Virginie Despentes and Irantzu Varela

Libertinism was an emancipatory movement against religious constraints. In a period of great empowerment of women, the eighteenth-century bourgeoisie reduced it to the sexual dimension and imposed the idea that, in order to enjoy sex, a victim is needed. From a feminist perspective, it might be said that this was a retrograde step in which the doctrine of belief considered that sex had to happen within a perspective of victimisation. With this historical background in mind, what comparisons can be made with the sexual liberation of the late 1970s that led to the #MeToo era? Why does sex always have to be associated with victimisation and policing of bodies? Why do revolutions become so reactionary that women threaten to take possession of their own bodies? Now, with the advances in women’s rights, sexual freedom, and autonomy of the body, can we do away with the role of victim?