Can We Change Our Sexual Desires? Should We?
About this episode
Klein interviews Amia Srinivasan, an Oxford philosopher and author of The Right to Sex, about how sexual desire is shaped by forces beyond individual choice. They discuss how hierarchies of desirability reflect racism, class prejudice, ableism and social status; the incel phenomenon; whether our attractions can or should be examined and reshaped; and the moral stakes of pornography, sex work, monogamy and polyamory. Srinivasan argues that desire is neither purely private nor simply natural — it is formed by the culture we inhabit — and that while no one owes anyone sex, we can still ask hard questions about which desires we celebrate, reward and cultivate. The conversation explores the boundary between a feminist critique of sex under conditions of injustice and the claim that anyone is entitled to sexual access. They also examine how dating apps and algorithmic pornography reshape erotic life.