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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.

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