Radical Intimacy
An audiobook about the alternative ways to form relationships and resist capitalism
Capitalist ideology wants us to believe that there is an optimal way to live. 'Making connections' means networking for work. Our emotional needs are to be fulfilled by a single romantic partner, and self-care equates to taking personal responsibility for our suffering. We must be productive and heterosexual, we must have babies and buy a house. But the kicker is most people cannot and do not want to achieve these goals. Instead we are left feeling atomised, exhausted and disempowered.
Radical Intimacy shows that it doesn't need to be this way. Including inspiring ideas for alternative ways to live, Sophie K Rosa demands we use our radical imagination to discover a new form of intimacy.
Including critiques of the 'wellness' industry that ignores rising poverty rates, the mental health crisis and racist and misogynist state violence; transcending love and sex under capitalism to move towards feminist, decolonial and queer thinking; asking whether we should abolish the family; interrogating the framing of ageing and death and much more, Radical Intimacy is the compassionate antidote to a callous society.
Now as an audiobook, to listen to on the go.
Sophie K Rosa is a writer and freelance journalist. She has written for Novara Media, Guardian, Buzzfeed, VICE, Al Jazeera, Aeon and CNN. In 2018, she was openDemocracy's feminist investigative journalism fellow, producing a series of articles tracking the backlash against women's and LGBTQIA+ rights.
Lily Lefkow appeared in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and The USA Trilogy for BBC R4. She has recorded various English-language projects for both Pearson and OUP. Lily graduated from Oxford University last year in Classics and English Lit and she is currently studying for her Masters at Drama Studio. She is neuro-diverse.
'This was my most eagerly awaited book of the year and it does not disappoint. 'Radical Intimacy' is a powerful, utterly engaging read and a vital call to action. Sophie K Rosa analyses how current conditions restrict our capacity for caring relationships with ourselves and others, and how these conditions can be implicated in so many forms of intimate violence, injustice and loss. A must read.'
- Meg-John Barker, author of 'Rewriting the Rules''In ‘Radical Intimacy’, Rosa proposes radical answers for people longing for real intimacy, just as she proposes the need to centre all forms of intimacy as radical praxis. We are invited to look for the possibilities of abundant postcapitalist relating right now, and how they might nurture us in overcoming the systems which trap us in scarcity. It’s great. Please read it!’
- Justin Hancock, Sex and relationships educatorIntroduction: The intimate is political
1. Your life in your hands
2. Us two against the world
3. They're all you've got
4. A ladder is not a resting place
5. The great equaliser
Conclusion: strong bonds for a fragile planet
eBook ISBN: 9780745345208
Audiobook ISBN: 9780745348483
Listening Length: 5 hours 28 minutes 0 seconds.