Amia Srinivasan is a woman in high demand. On tour in the United States in September, before resuming her classes at the University of Oxford, England, in early October, the 37-year-old philosopher of Indian origin promoted her book, which was released a while ago. a year in English but which still feeds the feminist conversation across the Atlantic.
In France, The right to sex. Feminism in the XXIe century (translated by Noémie Grunenwald) was published on September 28 by Presses Universitaires de France.
In this collection of essays, Amia Srinivasan returns to certain founding myths of contemporary feminism, questions them, deconstructs them, enriches them. Relying on a battery of figures, sociological data and precepts inherited from philosophical and psychoanalytical traditions, she strives to reinject “complexity and ambiguity” in feminist discourse.
“Feminism is on the rise, she explains by phone from Oxford in this month of October which celebrates the 5th anniversary of the #metoo movement. The 2008 crisis renewed interest in radical leftist thought in general, and feminist thought in particular. In 2017, this coincided with the #metoo movement, but much of what is expressed in the press, on Twitter or in mainstream works is adamant and simplistic. »
A radical book
Nourished by contradictions and doubts, The right to sex is nonetheless a radical work, which places gender inequalities and violence against women in the broader context of a capitalism deemed to be oppressive.
First woman, first woman of color and youngest holder to occupy, since 2020, the chair of social and political theory at All Souls College in Oxford, Amia Srinivasan does not claim “intersectional”. She admits to not liking the term, which “suggests that loyalty would be the priority, that it would be a duty towards our ‘sisters’ of struggle, whereas [elle] seeks to encourage a spirit of criticism, debate and complexity”.
“I want to think of those who are truly victims of injustice: poor women, especially immigrant women, whose problems are the most urgent politically and the richest theoretically. »
She cites as an example a notion that occupies one of the most fascinating chapters of the book, this now commonly accepted idea that it is necessary above all to “believe women”: “Of course, believing in women is an important gesture, she continues, because some women are systematically ignored when they report being victims of rape. But to stop there is insufficient, especially given the history of sexual assault accusations and how they interact with racial domination. False rape accusations have been a tool of racist oppression against men of color by white men and women. »
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