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Drawn to Sex Vol. 1, Volume 1: The Basics
by Matthew Nolan, Erika Moen
When I was younger, I struggled a lot with recognizing what was healthy or unhealthy in a sexual relationship. Sex has been a part of my life for a long time as someone who is attracted to multiple genders and does not fall anywhere on the asexual spectrum, but unhealthy relationships and exposure to unhealthy scenarios as a teen messed up my views on what it should look like, and honestly, Erika Moen's Oh Joy, Sex Toy webcomics were a tremendous help. In fact, I have to say that I think I first learned sex positivity from Erika's words. Because of my eternal gratitude to her and her partner Matthew for their guidance, when I saw that they were coming out with Drawn to Sex, I naturally felt like I had to review it.
I can't say that I learned anything new from this book, because 1) I followed their webcomic for years, and 2) I've been around the block long enough at this point to have learned these things firsthand. That said, this is such a fantastically comprehensive guide and I would absolutely encourage anyone and everyone to read it, regardless of your sexuality and gender identity—Erika and Matthew cover it all.
On top of how in-depth everything is, the representation in the comics? Flawless. Erika so strongly normalizes different races, sexualities, identities, body types, disabilities, and anything else you can think of. It's something I first noticed about the webcomic back in the day, and I was so happy to see that she still focuses so strongly on including as many people as possible. There's also a lot of attention paid to phrasing—instead of using binary terms, she'll use phrases like "people with *insert sexual term here*"—and she even takes time more than once to point out that asexuality comes in many different layers, and each and every one of those layers is perfectly valid.
I would recommend Drawn to Sex to anyone and everyone, and am so proud of Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan for the work they're doing. ♥
Thank you so much to Oni Press for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
I can't say that I learned anything new from this book, because 1) I followed their webcomic for years, and 2) I've been around the block long enough at this point to have learned these things firsthand. That said, this is such a fantastically comprehensive guide and I would absolutely encourage anyone and everyone to read it, regardless of your sexuality and gender identity—Erika and Matthew cover it all.
On top of how in-depth everything is, the representation in the comics? Flawless. Erika so strongly normalizes different races, sexualities, identities, body types, disabilities, and anything else you can think of. It's something I first noticed about the webcomic back in the day, and I was so happy to see that she still focuses so strongly on including as many people as possible. There's also a lot of attention paid to phrasing—instead of using binary terms, she'll use phrases like "people with *insert sexual term here*"—and she even takes time more than once to point out that asexuality comes in many different layers, and each and every one of those layers is perfectly valid.
I would recommend Drawn to Sex to anyone and everyone, and am so proud of Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan for the work they're doing. ♥
Thank you so much to Oni Press for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!