On Monday, 30th March 2015 the FemGenSex research network held a symposium at Middlesex University, London.

This free event sought to address and explore of the topics around contemporary 'Vocabularies of Active Female Desire’.

Blurb:
Despite years of heated debate, reaching back at least as far as the feminist sex wars of the 1970s and 1980s, issues surrounding the depiction of active female desire remain high on the cultural agenda. Whether it be new UK regulations taking aim at the depiction of certain kinds of female sexual enjoyment in video-on-demand pornography, or the upcoming release of the film adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey, it is clear that desire, sexual difference, and representation continue to form a complex and provocative conceptual nexus. Such a nexus demands careful consideration from a variety of perspectives if we wish to cultivate a more nuanced and holistic understanding of a topic too often generative of uncritical kneejerk reactions or rehearsed moral panics. This one day symposium, to be held at Middlesex University in London, invites theorists and practitioners from a range of disciplinary backgrounds to discuss the challenges posed by attempts to represent active female desires (inclusively defined), as well as to explore some of the innovative contemporary strategies for addressing these challenges within various media and discursive traditions. In what ways is female desire active, and what activates it? What might such a desire look like? How does it sound, and what language does it use? Where can we detect the presence of active female desire in contemporary legal, medical, and other discourses, and how have artists, writers, and filmmakers sought to represent it?

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