In this day of age, we still don’t know how to talk about sex. The debate about sexual entitlement, objectification, rape culture and pornography is a huge topic that is talked about a lot now of days. Consent is a hard topic to talk about with limited use when contemplating one of the oldest and most important problems, the shape and meaning of sex.
What is the meaning of sex in a culture where our teenagers and young people can easily go online, search porn or find quick hookup using a dating app? How do we address the newly brought up questions about sexual entitlement, to the politics of desire? How do we deny that sex is a luxury to be evenly distributed while we insist that women have the right to sell it?
With her background in philosophy, Amia Srinivasan looks at some of the most complex problems that shape our intimate lives and our politics regarding sex. Her fascinating and preoccupation with ethics offer a new way of seeing and thinking about sex. Her book “The Right to Sex” show its readers the philosophy of sex.
I believe the right to sex is a very hard topic to explain cause everyone has the right to have sex or engage in sexual activity, just as long as it is consensual. Consent is an agreement between two or more people to engage in sexual activity. There are many ways to give your consent. Consent doesn’t have to be verbal, but verbally agreeing to different sexual activities can help the people engaging to respect each other’s boundaries.
Without consent you run into the issues of rape and sexual assault. Today, consent is one of the most talked about thing on college campus. It is always on woman’s and even sometimes men’s minds when they go to parties. Now we get into rape culture. Is rape culture real? Rape Culture is an environment in which rape is prevalent and in which sexual violence is normalized and excused in the media and popular culture. I do and don’t believe rape culture s real. I feel as if we live in a world where we try to categorize everything. Like when there is a mass shooting, it mostly is a white male. Now people going all around saying white males are going to be mass shooters. I don’t believe when a straight male rapes someone at a party, we should say all straight males will become rapist too.
I believe in our day of age and from what Amia talks about in her article is point the finger out men. Do men have the right to have sex? On May 23, 2014, 22-year-old Elliot Rodger killed six people and injured fourteen others near the campus of University of California, Santa Barbara, before killing himself inside his vehicle. The attack began when Rodger stabbed three men to death in his apartment. His killings were fueled by mental illness coming from sexual tension. He was angry at women for refusing to sleep with him.
Are males entitled to have sex with anyone they choose? If we have a right for sex, is it okay for rape and other sexual crimes? As a reaction against this claim I argue that nobody is entitled to sex with others unless it is consensual. Because of what Elliot did, I say that people can have different preferences for sexual partners, and nobody should claim some injustice against them simply because they attracted back at them.
You don’t get to have sex with someone unless they want to have sex with you. In the article Amia, she talks about the sandwich metaphor. “you don’t get to share someone’s sandwich unless they want to share their sandwich with you.” Access to sex is strictly controlled by either party. The distribution of sexual desire, like the distribution of food, is shaped by oppressive forces.
This is where we come into desire. A strong feeling of wanting to have something or wishing for something to happen. When talking about sex people desire something. That could be a desire of how someone looks or acts, and desire sex itself. But should we always act on our desires. I believe we can act on our desires if only if we are doing it legally and safely. Elliot Rodgers has a desire for blonde sorority girls. He acted on his desire wrongly and it unfortunately cost many people their lives.
Now do people have the right to provide sex as a service? Should prostitution be allowed? I believe that people are allowed to enter professions that might be unsafe to them. I believe people are allowed to enter into professions where their body is seen as a service to gain them money. People are allowed to enter professions that seem morally wrong.
In the United States, prostitution is illegal. This has caused people to do it illegally. Currently, prostitutes have said that 82% had been assaulted and 68% had been raped while working as prostitutes. Prostitutes are less likely to report these incidents because what they do is illegal.