Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality
by Gayle S. Rubin
The author argues how sex has been transformed into a taboo as opposed to a necessary biological (not exclusively) activity. An individual’s sexuality is in no way answerable to the state or the society for that matter. Historically, sexuality has been governed by laws in order to control it with political power; laws as brutal as using hot iron on the private parts of innocent women. This political environment has adversely affected the sciences as well, leading the general public to believe that sexual activities such as masturbation, watching pornography, or even having sexual desires are forms of vices or illnesses; the phenomenon of negative sexuality. Right-wing governments and institutional hierarchies often attributed the trait of homosexuality to that of communism or criminal/offensive mindset. As is the tradition with every oppression, hints of a revolution were visible, wherein groups of people began asserting their self- identities which led to a targeted exclusion of these groups, socially, economically, etc. Sexuality is not solely biological, as mentioned above. It is formed by society’s as well as the individual’s ideology. On one hand, sex is a private affair and begs for no external intervention while on the other hand, sex is heavily scrutinised by those in power and to correct this surveillance sex has to be politicised.
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