Feminism and Sexual Freedom in an Age of AIDS

Abstract

This article explores the ways in which concepts of sexual freedom, democracy and citizenship may be helpful, as `moral sources', for feminists addressing issues of risk and pleasure in women's heterosexual relationships. I address this question by critically examining feminist research on the relationship between women's sexuality, power relations and safe sex. The article concludes by arguing, in response to HIV risk, that feminist theory and sexual politics may find notions of sexual citizenship, sexual democracy and mutuality more appropriate than the recourse to discourses emphasizing women's lack of sexual agency (the WRAP position) or a project focused on a `permissive discourse' (the position of the Macquarie Heterosexuality and AIDS Project).