On Saturdays, I like to answer reader questions.
Q: What would it mean to Occupy Sexuality?
Some have accused the Occupy movement of lacking concrete demands, but it is asking for a kind of systemic change which is difficult to boil down into a simple list (although Occupy Austin issued one back at its start). Once you start examining how corporate influences affect our society, you realize the problem influences almost every aspect of our lives. Sexuality is no exception.
As I’ve become heavily involved in the Occupy movement, it has interested me to see how many of the same faces I knew from the sex positive blogging world show up again as occupiers, and how many of the others support us. People on the frontiers of sex positive culture know that sexual freedom is a key part of human freedom.
Sexuality is an essential human drive. Just as you can control human behavior by controlling how, when and what they eat the same is true of sex. The political right-wing in this country has declared a war on women’s reproductive rights & sexual freedoms by threatening access to everything from cancer screenings to basic birth control. Actual sex education has long been absent from schools. At the same time corporations conspire to tell us what we should want: a half-naked woman on television writhes around a fast food meal, corporate fashion magazines tell us what sexy means now, and Hollywood movies shape our romantic desires.
It’s unclear whether sexuality will become a keystone issue for the Occupy movement, but it is clear to me that we must occupy our sexuality. Just as we must empower the 99% to make conscious choices about everything from banking to the food we eat, we must create an educated society that is open about sex, which embraces this fundamental drive with pleasure and knowledge instead of shame and misdirection.
What might this look like? Direct action and other campaigns for sexual freedom. Teach-ins about topics like making conscious decisions in relationships and safer sex. Activists working to end sexual oppression and violence in both the larger world and within our own movement. What would an occupied sexuality look like to you?
Q: What happened to A Burner Lexicon?
Thanks to the reader who asked about this. Now that I’ve embraced activism for the first 6 months of Occupy Austin, I hope to reintegrate all sides of myself and find more balance in my writing topics. In the coming weeks I hope to publish more content like lexicon entries, sex toy reviews, or reviews & read-alongs about polyamory. I’m a writer with many interests, so this blog will once again reflect that. Look for a new lexicon entry next week.
You can ask Kit questions too. Follow Kit on Twitter, leave questions in the comments section of this blog, or use the contact information at the top of this page.
