The Future Of Sex | Amia Srinivasan | TMR

Emma hosts Amia Srinivasan, Professor of Social and Political Theory at the University of Oxford, to discuss her recent book The Right to Sex: Feminism in the 21st Century.

Buy The Right to Sex here

Prof. Srinivasan and Emma dive right into the biggest news of the last two weeks, taking on their initial reactions to the Roe v. Wade leak, from the instinctive and personal horror to deranged awe for the American conservatives seeing their strategy of the last half-century finally come to fruition, before getting into the questions this decision raises and what the future of reproductive rights looks like when the party defending them is constantly inert. Next, they turn to Professor Srinivasan’s book, looking at the divide between the sphere of politics and the private sphere, and how she follows in the path of emphasizing the inherently political nature of feminism and sex. First looking to the feminisms of the ‘60s and ’70, Emma and Amia discuss this repoliticization of private issues, as concepts like abortion, family structure, childcare, and education became central to the feminist fight, alongside a birth of sex positivity, before the ‘80s rolled around and saw pushback amidst feelings of encouraging sex on men’s terms, looking beyond just consent at the larger coercive factors. This brings Professor Srinivasan to an analysis of the neoliberal market ideology, with consent and contracts as the only moral factor, considering sexual freedom along the same lines of tradeoffs, particularly around status, and how this analysis can be used to pushback, particularly against incel misogyny. They then look to the development of feminisms’ stances on porn, with the antithesis to sex positivity seeing porn as the lynchpin of patriarchy and a training ground for men’s subjugation of women, despite the large inaccessibility of porn at the time, before the boom of the internet in the 21st Century saw it become almost ubiquitous in much of the Western world, and thus plagued by monopoly and corruption as a neoliberal institution. Emma and Amia pin that conversation with a discussion on the importance of a sex-worker-owned-and-led world of porn as the only one where they can have a sense of security, before they wrap up the interview with a discussion on #MeToo, and the racialization and classism involved in rape accusations and where they go in the legal world. Then, Melanie D’Arrigo discusses her campaign in NY-3, and engaging as a progressive with notoriously conservative constituents. Emma also covers Israel’s murder of journalist Shereen Abu Aqleh, Finland getting closer to joining NATO, and Manchin’s objection to giving women rights, when that’s not what some Americans want!

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