Book Launch: Sticky, Sexy, Sad by Treena Orchard

Join University of Toronto Press to celebrate the launch of Sticky, Sexy, Sad: Swipe Culture and the Darker Side of Dating Apps by Treena Orchard. The event will feature a conversation between Treena Orchard and Cynthia Loyst.

About the Speakers

Cynthia Loyst is a National Bestselling Author, Producer, Television Host, and self-described “Professional Sensualist.” She is also the creator of Find Your Pleasure, a popular online destination that celebrates decadence, indulgence and pure, unadulterated joy. Throughout her award-winning career, Cynthia has become one of Canada’s most recognized and respected TV personalities and producers. She is also a WXN Top 100 Women Award Winner - recognizing women who have shaped Canadian thinking, communications and culture. Co-hosting CTV’s popular daytime talk show, The Social, Cynthia shares her fresh and genuine views to help people learn to appreciate life and all the pleasures it brings. She is also the go to relationship expert on Virgin Radio and has appeared on many other programs including The Marilyn Denis Show, CTV News, Etalk, and more. Most recently, Cynthia launched Cynthia and Josie’s Unmentionables, a podcast which has been named one of the Top 10 streamed podcasts in Canada on Apple and Spotify. Her debut book, Find Your Pleasure, was published in early 2020, where it gained praise and notability on the Toronto Star and The Globe & Mail’s Best Selling Lists.

Follow Cynthia Loyst:

Cynthia Loyst Twitter: @cynthialoyst

Find Your Pleasure Twitter: @fypleasure

Website: www.findyourpleasure.com

Treena Orchard is an anthropologist and associate professor in the School of Health Studies at Western University. She researches and engages in activist debates about sexuality, gender, and health among diverse cultural and digital communities. Deeply committed to public scholarship, she regularly writes for and is featured in leading online publications, including Cosmopolitan, Men’s Health, and The Conversation.

About Sticky, Sexy, Sad: Swipe Culture and the Darker Side of Dating Apps

Lifelong luddite Treena Orchard was a newly sober woman coming off a much-needed break from relationships, reluctantly taking the digital plunge by downloading a dating app. Instead of the fun, easy experiences advertised on swiping platforms, she discovered endless upkeep, ghosting, fleeting moments of sexual connection, and a steady flow of misogyny.

In Sticky, Sexy, Sad, Orchard uses her skills as both an anthropologist who studies sexuality and a sex-positive feminist to explore what it feels like to want love while also resisting the addictive pull of platforms designed to make us swipe-dependent. She asks important questions for those searching for love in the modern era: What are the social and human impacts of using dating apps? How can we maintain our integrity and warm-blooded desire for intimacy while swiping? Can we resist some of the problematic aspects of swipe culture? Is love on dating apps even possible?

Revealing how dating apps are powerful social and sexual technologies that are radically transforming sexuality, relationships, and how we think about ourselves, this remarkable book cracks the code of modern romance. Told with humor and vulnerability, Sticky, Sexy, Sad is a riveting and inspiring guide to staying true to ourselves amid the digitization of love in the twenty-first century.

Event Venue

University of Toronto Bookstore, 214 College Street, Toronto, Canada