Donate

The Sex Obsession: Perversity and Possibility in American Politics

Live transcription available here.

Janet Jakobsen in conversation with Sydnie Mosley, Ann Pellegrini, Pamela Phillips, Dean Spade, and Tourmaline

Janet R. Jakobsen’s new book, The Sex Obsession: Perversity and Possibility in American Politics, is a study of the ways in which debates over religion and sexuality in American politics are embedded in a wide range of political struggles, including but not limited to those over secularism and religious freedom. Gender and sexuality are also in play in debates over healthcare, immigration, police violence and war, implicated in the politics of housing and the environment, and critical to struggles against racial capitalism. The Sex Obsession shows how sexual politics are part of kaleidoscopic shifts that are supposed to instantiate progress, even as very little actually changes. The progress narrative claims that democracy expands, but instead injustice remains intransigent. The book connects interdisciplinary scholarship to what Jakobsen learned from collaborative projects with activists, artists and other scholars during her time as director of BCRW. These collaborations and continuing projects like them provide inspiration for utopian possibilities even in these dangerous and melancholy times. Reimagining perversity and possibility can animate action on behalf of a world that might be otherwise.

This virtual event will celebrate the publication of The Sex Obsession through discussions with some of the many collaborative partners who contributed so much to the book, led off by Ann Pellegrini on religion, secularism and religious freedom. The hour will also provide material from projects, like the Poverty and Public Housing Working group at BCRW, led by Pamela Phillips along with an excerpt from Sydnie L. Mosley Dances’ “Purple,” and a preview of a new series, Continuing Conversations, beginning with Tourmaline and Dean Spade.

The Sex Obsession is available for purchase from Word Up! Community Bookshop/Librería Comunitaria.

RECOMMENDED STORIES

Nov 14, 2024

A View from Public Housing: Resident Histories, Perspectives and Hope

A View from Public Housing: Resident Histories, Perspectives and Hope   When I was growing up there, we were proud to live in public housing. It was a great place to live. You got to really see a lot of family, community, playgrounds. It was so close to schools. Public housing is no different than […]

Read More
Oct 14, 2024

Architecture of Migration: An Interview with Anooradha Siddiqi

Anooradha Siddiqi is Assistant Professor of Architecture, Barnard College, and author of Architecture of Migration: The Dadaab Refugee Camps and Humanitarian Settlement (Duke University Press, 2024). Sabrina Salam (BC ’24) is a Research Assistant at BCRW.  Sabrina Salam: What critical problem do you look at in this book? Anooradha Siddiqi: I look at architecture and migration […]

Read More
Oct 2, 2024

Rage, Struggle, Freedom: Unveiling Feminist Perspectives on Global Crises

Launching the Scholar and Feminist issue 20.1 with guest editors Margo Okazawa-Rey and Elif Sarican and contributors Gwyn Kirk and Şervîn Nûdem, moderated by Premilla Nadasen.

Read More