Our sexual desires dwell privately within us, waiting to emerge when elicited by context. We have no power over what we want, and rarely desire what we would be wise to. Or so it’s long been thought. This idea—that desire is private, natural, fixed—is both a timeless precept and a defining feature of our contemporary sexual culture. But what might happen if, instead of treating desire as innate, we thought of it as something contingent and politically determined? This idea This story is from Kinfolk Issue Forty-Three Buy Now Related Stories Arts & Culture Issue 51 Received Wisdom Zen monk and garden designer Shunmyo Masuno on clearing the mind. Arts & Culture Issue 48 Cult Rooms After “completing” philosophy, Ludwig Wittgenstein tried—and failed—at architecture. Arts & Culture Issue 47 Walt Odets The author and clinical psychologist on why self-acceptance is the key to a gay man's well-being. Arts & Culture Fashion Issue 47 A Picture of Health Xiaopeng Yuan photographs the world’s weirdest wellness cures. Arts & Culture Issue 47 Chani Nicholas and Sonya Passi Inside the astrology company on a mission to prove workplace well-being is more than a corporate tagline. Arts & Culture Issue 43 David Erritzoe On the mind-bending potential of psychedelics.
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Arts & Culture Fashion Issue 47 A Picture of Health Xiaopeng Yuan photographs the world’s weirdest wellness cures.
Arts & Culture Issue 47 Chani Nicholas and Sonya Passi Inside the astrology company on a mission to prove workplace well-being is more than a corporate tagline.
