The Case Against the Sexual Revolution: A New Guide to Sex in the 21st Century

by Louise Perry

This argument is a long way from the feminist mainstream in the twenty-first century. Progressive media outlets churn out articles with such headlines as ‘Your 7-point intersectional feminist guide to hook ups’ and ‘5 fantastic ways to engage in feminist hookup culture’, all arguing that, with consent, anything goes.18 But this approach fails to recognise the relational nature of sex and the competitive nature of the sexual marketplace, overstating the extent to which any of us can make truly free choices in a system in which we are all radically restricted. And it leaves no space for the sociosexuality gap – after all, how could it? Liberal feminism can hardly bear to recognise the existence of physical differences between the sexes, let alone psychological ones.