Sexual Bargaining in the Digital Era: Crafting a New Normal

The shift from Sexual Bargaining in the Digital Era's Old Normal (ON) pattern, which prevailed during the Agricultural and Industrial Ages, to the New Normal (NN) pattern, which is currently surfacing in concert with an emerging Digital Era, is a move away from the sanctity of a particular structure to the primacy of persons engaged in ongoing processes of inventing and reinventing certain arrangements of genders, marriages, families, relationships, and sexualities. NN is based on improvisation and is pursued by educated and advantaged individuals, while ON is pursued by less educated and less advantaged individuals. This shift replaces the preeminence of the historic binary or cisgender approach in favor of the diversity/variety/multiplicity approach, which incorporates all persons of whatever genders, sexualities, and so on.

Format: Hardback
Length: 180 pages
Publication date: 05 October 2021
Publisher: Anthem Press

Sexual Bargaining in the Digital Era delves into the transformative journey of genders/sexualities and beyond, moving away from the Old Normal (ON) pattern that prevailed during the Agricultural Age and the Industrial Age, and towards the emerging New Normal (NN) pattern that coincides with the rise of the Digital Era. The ON, rooted in ancient traditional scripts governing behavior within gender/marriage/family/relationships/sexualities, evolved into the familiar 1950s style (nuclear) patriarchal, cisgender, husband/wife/with children, and family. However, this traditional style is gradually giving way to the dynamic and improvisational nature of NN.

In the NN, partners engage in ongoing negotiations governed by the principle that "everything is negotiable, except the principle that everything is negotiable." This dynamic approach allows for continuous adaptation and evolution of gender/marriage/family/relationships/sexualities arrangements. NN has primarily been pursued by individuals (New Lights) who possess education and relative advantages, while ON has been more prevalent among individuals (Old Lights) who are less educated and less advantaged. Additionally, individuals with a traditional religious inclination, often characterized by rigidity and unwavering religious views, have strongly embraced ON. Presently, these individuals tend to align with extreme right-wing evangelical and Catholic beliefs, wielding significant political influence despite their relatively modest numbers within the broader population.

In essence, the shift from ON to NN signifies a departure from the sanctity of specific structures and a recognition of the primacy of individuals engaged in ongoing processes of inventing and reinventing gender/marriage/family/relationships/sexualities arrangements. This dynamic process empowers individuals to fulfill their desires, explore their identities, and create new possibilities for personal and societal growth in the ever-evolving digital landscape.

Weight: 430g
Dimension: 159 x 237 x 18 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781785277436