Blog post

With love, from us to you!

This week we're thinking about love, desire and relationships, at the intersection of capitalism, the state, and heteronormativity. And, Love Island.

Verso Books14 February 2020

Here we bring you a round-up of writing from Sophie Lewis, Katherine Angel, Leslie Kern, Natasha Lennard, and more! As well as some of our archive essays from Emma Dowling, Dalia Gebrial, and Kathi Weeks.

Love in the Feminist City

"Low-income women, trans women, & women of colour are priced out.. When moving isn’t an option, women can remain trapped in abusive or untenable relationships for the sake of a roof over their heads. So much for love".

Leslie Kern on how urban architecture has expanded and constrained women's freedom to live independently and without men.

Sex and Self-Knowledge: Beyond Consent

Good sex shouldn't depend on faultless self-knowledge. Katherine Angel puts forward the case for desire's emergent and contextual nature.

If Heterosexualism Existed, We Wouldn’t Have To Make It Up

Despite its flagrant impossibility, heterosexuality can inspire a utopian love of difference in those who choose to follow its path, argues Sophie Lewis. Just don't look to the 'straight camp' of Love Island for inspiration.

Love Against the State

Natasha Lennard reflects on the enduring necessity of marriage in order to prove one's love to the state.

The Singles Manifesto

Marie Edwards' powerful feminist manifesto from 1974.

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From our Valentine's Archive:

Decolonising Desire: The Politics of Love

Dalia Gebrial examines the colonial scripts that encode people in and out of the possibility of love. Embedded within the constituent discourses of love – of desirability, emotional labour, support and commitment – are codes of social value assigned to certain bodies; of who is worthy of love’s work. The labour of decolonising these representative paradigms is structural, and involves addressing their material histories.