We just might choose things people don’t like. “As women, we really can make our own choices. “Divorce, remarriage, surrogate parents, extended relatives, and other diverse family arrangements mean families already come in all sizes-why not recognize that legally?” “While the Supreme Court and the rest of us are all focused on the human right of marriage equality, let’s not forget that the fight doesn’t end with same-sex marriage.

Gay marriage is a slippery slope! A gateway drug! If we legalize it, then what’s next? Legalized polygamy? We can only hope.” “Social conservatives have been making the prediction for years. And Keenan is not alone in pushing for the unsettling idea of “marriage equality for all.” Her conclusion is actually quite consistent if-as she and many others today claim-the definition of marriage is “plastic.” It simply gives us a glimpse of where this is all headed. As I read on, however, I realized that it was not. At first I thought that this was a piece of satire. “Keenan serves up a smart, sexy cocktail of a memoir that is one part spanking fetish, another part Shakespeare, and goes down like a dirty martini that leaves the reader both shaken and stirred.I recently came across this article by Jillian Keenan in Slate Magazine, entitled Legalize Polygamy: Marriage Equality for All. “An English major’s dream…You may have studied Shakespeare in high school, but it’s almost guaranteed that your literary analysis wasn’t anything like this…The connection to Shakespeare is a fascinating foil for Keenan’s life… writing is clear, relatable, and steady, even when conveying painful events in her past.” - Library Journal (starred review) Fans (kinky or not) of Shakespeare will love reading this book, and anyone directing Shakespeare should be required to read it.” - Dan Savage, New York Times bestselling author And Keenan’s original takes on Shakespeare are just as fascinating and insightful as her takes on sex, lust, and love. This book will help people, and this book will entertain people. We often talk about other people’s kinks, but rarely does someone open up about their own kinks-and really own their kinks-as fearlessly as Jillian Keenan does in her moving and funny memoir. “Calling this book brave is an understatement. In Sex with Shakespeare, words are love.Īs Keenan wanders the world in search of connection, from desert dictatorships to urban islands to disputed territories, Shakespeare goes with her -and provokes complex, surprising, and wildly important conversations about sexuality, consent, and the secrets that simmer beneath our surfaces.

Moving through the canon, Keenan makes it abundantly clear that literature is a conversation. In Macbeth, she examines criminalized sexual identities and the dark side of “privacy.” The Taming of the Shrew goes inside the secret world of bondage, domination, and sadomasochism, while King Lear exposes the ill-fated king as a possible sexual predator. In A Midsummer Night ’s Dream, Keenan unmasks Helena as a sexual masochist-like Jillian herself. With fourteen of his plays as a springboard, she explores the many facets of love and sexuality-from desire and communication to fetish and fantasy. In Sex with Shakespeare, she tells the story of how the Bard’s plays helped her embrace her unusual sexual identity and find a love story of her own.įour hundred years after Shakespeare’s death, Keenan’s smart and passionate memoir brings new life to his work.

When it came to understanding love, a teenage Jillian Keenan had nothing to guide her-until a production of The Tempest sent Shakespeare’s language flowing through her blood for the first time. A provocative, moving, kinky, and often absurdly funny memoir about Shakespeare, love, obsession, and spanking

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