Turning on the Girls
Ten years ago women took over, and now they are busily changing everything, from schools and language to women"s and men"s thinking. Lisa, the twenty-two-year-old heroine of Turning on the Girls, works at one of the ministries dedicated to mental revolution. Her task: to update women"s sexual fantasies. There will be no more masochistic or romantic daydreams! Lisa finds herself slogging through piles of highly unrevolutionary literature, from The Story of O to Harlequin romances. This is what used to turn people on? Meanwhile, not all men are pleased with this kinder, gentler world. Harmony, an underground men"s movement, is planning a violent uprising to put women back in their place. Lisa and her trusty assistant, Justin, are recruited by security forces to infiltrate Harmony. Before long they find themselves in Zone Six-where the unreformable men reside-on the run, trying to save the world as they know it. Cheryl Benard"s deftly comic novel gives us a chance to envision a world designed by women-and to reflect on how such a world would differ from our own.