Should There Be a Redistribution of Sex?

In a new opinion piece for The New York Times that is already causing a stir on Twitter, columnist Ross Douthat examines the idea of sexual redistribution.

Douthat writes that although the idea of redistributing sex might sound offensive or utopian, it is in fact entirely responsive “to the logic of late-modern sexual life” and it would be entirely “characteristic of a recurring pattern in liberal societies.” He states that the sexual revolution created winners and losers, and ultimately privileged the rich and beautiful, but relegated others to a life of loneliness and frustration. He also writes that the sexes seem to be unable to, or at least struggling to, relate to one another recently, which has led to a decline in marriage, family and sexual activity.

Finally, Douthat says that the current narrative is very open about sex — that diversity in sexual desires and tastes and identities should be cultivated — which encourages people to use sex as a solution.

“But I expect the logic of commerce and technology will be consciously harnessed, as already in pornography, to address the unhappiness of incels, be they angry and dangerous or simply depressed and despairing,” Douthat writes. He goes on to say that sex workers and sex robots will eventually be asked to deliver fulfillment.

“The left’s increasing zeal to transform prostitution into legalized and regulated ‘sex work’ will have this end implicitly in mind, the libertarian (and general male) fascination with virtual-reality porn and sex robots will increase as those technologies improve — and at a certain point, without anyone formally debating the idea of a right to sex, right-thinking people will simply come to agree that some such right exists and that it makes sense to look to some combination of changed laws, new technologies and evolved mores to fulfill it,” Douthat writes.