Is it time for a new sexual revolution? How men and women can find their way back to each other.

Something is rotten in the state of relationships between men and women.

Millennial hook-up culture has been succeeded by reports of a widespread sex recession among Gen Z, as well as rising rates of loneliness and alienation between the sexes. We’re hooked on solitary screens that put us under the sway of toxic influencers and algorithms optimised for high engagement. Our digital habits are stoking despair at the possibility of successful romantic relationships between men and women or, at the other extreme, an appetite for the pre-modern and highly idealised lives of trad wives.

Then there’s porn and OnlyFans, where the commodification of women’s bodies continues apace. With the arrival of AI companions and AI-generated pornography, will romantic relationship be a live option for men and women tomorrow?

The fallout between men and women has bigger ripple effects. Falling rates of fertility globally, and rising incidences of family estrangement, seem symptomatic of a more generalised retreat from human relationships. But if we are relational beings at our core, it’s time for a revolution in human connections. Hear Louise Perry on why consent is not enough, how friendship between the sexes may be the most potent tool of deradicalisation at our disposal, and why the religious have a better chance than most of inheriting the earth.

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Louise Perry is a writer and broadcaster. She is a columnist at the Wall Street Journal and author of the bestselling book The Case Against the Sexual Revolution. She is also the host of the Maiden Mother Matriarch podcast.

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About the event:
The Richard Johnson Lecture is an annual public event from the Centre for Public Christianity (CPX). In 2026, our lecturer is writer and columnist Louise Perry. Each year we invite someone to speak on a topic that contributes to an important public conversation and highlights the perspective that faith can bring to the subject at hand.  The Lecture is named for Richard Johnson (1755-1827), the first Chaplain to the colony of New South Wales and a popular exponent of a “public Christianity” that served the common good.

About the hosts:
The Centre for Public Christianity (CPX) is a not-for-profit media company that offers a Christian perspective on contemporary life. We seek to promote the public understanding of the Christian faith by engaging mainstream media and the general public through columns published in the media, our Life & Faith podcast, public events, books, and documentaries about the relevance of Christianity in the 21st century.

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