bed-hopping soon begin to sound commonplace, even trite. It doesn’t take long before the shock loses its value.
Although some pieces are naturally (and significantly) more accomplished than others, none are individually at fault here: even the biggest sluts recognise there can be too much of a good thing.