Can We Change Our Sexual Desires? Should We?

Can We Change Our Sexual Desires? Should We?

“Feminists have long dreamed of sexual freedom,” writes Amia Srinivasan. “What they refuse to accept is its simulacrum: sex that is said to be free, not because it is equal, but because it is ubiquitous.”

Srinivasan is an Oxford philosopher who, in 2018, wrote the viral essay “Does Anyone Have the Right to Sex?” Her piece was inspired by Elliot Rodger’s murderous rampage and the misogynist manifesto he published to justify it. But Srinivasan’s inquiry opened out to larger questions about the relationship between sex and status, what happens when we’re undesired for unjust reasons and whether we can change our own preferences and passions. The task, as she frames it, is “not imagining a desire regulated by the demands of justice, but a desire set free from the binds of injustice.” I love that line.

Srinivasan’s new book of essays, “The Right to Sex,” includes that essay alongside other challenging pieces considering consent, pornography, student-professor relationships, sex work and the role of law in regulating all of those activities. This is a conversation about topics we don’t always cover on this show, but that shape the world we all live in: Monogamy and polyamory, the nature and malleability of desire, the interplay between sex and status-seeking, what it would mean to be sexually free, the relationship between inequality and modern dating, incels, the feminist critique of porn, how the internet has transformed the sexual culture for today’s young people and much more.

(One note: This conversation was recorded before the Supreme Court permitted a Texas law prohibiting abortions after six weeks, arguably ushering in the post-Roe era. We’re working on an episode that will discuss that directly.)

Mentioned:

The Right to Sex by Amia Srinivasan

"Sex Worker Syllabus and Toolkit for Academics" by Heather Berg, Angela Jones and PJ Patella-Rey

Book recommendations:

Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around by Alethia Jones and Virginia Eubanks, with Barbara Smith

Revolting Prostitutes by Juno Mac and Molly Smith

Feminist International by Verónica Gago, translated by Liz Mason-Deese

You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of "The Ezra Klein Show" at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.

Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.

“The Ezra Klein Show” is produced by Annie Galvin, Jeff Geld and Rogé Karma; fact-checking by Michelle Harris; original music by Isaac Jones; mixing by Jeff Geld, audience strategy by Shannon Busta. Special thanks to Kristin Lin.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Episoder(490)

This Taught Me a Lot About How Decarbonization Is Really Going

This Taught Me a Lot About How Decarbonization Is Really Going

The Inflation Reduction Act was the largest piece of climate legislation ever passed in the United States, setting aside hundreds of billions of dollars for decarbonizing the economy. But the money wa...

7 Jul 20231h 29min

Best Of: A Revelatory Tour of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Forgotten Teachings

Best Of: A Revelatory Tour of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Forgotten Teachings

It’s hard to think of a more celebrated figure of the 20th century than Martin Luther King Jr.He has a national memorial in Washington, D.C. His birthday is one of just 11 federal holidays. His words ...

4 Jul 20231h 34min

What’s Really Going On in Russia?

What’s Really Going On in Russia?

Last weekend, in the course of about 36 hours, Vladimir Putin faced — and then survived — one of the most serious challenges to his rule in over 20 years. An armed rebellion led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, ...

30 Jun 20231h 8min

How ‘Being Animal’ Could Help Us Be Better Humans

How ‘Being Animal’ Could Help Us Be Better Humans

One of the oldest human ideas is that we are somehow different from animals, somehow superior to them. That’s a mistake, argues the environmental philosopher Melanie Challenger. “Many of the things we...

27 Jun 202342min

Why This Economist Wants to Give Every Poor Child $50,000

Why This Economist Wants to Give Every Poor Child $50,000

“Wealth is the paramount indicator of economic prosperity and well-being,” says the economist Darrick Hamilton. He’s right. Policy analysis tends to focus on income, but it is wealth that often determ...

23 Jun 202352min

What the Heck Is Going on With These U.F.O. Stories?

What the Heck Is Going on With These U.F.O. Stories?

Earlier this month, a news outlet called The Debrief published a story that included, to put it mildly, some explosive material.The story, reported by Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal, centered on Dav...

20 Jun 20231h 11min

Why Do So Few Democrats Want Biden to Run in 2024?

Why Do So Few Democrats Want Biden to Run in 2024?

A recent AP-NORC poll found that just a quarter of voters, including only around half of Democrats, want to see Joe Biden run for president again. Many voters are concerned about his age in particular...

16 Jun 20231h 2min

What We Learned Reading Ron DeSantis's Books

What We Learned Reading Ron DeSantis's Books

Although 12 candidates have entered the Republican presidential race so far, only Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida is polling anywhere close to Donald Trump. What does DeSantis actually believe? How has h...

13 Jun 20231h 5min

Populært innen Politikk og nyheter

giver-og-gjengen-vg
aftenpodden
forklart
popradet
aftenpodden-usa
stopp-verden
lydartikler-fra-aftenposten
rss-gukild-johaug
det-store-bildet
fotballpodden-2
i-retten
dine-penger-pengeradet
rss-ness
nokon-ma-ga
aftenbla-bla
hanna-de-heldige
frokostshowet-pa-p5
rss-penger-polser-og-politikk
bt-dokumentar-2
rss-dannet-uten-piano