[Podcast] ‘Transforming Our Sexual Lives’ Keynote lecture by Prof Linda Martín Alcoff

We are most pleased to share the recording of Prof Linda Martín Alcoff’s keynote lecture from the 2020 international conference The Sexual Politics of Freedom. 

Prof Alcoff’s lecture was delivered on the 18th of September via Zoom. The topic of this lecture is “Transforming Our Sexual Lives” 

Abstract: To understand rape we have to understand sex, or what is taken to be normal, everyday, harmless forms of sexual interactions. Because what is taken to be ‘normal’ sex—morally blameless sex - can involve coercion, pressure, and emotional blackmail, we must consider how to transform our sexual lives in their totality. This will require a consideration not only of power but also of desire. There are many differences in forms of desire, and not only in the objects of our desire. How should we treat these differences? I will argue that sexual pluralism, or accepting a diversity of forms of desire, does not require an abdication of moral judgment.

Desire, however, is not a natural fact but is subject to social and cultural influences. Accepting the validity of our desires has been an important part of the movement to become sex-positive, to remove guilt and shame from our sexual lives. But we need to go further than this. We need to consider how violence, and particularly gender violence, becomes eroticized, and how we can transform our societies to affect not only sexual practices, but sexual desires as well.

Michel Foucault’s late writings on the ‘care of the self’ is suggestive of a new way to approach our sexual lives. While critical of concepts of the ‘normal’ as well as practices of normalization, Foucault finds in some ancient societies a pursuit of virtuous norms. This constitutes a move beyond non-judgmental sex-positivity to a normatively positive, and pluralist, approach to sexuality. I will use this account as a springboard to focus on sexual subjectivity.

The podcast, which was first published on the Irish Centre for Human Rights podcast  and hosted and introduced by Hasret Cetinkaya is available on Soundcloud here.

and here:

The Human Rights Podcast · 'Transforming our Sexual Lives' with Prof. Linda Martín Alcoff