Section outline

    •  TOPIC 4 - Overview                                                                                                        

      Lecture: 16 February (week 4)
      Seminar: 22-23 February (week 5)



      Tobi Adebajo, Triptych (2020). This work featured in the 2022 ICA exhibition "Decriminalised Futures", which explored sex worker lives, experiences and movement struggles. You can read more about this exhibition here and here.

      In this week's lecture we explore how sex – “the thing we do with our sexed bodies” (Srinivasan 2021, xii) – is political. We focus on the sex industry to understand feminist debates on the objectification and commodification of bodies in pornography and sex work, with particular attention to argument for sex workers' rights. Finally, we consider Amia Srinivasan's arguments in The Right to Sex (2021) to help us complicate the notion of "sexual liberation" and reflect on the "politics of desire". By the end of this topic, you should be able to:

      • Identify key debates centred on sex and sexuality in gender and politics
      • Explain the way sex and desire can be understood as an articulation of power
      • Assess feminist arguments for and against pornography and sex work

    • Amia Srinivasan - Preface / Student Handout File
      995.0 KB
    • Lectures Slides Topic 4 File

      These are the powerpoint slides for the lecture on topic 4 - The Politics of Sex

      19.2 MB

    • TOPIC 4 - Seminar Preparation                                                                                                     

      Preparation for the seminar

      1) Attend and take notes on the lecture. 

      2) Watch the video "5 years after #MeToo, here’s why it’s still hard to come forward", recently published by the Washington Post. You will find the link at the bottom of this section. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the movement? You may also inform some of your conclusions by reflecting on your own experiences and the impact the #MeToo movement has had (or not) on your life. Make notes and bring these to class for discussion.

      3) Read and take notes on the following core reading:

      4) Finally, feel free to also read and take notes on the following additional reading for the topic:


      Seminar discussion (Alaya's seminars)

      1) Based on the videos you had to watch in preparation for the seminar and Crenshaw's article, assess the strengths and weaknesses of the #MeToo movement. What are the structural issues that need addressing? 

      2) In the first paragraph of her chapter  “Women Selling Sex" (2022), Elena Zambelli declares:

      "When I approached the association that I would eventually volunteer for in their street sex working women’s outreach service, I was fresh from my readings on the Western feminists’ ‘sex wars’. Against the radical feminist and abolitionist position that women in prostitution are structurally victims of sexual violence and exploitation (see e.g. Dworkin 1993; Farley 2004; MacKinnon 2011; Bindel 2017), I aligned with sex workers and sex radical feminists’ position that adults who consensually sell sex are agentic subjects, albeit from within constraining conditions not of their choosing (see e.g. Chapkis 1997; Kempadoo and Doezema 1998; Doezema 2001; Agustín 2007; Weitzer 2010; Kotiswaran 2011; Grant 2014; Smith and Mac 2018). Nevertheless, my engagement with this debate was exclusively theoretical, and in hindsight, I had to accept that, unexpectedly (to me), my position at that time was quite liberal and contractarian. I used to overemphasize individual agency over structures, and as a result, I could not reconcile my notion of ‘choice’ with the compellingly hard material constraints under which most people sell sex for a living (Smith and Mac 2018). However, once I got into the field, I could not help but develop a more grounded and nuanced synthesis of these positions."

      In small groups, discuss in what ways Zambelli's ethnographic account of women selling sex develops "a more grounded and nuanced synthesis of these positions." What does the author mean when she says she "used to overemphasize individual agency over structures?". What is your position and how would you justify it?

      3) Based on your reading and understanding of Amia Srinivasan's "The Right to Sex", how would you explain the politics of desire? What is your assessment of Srinivasan's arguments?

    • Elaine Blair - Questioning Desire File
      3.6 MB
    • Zambelli - Women Selling Sex File
      299.9 KB
    • Srinivasan - The Right to Sex File
      108.4 KB
    • Surviving R. Kelly: The Impact - The Conversation Continues URL

      Candice Norcott, PHD, a licensed clinical psychologist and Farah Tanis, the Executive Director of Black Women's Blueprint, discuss both the impact of the "Surviving R. Kelly" docu-series and the opportunities to effect change moving forward.

    • 5 years after #MeToo, here’s why it’s still hard to come forward URL

      Washington Post, 2022.

    • 'Walls of silence built over centuries against women came tumbling down URL

      France 24 English, 2022. In-depth perspective and analysis of the #MeToo movement provided by Dr. Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, Lawyer, Women's Rights Activist and Author of "This is Why I Resist."


    • Podcast. Amia Srinivasan and Alice Spawls discuss The Right to Sex URL
    • Juno Mac - What do sex workers want? URL
    • On the Road: living and working on the Italian 'road of love' URL

      Documentary commissioned by the Guardian in 2017.

      Hundreds of women operate as sex workers along the Strada Bonifica, the ironically named ‘road of love’ on the Adriatic coast of Italy. There has been a huge increase in the number of Nigerian women working along the 10-mile stretch of road – some of whom have been trafficked into the country and forced into prostitution. The film moves between the women’s stories, the Italians who live and work there and the local NGO, named On the Road, attempting to support the women.

    • TOPIC 4 - Supplementary Reading 


      Catherine A. MacKinnon (1989) Toward a Feminist Theory of the State. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press. Print book available at QMUL Library.

      Larry Baron (1990) Pornography and Gender Equality: An Empirical Analysis. The Journal of Sex Research27(3), pp. 363-380.

      Naomi Wolf (1991) Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women. Vintage. Print book available at QMUL Library.

      Christine Overall (1992) What's wrong with prostitution? Evaluating sex work. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 17(4), pp. 705-724.

      Valerie Bryson (1999) “Pornography,” in Feminist Debates: Issues of Theory and Political Practice. Baskingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Print book available at QMUL Library.

      Karen Boyle (2002) The Pornography Debates: Beyond Cause and Effect. Women’s Studies International Forum 23(2), pp. 187-195.

      Karen Ciclitira (2004) Pornography, Women and Feminism: Between Pleasure and Politics. Sexualities 7(3), pp. 281–301.

      Joyce Outshoorn (2005) Political Debates on Prostitution and Sex Trafficking of Women. Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society 12(1), pp. 141–155.

      Laura María Agustín (2007). Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry. London: Zed. Print book available at QMUL Library.

      Natasha Walter (2010), “Pole-dancers and prostitutes” and “Pornography,” in The Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism. London: Virago. Print book available at QMUL Library.

      Catharine A. MacKinnon (2011) Trafficking, Prostitution and Inequality. Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 46(271), pp. 271–309.

      Cynthia Enloe (2014) “Lady Travelers, Beauty Queens, Stewardesses, and Chambermaids. The International Gendered Politics of Tourism” and “Base Women,” in Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics. University of California Press, pp. 37-82 and 125-173. 

      Rainbow Murray (2017) Westminster harassment: this is not just about sex, it’s about power. The Conversation.

      Molly Smith and Juno Mac (2018) Revolting Prostitutes: The fight for sex workers' rights. London: Verso Books.

      Mona Lena Krook (2018) Westminster Too: On Sexual Harassment in British Politics. Political Quarterly 89(10), pp. 65-72.

      Kaitlynn Mendes, Jessica Ringrose and Jessalynn Keller (2018) #MeToo and the Promise and Pitfalls of Challenging Rape Culture through Digital Feminist Activism. European Journal of Women’s Studies 25(2), pp. 236-246.

      Leah Culhane (2019) Sexual Harassment in Parliament. Protecting MPs, Peers, volunteers and staff. The Fawcett Society Report.

      Katherine Angel (2021) Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again. Women and Desire in the Age of Consent. London: Verso Books. You can also read an excerpt of Katherine Angel’s book here: Why we need to take bad sex more seriously, The Guardian.