​Who’s Afraid of Ugly?
What We Stand to Lose and Gain by Rejecting Beauty

​For this Candour session, we’ll be reading two chapters from The Right to Sex by Amia Srinivasan. Srinivasan’s work asks us to look at desire, not as something private, natural, or innocent, but as something shaped by power. Who we want, who we don’t want, and whose desirability feels possible is personal, political, racialized, gendered, and deeply complex.

​This matters for our conversation because beauty is one of the primary currencies through which desirability is distributed. Beauty is not simply an aesthetic preference, but a violent system that decides who gets care, attention, protection, and intimacy. And just as importantly: who does not.

​When we talk about “rejecting beauty,” we’re talking about: What happens when we refuse the labor of being pleasing? What is the cost of not being legible as desirable? What forms of intimacy become possible when we are not performing to be chosen?

​Access to the PDF versions of both chapters are in the Linktree, but I implore you to buy the book (from an independent bookseller) as there is so very much to learn from Srinivasan. To support the reading, there is supplementary material in the Linktree too:
 

• ​A podcast conversation with Da’Shaun Harrison (Belly of the Beast) on libidinal economies and desirability

• ​An interview with Naomie Piliu, whose viral moment ignited public debate about where she “falls” in the beauty hierarchy and her own evolving relationship to being seen, desired, or dismissed

• ​A critique of The Right to Sex, because we are not here to worship texts. We are here to think with and against them

​These pieces help situate our discussion beyond “pretty privilege” discourse, which so often flattens everything into individual confidence or victimhood. 

​Tickets are free, as always, but this time I’m asking that you consider donating to the Feminist Library in Peckham!

​Snacks and drinks will be provided. If you feel called to bring something to share, please do.

​I’m looking forward to seeing you all xxx