Articles by Robert Jensen
What is really radical in sex/gender politics?
Culturico · July, 2020
The political left, and much of mainstream feminism, is characterized by an analysis of how systems and institutions shape our choices, a critique of capitalist media, and a commitment to a scientific/materialist worldview. But when faced with radical feminism’s compelling critiques of patriarchy, leftists and many feminists routinely abandon those principles. Radical feminist critiques of prostitution, pornography, and transgender ideology should be part of a consistent, coherent left analysis.
‘Cancel culture’ cannot erase a strong argument
Feminist Current · July, 2020
In the current squabble on the liberal/progressive/left side of the fence over so-called “cancel culture,” in which one open letter in favor of freedom of expression led to a rebuttal open letter in favor of a different approach to freedom of expression, I can offer a report on the experience of being canceled.
How to Get Off Fossil Fuels Quickly—and Fairly
YES! Magazine · June, 2020
When it comes to a just transition, it’s going to take a radical reimagining not only of our economy but also of our culture and the shape of our social structures. YES! co-hosted a conversation with experts from the nonprofit The Land Institute to discuss policy proposals and new ways to rebuild our sense of self and community from the bottom up.
Why Do Men Like Pornography?
Public Seminar · June, 2020
And why radical feminism helps us find a path to real intimacy.
What can people think of doing when they have little money?
Agriculture and Human Values · June, 2020
COVID-19 already has sparked thoughts of long-term economic hardship, with a recession unavoidable and a depression possible. Only a few weeks into the pandemic, countless citizens are struggling to make ends meet. And this acute crisis doesn’t change the need to reduce our use of fossil fuels if we are to head-off the more serious ecological and health consequences of greenhouse gas accumulations. If we are to meet a zero-fossil carbon target by 2050, economic hardship will be part of the equation.
Apocalypse, Now and Forever: Review of “Notes from an Apocalypse: A Personal Journey to the End of the World and Back”
Resilience.org · March, 2020
Notes from an Apocalypse: A Personal Journey to the End of the World and Back is a thoughtful, engaging book that ends in failure. But Mark O’Connell shouldn’t take that assessment too personally. His book fails in the way that his culture—the modern, cosmopolitan, left/liberal, individualist culture—routinely fails in the face of multiple, cascading ecological crises.
Review: ‘Boys & Sex: Young Men on Hookups, Love, Porn, Consent, and Navigating the New Masculinity’
Feminist Current · February, 2020
Peggy Orenstein insists that we not flinch in uncomfortable conversations with boys and men about the dark side of sexuality. In her new book, Boys & Sex: Young Men on Hookups, Love, Porn, Consent, and Navigating the New Masculinity, she reports on her refreshingly honest interviews with guys about how they understand what it means to “be a man” in the sexual arena.
Pornography undermines the #MeToo movement
Medium.com · December, 2019
[An edited version of this essay appeared in the Houston Chronicle.]
The #MeToo movement fights back against sexual harassment and assault, rejecting the idea that women exist for men’s sexual pleasure.
But alongside the growing success of that movement, the pornography industry continues to thrive by presenting explicit images that sexualize exactly this idea — that women exist to serve men’s desires, whatever those desires might be, no matter how much humiliation and suffering they impose on women.
Masculinity: Toxic, Healthy, or Human?
Good Men Project · December, 2019
Increased attention on men’s violence against women has focused attention on not only rape and sexual harassment but also on the cultural support system for such behavior. While only a small fraction of men violate the law, lots of men engage in less blatant forms of aggressive and coercive behavior that injure and undermine women, and even more men are bystanders who fail to challenge other men’s abuse.
Pornography normalizes rape: An interview with Robert Jensen (in Spanish and English)
daleunavuelta.org · October, 2019
We face what I call “the paradox of pornography.” In the past three decades, the period in which I’ve been studying the issue, two trends are undoubtedly clear. First, the content of commercial heterosexual pornography has become more overtly cruel and degrading to women, and more overtly racist. Second, pornography has become more mainstream and acceptable in the culture. In a civilized society, how can a media genre move closer to the center of popular culture, and be more sexist and racist at the same time? The painful answer is that we may not be as civilized as we like to think.
Disagreeing Reasonably in a Complex World: A review of ‘The Case Against Free Speech’
Dissident Voice · October, 2019
In my last couple years of university teaching before retiring, I repeated two catch phrases as often as possible—“reasonable people can disagree” and “if two things are both true, then both are relevant.”
Radical Feminism: A Gift to Men
Voice Male magazine · September, 2019
I spent the first half of my life trying to be a “normal” guy. That project didn’t go so well. The good news is that in the second half of my life I gave up trying, and things got better.
What led me to change course? An unexpected interaction with radical feminist writings that offered a critique of patriarchy, followed by the opportunity to meet radical feminists living in a patriarchal society who were working to advance the radical feminist critique of pornography and of men’s sexual exploitation of women in patriarchy.