Another great post, this one on sex positivity.

[fierceawakening]

I just re-read Shame Affirmative, Redux and... damn, do I love it.

It's old, and I'm sure I've linked it before, because it's amazing. But I re-read it, and -- amazing, amazing. Best thing I can think of to demonstrate why "sex positive" is a valid label and not a mere reactionary insult to anti-porners.

One thing that really resonates with me is

Comments

[ahavah]

I'm a kinky country girl, an I can tell you that kinky country boys cut the best switches. :)

[fierceawakening]

They need to teach me how to do that. :)

[fierceawakening]

Wow, you're welcome. I wasn't sure that post would even make sense outside of my head. The last time I tried to bring up class and leather/BDSM I got a lot of people going "No... we're all young, rich, and queer, what are you talking about

[nama_roopa]

Great post, Trin. I loved QD's post, and I love this one too. They're reaching me at a pretty apt time, as I never quite figured out how much trouble being from a rural place was causing me in hyper-elitist university settings...broadly, and in the very homogeneous campus queer community especially. I spent a long time not even imagining it could be an issue, and finally just had to deal with the shit in a really conscious way.

it also felt like here we are in an ivory tower deciding what other people's lives should look like.

Yep. When I look at how easily that dynamic hurt me in informal ways, as a student in an elitist environment, I have to really wonder about the premises of all the research that supposedly helps society, as something I'm taking part in...I wish I had a better answer to that.

[fierceawakening]

Great post, Trin. I loved QD's post, and I love this one too.

Wow, thanks. I've often wondered if I really understood what I was seeing, since I wasn't living it in the same way as my friends were. So thanks for saying this.

in the very homogeneous campus queer community especially.*nod* I never was a part of that -- at the time I wasn't even out as bi, really. But the few times I interacted with the students who ID'ed as feminists it was always REALLY WEIRD

[belledame222]

ah, college. god be with the days. the little dears, the little dears. at least with the students there's a chance they'll grow out of it.

professors like that are exactly why i do not want to go into fucking academia.

[belledame222]

This is great. Is this a locked post, btw, or can people link it?

btw, are you by any chance planning to go to Dark Odyssey?

[fierceawakening]

pleeeeeeeeeeeease do link away

and prolly not

sadly

[belledame222]

and yeah, coming from probably a similar background to yours, i find much more elitism in the "nice girl" feminism, on the whole. there are some exceptions. interestingly, a lot of the -really- radical/anti-porn feminists seem to be coming from working class (QD's said a few things about how irate "lower class" makes her, jadp)/poor and/or rural backgrounds, online at least

[fierceawakening]

it -does- resonate for people who've had a really shit time and just don't want to hear--well, pretty much what they hear/understand of "sex positive:" the most commercialized, materialistic, hetnorm, mainstream, commodified etc. etc.

Right, but how much of the original "sex positivity" came from working class dykes? That's the irony of it.

that's what they see: rich party people living the glamorous decadent life while hardworking folks like them can't catch a break. works like a charm.

Yup. I hear even other kinksters suggesting we're all rich and pampered. IMX, fuck no.

Reminds me of the story one tough-ass woman told me about learning to use singletails because daddy was a bear trainer in the circus. No, it's not all about being lazy enough to be decadent.

and then too of course as you note, there's also plain old classism the other way: oo, icky, dirty perverts rolling around and getting messy, isn't it just like -them.-

a-yuh.