Towards a More Sex-Positive -- And More Relevant -- Left

[Gordon Fitch]

Thomas Seay:
> Anthony,  Thank you for bringing up this interesting
> and important subject and for having the courage to 
> 
> I am going to throw out a few ideas here just for
> discussion.  
> 
> A) Large sectors of the Left have always found biology
> and the body problematic.  It, the body, somehow did
> not fit in neatly with utopian schemes.  For many, it
> was a distraction from the urgent matter of "building
> a revolution" (what kind of revoltion without the
> body?), hence sexuality, especially erotic sexuality 
> was seen as a distraction, a bourgeois deviation. 
> This part of the Left does not see the fulfillment of
> human desires as part of the revolutionary agenda.
> 
> 
> More generally, much of the Left has historically
> distrusted the topic of biology.  They are stuck in
> rationalism...any discussion of genetics raises the
> spectre of fascism in their eyes.  No, better abandon
> biology to the Right.
> 
> B)  As part of its general retreat, much of the Left
> has abandoned any positive demands.  Instead, many
> prefer the safe territory of identity politics where
> they can be victims and/or framing everything in
> moralistic terms.  Raising a radical demand, like
> greater sexual freedom would be too risqe'.

I wish you'd be more specific about which parts of the Left
you believe are anti-sex.  It's not something I perceive
generally, which is remarkable given I'm living in the U.S.,
a country which has historically been obsessed with sex.  
Note that a lot of lefitsts are concerned with food, housing,
drugs, medical care and physically livable environments, which
except for teen-agers, constitute more immediate problems
of the body than getting laid when they're unavailable.

Also, I'm wondering what you mean, specifically, by demanding
greater sexual freedom.  One of my friends is a sort of
transsexual, and takes a certain amount of abuse for it, but
it's typically been from Gay politicals rather than from the
government, conservative institutions, bourgeois philistines,
or street thugs.  What could be done in the way of expanding
this person's political space?  Again, some of my web site
clients are professional dominatrixes, who are under a
certain amount of legal restriction and social deprecation,
but I'm not sure how we could approach liberating them at
the same time as we're getting down with the common, not-
so-rad folk as so many others are advising us to do lately,
right on this mailing list.

-- Gordon