04/05/2026
Hey, I will be presenting April 7th on the topic of Erotic Empowerment! It's a word we hear a lot but what does it mean? I am guest presenting for the folks at The IAI Academy - an educational platform offering courses from the world's leading thinkers across Philosophy, Science, Politics and the Arts. This event also features my good friend and colleague, Norma Jean Almodovar! She and I have done a lot of TV interviews together and I'm excited to hear what she has to say.
Here's the writeup for my presentation:
For centuries, debates about s*xuality have been shaped by a persistent divide: between purity and transgression. This split still shapes how societies talk about s*x, power and agency—often leaving little room for the complexity of real lives. Drawing on decades of experience as a high-end es**rt, a s*x worker rights activist and a survivor of both childhood s*xual assault and domestic violence, Veronica Monet brings a perspective rarely heard in public discussions of feminism and s*xuality. In this talk, she examines the long-standing Madonna-whore divide and asks what it means for movements that claim to pursue women’s liberation. Join Monet as she argues that the idea of "erotic empowerment" is often misunderstood or applied too simply, and calls for a more nuanced feminism—one that confronts the prevalence of s*xual violence and takes seriously the ways trauma, agency and survival shape people’s relationships to intimacy, power and work.
And here's a summary of the entire event:
IAI Live April: Cashing Out On Erotic Capital
This event explores a growing feminist divide over s*x work, power, and autonomy. Where marriage was once criticised as trading erotic capital for security, platforms like OnlyFans are now framed by some as sites of empowerment and entrepreneurial control. Is s*x work a modern alternative to marriage, offering greater honesty and agency, or does it reproduce the same hierarchies feminism aimed to dismantle?
https://iai.tv/.../cashin.../s*x-work-and-structural-power-2
