Sexuality: The Contradictions of Love and Work

In this chapter, I develop the argument that sexuality has a basis in material conditions of ‘(re)production’ (Bryson 2004, 2005, 2007b, 2008) to explore the ways in which these currently intersect with conditions of paid work and production. The fi rst two sections introduce the chapter’s theoretical arguments and its relationship to both Marxist theory and Anna G. Jónasdóttir’s theory of ‘love power’. The third section focuses primarily on contemporary western societies, and identifi es a series of emerging contradictions between conditions of production and (re)production, as sex, procreation and care become increasingly bound up with the market economy and the demands of capitalist production clash with the needs and values of intimate life. I argue that these contradictions open up possibilities for change and that because productive and (re)productive spheres have always been inherently interconnected, neither the social organization of sexuality nor conditions of paid employment can be understood or changed in isolation from the other.