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The Right to Sex: Feminism in the Twenty-First Century
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About This Book
"Laser-cut writing and a stunning intellect. If only every writer made this much beautiful sense." ―Lisa Taddeo, author of Three Women "Amia Srinivasan is an unparalleled and extraordinary writer―no one X-rays an argument, a desire, a contradiction, a defense mechanism quite like her. In stripping the new politics of sex and power down to its fundamental and sometimes clashing principles, The Right to Sex is a bracing revivification of a crucial lineage in feminist Srinivasan is daring, compassionate, and in relentless search of a new frame." ―Jia Tolentino, author of Trick Reflections on Self Delusion Thrilling, sharp, and deeply humane, philosopher Amia Srinivasan's The Right to Feminism in the Twenty-First Century upends the way we discuss―or avoid discussing―the problems and politics of sex. How should we think about sex? It is a thing we have and also a thing we do; a supposedly private act laden with public meaning; a personal preference shaped by outside forces; a place where pleasure and ethics can pull wildly apart. How should we talk about sex? Since #MeToo many have fixed on consent as the key framework for achieving sexual justice. Yet consent is a blunt tool. To grasp sex in all its complexity ― its deep ambivalences, its relationship to gender, class, race and power ― we need to move beyond yes and no, wanted and unwanted. We do not know the future of sex―but perhaps we could imagine it. Amia Srinivasan's stunning debut helps us do just that. She traces the meaning of sex in our world, animated by the hope of a different world. She reaches back into an older feminist tradition that was unafraid to think of sex as a political phenomenon. She discusses a range of fraught relationships―between discrimination and preference, pornography and freedom, rape and racial injustice, punishment and accountability, students and teachers, pleasure and power, capitalism and liberation. The Right to Feminism in the Twenty-First Century is a provocation and a promise, transforming many of our most urgent political debates and asking what it might mean to be free.
Reviews
"For Srinivasan, the notion that people who are fat or transgender or simply don't fit the white and blond mould are sexually undesirable is a matter for political contestation and moral analysis ..."
"This collection contains a staggering amount of research ..."
"Porn is everywhere, but the argument that it has poisoned an entire generation, making it impossible for them to think about sex for themselves, feels too broad and poorly supported ..."
"This is required reading."
"How do you liberate sex from the distortions of oppression?"
"Yet more than many contemporary feminist thinkers, she draws on the work of second-wave feminists, including those with whom she disagrees ..."
"Srinivasan moves her argument in unexpected directions to ask ever larger and harder philosophical questions ..."
"This must be what it means to 'dwell in ambivalence.' Clearly, it's not a comfortable place to be."
"too often Srinivasan seems hemmed in by her awareness of what the 'correct' answer should be ..."
"Stylistically I was reminded of What White People Can Do Next author Emma Dabiri's wit: Srinivasan shares Dabiri's gliding rigour and sharp edges ..."
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