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Melissa Febos Explores Year of Celibacy in New Memoir 'The Dry Season'

Febos’s year-long celibacy reframes desire through a focus on enthusiastic consent.

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Overview

  • Febos initially set out for three months of celibacy but extended it to a full year, discovering unexpected vitality and creative energy.
  • She draws inspiration from medieval Beguines to illustrate a model of female autonomy without centering men or rejecting sexuality entirely.
  • By pausing physical intimacy, Febos says she gained clearer insight into her impulses and reclaimed control over her body and desires.
  • A central theme is the argument that enthusiastic consent—choosing sex freely and joyfully—is the foundation of genuine love and connection.
  • As a bestselling memoirist and former dominatrix, Febos frames her celibacy experiment as a radical challenge to heteronormative norms and a reclamation of bodily autonomy.