The Guide to Sexual Pleasure by Dr T is not a book I would typically buy for many reasons. With her being a medical doctor, I immediately assumed it was a medical book riddled with medical jargon and complicated medical processes. Boy, was I wrong about that... This book is, for all intents and purposes, a medical book, but a medical book that everyone can relate to. She starts off the book by introducing herself, her journey and how she came to be a well-respected doctor focusing on sexual and reproductive health in South Africa. She relates the story back to when she graduated from medical school, working in communities and answering more and more questions about sexual health from people of all ages. She realised during those days that information was limited in the public health system and that people were afraid to ask or speak about sexual health. This piqued her interest, coupled with her desire to help women/people to better understand their bodies and sexual health.
I first got introduced to this book via Twitter. A few people mentioned that they enjoyed reading it, so I thought why not. I had not read any reviews on the book and simply bought it because it seemed like a popular read on Twitter. About the book: This book is set in Nigeria where a “self-made” man, who can barely keep anything he eats down, lives with his 4 wives. The wives all have troubling pasts, growing up under poverty and hard labour. They marry Baba Segi as a means of escaping their hard lives. The book mainly revolves around the last and youngest wife Bolanle, who, unlike the other wives is educated! She is a graduate and this is often used to mock her. The wives immediately feel threatened by her arrival at the Segi household as they feel that she sees herself as better than them and walks with her “nose in the air”. However, educated as she is, she chooses to marry a polygamous man much to her mothers disapproval. While the other wives feel unsettled by her presence