La nouvelle guerre du sexe

The free market economy has laid its hands on our sexuality. It contaminates it with the free market 'virus', destroying physically and psychologically our capacity to love. It sacrifices our libido on the altar of flexibility and precariousness and makes sexuality just another spare time activity. Sex itself becomes merely a pastime, formatted and optimized through the use of coaching and sex toys.
The new sexual order has become a management tool, applied not only to oneself but also to that special 'other', bringing with it all the paradigms of the free market economy: performance, output, productivity, optimisation of results, exploitation and reification.
By promoting a rough sexuality, technical and utilitarian, liberalism empties sexuality of what constitutes its essence: desire. Following a market logic, it privileges the denial of the other. The person takes turn at being a consumer and a consumable, consuming and consumed, a client and merchandise: a true offering to the divine market. And what if, today, the 'sexually incorrect' meant claiming the share of the partner in the love relationship? Is this Love as a means of resistance?
Essay writer and journalist Elisabeth Weissman specialises in writing about social issues for magazines and the women's press. She also teaches at the School of Information. She has worked for the daily and monthly press and has also produced several social documentaries for TV. In her previous books she has explored how the different genders of the '68 generation' reacted to ageing: Elles Croyaient qu'Elles ne Vieilliraient Jamais, Vieillir, Eux?, Jamais and Un Age Nommé Désir. Essay writer and journalist Elisabeth Weissman specialises in writing about social issues for magazines and the women's press. She also teaches at the School of Information. She has worked for the daily and monthly press and has also produced several social documentaries for TV. In her previous books she has explored how the different genders of the '68 generation' reacted to ageing: Elles Croyaient qu'Elles ne Vieilliraient Jamais, Vieillir, Eux?, Jamais and Un Age Nommé Désir.