The Crusade Against Sex (the prudish social movement, not the book) Still In Full Force
“Fighting the Crusade Against Sex”, the book, is in print! The crusade against sex, the term I use to describe the erotophobic movement to squash and repress ANYTHING related to sex, is still in full force. Let me explain.
MY BOOK ARRIVED IN THE MAIL!
I was SO happy! To see it in print, an actual book, in my hands, was surreal. And part of me thought as I held it, shit, I published my memoir at 26 years old. What the hell am I going to do with the rest of my life to top this?
I’m just having so many mixed emotions. I went from hating the book because it makes me feel so vulnerable and open to judgment. I REALLY lay it all out there. And I can’t help feeling anxious about my mother reading it, and my old elementary school teachers reading it, and my ex-partners that I write about and their mother’s reading it. But after reading it again in actual print, I feel much better. I feel like I… I love it. And I’m gonna own that. It’s a very compelling story and it’s extremely well-written. And I’m gonna own that too.
The past few nights I’ve been reading a few chapters a night out loud to Tyler and he is really impressed. He told me he was proud of me, which made me feel great. He thought it was remarkable that I wrote a book, even more so that it’s actually good.
Of course those positive emotions are offset by more anxiety about the seven million typos I found in it. Being a perfectionist, I was literally cringing. It amazes me that no matter how many million times this thing has been read by myself and a handful of professional editors, mistakes can slip by. This is my last chance to change before the final final final final version goes to press. Also, I was highly anxious about the cover, which was low resolution grainy print and looked not good. I hope that gets fixed too.
A few days ago, I noticed that on my website where I am offering the book for pre-order sale, there were 30 ratings. I found this odd, seeing how the book has not been released yet and no one has read it, so how could anyone let alone 30 people have formed an opinion of it? When the average rating was 1 out of 5 stars, I realized I had a sabatager on my hands. Because the system lets people vote an unlimited number of times, I figured someone was trying to discourage people from purchasing the book by making them think so many people didn’t like it.
I posted this tidbit of facebook, and some loyal Feminique fans apparently voted it a 5 out of 5 stars a few times to balance it out. At this point I’m thinking I need to disable the voting system because it now no longer means anything and is now a popularity contest instead of an actual helpful shopping guide, but I can’t figure out how to disable it. I forgot about it until another Feminique fan emailed me to alert me to the fact that I was being sabotaged again.
The average rating is back down to only 1 star, with 1,806 ratings. SOMEONE SAT AT THEIR COMPUTER AND PRESSED THE “1 STAR” BUTTON ONE THOUSAND AND 800 FREAKING TIMES! This is my life.
I find this absolutely hilarious. First, they’re idiots. Like anyone is going to believe 1,806 people unanimously hate a book that hasn’t even been published yet. Second, if they could open their mind long enough to actually read the book, they would learn so much of it is about how one of the reasons my career has been so successful is that people love controversy, and when haters try to pull shit like this, it just backfires on them and makes people support me even more. My press release used to just have a photo of the book, a synopsis, and information about the book release and signing party on November 6. Now it will say something along the lines of, “Fighting the Crusade Against Sex” is already sparking controversy as McDevitt’s detractors have attempted to dissuade readers from purchasing the book by giving it a low rating in the hundreds on her website…” I PROMISE you this will make more reporters want to cover the release party and help me sell more books. So whoever you are that’s doing this, thanks!
Check out the page where the votes are happening, and pre-order your copy HERE!
Contact sexologist Jill McDevitt:
