Sex, Death and Capitalism: Intimacy as Solidarity

Sex has always been mysterious. Framed as romance, pleasure, friendship, or adventure, it sits at the heart of human cultural expression, as seen in music, literature, and art. Yet even with all this attention, its pleasures can remain elusive, unpredictable, fraught with uncertainty, and sometimes danger.

Sex, Death and Capitalism investigates how we understand ourselves and one another, and what we might do with the fleshy vehicles that stand in for our endlessly complex selves as we shuffle around the world. It examines how the sexual landscape shifts as households, relationships, and the economy are remade amid unevenly extending life courses. Most centrally, it argues that sex, sexual pleasure, and our experience of our bodies hold radical political possibilities. We must all relearn this world together if we are to have any hope of stealing the pleasures of sex back from the market.