The New Sex Wars

"The New Sex Wars is extremely well mapped and well conceived. Cossman's capacity to wrestle an unwieldy social problem to the ground and apply a clear and analytic eye is unparalleled. This book will make a significant contribution to gender studies, especially in law but also more generally." -- Libby Adler, author of Gay Priori: A Queer Critical Legal Studies Approach to Reform "Brenda Cossman clears a fabulously feminist path out of the 'sex wars of infinite regress.' By reconstructing the polarizing flashpoints of our contemporary sexual politics, The New Sex Wars impresses upon us the urgency of reading for repair. Too much ink has been spilt charting the alleged antipathies across feminisms; Cossman instead mines generative contestations within feminist formations so that we might countenance rather than caricature our comrades' definitions of, and proposed remedies against, sexual violence. Taking sexual harm seriously, Cossman shows, will require unlinking anger from vengeance and decoupling justice from the carceral." -- Joseph Fischel, Yale University "If anyone has the potential to upend the recursive logic of the sex wars it is Brenda Cossman, whose writing has for years used nuance, empathy, and humor to offer confident, innovative queer critiques that nonetheless speak to feminist sensibilities. Here she takes on that project of repair or reconciliation in earnest, and connects it to a set of controversies that will garner her a wide range of readers. Cossman's clear-eyed, imaginative reconceptualization should by all rights transform this debate, but will in any case deeply enrich its participants." -- Kathryn Abrams, Herma Hill Kay Distinguished Professor of Law, University of California Berkeley School of Law "The New Sex Wars is essential reading for those interested in a nuanced evaluation of feminist contestations over sex, both present and past." -- Aya Gruber, author of The Feminist War on Crime: The Unexpected Role of Women's Liberation in Mass Incarceration "Cossman provides a nuanced and illuminating analysis of the role of due process talk in #MeToo discussions, and of contestations regarding 'sexual misconduct' ... The New Sex Wars is an excellent exercise in how to think about contemporary feminist issues." * Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books * "In The New Sex Wars: Sexual Harm in the #MeToo Era, Brenda Cossman, a law professor, dubs #MeToo 'Sex Wars 2.0' even as she aims to disrupt 'binary antagonisms' by building on the insights of 'sex-positive feminism, queer theory, and anti-carceral feminism'... [she] provide[s] us with important insights about the interrelationships among feminism, sexuality, harm, pleasure, and race." * Journal of the History of Sexuality *