Cuba Before the Revolution
While Americans saw only decadent gangsters, Cuban revolutionaries diagnosed deeper social ills.
346 Search Result(s) for: “sex work”
Materialists Skewers the Dating Market — But Stops Too Short
In her new hit rom-com starring Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal, and Chris Evans, Materialists director Celine Song secures a have-it-all happy ending by extending to her heroine a privilege usually reserved for heroes: using money to land an ideal mate.
A Philly Sex Shop Fired Its Workers When They Started a Union
Last month, Passional Boutique and Sexploratorium, a Philadelphia sex shop with a reputation for “inclusivity,” laid off its entire staff after they asked the store to recognize their union. Jacobin spoke with one of the workers.
How Capitalism Remade Homophobia
Before tragically dying at age 32, Chris Chitty, a brilliant historian of gay life and capitalism, produced an illuminating unfinished book, Sexual Hegemony. In it, he provided a longue durée account of the development of homophobia and homosexuality.
The Right Pushes Culture War to Mask Its Unpopular Agenda
In Who’s Afraid of Gender?, Judith Butler seeks to explain the global right’s obsession with gender. Their latest book, however, fails to see that the aim of conservative scapegoating is to legitimize an unpopular political program.
Janos Marton: The Criminal Justice System in New York City Is “Rotten”
Janos Marton says that the Manhattan district attorney’s office is “extremely punitive when prosecuting low-income communities of color and pretty weak when prosecuting the rich and powerful.” He says, in an interview with Jacobin, that he is running for DA to change that, aiming to reduce the number of people in jail, stop drug prosecutions, and go after bad bosses who steal workers’ wages.
Today’s Evangelicalism Was Forged in the Fight Against Communism and Feminism
To some, it seemed hypocritical for evangelicals to support Donald Trump — not exactly a Christian-family-values figure. But his strong evangelical support was the culmination of the embattled cultural politics that gave rise to the modern evangelical movement.
Capital Is Degrading Connective Labor
Despite increasing automation, there are still occupations in which human interaction is a central component: those focused on connective labor. Yet capital’s drive to maximize control of the labor process is threatening to degrade these important jobs.
“No Rape, No Base, No Tears”
The US military presence around the world doesn’t just create death and destruction — in places like Okinawa, Japan, its bases foster an environment of sexual violence against women.
Ann Snitow (1943–2019)
Ann Snitow was at the heart of the radical feminist movement in the 1960s and '70s. She spent the next several decades working for a feminism that never shied away from robust debate — but always demands liberation.
Issue 10 Preview: “Assembly Required”
Our new issue is slightly delayed, but only for the best of reasons. We're getting bigger and better.
Elaine May Is the Greatest Director You’ve Never Heard Of
A new biography of writer-director-performer Elaine May makes a strong case for her canonization as one of our greatest comic talents. Unfortunately, Hollywood never knew what to do with her.
Jennifer Lawrence’s No Hard Feelings Is a Class-Conscious Comedy That Almost Works
Jennifer Lawrence is a fantastic comic actor. So it’s too bad that No Hard Feelings trades in the raunchy laughs for feel-good sentimental dramedy.
From Gay Power to Gay Rights
Marriage equality has finally come to Ireland. But what does the victory say about the state of the gay liberation movement?
Ron DeSantis’s “Freedom” Branding Is a Laughable Sham
Ron DeSantis, the right-wing Florida governor and potential presidential hopeful, has taken to branding himself as the leading defender of precious American freedoms. But throughout his administration, he’s been at war with the First Amendment.
Capitalism Killed Intimacy and Replaced It With PornHub
With our communities destroyed and our growing distance from each other, we humans of late capitalism are left with a deficit of intimacy and affection.
Capitalism Made Gay Identity Possible. Now We Must Destroy Capitalism.
Gay identity became possible thanks to capitalism’s emancipatory side: its liberation of the individual from material dependence on the family. But that sexual freedom wasn’t automatic — it required decades of militant struggle. Today, we need more such struggles to combat the oppressive aspects of capitalism, which keep gay and straight people alike from living fully free lives.
Remembering Edward Carpenter, a Victorian Socialist and Gay Rights Advocate
Historian Sheila Rowbotham remembers Edward Carpenter, a poet, philosopher, socialist, and pioneer of gay rights amid the repression of Victorian England.
The White Lotus’s Second Season Was a Triumph of Subtle but Biting Class Analysis
The second season of The White Lotus, HBO’s propulsive satire, had sex on the brain more than anything else. But it never lost sight of the razor-sharp class critique that also animated season one.
How Sally Rooney Gave Normal People Radical Politics
It's not easy to imagine a Marxist love story. But in Normal People, Sally Rooney shows how our personal relationships — and the troubles we encounter — are inextricably bound to the society around us.