The Right to Sex, with Amia Srinivasan and Merve Emre

Intelligence Squared

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4.2 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 August 2021

⏱️ 29 minutes

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Summary

How should we talk about sex? It is a thing we have and also a thing we do; a supposedly private act laden with public meaning; a personal preference shaped by outside forces; a place where pleasure and ethics can pull wildly apart. In this week's episode Amia Srinivasan speaks to Merve Emre about the politics of desire and how, from consent to capitalism, we need to rethink sex as a political phenomenon. To pre-order 'The Right to Sex' click here: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/right-to-sex-9781526612533 Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Rory Stewart, and I'd like to tell you about an intelligent squared event
0:04.8	I'm doing with the classicist author and broadcaster Mary Beard. Together we'll be discussing
0:10.1	politics and power from the Caesars to Sunack, who gets to Winpar, who is excluded,
0:16.0	does power always corrupt, or other examples of leaders who've maintained their integrity while
0:21.1	an authority. And how does the nature of power vary across different times and cultures?
0:26.0	These are just some of the questions that Mary and I will be trying to answer.
0:29.6	In person tickets are now sold out, but you can still watch online on the 13th of November
0:34.6	at 7pm BST. Put your questions first live as we discuss power and politics down the edges.
0:40.8	Is there a right to sex? And if so, whose right is it? These are just some of the questions
0:46.0	explored by today's guest Amia Srinivasan. She joined us to discuss her new book The Right to Sex,
0:51.8	and in conversation with author of The Personality Brokers, Merva Emery, they explore the politics
0:57.5	of desire. It's a really fascinating conversation, and if you do enjoy it, you can find a link for Amia's
1:02.2	new book in the podcast description. But now, let's go to the episode. Hello, and welcome to this
1:08.2	intelligent squared podcast with me, Merva Emery. I'm delighted to welcome our guest today. Amia
1:14.8	Srinivasan, the titually professor of social and political theory at All Souls College, Oxford.
1:21.1	She's the author of the brilliant new book The Right to Sex, which is out now, and I'm delighted
1:26.8	to be speaking with her. Hi, Amia. Hi. So when your essay, Who Has The Right to Sex, came out in the
1:33.2	London Review of Books in 2018, one of the louder and more agitated responses to it was from feminists
1:42.0	who insisted that there simply was no right to sex, and that claiming that there was
1:47.2	endorsed the point of view of violent in cells and rapists. So is there a right to sex?
1:54.6	And if there isn't, what is at stake in framing the politics of sexual desire in the language of rights?
2:02.2	Well, I mean, the first thing to say is that I think there's kind of uncontroversially right to
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