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LETTERS ON LIBERTY: UNSHACKLING INTIMACY
https://archives.battleofideas.org.uk/2021/session/letters-on-liberty-unshackling-intimacy/

During the pandemic, public life came to a standstill. But long before lockdowns and viruses threatened the freedoms that we hold dear, there has been a problem with our belief in liberty.

Open debate has been suffocated by today’s censorious climate and there is little cultural support for freedom as a foundational value. What we need is rowdy, good-natured disagreement and people prepared to experiment with what freedom might mean today. Faced with this challenge, the Academy of Ideas decided to launch Letters on Liberty – a radical public pamphleteering campaign aimed at reimagining arguments for freedom in the 21st century.

In his Letter – Unshackling Intimacy – writer and journalist Ralph Leonard champions sexual freedom as reflective of a more general individual and social freedom. He argues that while taboos around sex and intimacy have shifted over time, prejudices still abound relating to ‘free love’. While the lockdowns might have had an extreme impact on our ability to be intimate, Ralph argues that it would be a mistake to see the pandemic as the sole threat to sexual freedom.

Join Ralph and respondents to ask, has the pandemic killed off our wild side? Do we need to drop our remaining prejudices about love in order for sexual expression to transcend its current fetters? And how do we rediscover love and intimacy in a world that often seems hostile to risk?

SPEAKERS
Neil Davenport
cultural critic; head of faculty of social sciences, JFS Sixth Form Centre

Suzi Godson
columnist, The Times; co-founder, MeeToo Education; author, The MeeToo Teenage Mental Help Handbook

Ralph Leonard
author, Unshackling Intimacy: Letters on Liberty; contributor, Areo

CHAIR
Dr Shirley Lawes
researcher; consultant and university teacher, specialising in teacher education and modern foreign languages; Chevalier dans l'ordre des Palmes Academiques

Letters on Liberty: Unshackling intimacy

Listen to recordings of our discussions and debates. Our aim is to expand the boundaries of public debate, to break out of today's echo chambers and challenge orthodoxies.