No dating, no heterosexual sex, no marriage, no motherhood—these are the four “no’s” of South Korea’s 4B movement, which an increasing number of Americans have been joining since Trump’s election. Sex strikes or celibacy as a form of political identity—detached from religious connotations—have long been tried as a form of feminist resistance, from the ancient comedy *Lysistrata* to the women’s movements since their first wave. Today, this heteropessimistic strategy is garnering renewed attention.
However, it requires further explanation as to how different discourses on abstinence can be politically categorized. After all, celibate ideals are also central to Puritan, conservative, and anti-feminist ideals. Abstinence-oriented education, for example, is regarded as a repressive strategy of the right. Trends such as NoFap, in which pornography and masturbation are renounced, sometimes reflect an attempt to establish status and hegemonic masculinity through self-disciplined control of emotions. Not least, the concept of celibacy has received media attention due to misogynistic acts of violence and terrorism perpetrated by self-proclaimed “involuntary celibates”—or “incels,” for short.
What is the status of the ambivalent role of the sexual and the non-sexual in our society? What about the significance of romantic relationships compared to friendships or entirely different kinds of relationships that go beyond the privileging of bourgeois, white, patriarchal, and heteronormative aspirations?
During the panel discussion, attempts will be made to categorize and define these phenomena in order to prevent hasty equating of the various phenomena and to explore new ways of relating them.
Beata organized this panel discussion in collaboration with >>VERLAGE GEGEN RECHTS and invited the following panelists, who will join her in exploring the question of how contemporary discourses on sexual abstinence should be understood in a political context:
Susanne Kaiser
is a journalist, political consultant, and author of *Political Masculinity: How Incels, Fundamentalists, and Authoritarians Mobilize for the Patriarchy* (Suhrkamp 2020) and *Backlash: The New Violence Against Women (Tropen 2023). Her main areas of focus include power dynamics between men and women in Muslim and Western societies, organized misogyny, and sexism.
Andrea Newerla
holds a Ph.D. in sociology, is the author of *The End of Romantic Dogma: Why We Should Rethink Closeness, Relationships, and Love* (Kösel 2024), and currently works as a relationship counselor. Her areas of expertise include online dating, care structures, intimate relationships, and sexualities.
Beatrice Frasl
is a podcaster (including “Große Töchter”—the feminist podcast for Austria) and a cultural studies scholar specializing in feminism, gender studies, and queer studies. Her most recent book is *Detromanticize Yourselves! A Wake-Up Call for the Abolition of Love* (Haymon 2024).
SCHEDULE
Fri, Mar. 28, 2024
1:00 p.m.
LOCATION
Book Fair – Leipzig
LANGUAGE
German
PRICE
starting at 19 euros
WITH
Beate