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A review by sedgewren
The Right to Sex by Amia Srinivasan
challenging
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
A formidable collection of essays that explore and critique the current state of gender relations without shying away from the nuances and contradictions within the modern feminist movement.
These essays were perfect for me: they were intellectual without being inaccessible; witty without skipping the nuance; contemporary and relevant but grounded in intersectional feminist history. Amia Srinivasan is a fantastic writer and thinker, and I'm glad she is getting the recognition she deserves!
My favourite part of the book was how lightly she treads in her essay The Right to Sex, then how ruthless she is in Coda: The Politics of Desire where she cuts down others' inconsistent/misrepresentative critiques of her essay. She spits absolute fire throughout!
Some critiques I have of her essays (I'll write them down here because this is the easiest way I have of accessing them!)
Although it's slightly out of the scope of the book, I wish she would explore in more detail the suggested remedies to the issues at hand, e.g. using sexual imagination to combat the negative effects of pornography; how we can know when our desire is "choosing for itself" and not "what politics has chosen for us"; how we can give power to the most powerless of women.
Another specific critique I have of Srinivasan's juxtaposition of sex work with slavery (she uses them to say that abolishing slavery as an institution will stop slavery, but abolishing sex work in the law will not stop it) is that slavery actually still happens, and you could potentially argue that their conditions are worse than if it were institutionalised. I still agree with Srinivasan's leaning towards making conditions better for sex workers by decriminalising it, but I don't think those two institutions are as different as she makes them seem.
These essays were perfect for me: they were intellectual without being inaccessible; witty without skipping the nuance; contemporary and relevant but grounded in intersectional feminist history. Amia Srinivasan is a fantastic writer and thinker, and I'm glad she is getting the recognition she deserves!
My favourite part of the book was how lightly she treads in her essay The Right to Sex, then how ruthless she is in Coda: The Politics of Desire where she cuts down others' inconsistent/misrepresentative critiques of her essay. She spits absolute fire throughout!
Although it's slightly out of the scope of the book, I wish she would explore in more detail the suggested remedies to the issues at hand, e.g. using sexual imagination to combat the negative effects of pornography; how we can know when our desire is "choosing for itself" and not "what politics has chosen for us"; how we can give power to the most powerless of women.
Another specific critique I have of Srinivasan's juxtaposition of sex work with slavery (she uses them to say that abolishing slavery as an institution will stop slavery, but abolishing sex work in the law will not stop it) is that slavery actually still happens, and you could potentially argue that their conditions are worse than if it were institutionalised. I still agree with Srinivasan's leaning towards making conditions better for sex workers by decriminalising it, but I don't think those two institutions are as different as she makes them seem.
Content Warnings
Minor: Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Police brutality, and Sexual harassment