Sex and the womens movement, then and now – Sydney Morning Herald

While many of these debates will be familiar to some readers, the analytic precision Srinivasan brings to them serves as a reminder that sexual ethics always need to be contextual and nuanced. The imperative for feminism, as these essays eloquently demonstrate, is not to find a safe space in which clear parameters are drawn (with even clearer exclusions), but to dwell on discomfort and ambivalence that come from being genuinely open to inclusivity. It also means acknowledging the deep tensions that have shaped feminism as a political movement.

To be sure, Srinivasan is not the first to make this observation. The poet and philosopher Denise Riley made a similar observation many decades ago, noting how the inconstant ontological status of being a woman has always made feminism a site of instability and tension. But, for Riley, as indeed I think for Srinivasan, this need not trouble us precisely because it bears witness to the internal differences that have productively shaped feminist political agency.

What perhaps needs to trouble feminism is knowing when and how to relinquish power. The final essay, Sex, Carceralism, Capitalism ponders how feminist gains might be implicated in other structural inequalities. To ask which women benefit from feminisms advances, and which women dont, or knowing when and how to relinquish power so other voices can be heard, does not mean giving up on feminism as a transformational political movement.

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Instead, Srinivasan asks that we confront feminisms deep ethical ambiguities, not least its frequent complicity in global capitalisms counterfeit language of individual freedom and a carceral culture that is deeply raced and classed. This is a book that gets you thinking and gives you enough hope to imagine that things might be otherwise.

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Sex and the womens movement, then and now - Sydney Morning Herald