Customer Reviews

Full Exposure: Opening Up to Sexual Creativity and Erotic Expression

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I like Susie Bright. She's cute, she's fun, she's fairly sharp, and her heart's in the right place.

It's hard to recall that once upon a time Bright was a sexual radical: Look, she's the lesbian co-founder of the in-your-face, pro-pornography sex magazine, "On Our Backs"! No, wait, she's bisexual! Say, isn't that her editing annual collections of erotica? Omigod, she's relating a sex fantasy about Dan Quayle! Today, with a steady male partner (in an open relationship) and a daughter about to enter her teens, Bright comes across almost matronly.

It takes an essay like the one in this book about a bomb threat called in before one of her lectures to remind her of what's at stake and inspire some thoughtful writing, and to remind us all that large portions of the country still find someone like Susie Bright a threat.

Unfortunately, with most of this book she's largely treading water. As other reviewers have noted, she seems to have said most of what she has to say. And at 163 pages, this volume comes in a little slim at the price. Newcomers to her may enjoy _Full Exposure_, but for harder, faster Susie, I'd go for _Susie Sexpert's Lesbian Sex World_ or _The Sexual State of the Union_.

And after that, head for the even spicier pastures of Pat Califia's _Public Sex_.

Susie Bright tells us what we know in our hearts to be true, about sex, truth, and living with both.

Full Exposure is Bright addressing so many of the questions we all struggle with, every day: What do I want, how do I know? How do I tell someone else? What if they don't like it? How do I get it? Am I attractive? Am I afraid? Am I Good? and on and on. She addresses these questions coming straight from reality -- expect no fluffy simple answers here, for example, here is Bright talking about talking with kids about sex:

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My daughter and I were watching TV the other day, and a scene came on where a boy tries to kiss a girl, and she protests, pushing him away. "They always do that," Aretha said. "Why does the girl always push the kisser away?" And I knew what the next question was, because she also sees how that same darn girl ends up kissing that same boy in the end. Now I had my whole little spiel lined up, and I was ready to go about how sexist most movies are, and how women are always played for virgin fools or whorish demons. But Aretha's question was so deep, deeper than my Hollywood critique. What do I want to tell her about being a woman, and about what women want from sex? I realize that I want her to know, right off the bat, that I'm still answering that question for myself.

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At the end of the book is a chapter offering a series of, well sort of "thought experiments". I can't wait to try out the ones I haven't done yet.

I found in Full Exposure a wonderful, sex-positive volume, melding philosophy, apologetics, and personal anecdotes. I enjoy Susie Bright's casting the burden of proof onto the naysayers, requiring that the repressed and the frightened justify their censorious dogma. And when they try, she shoots them down, like beer cans lined up on the back fence.

She does, after all, write about (a fantasy of) making love to Dan Quayle ... reading that was the most I'd ever appreciated the man--and this leads to one of her _dogmas_: "Assume everybody is sexual."

This is not a heavyweight philosophical deconstruction of the sexual attitudes of western society, but it is a nice guerilla attack on the sexual terrorism embedded in our culture. Susie encourages the readers to roll their own sexual manifestos, to question the manipulative & schizophrenic messages that we receive about sexuality, sensuality, and our bodies from the culture around us.

A wonderful book to read if you're engaged in sexual liberation, whether from a sex-hating religion or from the commercial cooption of sexuality that constantly bombards us. A great starting point for your own sexual revolution!

(If you'd like to discuss this review or book in more depth, please click on the "about me" link above & send me an email. Thanks!)

This was my first Susie Bright book, as it was the only one I could find at the bookstore near my house. It didn't look as appealing as her others I'd heard of, but, if this is her worst, she's doing really well! Bright deals openly, honestly, and often humorously, with a subject others can be far, far too closeted about: sexuality. How our creative sexual energy is present in everything we do, and the negative effects of denying that simple fact, are both dealt with eloquently.

At points, however, I felt like I was just being told things I already know. Still, isn't that a good feeling, when you see your thoughts & opinions validated in print by someone who has managed to publish them? And I can't say I'd already thought about everything she discussed, so there was still some educational value. Bright managed to ask a lot of thought-provoking questions that, if you try hard to honestly answer them, could change the way you look at the world.

All in all, _Full Exposure_ was a quick, fun, witty, smart, thought-provoking read. I'd definitely recommend it.

A very interesting author wrote this book. She significantly points out how we do limit our sexuality and how we can expand our thinking of our own sexual beings and this is perfectly OKAY! The author is very sensible and quite funny and this was really enjoyable reading. She explains it what we know in our hearts to be true about truth and sex and living and dealing with both. This book was very open, intelligent and honest and spoke of the sexual issues we should be discussing with our own partner and they should be the one listening

You can browse this in ten minutes in the bookstore and get the content. I'm not surprised that Salon has dropped Bright as a columnist - there must be a point at which an author has said everything they have to say on a single subject and start to repeat themselves

Not worth the money.

I found this book to be well written and very thoughtful. Bright has some supperb insight into sexual attitudes. This book might bore the already initiated but would make an excellent ground breaker for the the majority of people who give little serious thought to our antiquated sexual attitutes. Would make a good textbook for Sexual Attitude Re-assessment 101 classes.

Hearing the audio version of this book read by Susie herself made this great book even better. As full of humor as it is wisdom, I highly recommend it to anyone in search of an intelligent sexual philosophy. It's definitely a thinking persons guide to smart sexuality.

Why? Because it goes to some of the core questions in your life. It tangles with the way we conduct ourselves as a society. In an age of AIDS, gathering repression, and sex-as-marketing, this is an important book, whatever your gender, age, proclivities, confusions, or politics. This woman is a provocateur, a ranter, and a lover. She won't leave a single sexual opinion anywhere in your head undisturbed. She'll turn you into a wanker, or a visionary. She might even convince you to break your own silence--before it's too late.

I read Full Exposure in one day. Perhaps it'd be better named Full Explosure: I could feel myself rapidly opening inside to a much greater understanding of My Sexy World. This book not only critically points out how we limit our sexuality but also very lovingly shows us how we can (and must!) expand our notions of what is sexy (most everything) and who are sexual beings (most everyone). I was particularly surprised how comfortably the author, a bisexual woman, spoke to me, a gay man. Susie really rocked my world. Now I gotta get my partner to read this!