PLASTIC SEX AND THE SOCIOLOGIST - A COMMENT ON THE TRANSFORMATION OF INTIMACY BY GIDDENS,ANTHONY

To what extent have feminism and sexual liberation truly changed our l ives? In spite of undeniable shifts in collective behaviour and mental ity it is not clear in retrospect that the quality of intimacy among i ndividuals - within the family, in marriage, in love relations - has b een radically transformed, let alone significantly improved. In spite of some isolated efforts, contemporary social and political theory see ms especially disorientated and confused when confronting this problem . In fact, the problem is far from new: the consequences of sexual lib eration and egalitarian relations between men and women were at the ce ntre of the reflection developed in the eighteenth century by the prog ressive writers of the Enlightenment. Their struggle against the preju dices and conventions of traditional society was accompanied by the aw areness that permissive relations among individuals might prove potent ially more conflictual and destructive than the bonds of patriarchalis m; that, in order to achieve true respect and equality, the nature of sexual identity and intimacy must be redefined at all levels.