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Here's an interview with Eleanor, about her amazing new book 'The Once and Future Sex'. We discuss the key themes of the book - about how the story of what it is to be a woman was told (and how this connects to power and hegemony), - where the beauty standard first came from and how women faced a double jeopardy of following them / not following them - how the story of what it is to be a woman meant creating stigma around sex and relationships - the role of the medieval mother and why motherhood was central to medieval life (yet women were still seen as inessential 'Others') - and why all of this matters for the present day, for feminism, and also why learning from this should be an important, central, part of post-capitalist politics Her book is out on 17th January 2023 in the US https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393867817 and here in the UK on 3rd March 2023 https://uk.bookshop.org/books/the-once-and-future-sex-going-medieval-on-women-s-roles-in-society/9780393867817

A listener asked me (via Patreon) to chat about Covid. The restrictions might be over, but Covid is still very much with us (and with others more than some). Why do we want to turn away from Covid? Why do we want to think we've 'beaten' the virus? Masks have gone, but does that mean that we've simply learnt nothing? I asked podcaster and storyteller Dave Pickering along to tell their story of Covid and help me put the personal in a cultural and political context.

This week I am grabbing some hashtag content from my other Patreon for BISH (https://www.bishuk.com/)and introducing you to my 'Train Yourself in RSE' resources. You can see this (and read the resource) here for free https://www.patreon.com/posts/train-yourself-1-70736726 If this is the kind of thing that you might be interested in doing here, I could do special CSR versions which are aimed at you the individual (rather than educators). So you would receive really in-depth, adult, sex and relationships education in this way. We could also do monthly zoom meetings to chat about some of the activities with each other, and I could even facilitate actual workshops with you. Sign up for the Culture Sex Relationships Patreon to register your interest (from just £1 a month) patreon.com/culturesexrelationships Hope you find this useful! Justin

I invited Scott Burnett back on the show (here's his first appearance last year when we talked about the manosphere https://soundcloud.com/culturesexrelationships/scott-burnett-masculinities-masturbation-and-no-fap). He co-wrote this excellent paper this year called ‘Breeders for race and nation’: gender, sexuality and fecundity in post-war British fascist discourse. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0031322X.2021.2011088 It's open access and although it's an academic article I think it's pretty accessible (we also explain it in the show). We talked about: Why we're having the conversation at the moment (Italy, and the Bonk for Britain story) https://www.theguardian.com/politics/commentisfree/2022/oct/10/the-tory-ministers-bonking-for-britain-idea-is-a-vile-vision-lurking-behind-cheeky-carry-on-imagery The general overview of the right and gender How this reproduces whiteness and gender subjectivities (and how it is weaponised against the Other (people of colour, migrants generally, feminism) Where else we see these kinds of discourses around gender and sexuality How some of these themes are taken up in environmentalist discourses around overpopulation. But also seeing this as a spectrum where we might also see (seemingly benevolent) references to 'strong families'. We can also see this in culture generally in (what I tend to call) hegemonic or common sense sexuality education but also how gender and sexuality have been disciplined as part of the capitalist projects of the last 100 years. We talked generally about the failure of left / liberal politics to understand how gender and sexuality are not an 'over there' or 'nice to have' but an essential part of our political bloc. Some other reading / podcasts that you might be interested in that we chatted about. Hegemony Now - by Jeremy Gilbert and Alex Williams. https://www.versobooks.com/books/4015-hegemony-now They did a video summarising it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuYEKWx5q40 Abolish The Family - by Sophie Lewis https://www.versobooks.com/books/4075-abolish-the-family which is really really interesting (the title sounds scary and bombastic but it's really not that kind of book). I haven't listened to it yet but she did a podcast for Novara Media about it which I'm sure will be worth a listen https://novaramedia.com/2022/10/12/choose-your-own-family-adventure/ Here's that article by Sophie K Rosa https://novaramedia.com/2022/10/13/did-cuba-just-abolish-the-family/ about Cuba and the cool thing they've done lately.

As you may have been hearing on recent podcasts, I’ve been training in solution focused therapy / coaching recently. I’ve been finding it pretty transformational, both for me personally but I’ve also found it really useful in work too. It’s a very postmodern practice, in that it just works. In the training that I’ve attended the trainers have been disinterested in the theory, or why it works. Their response is that it does, and here’s how we do it. That’s good enough for me, I really enjoyed getting cracking with it and trying it out on lots of my loved ones before doing coaching with paying clients. However, I have a podcast to run and I need that content baby! So what is the deal with solution focused therapy and what’s the theory behind it? [for the full blog post that I read out here head over to the Patreon where I've unlocked it https://www.patreon.com/posts/70372857 ] If you’re interested in booking a session with me (Patrons get 10% discount) check out the coaching page at justinhancock.co.uk If you want to have a session with someone who isn’t me, I can recommend Biba (who I’ve had some sessions with too). She’s great https://ribalon.org/ If you’re interested in getting some training yourself, I’d recommend the courses at Brief, which is where I’ve been training. https://www.brief.org.uk/ To help with this I’ve been reading How to Read Wittgenstein by Ray Monk and Ludwig Wittgenstein by Edward Kanterian (part of the Critical Lives series). This article by Steve de Shazer is really interesting (and helpful) https://www.sdstate.edu/sites/default/files/2018-06/dont_think_but_observe.pdf The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy came up trumps again with their excellent entry (such an amazing resource) https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wittgenstein/ The Wikipedia page for solution focused therapy is packed with links to the evidence for how effective it is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solution-focused_brief_therapy If you want to understand what I meant by postmodern check out this podcast by Jeremy Gilbert (when Liz Truss was having a go at postmodernism, obviously she didn’t understand what that meant)

Latest episode is an expanded version of some of the stuff I've been writing lately for BISH (my website for over 14s) and for Mashable which you can read here https://mashable.com/article/porn-sites-viewers-workers For a blog post of this article you can head to the Patreon https://www.patreon.com/posts/72285998 and while you're there please considering supporting the show. Just £1 a month would really help out. If everyone who listened did that then I could work for 2/5 of a week on it. If you want more anti or post-capitalist content check out the work of my comrades at ALE https://www.alternativeleftentertainment.org/

Yes we're back with another Sex Jams and we're back with another George Michael song. Perhaps the horniest of his songs. Freeek! We're doing Freeek! 04 and the video is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLnYPXTs9LY Patrons support the show and also get bits of bonus material, including the full length version of this podcast. Just £1 a month would support the show. If everyone who listened did this I'd be able to work for a day or two a week on this show!

CN - I don't go into detail about abuse but the whole episode is (as the title suggests) about the relationship between what kink might do (for some people) and previous experiences of abuse. For the full blog post that goes with the episode, sign up at the Patreon and support the show. Or if you can't afford that but want to read the post, email me at culturesexrelationships at gmail dot com and I'll send it to you.

NB: it's 29th July 2022, so if you listen to this in a few weeks time you might want to check out my article at BISH below just in case the advice changes. Here's a quick episode about monkeypox: it's a chill and informative explainer. It's based on the article I wrote at BISH https://www.bishuk.com/safer-sex/monkeypox/ and also in the article I wrote for Mashable https://mashable.com/article/monkeypox-symptoms-signs-safety The links I mentioned are in those articles but also here are a few more https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/monkeypox/ https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2207323 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S147330992200411X?dgcid=coauthor https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/monkeypox https://www.cdc.gov/poxvirus/monkeypox/index.html This twitter thread is really useful too https://twitter.com/mugecevik/status/1550757056256294912 And here's my article about how to worry https://www.bishuk.com/about-you/how-to-worry/ Justin

Here's the latest episode of Sex Jams with Dr Eleanor Janega and me, discussing a sex jam. Here is the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrbFQEcpJ3A We talk about pretty interesting stuff. Why the ideal Sex Jam is actually John Cage. Two seed theory. How liberal notions of the self and sexuality come from the classical and medieval notions of sex and sexuality. What is cream? The mirror phase. (Sexual) subjectivity. And having the horn. Eleanor's blog is https://going-medieval.com/ her other podcast is called We're No So Different https://feeds.transistor.fm/were-not-so-different and if you want to watch her on TV check out her seriess on History Hit https://access.historyhit.com/videos/medieval-pleasures-sex You can see the rest of her stuff here https://linktr.ee/EleanorJanega I offer an advice / solution focused coaching service about sex, relationships, and you. So if you find my advice on here useful you might want to book me for a session. More details here https://justinhancock.co.uk/#coaching https://linktr.ee/culturesexrel

Here's an interview with Cory Cascalheira who was the lead writer of an academic paper called 'Curative Kink: Survivors of early abuse transform trauma through BDSM'. It's open access and I'd encourage you to read it because it's well interesting and I think very important. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/352440982_Curative_kink_Survivors_of_early_abuse_transform_trauma_through_BDSM I say more about this in the introduction, but we're not saying that Kink is a prescription for dealing with trauma from sexual abuse, or neglect, or violence. It's to say, for people who take part in Kink, in the context of cultural healing, what does kink offer people therapeutically. Support this show via patreon.com/culturesexrelationships You can also support https://www.bishuk.com (one of the most popular and widely respected websites for young people) at patreon.com/bishuk Or if you want to find out about all the other work I do, including one to one sessions for solution focused coaching or sex and relationships advice, head to https://justinhancock.co.uk/

I chatted with Alfie Bown about his really superb new book Dream Lovers the Gamification of Relationships. It's packed with interesting ideas and theory but is also highly readable and fun. I learnt tons. I chat about the book in the introduction but you can also read more about it (and buy it if you can) at the Pluto Books website https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745344874/dream-lovers/ If you like the show please consider supporting it from £1 a month at patreon.com/culturesexrelationships and you might also want to check out my website justinhancock.co.uk to see about other projects I work on and to find out more about my new coaching service.

Here's an article that I wrote for my Patrons at patreon.com/culturesexrelationships and I've read out here. If you want to read the article then I've unlocked the post which you can find here https://www.patreon.com/posts/65416473 Please do consider supporting the show via Patreon or you can also find out about and support my other work, which you can see at my new website https://justinhancock.co.uk

As I say in the introduction, I was thinking about her work when I was learning about the Sexuality Assemblage. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258032851_The_Sexuality-Assemblage_Desire_Affect_Anti-Humanism This comes from the Deleuze and Guattari idea of the 'body without organs' which is just to say that our bodies and selves exist only in relation to (and becoming of) other humans, ideas, memories, fantasies, environments, objects and that these all exist in an affective flow. I learnt about this from The Body by Nick J Fox. We discussed this in the Sex Consent and Justice episode with Tina Sikka in December last year. Don't worry if this sounds academic and technical, hopefully the conversation is pretty inclusive and straight forward and fun! If you want an intro to this you might like this module of the Teach Yourself Sex Ed course I did for my website for young people. https://www.bishuk.com/parents/teach-yourself-sex-ed-bodies/ You can check out GotN's work at https://www.girlonthenet.com/ and you can support her audio prn project and her writing at her Patreon https://www.patreon.com/girlonthenet This conversation has been out for a couple of weeks now on both of our Patreons. So do consider signing up to both of our Patreons to support the work. If you can't afford it, no worries. If you can share it on social media that would be great too.

My latest Ask Justin is another one where I read out the blog post I've written. Which makes this a shorter but more focused podcast. Yay shorter podcasts. This has been out for over a week already at the Patreon and they also get the blog post (with all the links I mention) and also other bonus material. I am going to start to do Patreon exclusive content soon because I need more Patrons (money) for the work (labour) which I am doing and trying not to disavow (like we are supposed to in the creative industries). We covered this when we talked about anti-capitalist prn a few months back. So please consider signing up from just £1 a month at patreon.com/culturesexrelationships

Here's part two of the interview I did with Jacob and Bonni about their amazing new book 'Event Horizon'. It's not going to make as much sense if you haven't listened to last week's episode first I don't think, but I don't like telling you what to do. In this part we talk about: - the idea of 'cuteness' - selfies (comparing selfies with Lacan's idea of the Mirror Stage) - the sexual non-relation - heteropessimism - expanding our idea of the erotic. If you want to buy the book here's the link https://www.johnhuntpublishing.com/zer0-books/our-books/event-horizon-sexuality-politics-culture

Event Horizon: Sexuality, Politics, Online Culture, and the Limits of Capitalism When our desires become the product of tech giants, what ways are there left for us to dream? in an age where Silicon Valley dictates what it means to innovate, a painless future, knowledge and enjoyment are fertile breeding grounds of political contestation. But it’s not exactly democracy. We are controlled through platforms that turn us into data for the profit of billionaires. Control has become so playful that we carry it in our pockets, as we continue to crave likes and followers. What is to be done? Should the Left continue to cling to the promise of a political Event, patiently waiting for a revolutionary rupture where new possibilities emerge? Is there a way to delineate its horizons amidst the chaos? Through a psychoanalytic interrogation of the intersections of online culture, sexuality, and politics, Bonni Rambatan and Jacob Johanssen explore such horizons at the limits of capitalism. Event Horizon examines how capitalist ideology functions in our current moment, and, more importantly, how it breaks down. With the increasing urgency of formulating a proper Leftist response to the rapidly growing violence that seriously threatens the lives of marginalised communities, this book could not be more timely. I’ve split this episode up into two. This first half is: A general overview of the book and some of the problems it seeks to address An introduction to Lacan and why it’s his analysis in particular which is so relevant for the present day An explanation of Lacan’s discourses, particularly the 5th discourse of capitalism How the master signifier is now the database which undergirds platform capitalism The role of conspiracy and its relationship to capitalism (and the discourses) How trolling is an essential part of this conspiracy thinking (the jouissance of this being an excess which capital can profit from). If you like this podcast generally you should buy the book. It's about 11 quid. https://www.johnhuntpublishing.com/zer0-books/our-books/event-horizon-sexuality-politics-culture Jacob has of course appeared on the show in our conversation about Fantasy and Online Misogyny. Scroll back a few episodes in the feed to find it.

It's another Ask Justin week and this time I'm reading out an article I've written which is available at patreon.com/culturesexrelationships 'I’ve Never Been Able To Orgasm.' There are a lot of aggregated ideas about sex and bodies in your question which I think would be useful to examine up close to see how much we can see them shifting. The way that you refer to orgasms, the body, and the self could all do with being allowed to move. Please help support the podcast by either signing up to the Patreon or you could also buy some of the resources that I made with Meg-John Barker. Find those at megjohnandjustin.com/publications Justin

I think many of us might agree that #MeToo has been an important and much needed movement. Putting consent, sexual violence, instutional power, and genderered power dynamics, into our everyday conversations. But in what way has it transformed our understandings of consent and justice, and the possibilities for sex. Probably not a lot. It has both uncovered and reinforced very basic and binary notions of consent, justice, and sex and has seemingly got stuck in an endless dialogue which, compared to #BLM, is anything but transformative. But what if we really expand the meanings and possibilities of both consent and justice. How can this both prevent harm on an individual and institutional level. What can we learn to do differently going forward? How can we transform society so that the sociological and legal standard for sex is care, mutuality, co-creation, embodiment, and autonomy? Tina Sikka has written an amazing book about this called Sex, Consent, and Justice and she joins us today. You can buy the book here https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-sex-consent-and-justice.html however (I’m sorry to say) it’s an academic book and so hugely expensive.

When we talk about porn it’s invariably about what effects it causes. What is it doing to our sexualities, what is it teaching kids about sex, and blaming it for hacking into and hijacking our desires. More interesting is to look at porn in culture just as we might look at any other media such as social media industries and streaming platforms. What kinds of active relationships might we have with it, and it on us, on an individual and also on a cultural level. What is the relationship that porn has with capitalism? Looking at porn has gone from being a frowned upon unproductive activity, to a still frowned upon but now productive activity for capital. With the major porn streaming sites being as popular as other streaming media, they have managed to turn viewing into labour. They keep viewers attentive, but also distracted, with the seemingly endless opportunities to view and click elsewhere. The data from the viewer is used to inform the production of porn (which is also owned by the free streaming sites). In an age where work has become dominant and also valorised, the content itself has gone from representations of desire to the representation of hard work. Performers are finely tuned athletes paying constant attention to both their appearance but also to ensure that they are fit enough to do such demanding work. Often this hard work is punishing, exploitative, and unethical - just as with other modes of production. How has ethical or feminist porn responded to this and in what ways are these just valorizing another kind of labour? But also can anti-capitalist porn provide us with an exemplar of labour in post neoliberal capitalism, and perhaps also a gentle reminder of the ‘labours of love’ that are necessary for the erotic to become. I’m delighted to be joined by Rebecca Saunders to talk about her book Bodies of Work - the Labour of Sex in the Digital Age.