Book Launch: Brenda Cossman’s The New Sex Wars: Sexual Harm in the #MeToo Era (49:23)
“The feminist sex wars are back. Well before #MeToo erupted, feminists have been embattled in renewed and contentious sexual politics.”
Brenda Cossman, “#MeToo, Sex Wars 2.0 and the Power of Law”
Brenda Cossman is a Professor of Law at the University of Toronto and was also the Director of the University of of Toronto’s Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies from 2009 – 2018. She researches and teaches in the areas of gender and law, sexuality and law, and family law. In 2021 she published The New Sex Wars: Sexual Harm in the #MeToo Era, which provides both a historical overview of the original feminist sex wars that we have learned about in this module, as well as the continuation of these feminist debates to the present day. Beyond mapping these wars, Cossman argues that it is time that they stop, and she offers some indications for how to bring about a ceasefire. The assigned resource for this module is a video of the online book launch for The New Sex Wars, where you can see Professor Cossman provide a summary of her book, a commentary on the book by another law professor, and Cossman’s response to the commentary.
WATCH:
Zoo (1:15:44)
This documentary is optional and, as it deals explicitly with bestiality, may be triggering to some viewers. Reviewing this documentary is one of the Challenge options for this module.