The Right to Sex: A Lesson in ‘Pragmatic’ Feminism

Photography: my own. ‘Ma non troppo’ in Italian means ‘but not too much’. Let’s be feminist but not too much. Let’s demand things, but not that much. Prostitution is bad but not that bad. Pornography is bad but not bad enough to stop it, etc. (Amia Srinivasan and others could say).

Asthe glass slips from your hands, you contemplate the chore ahead: you mentally prepare to carefully tiptoe between the shattered bits scattered across the floor, pick up the old broom, swipe it all into the dustpan when something unexpected happens.

Tin
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The glass bounces on the floor, defying gravity, teasing destiny. You hold your breath, you watch enthralled. Maybe, just maybe, it won’t break after all; there’s hope.

Tin

Tin
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Tin

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I was prepared for the worst with Amia Srinivasan’s collection of six essays, The Right to Sex. I knew that the rising star of academia, graduate of Yale and Oxford, darling of the media, now Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory at the University of Oxford is a supporter of prostitution and men’s so-called right to pretend they are women. But as I started reading, I saw that the title was a false alarm, since she repeatedly denies that there is a right to sex. I saw that she presents feminist debates and writers relatively well, conferring to the book some descriptive value. I also saw that she has some clever insights, on female jealousy for example, and most of her arguments would deserve a lengthy response (I will only focus only on one here). Maybe I had misunderstood her.

Tin
Tin tin tin
Tin tin tin tin

Crash.

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You can read my review of Amia Srinivasan’s The Right to Sex on 4w.pub:

https://4w.pub/right-to-sex-book/