Bad Sex

Jacqueline Gibbs is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at City St George’s, University of London, UK. Her research explores political and socio-cultural conceptualisations of vulnerability and care. She has published on these themes in Feminist Media Studies, MAI Feminism and Visual Cultures, Feminist Review and Sociological Review Magazine.Billy Holzberg is Lecturer in Social Justice at King's College London, UK. He is the author of Affective Bordering: Race, Deservingness and The Emotional Politics of Migration Control (2024). His research examines the sexual and affective politics that shape growing social inequalities, nationalism, and right-wing authoritarianism.Aura Lehtonen is Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Greenwich, UK. She is the author of The Sexual Logics of Neoliberalism in Britain: Sexual Politics in Exceptional Times (2023). Her research explores how difference, diversity and inequalities are understood, conceptualised and represented in contemporary culture and politics, with a specific focus on sexuality.

• Introduction – Bad Sex on the Small Screen1.Bad Straight Sex and Heteropessimism in Fleabag2.Good Sex as Queer/Lesbian Escape in Feel Good and Work in Progress3.Gay Male Shame and Good Enough Sex in Please Like Me and Special 4.When Sex Was Still Good in It’s a Sin and Pose5.Sex with Your Ex in And Just Like That…, The L Word: Generation Q and Queer as Folk6.Beyond the Boundaries of Bad Sex in I May Destroy You7.Unlearning Bad Sex in Euphoria and Sex EducationConclusion – No Sex, or The End of Bad Sex?BibliographyTV Show and Film Bibliography

Contemporary, affective, and beautifully written. Bad Sex recenters the political, personal, and wider significance of queer theory in popular culture during uncertain times. The intersectional and queer approach sets Bad Sex as a pivotal frame to examine popular culture, nostalgia, intimacy, representations on television, and what future possibilities could look like.