Bad Sex: Reconciling the Personal, Political, and Biological

History's feminists and sexual revolutionaries have always had to grapple with an infuriating dilemma: Love and lust are major roadblocks to political clarity. It's never easy to live out dearly held values in one's personal life, a task that's especially messy for heterosexual women fighting for gender equality. The social and biological forces of sex, romance, and heartbreak introduce particularly acute chaos into otherwise coherent activism. This talk will explore how the most radical among us—from anarchist rabblerouser Emma Goldman to the Second Wave's political celibates to Nona's own pro-sex feminist mother, Ellen Willis—have attempted to reconcile personal desire with political conviction.