Sexual liberation promised freedom from repression and taboo, and better sex for all. From the Kinsey reports to Cosmopolitan, Madonna to Sex and the City, the message was unanimous — the sexually liberated had won, the repressed were left behind. But critics argue this was misguided. While our openness has increased - what was once banned is often now seen as tame - the number of adults having sex at least once a week has fallen by a third since 1990. Nearly a quarter of young adults didn't have sex at all last year — double the rate from 2010. Bataille anticipated this outcome, arguing that eroticism requires transgression. Lacan insisted desire feeds on lack. Boundaries and prohibitions, they argue, are vital to erotic tension.

Should we conclude that prohibition and constraint are essential to desire? Do we need to reinstate limits and resurrect mystery to recapture intimacy? Or does this romanticise repression and risk returning us to a world where many did not enjoy sex at all?

Succession star and cultural provocateur Dasha Nekrasova, TikTok feminist firebrand Farha Khalidi, and director of Married to the Eiffel Tower Agnieszka Piotrowska debate prohibition as the engine of desire.