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A review by dominic_t
The Right to Sex: Feminism in the Twenty-First Century by Amia Srinivasan
challenging
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
5.0
I really enjoyed this book. I didn't agree with everything the author said, but I found it all incredibly thought-provoking. She did a great job of supporting her arguments, and her tone was very engaging.
The title is deliberately inflammatory, but it really does suit the collection of essays. The author really interrogates the liberal ideas of sexual freedom that are prevalent in mainstream western feminism. She argues that our sexual desires and behaviors do have political implications, and that statement makes a lot of people very uncomfortable. But I think we owe it to ourselves to push through that discomfort and listen to what she's saying. She's not saying that your desires have to be "politically correct" or that you should sleep with people you don't want to sleep with. She's saying that marginalized people are also marginalized when seeking sexual relationships, and we need to engage with that fact instead of ignoring it. "The question, then, is how to dwell in the ambivalent place where we acknowledge that no one is obligated to desire anyone else, and that no one has a right to be desired, but also that who is desired and who isn't is a political question, a question often answered by more general patterns of domination and exclusion" (p. 90). I love that she invites us to engage with that question without giving a straightforward, easy answer.
The title is deliberately inflammatory, but it really does suit the collection of essays. The author really interrogates the liberal ideas of sexual freedom that are prevalent in mainstream western feminism. She argues that our sexual desires and behaviors do have political implications, and that statement makes a lot of people very uncomfortable. But I think we owe it to ourselves to push through that discomfort and listen to what she's saying. She's not saying that your desires have to be "politically correct" or that you should sleep with people you don't want to sleep with. She's saying that marginalized people are also marginalized when seeking sexual relationships, and we need to engage with that fact instead of ignoring it. "The question, then, is how to dwell in the ambivalent place where we acknowledge that no one is obligated to desire anyone else, and that no one has a right to be desired, but also that who is desired and who isn't is a political question, a question often answered by more general patterns of domination and exclusion" (p. 90). I love that she invites us to engage with that question without giving a straightforward, easy answer.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Gun violence, Sexual content, and Violence
Minor: Domestic abuse and Sexual violence