Let’s Talk About (Radical) Sex
Everybody thinks my head’s full of nothin’
Wants to put his special stuff in
Fill the space with candy wrappers
Keep out sex and revolution
But there’s no hole in my head
Too bad
—Malvina Reynolds
Our visions begin with our desires.
—Audre Lorde
Sex is a hot topic. We knew that going into this issue, but we were surprised at the amount of heat generated as we in the publications committee discussed which stories to include. Concerns were raised about whether sex work is exploitative and therefore inherently violent toward those involved, as Robert Jensen argues in his piece, “The Cruel Boredom of Pornography.” Certainly, the commodification of bodies is a theme we see all through capitalism and which we critique at every opportunity.
On the other hand, we believe in making space for stories to be told by those who are affected, not deciding for them whether their experiences are harmful or empowering. This is the argument Audacia Ray makes in her article “Neither Victims Nor Voiceless,” a report-back from her work in India with sex workers organizing around HIV/AIDS.
Judith Mahoney Pasternak frames two viewpoints in “Sex, Revolution, and the Sexual Revolution,” providing a context for the “Sex Wars” of the 1980s and calling for an end to women’s subordination through the dismantling of capitalism and other forms of oppression. Although white, middle-class women dominated the Second Wave feminist movement, we recognize that feminists of color like Audre Lorde were there, calling for class and race consciousness and making those connections between racism, sexism, and homophobia that are so important to feminist and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) organizing today.
The work of Southerners on New Ground (SONG) is very much in that tradition, with its members working to embody all aspects of their identity in transforming the spaces where they live. In an interview excerpted in this issue, co-directors Caitlin Breedlove and Paulina Hernandez discuss the struggle for LGBT rights and respect in the context of immigration and right to return to the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. They emphasize the need to gain those rights without being forced to assimilate, to deny their differences.
Unfortunately, much of the so-called gay rights movement (which tends to be led by affluent white men and focus on issues like gay marriage) is demanding rights based in equality (as opposed to equity or transformative social justice), asserting that members of the gay community deserve to be treated the same as everyone else. Ethan Weinstock challenges the growing movement, now joined by President Obama, to allow gays and lesbians to serve in the military—not because “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is fair, but because the military has shown its fear and hatred of LGBT individuals. A truly radical agenda calls for those resources in LGBT organizing to be directed toward supporting members of the community who are experiencing hatred and violence, not toward inclusion in an institution that enacts violence on others.
And a truly radical Left makes space for all of us to engage with our whole selves—our feminist, survivor, queer, transgender, and polyamorous selves—in struggles for liberation and revolution that incorporate issues of class, race, and gender. Maybe sex is such a hot topic because in a lot of our movements we don’t talk about it. It gets relegated to our personal lives as we lose sight of the personal as political. Or maybe we think of it as the work of other groups that focus specifically on sexuality and gender. But the result is that when we do have these conversations, we are surprised to discover that we’re not on the same page, that we have a long way to go toward transforming ourselves and the world.
All of us involved in putting together this issue did not agree with everything in these pages, and the authors don’t always agree with each other, but we hope that the dialog we began will continue, and that you, the reader, will be a part of it. We welcome your letters, win [at] warresisters.org (emails), and online comments. And we encourage you to bring these discussions into the spaces where you work for change.
