This was okay. The first few chapters about the historical context for the "failed heterosexuality" was interesting. As well as the sections about pick-up culture. I think these chapters are REALLY GOOD and what really kept this book out of the two star zone for me.

But there was something else that kept bothering me through out the whole book. The author kept pausing to say "well of course this is not all men." Ward is letting this phrase "not all men" do a lot of the heavy lifting. Not once did she analyze successfully heterosexual relationships to see what the "not all men" guys were doing differently to perform successful heterosexuality. The only form of "successful" sexuality that she presented was LGBT relationships, which I don't think is entirely fair. Queer relationships are not the pinnacle of success. There are plenty of queer relationships that are just as toxic as straight ones. She suggests in later chapters that successful heterosexuality could be obtained by men functioning outside the patriarchy, gaining empathy for women, and "queering up" their relationships. But Ward doesn't actually interview successful heterosexual relationships who are doing that and getting results. Like, I don't think she interviewed ONE straight couples or persons besides the interviews with the pick-up artist guys.

I also agree with most reviewers: chapter four was completely unprofessional and unnecessary. She surveyed, what, 57 of her Twitter followers and their complaints about heterosexual culture. And most of these complaints the audience is already pretty aware of. Reiterating them in this way and in this context just seems weird. Nothing about this chapter felt academic or analytical the way the rest of the book did.

I'm queer myself so a lot of this book I enjoyed. But just because I agree with a lot of the arguments don't really give it a pass on criticism.