How do we make social justice the most pleasurable human experience? How can we awaken within ourselves desires that make it impossible to settle for anything less than a fulfilling life? Author and editor adrienne maree brown finds the answer in something she calls “pleasure activism,” a politics of healing and happiness that explodes the dour myth that changing the world is just another form of work. Drawing on the black feminist tradition, she challenges us to rethink the ground rules of activism.
Her mindset-altering essays are interwoven with conversations and insights from other feminist thinkers, including Audre Lorde, Joan Morgan, Cara Page, Sonya Renee Taylor, and Alexis Pauline Gumbs. Together they cover a wide array of subjects—from sex work to climate change, from race and gender to sex and drugs—building new narratives about how politics can feel good and how what feels good always has a complex politics of its own.
Introduction
Section One: Who Taught You to Feel Good?
Uses of the Erotic, by Audre Lorde
The Legacy of “Uses of the Erotic,” A Conversation with Cara Page
A Spoilerific Gush on How Octavia Butler Turns Me On
Love as Political Resistance
The Sweetness of Salt, by Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Why We Get Off, by Joan Morgan
A Pleasure Philosophy, A Conversation with Ingrid LaFleur
Section Two: The Politics of Radical Sex
Pussy Power, by Favianna Rodriguez
Sex Ed, A Poem
Wherein I Write about Sex
Section Three: A Circle of Sex
Conversation with a Sex Toy
Sex Majik (No One Told Me to Do It)
Nipples Are Magic
It’s Bloody Fantastic
Fucking/Having Sex/ Making Love
The Highs, Lows, and Blows of Casual Sex
Confessions of A Queer Sex Goddess
Are you thre goD? It’s me, Day, By Holiday Simmons
Feelmore, A Conversation with Nenna Joiner
Bodyminds Reimagined, A Conversation with Sami Schalk
Fuck You, Pay Me, by Chanelle Gallant
A Timeline/Tutorial on Squirting
Sub-Section:
Skills for Sex in the #MeToo Era
From #MeToo to #WeConsent
It’s about Your Game
It’s Time to Reclaim Our Skin
I Want You, but I’m Triggered
Strategic Celibacy
Liberating Your Fantasies
Pornography and Accountability
Use Your Voice
Section Four: The Politics of Radical Drug Use
Weed On, Weed Off
Conditions of Possibility, A Conversation with Monique Tula
Experiments in Cannabis for the Collective, BY Malachi Garza
Ecstasy Saved My Life
Section Five: Pleasure as Political Practice
SubSection:
The Politics of Healing Toward Pleasure
Feeling from Within
Black Woman Wildness, by Junauda Petrus
Beyond Trans Desire, by Micha Cardenas
Pleasure after Childhood Sexual Abuse, by Amita Swadhin
Fuck Cancer, by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Sub-Section
The Politics of Wholeness in Movements
The Pleasure of Living at the Same Time as Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter
On Fear, Shame, Death, and Humor, A Conversation between the Rocca Family and Zizi
The Power to Make Light, A Conversation with Dallas Goldtooth
Fly as Hell, A conversation with Sonia Renee Taylor
On the Pleasures of Wardrobe, A Conversation with Maori Holmes
Adronment and Burlesque, A Conversation with Taja Lindley
Burlesque and Liberation, by Muchi Osato and Una Osato
Working the Pole, A Conversation with Suguey Hernandez
Pleasure over Sixty, A Conversation with Idelisse Malave and Alta Starr
The Work of Parenting, by Autumn Brown
Raising Sexually Liberated Kids, by Janine de Novais
Tips for Raising Sexually Liberated Kids, by Zahra Ali
Sub-Section
The Politics of Liberated Relationships
Radical Gratitude Spell
Liberated Relationships, Expanded
On Nonmonogamy
Being Second
The Pleasure of Deep, Intentional Friendship, A Conversation with Dani McClain and Jodie Tonita
Section Six: Outro, Thank yous
Outro
Gratitude
You might also be interested in:
