User:Equivamp/Feminist antisexualism

Various feminist views on sexuality have been described as anti-sex or sex-negative. In particular, second-wave and radical feminist viewpoints and thinkers have been subject to this, including from other feminists.

Prior to the second wave of feminism, which introduced such slogans as "The personal is political" in the 1960s, the subject of women's sexuality had rarely been addressed as a politicized subject, although the subjugation of women by aspects of male sexuality had been discussed. Major feminist organizations, such as the National Organization for Women (NOW) in the United States, primarily focused on male supremacy in the public sphere. It was not until the earliest radical feminist groups began to form in the late 1960s that feminist analysis of women's sexuality started to become widespread.

According to radical feminist theory, sexuality is the primary sphere of patriarchy, with sexual activity, especially heterosexual sex, as the basis of women's oppression by men. Radical feminists oppose the sexual objectification of women, for their sexual and reproductive labor, and hold the view that in a male-dominated society, heterosexual practices involve an imbalance of power and serves to sexualize the oppression of women. Ti-Grace Atkinson wrote of heterosexual sex as a social institution serving the needs of men, but not necessarily of women. This analysis lead some radical feminists to call for women to stop having sex with men altogether, with some advocating for celibacy and others advocating political lesbianism.

Multiple authors have objected to radical feminists on this front. Margaret Hunt criticized Sheila Jeffreys for praising women involved in the 19th-century social purity movement, whose "concern with women's victimization" Jeffreys admired.

Naomi Wolf identified a form of feminism she called victim feminism, which she described as "sexually judgmental, even antisexual".