A list of winning controversial essay topics

There is nothing like a controversy to make people animated by hitting a nerve. Controversies generate heated debates. A controversial essay topic is about a continuing argument that induces strong feelings and reactions in people. Controversial topics address issues that are delicate and nuanced, complex and significant, and multifaceted and multifactorial. These topics can be related to political opinion, religion, race, culture etc.

Here is a list of some controversial essay topics that are bound to polarize people into clear groups of proponents and opponents.

1. Minimum Wage: Should be raised/lowered.
2. Gender/Sex roles.
3. Adoption: Adoptive parents are/are not biological parents.
4. Prostitution: A result of socioeconomics.
5. Prostitution: Is it work?
6. Polygamy: Is monogamy unnatural?
7. Nuclear families: Why do we have nuclear families? Are they better than joint families of the past?
8. Poly-amour: One person can love more than one partner simultaneously.
9. Teenage Pregnancy: making teenage mothers give up their babies is cruel/sensible.
10. Abortion: pro-life or pro-choice.
11. Stem cell research.
12. Use of human placenta in the cosmetic industry.
13. Oral contraceptive pills: Do the benefits really outweigh the risks?
14. Capitalism is destroying the planet.
15. There can be no sincere human relations in a world built on profits.
16. Charity: A way for the rich to assuage their guilt.
17. Charity promotes the psychology of begging.
18. Underage sex.
19. Underage drinking.
20. Marijuana is an herb that should be freely available.
21. Marijuana should be sold in public places.
22. Marriage is a failed institution that should be abandoned.
23. Gay marriages are perfectly natural/unnatural.
24. Education, health, and housing are the state’s responsibility.
25. Competition is never healthy.
26. Capitalist economy is the major cause of rampant poverty, morbidity, and mortality.
27. Wars are waged for economic gains.
28. Evolution is an irrefutable fact.
29. Study of creationism as a part of school syllabus should be banned in the US.
30. Fathers have as much right as mothers to keep the children after divorce.

This is just a sample list that is raw ideas. You can find controversies brewing and exploding all around you. Your interests and passion should guide you when looking for a controversial topic for your essay. A good topic is the one you can debate endlessly and tirelessly. Writing on a controversial subject that does not strike a chord in you will not have the same result.