The Printed Pages!
The book, Sex/Life: 44 Chapters About 4 Men tells the story of a woman who is very much in love with her husband but, is not satisfied with their sex life. It reads easily and she writes like she’s speaking to a girlfriend, which makes sense because it’s her journal. It chronicles the extreme measures a wife will go to in order to pull the emotion out of a “husbot,” a term used to describe the robot-like way her husband, Ken acts. Ken is said to be built for the ups and downs of marriage but, lacks on the passion scale. When he stumbles upon and subsequently reads her journal where she reminisced on past passionate partners, changes are made in the way he approaches the bedroom. The author, BB, then uses this to try to steer these changes to address things she feels are lacking. It’s a solid entertaining read. While I didn’t feel the need to stay up all night to finish it I did want to know how it ended. I’ll be honest, BB Easton bares it all and I found myself a tiny bit uncomfortable when I read about the sexual escapades in the beginning years of her high school life, so much so my face could have easily been made a meme. I feel like one of the turning points in the book was when she actually just asked the question she wanted to know the answer to. I feel like it all boiled down to communicating.
The Silver Screen!
The show, Sex/Life on Netflix depicts a woman, Billie and where she is currently in her life as a woman, a wife and mother. She is experiencing what I feel is one of the most vulnerable times as a woman. She’s transitioned from working to being a stay at home wife/mom. She has just had a baby, so she has a new body, her hormones are out of whack and she’s trying to find who she is in this new life/role that is so different from what she used to be. She starts fantasizing about the life once lived. That life is encompassed in her last relationship which was all fire, passion and apparently great sex. In order to work through those feelings, she begins a journal. All hell breaks loose when her husband, Cooper, reads said journal and Billie has a chance meeting with the man staring in her fantasies, her ex-boyfriend, Brad.
There are 8 what-thee-f**k filled episodes in season one. Now, I won’t spoil anything but, I may still be sporting the knot on my forehead from the amount of times I literally face palmed while watching. I felt that there was definitely a dialogue to be had so I convinced my husband to watch with me. The drama of it all just as addicting as the 1st time I watched. We devoured the entire season in just one day, staying up until the wee hours of the morning. My husband mumbling the errant, “that girl is crazy” roughly every 5 hours across the immediate few days after watching.
I felt the glaring takeaway from the show was the apparent need for open and honest communication in a marriage. I think the show also takes a look at what potential societal pressures women feel to conform to a particular idea of womanhood to be seen worthy of marriage. It seems the show was successful and I will definitely be watching season 2.
The book and show are wildly different in the best ways. I found the book to be mildly manipulative and leaning on the side of behavioral modification. I did understand her motive of trying to address the issue, sex, in a different way as most people find it difficult to just come out and talk about. The show had love triangle and I was happy to find that was not the case in real life. I love love and I was beyond pleased to know BB and Ken are still happily married.
I would recommend both the book and the show to those like me, who like to read & watch but, if you have to pick one, the drama filled, quarter-life style crisis of a show for sure wins!
