Undoing Sex: against sexual optimism – by c.e. – MP3 – Read – Print – Archive – Torrent – YouTube

*This zine contains discussion of sexual assault*

“Undoing Sex” is a critique of sex-positivity that both draws upon and completely transcends second-wave feminist critiques. The essay explores the metaphysical quandaries faced by the “not-man” in their engagement with and survival of sex. Centering sex negativity in a transgender, queer experience of how the image of sexual pleasure and health is produced, marketed, and consumed by people of all genders, the text brings Marx, Foucault, Afropessimism, and other currently useful theories to bear upon the sexual impasse many (all?) of us face. It offers no prescriptive conclusions, but rather to speaks an array of inadequate coping strategies. We recommend it for all those who choose to have sex, for all those who choose to not have sex, and for those who feel that “choice” is not an adequate word.

Musical interludes – La Roux – In For The Kill

We must avoid falling into this trap, and so must always keep in mind that the celibate body is no purer, no more feminist, no less exploited. Just as a refusal to eat meat makes no change to the material basis of industrial agriculture, our refusals to fuck, much as our desires to fuck in different ways, don’t crack the material base of patriarchy. They may engender a better quality of life or more agency for individuals or communities, but these liberal models of “resistance” offer nothing in the way of a total break. This is the impasse faced by radical feminism: gestures proliferate but they only ever point towards the abolition of gender, glancing so close but never reaching the moment of Truth.