Just when you were craving another book that pits “bad girls” (ie, feminists, and those who have nonmonogamous sex) against “good girls” (the ones who don’t) comes Carol Platt Liebau’s Prude: How the Sex-Obsessed Culture Damages Girls (and America, Too!). While I’m guessing the parens and exclamation point are for earnest emphasis, I can’t help but think of Steven Colbert’s recent title, I Am America (and So Can You!) whenever I see this now. And so, I confess to taking the tone of it all a little tongue-in-cheek. That is not, however, the author’s intention.

The prolific and ever-savvy sex writer Rachel Kramer Bussel has written about the book over at AlterNet. Charges Rachel,

Liebau is not simply bemoaning the fact that it’s easier, and more socially acceptable, for young girls to be sexually active, but also that adult women dare to act this way as well.

…She makes the same tired mistake that so many do, assuming that “sexual freedom” means living in a world where sex doesn’t matter, to anyone. Whether we call that “do-me” or “wham, bam, thank you, ma’am,” there is so much more to true sexual freedom. But in her world, you’re either in a committed, monogamous relationship, or out there screwing anything that moves.

While I’m not all that interested in reading this book (and am grateful to Rachel for doing so for me), I am interested in the chapter titled “Do-Me Feminists and Doom-Me Feminism,” if only for the sake of seeing how recent feminist history, once again, gets played.

For more on this exciting trend, of course, see Wendy Shalit’s Girls Gone Mild.