Hard Bargains: The Politics of Sex

For coauthors Linda Hirshman and Jane Larson, sex is a matter of political negotiation. Focusing on heterosexual practice in four specific forms--rape, fornication, adultery, and prostitution--they trace the history and law of sexual regulation in the West from the ancients to the present day. In the final section, they lay out their "prescription for a new sexual order," proposing "that the touchstone for political legitimacy requires the recognition that women are political players, that adult heterosexuality is a political relationship, and that the goal of sexual politics is neither to be the handmaid of an antique morality nor the umpire in a free-for-all between unequal players."

This is a wide-ranging, dense, and well-written book, blending political theory, historical detail, cultural critique, and sexology in discussing how our notions of sex have been formed and why we should acknowledge sex as thoroughly political--not just in the public realm, but in each individual sexual encounter. Hard Bargains provides an erudite and involving exploration of the classic feminist political adage: the personal is political. --Julia Riches