Subject: Re: sex and the left

Catherine Driscoll catherine.driscoll at adelaide.edu.au
Thu Nov 14 07:35:02 PST 2002


Quoting EE <erikempson at wanadoo.fr>:


> Its not so much about sex in itself, its about the defensive regulative
> mindset of people on the 'left'. Its about an ageing of the left, its
> re-emergence in the shape of people who have grown bitter and cynical.
> People who become absorbed with their children and by having
> _real_responsibilities, and doing _real_ jobs.

Man, really? Can you pick them out in a crowd? Do you think it's catching?


>... Ultimately the sex thing just reflects that most left
> politics have come down to expressions of a fundamental desire for
> stability, an inner longing for the state.

And, yes. That's it. In a sense... I mean, I don't diagree with you, and please don't accuse me of state-longing or anything, because for an Australian that's jsut traumatic, you know. But, as a clearly sensible person, I ask you... is it really possible to map out the kinds of sex that 'desire stability' (given how varied desire & stability actually are for actual people). Some of the kinkiest people I've known have also been quite conservative in important ways.

I'm not for a second ascribing to the 'sex is just sex' platform here -- disrupting, troubling, frightening, sexual norms does matter in all sorts of ways. And yet... the whole sexual liberatory discourse can be such a cop out and so damned stagnating. It does depend how it's done, and demonising desires, pleasures, even just practices, as sexually conformist will only ever be another kind of self-indulgent name-dropping.

Catherine



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