Sex & Money - POL00081H

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Module summary

This module will explore the relationship between, on the one hand, the politics of sex, gender, sexuality and, on the other hand, the economy broadly constructed. The recent emergence of a transnational movement reigniting the International Women’s Strike Day
against so-called ‘corporate feminism’, the critique of ‘pink capitalism’ and reclaim of the radical anti-capitalist roots of ‘Pride’ within the LGBTQ+ community, and the struggle of sex workers’ rights organisations to frame sex work as work against those feminists who
oppose sex work are just a few recent examples of how the relationship between sexual emancipation and the transformation of the economic order is central to feminist and LGBTQ+ politics and to their own internal divisions.

The module will explore the relation between ‘sex’ and ‘money’, by discussing specific applied issues, such as sex work (both prostitution and pornography), commercial surrogacy, the relationship between care and capitalism, the intersection between heteronormativity and capitalism, the family, ‘free love’, the politics of dating apps, post- work and anti-work politics, and the punitive state.

Professional requirements

N/A

Related modules

N/A

Module will run

Occurrence	Teaching period
A	Semester 1 2025-26

Module aims

This module will explore the relationship between the politics of sex, gender, and sexuality, and the economy broadly constructed. It will look at how struggles for sex and sexual emancipation are intrinsically linked to the radical restructuring of our economic
order and how the reproduction of our economic order hinges upon sex, gender, sexual (and other intersectional, such as racial) hierarchies. While some feminists and LGBTQ+ activists and scholars have embraced the market as emancipatory, others
have argued that sexual emancipation is undermined by and even impossible under global capitalism, for instance pointing out that in the global capitalist economy the liberation of some is parasitic on the continued exploitation of others, such as female
migrant cleaners and surrogate mothers in the Global South.
The module will explore the relation between ‘sex’ and ‘money’, by discussing specific applied issues, such as sex work (both prostitution and pornography), commercial surrogacy, the relationship between care and capitalism, the intersection between heteronormativity and capitalism, the family, ‘free love’, the politics of dating apps, post-work and anti-work politics, and the punitive state.

Module learning outcomes

Subject content
At the end of the module students should be able to:
Have a deep and systematic understanding of the relationship between, on the
one hand, the politics of sex, gender and sexuality and, on the other hand, the
economy broadly constructed as it is conceived in the the broader fields of
gender studies, political theory and political economy.
Demonstrate a detailed understanding of current theoretical and methodological
approaches to the study of ‘sex and money’ creatively apply them to different
cases and contexts in contemporary politics.
Demonstrate a deep comprehension of the diversity of feminist and LGBTQ+
approaches to the relationship between sex, sexuality and the economic order.
Academic and graduate skills
Develop their ability to evaluate a range of literatures and sources covered in the
module to formulate academically-informed views on a range of applied cases of
the relationship between sex, gender, sexuality and the economic order.
Use ideas at a high level of abstraction. Develop critical responses to existing
theoretical discourses, methodologies or practices and suggest new concepts or
approaches.
Flexibly and creatively apply the deep knowledge acquired in the module to
unfamiliar contexts, synthesise ideas in innovative ways, and generate original
solutions.
Use personal reflection to analyse one’s own sexed position in the economic
order.
Develop their capability to support effective communication and respond to
challenges in
seminar classes.

Module content

Theoretically the module will encompass and put in dialogue different perspectives in gender and sexuality studies. It will engage with materialist feminism, i.e., Marxist, anarchist, socialist and Black feminist and LGBTQ+ approaches, but also with liberal,
care-ethical, postmodern feminist and LGBTQ+ perspectives. This will expose students to the heterogeneity of views on the politics of ‘sex and money’. Through these critical dialogues, we will try to figure out which perspective(s) may better illuminate the issues
under discussion.

Indicative assessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100.0

Special assessment rules

None

Indicative reassessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100.0

Module feedback

Students will receive written feedback on their summative assessment no later than 25 working days; and the module tutor will hold a specific session to discuss feedback, which students can also opt to attend. They will also have the opportunity to discuss their feedback during the module tutor’s regular feedback and guidance hours.

Indicative reading

- Juno Mac and Holly Smith, Revolting Prostitutes (London: Verso, 2018)
- Lori Watson (2014). ‘Why Sex Work Isn’t Work’, logos
- Kathi Weeks, The Problem with Work: Feminism, Marxism, Antiwork Politics, and
Postwork
Imaginaries (Durham: Duke University Press, 2011)
- Silvia Federici, ‘Why Sexuality is Work’, in Revolution at Point Zero (Oakland, PM
Press, 2012).
- Audre Lore, ‘Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power’ in Sisters Outsider: Essays and
Speeches by Audre Lorde (Crossing Press, 1984).
- Dean Spade, Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and The
Limits of the Law

(Durham: Duke University Press, 2015)
- Rosemary Hennessy, Profit and Pleasure: Sexual Identities in Late Capitalism (New
York: Routledge, 200).
- Kristen Ghodsee, Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism (2018)
- Nancy Fraser, ‘After the Family Wage: A Postindustrial Thought Experiment’ in Justice
interruptus: critical reflections on the "postsocialist" condition (New York-London:
Routledge, 1997)
- Angela Davis, Women, Race and Class (London: Women's Press, 1982).
- Nancy Fraser, ‘Contradictions of Capital and Care’, New Left Review, July-August
2016
- Vida Panitch ‘Global Surrogacy: Exploitation to Empowerment’, Journal of Global
Ethics, 2013, 9 (3):
329-343
- Elizabeth S. Anderson ‘Is Women’s Labor a Commodity?’ Philosophy and Public
Affairs 19 (1), 1990: 71-92
- Sophie Lewis, Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against the Family (London: Verso
Books, 2019)
- Bedi Sonu, "Sexual Racism: Intimacy as a Matter of Justice," Journal of Politics, 77 (4)
(2015).
- Elsa Kulgelber, ‘Dating apps and the digital sexual sphere, American Political Science
Review., forthcoming
- Catherine MacKinnon, Towards a Feminist Theory of the State (Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University
Press, 1989)
- Kipnis Laura, Bound and Gagged: Pornography and the Politics of Fantasy in America
(Durham: Duke University Press, 1999).
- Mitchell Cowen Verter, ‘Subverting Patriarchy, Subverting Politics: Anarchism as a
Practice of Caring’ n Jacob Blumenfeld, Chiara Bottici, Simon Critchley (eds.) The
Anarchist Turn (Pluto Press, 2013)
- Nina Power, One-dimensional woman (London: Zero Books, 2009).
- Alexandra Kollontai, Selected Writings (W.W. Norton Company, 1980).
- Emma Goldman, ‘Anarchy and the Sex Question’ in Anarchy and the Sex Question:
Essays on Women and Emancipation, 1896-1917 (Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2016)