Hatred of Sex

Oliver Davis is a professor of French studies at the University of Warwick. He is the author of Jacques RanciÈre and editor of RanciÈre Now. Tim Dean is James M. Benson Professor in English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the author of Unlimited Intimacy: Reflections on the Subculture of Barebacking and Beyond Sexuality.

"The latest in the groundbreaking and much needed "Provocations" series of short, polemical works published by University of Nebraska Press, Hatred of Sex is an indispensable read for scholars of continental thought, French critical theory, and queer studies-and, indeed, for anyone disquieted by the authoritarianism governing the sexual politics of our cultural moment."-Lisa Downing, French Studies “Fascinating, formidable, and timely, this volume probes unexpected links between democracy and sexuality. Hatred of Sex will undoubtedly disturb established ideas that are widely and at times too reflexively adopted in current academic conversations about sexuality. A manifesto grounded in careful scholarship, this book has the makings of a classic.”-Avgi Saketopoulou, faculty of the Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis at New York University “Hatred of Sex is a bold critical intervention in current discourses of violence, trauma, affect, attachment, and safety, propagated by queer studies, carceral feminism, the theory of intersectionality, and identity-driven politics. No other book has offered such an unapologetic and persuasive critique of the incursion of anti-democratic and sex-hating discourses in queer theory. Davis and Dean make arguments that few others would dare to wage, given how greatly they diverge from today’s prevailing sacred notions, political platitudes, and piously moralizing stances-found not on the political right but at the center of liberalism.”-John Paul Ricco, professor of comparative literature at the University of Toronto

• ProvocationsPreface1. Hatred of Sex2. Does Queer Studies Hate Sex?3. Securing the Appropriate: Attachment Theory Reconsidered4. Traumatology and GovernanceAfterword: The Hatred of Sex in Hatred of DemocracyNotesBibliography