The Ethical Slut: A Guide to Infinite Sexual Possibilities [Paperback]

Dossie Easton (Author), Catherine A. Liszt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1997

At last..a comprehensive, no-holds-barred guide for anyone who dreams of having all the sex and love and friendship they want. Here are all the skills you need for successful...and ethical...sluthood, from scheduling dates to handling jealousy, finding partners to resolving conflict, raising children to caring for your health. If you've ever envisioned a universe beyond traditional lifetime monogamy, this is the book for you!

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Greenery Press; 1st edition (December 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1890159018
• ISBN-13: 978-1890159016
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (90 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #239,415 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

250 of 263 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Want multiple lovers? Read this or else!, April 13, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ethical Slut: A Guide to Infinite Sexual Possibilities (Paperback)

Like other reviewers, I've bought many copies of this and give or loan them out to friends, lovers, and people I'm interested in. Rather than duplicate other reviews in their glowing general praise (which would be easy), I'll go a step further and strongly suggest getting this book not because it will help you find multiple lovers or because it's a good read, or because it's full of helpful advice on relationships in general, but rather because without the advice and insight in this book polyamory is *really* hard to pull off. This book gives you many of the lessons you might not learn otherwise except by having dismal relationship failures and painful breakups. (These may still come anyway, but The Ethical Slut will help you avoid them, and cope if they happen). I can't recommend this highly enough. However, I would add the slight caveat that the somewhat hedonistic approach of Easton & Liszt can be balanced out fairly well by a follow-up reading of Anapol's Polyamory: The New 'Love Without Limits'. Anapol's work is not as "fun", and gets tediously naggy along "spirituality" lines that are very hippyish and and full of newage, but the message she conveys include a lot of responsibility and cooperation memes that are not as prevalent in Easton & Liszt's book. The two-book combo is really a must.

214 of 226 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sex & Love with many is NOT wrong if everyone agrees., June 30, 2000

By 

P.W. Reader (Mountain View, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ethical Slut: A Guide to Infinite Sexual Possibilities (Paperback)

I've seen so many failed marriages due to infidelity that recently I began to wonder what I was in for if I ever took that big step. After all, I didn't seem any better than the couples I knew, and certainly I'd been attracted to many different people, both male and female. Thats when I found this book.

This is a great read for people with feelings like mine...it gives a great account of the guidelines you need if you ever choose to enter into polyamory. Several good points are emphasized: love and sex are not necessarily the same, one may be an expression of the other but they CAN be completely separate. Love, sex and pleasure are not limited qualities people have...you can love someone else and make love to them without depriving your "primary" partner of the same feelings and actions. Drawbacks are also discussed, including time constraints, jealousy, respecting privacy and property of all your lovers, and coming out to your kids about your relationship (most actually think its pretty cool because there's always someone to talk to).

I read this book aloud with my girlfriend because we had always been curious about poly-type relationships. We asked ourselves many questions, and when we finally attended our first party, we were able to talk more afterwards and decided we loved it...and yet we could still be committed to each other! And we're still going strong...thanks to this and other wonderful resources that provided a basis for us to try new things!

55 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A must read for people curious about the sexual freedom., March 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Ethical Slut: A Guide to Infinite Sexual Possibilities (Paperback)

For years I have tried to explain many of the topices covered in this book to new couples testing the waters of the swinging lifestyle. Now I have a book that I can recommend that covers most of the areas extremely well. An additional benefit of this book is that is is written by two women in the lifestyle. Many other books written on the subject are written by men and are looked at by women readers as just another man trying to convince women to be more sexually promiscuios. The only area that I wish the authors would have spent more time on is the subject of nurturing your primary partner and relationship while introducing them to the new way of living. All in all, this is the very best book I've found concerning open relationships and swinging. I would recommend it to anyone.