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Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good
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? 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, including Audre Lourde’s invitation to use the erotic as power and Toni Cade Bambara’s exhortation that we make the revolution irresistible, the contributors to this volume take up the challenge to rethink the ground rules of activism. Writers including Cara Page of the Astraea Lesbian Foundation For Justice, Sonya Renee Taylor, founder of This Body Is Not an Apology, and author Alexis Pauline Gumbs cover a wide array of subjects— from sex work to climate change, from race and gender to sex and drugs—creating new narratives about how politics can feel good and how what feels good always has a complex politics of its own.
Building on the success of her popular Emergent Strategy, brown launches a new series of the same name with this volume, bringing readers books that explore experimental, expansive, and innovative ways to meet the challenges that face our world today. Books that find the opportunity in every crisis!
Drawing on the black feminist tradition, including Audre Lourde’s invitation to use the erotic as power and Toni Cade Bambara’s exhortation that we make the revolution irresistible, the contributors to this volume take up the challenge to rethink the ground rules of activism. Writers including Cara Page of the Astraea Lesbian Foundation For Justice, Sonya Renee Taylor, founder of This Body Is Not an Apology, and author Alexis Pauline Gumbs cover a wide array of subjects— from sex work to climate change, from race and gender to sex and drugs—creating new narratives about how politics can feel good and how what feels good always has a complex politics of its own.
Building on the success of her popular Emergent Strategy, brown launches a new series of the same name with this volume, bringing readers books that explore experimental, expansive, and innovative ways to meet the challenges that face our world today. Books that find the opportunity in every crisis!
441 pages, Paperback
First published February 26, 2019
About the author
Adrienne Maree Brown
26 books2,529 followersadrienne maree brown is the author of Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds and the co-editor of Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction from Social Justice Movements. She is the cohost of the How to Survive the End of the World and Octavia’s Parables podcasts. adrienne is rooted in Detroit.
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February 16, 2020
Pleasure Activism is a collection of essays, interviews, poetry, and art composed and/or collected by adrienne maree brown. The structure and organization of the book is well thought out as it spaces each of these mediums apart so that the reader is not over-saturated. The book is very Queer and trans- inclusive and most of the entries and interviews are with women, gender non conforming, and/or* trans people of color. There is one somewhat academic essay but the rest of the entries involve people from a variety of backgrounds from art and performance to on the ground street activism. This makes the book very accessible to a wider audience.
"Pleasure activists believe that by tapping into the potential goodness in each of us we can generate justice and liberation, growing a healing abundance where we have been socialized to believe only scarcity exists" -adrienne maree brown, Introduction
I should have know from the cover- which depicts many species of animals having sex and the title- that this book would be largely about sex. However, the blurb about this book led me to believe that the book would be a more expansive discussion of "(making) social justice the most pleasurable experience." The book is not only about sex but the vast majority of it is focused on sexual pleasure and relationships. There is a small section on drugs, performance art, fashion, and parenting (which still often center sex and sexuality.)
I have spent a lot of time in Queer communities where sex was everywhere and the center of everything. So, I understand why a Queer writer would choose to focus so much on that. But, to be honest, I wanted more. I wanted larger discussions (though there are brief mentions) about how social justice activism is often so punishing and how to form better (sexual AND nonsexual) relationships with each other. I wanted sections on how to actually make activism more pleasurable, fun, and creatuve since activism is in the title. I wanted more discussion on all of the different ways we can find pleasure and how to find them. This was actually detailed wonderfully in the short outro at the end of the book. I wish the rest of the book showed the same amount of diversity in topics. Is simply having pleasure in your personal life "activism?" Where are the discussions of pleasure for people who are isolated from social activities due to disability, illness, geographical location, class, lack of accessibility of sexual partners (re: pretty privilege, etc?) How can we make life more pleasurable for those who lack access?
It feels necessary to explain a little where I am coming from in order for my criticism to make sense. I went from being a very active polyamorous Queer in radical, BDSM, and/or activist communities, that were very saturated with sex and play at all times, to being a deliberately single and celibate person focusing on platonic friendships without sex. I spent far more time in the former category but I've been doing the latter for years now. I am chronically ill/disabled and this plus having a lot of harmful and traumatic relationship experiences led me to choose my current path. I also have been sober for about 14 years due to addiction and it is near impossible to find any social and pleasure-oriented spaces for Queers where the majority of people there are not intoxicated- arguably beyond the ability to properly consent. It really sucks when you make a connection with someone who doesn't remember you the next day. It sucks when you get a dirty look asking about how much someone was drinking/using drugs before agreeing to something sexual with them, even though you are doing so to make sure you don't harm them. Intoxication and hypersexuality is the norm in most Queer spaces, even if it isn't in the normative world. So, a book that is basically only encouraging sex and getting high as forms of pleasure activism is a disappointment to me.
This is covered in places, such as in Micha Cárdenas' essay, Beyond Trans Desire, in which she states, "I have in recent years been able to build a deep self-love and self-respect that I did not learn from queer communities or radical political communities, where I often felt further devalued, excluded, and objectified. I have found a refuge in people committed to healing, service, and sobriety and that gave me the tools to question my desire and my part in putting myself in situations that caused me to feel devalued." So, in brown's inclusion of others words for portions of the book, she did cover more bases.
Brown does indeed briefly discuss celibacy and other topics. Brown does mention that drug use can turn into addiction. But, for the most part, she centers her own experience in what pleasure is. She tells the reader to masterbate, have an orgasm before each chapter, she tells the reader to smoke up, etc. This did not feel very inclusive of those of us who cannot, do not, struggle with, or or do not want to do those things. Weed is generally very safe in comparison to drugs like alcohol or heroin, but it's still dangerous or some of us- especially those of us with addiction histories or problems with/risks of developing psychosis. What about those of us who want pleasure in a sober setting? The sections on drugs make it seem like sober settings dominate and oppress which is not true. The vast majority of Queer and other social situations are dominated by alcohol and other drugs which deprives those of us who don't want to be around that from social pleasure.
I do want to say though that it is likely that the focus on drugs and sex in liberatory ways come from a society and government that still punishes people for enjoying sex and which still criminalizes drugs in heinous and murderous ways. These are both things that must be combated at all costs. The harm reduction interview in the drug section was excellent and there is absolutely a place for all of brown's essays and advice on sex and sexuality. I simply wanted more accessibility and variety.
I also have mixed feelings about the use of footnotes in this book. This is nit-picky, I know. But, the level of distraction warrants comment. There were times that the footnotes were excellent and I wished more books would use them in the way she did. For instance, when doing an interview with someone and they would mention something from a book, she would cite the author and book. However, at other times, the footnotes were very distracting. The book begins with an Audre Lorde essay that brown litters with critical footnotes even though many of the criticisms are discussed in the intro already (such as the limits of dated language.) In contrast, a later article pins "women and femmes" (will this phrase die in 2019, please) against "men and masculine people" listing all of the ways apparently only feminine people suffer sexual assault, gendered oppression, exploitation and abuse in sex work, etc but butch and androgynous women and transmasculine people are apparently both responsible for the same oppression that cishet men force upon sex workers while also not being victims themselves of said oppression. I am the first person to want to discuss to rampant problems with toxic masculinity in Queer communities. But, denying the trauma, work, and lived experiences of gender non-conforming women and trans people and placing them in the same oppressive role of cishet men who exploit sex workers is not how you do it. Erasing butch and androgynous women from the category of women and acting as if transmasculine sex workers don't exist is not how you do it. (I've known many trans men sex workers who not only exist, but also are often present themselves as women for their clients out of necessity and demand and thus are treated with the similar oppression cis and trans women face.) There were no footnotes from brown on this article nor were there any on other articles that made some iffy statements. This would be fine if the book was just a collection of essays with differing opinions. But, if you're going to criticize Lorde for having some general terms and dated language on an essay from 1978, I hope you're going to treat the people who are alive and writing today the same way.
Now that I have been honest about where I am coming from and why this book did not always work for me in the ways I had hoped, I want to talk about the ways that it does work for me. And, I want to state again, that this review is largely about my own taste and is not to say that others would no get exactly what they need from the book, which is why I still gave it a high rating.
As I mentioned, this book is very Queer and inclusive of many Queer identities and genders. It centers Black and Brown women and/or trans people in very accessible ways. It offers some great lessons regarding sexual and romantic relationships and harm reduction. It contains excellent and engaging interviews with amazing people. Brown's own contributions are always beautifully and kindly written and easy to read.
One of my favorite parts about "Pleasure Activism" is brown's very wise lessons on boundaries, moderation, knowing that you are deserving, and discovering balance. I bookmarked pages over and over where brown discusses how to create, hold, convey, and feel comfortable with and deserving of boundaries. While they are often described in relation to sexual and romantic relationships, the lessons are applicable to all areas of life. Here are a few gems:
"Your no makes way for your yes. Boundaries create the contain within which your yes is authentic. Being able to say no makes yes a choice." -amb, Introduction
"Don't compromise your core values, don't giggle at something you find ignorant or offensive. But, don't hang up because this human with a different life than you has reached different conclusions." -amb, It's About Your Game
"Set generative boundaries. Create mutual abundance. I envision generative boundaries as organic fences, made of stacked rocks or thick bushes that become home to millions of small creature families. Porous, breathing boundaries that are clear that mark the space between partners in ways that make them both feel abundant." -amb, Liberated Relationships, Expanded
For people who are interested in entering into or who are already part of what can be a wonderful world of multi-partnered Queer filth (I mean this in every great sense of the word,) brown offers a great deal of useful relationship, sex, and dating advice. She also offers a lot of information on solo sexual pleasure. I thoroughly enjoyed her discussion of why she likes being "a second," meaning a non-primary partner to someone. I have always felt this way and sought out that position frequently when I was dating and hooking up, but had not seen many other people write about it in the way that brown has.
The "Hot and Heavy Homework" assignments were helpful and fun editions to the essays. They are all creative and different from what I have often seen in relationship or self help books. They are also assignments accessible to a wide range of needs.
The collection of essays titled "Skills for Sex in the #metoo Era" was my favorite in the book. I adored and devoured each essay in the section. If you are a person who skips around in anthologies like this, be sure to check out that section.
Finally, I must say that even though I have my critiques how much of the book centered on sexual pleasure and drugs, this book did inspire me to open up a bit and ask myself questions about my future in regards to relationships. Perhaps that was part of why so much of it was so hard for me. So, please keep in mind after reading my review that my process is not the same as your process and both of our processes are ok. I can see a great many people- including my younger self- getting a great deal of what they need from this book. So, I do recommend giving it a read. There is a lot of great stuff in here from brown and other important voices.
________________
*I say "women and/or trans people" to denote a group of people including people who may be women, other trans people, or both women and trans. Trans women are women. We still lack a great phrase for the inclusion of marginalized and oppressed genders, but I refuse to use "women and femmes" for reasons which I describe in this article and an author describes well here.
*I am updating this review with this article which is even better than the other one. I am going to say "marginalized genders" for the most part now.
This was also posted to my blog.
"Pleasure activists believe that by tapping into the potential goodness in each of us we can generate justice and liberation, growing a healing abundance where we have been socialized to believe only scarcity exists" -adrienne maree brown, Introduction
I should have know from the cover- which depicts many species of animals having sex and the title- that this book would be largely about sex. However, the blurb about this book led me to believe that the book would be a more expansive discussion of "(making) social justice the most pleasurable experience." The book is not only about sex but the vast majority of it is focused on sexual pleasure and relationships. There is a small section on drugs, performance art, fashion, and parenting (which still often center sex and sexuality.)
I have spent a lot of time in Queer communities where sex was everywhere and the center of everything. So, I understand why a Queer writer would choose to focus so much on that. But, to be honest, I wanted more. I wanted larger discussions (though there are brief mentions) about how social justice activism is often so punishing and how to form better (sexual AND nonsexual) relationships with each other. I wanted sections on how to actually make activism more pleasurable, fun, and creatuve since activism is in the title. I wanted more discussion on all of the different ways we can find pleasure and how to find them. This was actually detailed wonderfully in the short outro at the end of the book. I wish the rest of the book showed the same amount of diversity in topics. Is simply having pleasure in your personal life "activism?" Where are the discussions of pleasure for people who are isolated from social activities due to disability, illness, geographical location, class, lack of accessibility of sexual partners (re: pretty privilege, etc?) How can we make life more pleasurable for those who lack access?
It feels necessary to explain a little where I am coming from in order for my criticism to make sense. I went from being a very active polyamorous Queer in radical, BDSM, and/or activist communities, that were very saturated with sex and play at all times, to being a deliberately single and celibate person focusing on platonic friendships without sex. I spent far more time in the former category but I've been doing the latter for years now. I am chronically ill/disabled and this plus having a lot of harmful and traumatic relationship experiences led me to choose my current path. I also have been sober for about 14 years due to addiction and it is near impossible to find any social and pleasure-oriented spaces for Queers where the majority of people there are not intoxicated- arguably beyond the ability to properly consent. It really sucks when you make a connection with someone who doesn't remember you the next day. It sucks when you get a dirty look asking about how much someone was drinking/using drugs before agreeing to something sexual with them, even though you are doing so to make sure you don't harm them. Intoxication and hypersexuality is the norm in most Queer spaces, even if it isn't in the normative world. So, a book that is basically only encouraging sex and getting high as forms of pleasure activism is a disappointment to me.
This is covered in places, such as in Micha Cárdenas' essay, Beyond Trans Desire, in which she states, "I have in recent years been able to build a deep self-love and self-respect that I did not learn from queer communities or radical political communities, where I often felt further devalued, excluded, and objectified. I have found a refuge in people committed to healing, service, and sobriety and that gave me the tools to question my desire and my part in putting myself in situations that caused me to feel devalued." So, in brown's inclusion of others words for portions of the book, she did cover more bases.
Brown does indeed briefly discuss celibacy and other topics. Brown does mention that drug use can turn into addiction. But, for the most part, she centers her own experience in what pleasure is. She tells the reader to masterbate, have an orgasm before each chapter, she tells the reader to smoke up, etc. This did not feel very inclusive of those of us who cannot, do not, struggle with, or or do not want to do those things. Weed is generally very safe in comparison to drugs like alcohol or heroin, but it's still dangerous or some of us- especially those of us with addiction histories or problems with/risks of developing psychosis. What about those of us who want pleasure in a sober setting? The sections on drugs make it seem like sober settings dominate and oppress which is not true. The vast majority of Queer and other social situations are dominated by alcohol and other drugs which deprives those of us who don't want to be around that from social pleasure.
I do want to say though that it is likely that the focus on drugs and sex in liberatory ways come from a society and government that still punishes people for enjoying sex and which still criminalizes drugs in heinous and murderous ways. These are both things that must be combated at all costs. The harm reduction interview in the drug section was excellent and there is absolutely a place for all of brown's essays and advice on sex and sexuality. I simply wanted more accessibility and variety.
I also have mixed feelings about the use of footnotes in this book. This is nit-picky, I know. But, the level of distraction warrants comment. There were times that the footnotes were excellent and I wished more books would use them in the way she did. For instance, when doing an interview with someone and they would mention something from a book, she would cite the author and book. However, at other times, the footnotes were very distracting. The book begins with an Audre Lorde essay that brown litters with critical footnotes even though many of the criticisms are discussed in the intro already (such as the limits of dated language.) In contrast, a later article pins "women and femmes" (will this phrase die in 2019, please) against "men and masculine people" listing all of the ways apparently only feminine people suffer sexual assault, gendered oppression, exploitation and abuse in sex work, etc but butch and androgynous women and transmasculine people are apparently both responsible for the same oppression that cishet men force upon sex workers while also not being victims themselves of said oppression. I am the first person to want to discuss to rampant problems with toxic masculinity in Queer communities. But, denying the trauma, work, and lived experiences of gender non-conforming women and trans people and placing them in the same oppressive role of cishet men who exploit sex workers is not how you do it. Erasing butch and androgynous women from the category of women and acting as if transmasculine sex workers don't exist is not how you do it. (I've known many trans men sex workers who not only exist, but also are often present themselves as women for their clients out of necessity and demand and thus are treated with the similar oppression cis and trans women face.) There were no footnotes from brown on this article nor were there any on other articles that made some iffy statements. This would be fine if the book was just a collection of essays with differing opinions. But, if you're going to criticize Lorde for having some general terms and dated language on an essay from 1978, I hope you're going to treat the people who are alive and writing today the same way.
Now that I have been honest about where I am coming from and why this book did not always work for me in the ways I had hoped, I want to talk about the ways that it does work for me. And, I want to state again, that this review is largely about my own taste and is not to say that others would no get exactly what they need from the book, which is why I still gave it a high rating.
As I mentioned, this book is very Queer and inclusive of many Queer identities and genders. It centers Black and Brown women and/or trans people in very accessible ways. It offers some great lessons regarding sexual and romantic relationships and harm reduction. It contains excellent and engaging interviews with amazing people. Brown's own contributions are always beautifully and kindly written and easy to read.
One of my favorite parts about "Pleasure Activism" is brown's very wise lessons on boundaries, moderation, knowing that you are deserving, and discovering balance. I bookmarked pages over and over where brown discusses how to create, hold, convey, and feel comfortable with and deserving of boundaries. While they are often described in relation to sexual and romantic relationships, the lessons are applicable to all areas of life. Here are a few gems:
"Your no makes way for your yes. Boundaries create the contain within which your yes is authentic. Being able to say no makes yes a choice." -amb, Introduction
"Don't compromise your core values, don't giggle at something you find ignorant or offensive. But, don't hang up because this human with a different life than you has reached different conclusions." -amb, It's About Your Game
"Set generative boundaries. Create mutual abundance. I envision generative boundaries as organic fences, made of stacked rocks or thick bushes that become home to millions of small creature families. Porous, breathing boundaries that are clear that mark the space between partners in ways that make them both feel abundant." -amb, Liberated Relationships, Expanded
For people who are interested in entering into or who are already part of what can be a wonderful world of multi-partnered Queer filth (I mean this in every great sense of the word,) brown offers a great deal of useful relationship, sex, and dating advice. She also offers a lot of information on solo sexual pleasure. I thoroughly enjoyed her discussion of why she likes being "a second," meaning a non-primary partner to someone. I have always felt this way and sought out that position frequently when I was dating and hooking up, but had not seen many other people write about it in the way that brown has.
The "Hot and Heavy Homework" assignments were helpful and fun editions to the essays. They are all creative and different from what I have often seen in relationship or self help books. They are also assignments accessible to a wide range of needs.
The collection of essays titled "Skills for Sex in the #metoo Era" was my favorite in the book. I adored and devoured each essay in the section. If you are a person who skips around in anthologies like this, be sure to check out that section.
Finally, I must say that even though I have my critiques how much of the book centered on sexual pleasure and drugs, this book did inspire me to open up a bit and ask myself questions about my future in regards to relationships. Perhaps that was part of why so much of it was so hard for me. So, please keep in mind after reading my review that my process is not the same as your process and both of our processes are ok. I can see a great many people- including my younger self- getting a great deal of what they need from this book. So, I do recommend giving it a read. There is a lot of great stuff in here from brown and other important voices.
________________
*I say "women and/or trans people" to denote a group of people including people who may be women, other trans people, or both women and trans. Trans women are women. We still lack a great phrase for the inclusion of marginalized and oppressed genders, but I refuse to use "women and femmes" for reasons which I describe in this article and an author describes well here.
*I am updating this review with this article which is even better than the other one. I am going to say "marginalized genders" for the most part now.
This was also posted to my blog.
March 30, 2019
Enjoyed the last quarter of the book and some essays along the way but felt mostly like a missed opportunity to go deeper into nonsexual pleasures and explore the dynamic nature of pleasure in all kinds of bodies. Food in particular felt like a glaring omission in a supposedly fat positive book. Also in general lots of assumptions about the universality of sexual experiences and pleasures. Missing an understanding of asexuality, of disability, and of sexual trauma that doesn't just get immediately healed into sexual liberation.
March 28, 2019
I designed a course called Subversive Joy: Writing the Senses as Resistance and am teaching it for the first time this semester. I have been following adrienne maree brown now for a few years and love her work, so I was delighted to see this new book, even though it wasn’t ready for me to teach directly from this semester. The synchronicity between my syllabus and the pleasure politics outlined in the book was amazing - Uses of the Erotic and Joan Morgan’s Black Scholar essay, How We Get Off mirrored the foundation of my course! And this book, along with the many beautiful voices and stories it tells, anchored me during a time when I encountered serious pushback in class from a student who was not used to celebrating Black women; he was so uncomfortable talking about our joy that he dropped the class! Anyway, reading this collection helped me find the courage to re-affirm my right to empower myself and to empower young women of color. We are not mules of the world. We deserve joy and beauty and pleasure that makes our hearts soar. This book is a manifesto. I hope to make it the centerpiece of my syllabus next Spring.
November 9, 2020
What are the main ideas?
- liberation work must be driven by pleasure, not by avoidance of pain or harm.
- many of us doing justice work have forgotten the above. we are activated by making things less bad for people (including ourselves). however, if we don’t actually know what pleasure feels like, we could fight against bad things forever and never actually know (a) what liberation feels like and (b) if we’re actually getting closer.
- if it doesn’t feel good, it’s not sustainable. period.
- oppressive systems thrive by removing people’s ability to pleasure themselves. they create dependency on the system. it is liberatory to remember that we can please ourselves
If I implemented one idea from this book right now, which one would it be?
freedom and liberation must be measured by how much pleasure we are able to feel and create, not by how little bad we experience. i need to develop a more finely tuned pleasure barometer/sensor.
How would I describe the book to a friend?
this book is the upgrade to emergent strategy that we didn’t even know we needed. even if we just organized ourselves and did the hot and heavy homework, we’d all be free WAY faster than all the other “social justice” "work" we’re doing.
- liberation work must be driven by pleasure, not by avoidance of pain or harm.
- many of us doing justice work have forgotten the above. we are activated by making things less bad for people (including ourselves). however, if we don’t actually know what pleasure feels like, we could fight against bad things forever and never actually know (a) what liberation feels like and (b) if we’re actually getting closer.
- if it doesn’t feel good, it’s not sustainable. period.
- oppressive systems thrive by removing people’s ability to pleasure themselves. they create dependency on the system. it is liberatory to remember that we can please ourselves
If I implemented one idea from this book right now, which one would it be?
freedom and liberation must be measured by how much pleasure we are able to feel and create, not by how little bad we experience. i need to develop a more finely tuned pleasure barometer/sensor.
How would I describe the book to a friend?
this book is the upgrade to emergent strategy that we didn’t even know we needed. even if we just organized ourselves and did the hot and heavy homework, we’d all be free WAY faster than all the other “social justice” "work" we’re doing.
July 5, 2024
A great book grounded in Black feminist thought, I appreciated a lot of the essays and interviews for their pro-fat liberation, anti-white supremacist, sex positive vibes. I think it’s a step in the right direction to take a strengths-based approach to social justice and recognize that enjoying pleasure is part of the social justice movement too, especially because pleasure has been taken away from many marginalized communities. I liked the overall mindful presence of this book too, about how it’s not just about pleasure in excess but each of us figuring out what feels right for us. As someone who’s oriented a bit toward self-denial and rigid discipline this book was a nice reminder to be present for moments of pleasure, whether that be bodily, intellectual, or connective.
Sometimes I found some of the pieces tangential or circumstantial, though I don’t think adrienne maree brown necessarily wanted something different from that. Some powerful writing in this collection about the intersection of pleasure with disability and healing from sexual trauma, too.
Sometimes I found some of the pieces tangential or circumstantial, though I don’t think adrienne maree brown necessarily wanted something different from that. Some powerful writing in this collection about the intersection of pleasure with disability and healing from sexual trauma, too.
November 26, 2024
This book was written for Adrienne Maree Brown by Adrienne Maree Brown. It was an excuse to interview people she likes and admires, and an excuse to talk about how woke she is.
I'm not saying that's a bad thing. On the contrary, sex positivity is something that is sorely lacked. Sex isn't something a lot of people are comfortable talking about... even with their romantic partner(s). And there were some bits in this book I enjoyed: the pole dancer who loves what they do; the unpacking of polygamy and how it isn't a bad thing as long as you communicate, check in with each other, and work at it; the importance of masterbation for a healthy relationship with yourself and your sexual partners. But all-in-all the book was... just... boring? That feels like a ridiculous thing to say about a book called Pleasure Activism, but there it is. I thought this book was boring. I don't care about how much Adrienne Maree Brown loves herself, because I don't know her, and her "journey" and the "journeys" of the people she interviews weren't written with any real flare. They just sort of... plopped.
Pleasure Activism reminds me of a writing assignment your therapist gives you. It's great to do for yourself, sometimes good to share with friends and get their perspectives... hell, you might even write their perspectives down. But, in truth, no one actually cares, so keep it to yourself.
I'm not saying that's a bad thing. On the contrary, sex positivity is something that is sorely lacked. Sex isn't something a lot of people are comfortable talking about... even with their romantic partner(s). And there were some bits in this book I enjoyed: the pole dancer who loves what they do; the unpacking of polygamy and how it isn't a bad thing as long as you communicate, check in with each other, and work at it; the importance of masterbation for a healthy relationship with yourself and your sexual partners. But all-in-all the book was... just... boring? That feels like a ridiculous thing to say about a book called Pleasure Activism, but there it is. I thought this book was boring. I don't care about how much Adrienne Maree Brown loves herself, because I don't know her, and her "journey" and the "journeys" of the people she interviews weren't written with any real flare. They just sort of... plopped.
Pleasure Activism reminds me of a writing assignment your therapist gives you. It's great to do for yourself, sometimes good to share with friends and get their perspectives... hell, you might even write their perspectives down. But, in truth, no one actually cares, so keep it to yourself.
May 14, 2019
This was a super amazing book, more non-sexual pleasure stuff would have been nice to see, but my main issue is small but repeated food moralizing (once the literal phrase "eating clean") - what a devastating sentiment to bring to pleasure activism! A really distracting bummer to find in 3 separate places in the book, but outside of that, really really invaluable conversations, interviews, and short essays around pleasure, intent, growth, dreaming, joy, and non-capitalism-based self care.
August 5, 2020
This book was a major miss for me. I think it had a wonderful foundation of ideas, but never culminated into a fully formed text. Super scattered and many assumptions made; about sex, consent, and queer culture. I felt like it offered a skim of all of these topics- while actually leaving someone who lives these identities feeling kinda violated. It is a slice of life for this particular time- perhaps a slice that isn’t appealing or particularly thoughtful or researched. Where is the editor? What is the text; self help, essays, poetry? It offers so much in the intro, and never makes good on those promises. So sorry to be blunt -but I felt icky after this one. Not everyone wants to orgasm after each chapter, I’m not puritanical— some of us are survivors and need more nuance. Next....
February 12, 2020
Every year I declare it the Year of *something* or other, and this year is the Year of Pleasure. For me, this means, mostly, being in my body for moments of wonder, awe, curiosity, and pride. Eating something delicious, watching the sun rise or set, the feeling of rain drops or wind on my face. It might be a moment of gender euphoria, of feeling utterly safe, of letting myself rest or asking for what I need without guilt or shame. It might be expressing anger, letting myself cry, showing vulnerability. Even being wrong or causing a small harm can result in the pleasure of taking accountability, regardless of whether there is a "positive" outcome. Boundaries, even those that come from hurt, can be result in pleasure. Year of Pleasure is about presence in embodied feeling and action—even when the feeling or action is a difficult one.
I have a trauma history and have struggled with mental illness all my life. I'm poor. I live with disabling chronic pain. I was raised Catholic, where pleasure is literally a sin. Pleasure has been both hard to come by and hard to even recognize. I've spent most of my life dissociated, anxious, and suffering. Pain, whether physical or emotional, destroys pleasure right at the root. I had to ask myself a year or two ago, What even is pleasure? I wanted to find ways to live, and be alive, in a body of pain, a traumatized, mentally ill body and be able to experience, fully, moments of pleasure.
So I was pretty excited to get my hands on a book about centering pleasure as a political act!
I was bummed at how much of this book focused on sex and of how repetitive the content was. Sex is great and sexual pleasure is a topic that definitely deserves attention and for those looking specifically for that, I think the book will be, for the most part *cough-cough* a pleasure. For those of you looking for a more diverse representation of pleasure as activism, as well as a book that goes deeper into the topic and presents different viewpoints and experiences, I imagine there will be some disappointment.
Which brings me to the reason for my exceptionally low rating. In the interview with Sami Schalk, Brown asks Schalk, a self-described "non-disabled ally," to tell her, and I quote "what can people with disabilities teach all humans about pleasure?"
Full stop for a minute here. I want you to imagine that she included in this book an interview with a cisgender "trans ally" and asked "what can transgender people teach all humans about pleasure?" How about a hetero answering what gays teach about pleasure (actually I'm sure this would be hilarious)? You get my drift. Not to mention that there was no representation from sick, chronically ill and/or disabled people.
The only appropriate answer to this question is "Ask them."
It is never, ever okay to ask someone not part of a marginalized group to speak on behalf of that group. It is not ally-ship to speak on behalf of a marginalized group. HOW AM I HAVING TO POINT THIS OUT?
Disability is so routinely off peoples' radar that even folks like Brown and Schalk, who seem to have wonderful politics, missed something so utterly basic. I have no doubt that Brown will, as she says in the book, keep growing and learning and I won't hold it against her personally, but damn it's a disappointment.
January 30, 2020
This book might have been really great if the author was able to string coherent thoughts together and write in a linear, cohesive fashion which followed the rules of logic. Instead, she wrote paragraphs with broad sweeping assertions which she neglected to support with examples or arguments. Based on fact one, she would then say therefore, totally unrelated fact two. If my life experience happened to support her assertions I found myself nodding along, but if not, then I was wondering how the heck she could prove that or why she thought a certain assertion was true. The interviews were terribly done and extremely unprofessional. It was more a series of conversations between people with no context given for the reader for much of what they were discussing. Some of the essays were well written (not the ones written by the author) - but many others seemed pointless and incoherent. The connection between essays was unclear, as was the actual thesis of the book. I believe the definition of pleasure activism itself was over a page long. I read it three times just trying to figure out what her point was. I was often left imagining that the author's portions of the book were just a person getting really stoned and coming to "deep" revelations and writing them down without then going back to edit them while sober. The idea behind what I think she was trying to do was a good one... but the execution was atrocious.
September 10, 2021
This was such interesting reframing around pleasure and how we experience and cultivate it. It was much more academic in tone than I was expecting. It’s a mix of essays, guest essays, and interviews, some of which work better than others but I liked the variety of perspectives. This would have been particularly valuable to have read at the start of my social work career. I’d recommend it to anyone who works in a helping profession.
There is a lot of compassion and grace around trauma and how people with trauma can approach and reclaim pleasure in their lives. Some of the stories shared along these lines could be potentially triggering so exercise care if this is a concern.
The author is forthright about recreational drug use as one of the ways she experiences pleasure. I wish she’d spent at least some time acknowledging that drugs can become addictions, especially since she mentioned having an addictive personality herself. To each their own but I struggled with this part of the conversation as a result. In fact, I skipped most of section 4 about recreational drug use. I was glad, however, for the inclusion of Malachi Garza’s essay which addresses marijuana and incarceration and the inequity of its legalization in terms of white people taking advantage of the market when POC have been punished for so many decades.
There is a lot of compassion and grace around trauma and how people with trauma can approach and reclaim pleasure in their lives. Some of the stories shared along these lines could be potentially triggering so exercise care if this is a concern.
The author is forthright about recreational drug use as one of the ways she experiences pleasure. I wish she’d spent at least some time acknowledging that drugs can become addictions, especially since she mentioned having an addictive personality herself. To each their own but I struggled with this part of the conversation as a result. In fact, I skipped most of section 4 about recreational drug use. I was glad, however, for the inclusion of Malachi Garza’s essay which addresses marijuana and incarceration and the inequity of its legalization in terms of white people taking advantage of the market when POC have been punished for so many decades.
December 2, 2024
I realized, about a third of the way into this book, that I picked it up wanting a book primarily about activism, and instead was reading a book primarily about pleasure. I think the book I wanted maybe was one that would have been titled "Sustainable Activism" or maybe "Joyful Activism". After I re-framed my expectations, there was a lot of value in this collection. I liked how it was composed of many different short sections by a very diverse array of authors. I liked how many of the authors seemed to know each other, to have worked at overlapping organizations, to be friends. It gave me the sense of a whole network of people working to make the world a more equitable and pleasurable place. I enjoyed the interview with the owner of a sex toy shop; with an indigenous activist and comedian who protested at Standing Rock, and with two sisters on the theme of burlesque as liberation. Many of the sections that focused on pussy power/sex acts spoke to me less; as an aromantic, asexual person, sex is just not one of the main avenues of pleasure in my life. My suggestion is to treat this book like a buffet, reading the chapters speak to you and skipping the ones that don't.
March 31, 2022
The thesis statement of the book was “how do we make social justice the most pleasurable human experience?” However, upon finishing it, I think the mission statement would better be written as “how do we make the most pleasurable human experience into social justice?” This is a fine goal imo (politicize sex!), but not what I was told the subject of the book would be, and that is incredibly disappointing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m here for Uses Of The Erotic. I just feel like the idea behind that text was to use the potential energy made possible by the erotic in like, other contexts? Like…….activism. I would love to hear about how to make organizing conversations more pleasurable, or how to maintain morale and commitment during a long direct action. There are brief indications of a somatic metaphor between the pleasure politics of sexual/romantic relationships and those of building a coalition of movement groups and organizing hubs—I could’ve gone for a whole book of that. I just think it’s an absolute waste for the author, who obviously has a very substantial background with organizing and movement strategy, to focus on basically everything *but* that organizing history in the discussion of pleasure. Yes, the personal is political, but it’s not ALL the political is.
July 29, 2019
I had so many positive visceral and cognitive reactions while reading this collection of essays and conversations about pleasure. During the first chapter I was wondering aloud, "have I found my bible?" I had never before had so many of my beliefs recognized and expanded upon all in one place.
Within the first pages, the author, Adrienne Maree Brown, had outlined the Pleasure Principles:
-What you pay attention to grows
-We become what we practice
-Yes is the way
-When I am happy, it is good for the world
-Make justice and liberation feel good
-Your no makes way for your yes
-Moderation is key
I was so excited by this list and the explanations of each piece that I was nearly shouting them to anyone who would listen.
The pleasure the title refers to is usually sexual pleasure and sometimes pleasure from substances, relationships, and a few other life affirming experiences. By the end, I personally felt like the pleasures of food, humor and art were missing but what is included is still wonderful.
One of my favorite pieces in this book, along with the opening chapter, is by Amita Swadhin titled, "Pleasure After Childhood Sexual Abuse." It was devastating, encouraging, very well written and contained one of my favorite definitions from the book, "there is a difference between hedonism that enables dissociation and disconnection versus joy and pleasure that enable presence and intimacy."
By the end of the book I wasn't calling this my bible anymore (I don't have one) but I was still enjoying all of the time I got to spend with thoughtful women and non-binary people who gave so many reasons and ways to experience pleasure.
Within the first pages, the author, Adrienne Maree Brown, had outlined the Pleasure Principles:
-What you pay attention to grows
-We become what we practice
-Yes is the way
-When I am happy, it is good for the world
-Make justice and liberation feel good
-Your no makes way for your yes
-Moderation is key
I was so excited by this list and the explanations of each piece that I was nearly shouting them to anyone who would listen.
The pleasure the title refers to is usually sexual pleasure and sometimes pleasure from substances, relationships, and a few other life affirming experiences. By the end, I personally felt like the pleasures of food, humor and art were missing but what is included is still wonderful.
One of my favorite pieces in this book, along with the opening chapter, is by Amita Swadhin titled, "Pleasure After Childhood Sexual Abuse." It was devastating, encouraging, very well written and contained one of my favorite definitions from the book, "there is a difference between hedonism that enables dissociation and disconnection versus joy and pleasure that enable presence and intimacy."
By the end of the book I wasn't calling this my bible anymore (I don't have one) but I was still enjoying all of the time I got to spend with thoughtful women and non-binary people who gave so many reasons and ways to experience pleasure.
August 19, 2019
Wow wow wow. This book shifted something in me. Never has a book felt this essential since the first time I read This Bridge Called My Back.
August 18, 2019
Phenomenal anthology of radical and liberation-focused essays. Something I have always, always appreciated about adrienne maree brown is that she is so invested in the decentralization/despecialization of knowledge: she knows what she knows, and that’s a whole lot, but she never suggests that she is the most scholarly when it comes to Octavia E. Butler, speculative fiction, Black liberation work, or pleasure activism. She is ALWAYS thanking her teachers and naming the political legacies in which she believes she continues, and I appreciate that so much in a time where social justice work and knowledge is commodified in a particular kind of way that pushes people to prioritize their egos, status, and standing over the actual work and visions of collective liberation.
I will admit that before starting this anthology, I was worried that it would only be about sex and romantic love. Although important topics, I desired deep thinking’s on pleasure being conceptualized in an expansive sense not just in a sex, love, and romance sense (a realm in which we are often taught is the only place “true” pleasure can exist). This anthology does approach pleasure in an expansive sense, and with much exciting variation to think alongside. There’s pleasure and disability justice, substance use, the raising of sexually liberated children, boundary setting and communication, spiritual friendships, somatics, sex work, and so much more. Beautiful book with beautiful thoughts by adrienne maree brown, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Autumn Brown, and Alexis Pauline Gumbs, just to name a few folks. Of course, the anthology’s first essay is a reprint of Audre Lorde’s “Uses of the Erotic.”
Very grateful to have read this book when I did. Recommend each essay in the anthology. Especially recommend reading when you feel hopeless. Does not necessarily remedy it but it surely does enough oftentimes.
I will admit that before starting this anthology, I was worried that it would only be about sex and romantic love. Although important topics, I desired deep thinking’s on pleasure being conceptualized in an expansive sense not just in a sex, love, and romance sense (a realm in which we are often taught is the only place “true” pleasure can exist). This anthology does approach pleasure in an expansive sense, and with much exciting variation to think alongside. There’s pleasure and disability justice, substance use, the raising of sexually liberated children, boundary setting and communication, spiritual friendships, somatics, sex work, and so much more. Beautiful book with beautiful thoughts by adrienne maree brown, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Autumn Brown, and Alexis Pauline Gumbs, just to name a few folks. Of course, the anthology’s first essay is a reprint of Audre Lorde’s “Uses of the Erotic.”
Very grateful to have read this book when I did. Recommend each essay in the anthology. Especially recommend reading when you feel hopeless. Does not necessarily remedy it but it surely does enough oftentimes.
March 3, 2022
[3.5 stars] A collection of essays on various facets of pleasure and desire, curated primarily through a Black queer feminist lens. For me, this book was a mixed reading experience. I connected with a number of points that she raised in the introduction but am not sure if what followed met that promise. A big chunk of the essays are taken from her 2017/2018 Bitch Media columns, so if you're an avid reader of the print and online content like I am, it may seem repetitive. I appreciated how often she discussed the need to bring pleasure and enjoyment into movement building work; the most transformative organizing I've witnessed and been a part of has been rooted in love, hope, and joy for folks' liberation and self-determination rather than in self-flagellating exercises of guilt and shame. I most enjoyed the pieces that discussing pleasure and enjoyment outside of having sex and using drugs (note: I'm sober so skimmed through most of the section on drug use and getting high instead of reading closely). I was also disappointed at the anti-sex work/er views of some pieces included and wish there had been more on disability / from disabled writers.
I think this book provides some foundational language and political analysis if you're new to sexual liberation theory or practice. My favorite pieces were Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha's Care As Pleasure and Amita Swadhin Pleasure After Childhood After Sexual Abuse. I also liked A Pleasure Philosophy (with Ingrid LaFleur); F**k You, Pay Me (on the pleasures of sex work); I Want You, But I'm Triggered (on sex after assault); Conditions of Possibility (with Monique Tula on harm reduction); On The Pleasures of Wardrobe (with Maori Karmael Holmes); and Adornment and Burlesque (with Taja Lindley).
Goodreads Challenge: 33/60
Popsugar Reading Challenge: has been (or you feel like has been) read by everyone but you
Black Women's Reading Challenge: nonfiction by a Black LGBTQ writer
I think this book provides some foundational language and political analysis if you're new to sexual liberation theory or practice. My favorite pieces were Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha's Care As Pleasure and Amita Swadhin Pleasure After Childhood After Sexual Abuse. I also liked A Pleasure Philosophy (with Ingrid LaFleur); F**k You, Pay Me (on the pleasures of sex work); I Want You, But I'm Triggered (on sex after assault); Conditions of Possibility (with Monique Tula on harm reduction); On The Pleasures of Wardrobe (with Maori Karmael Holmes); and Adornment and Burlesque (with Taja Lindley).
Goodreads Challenge: 33/60
Popsugar Reading Challenge: has been (or you feel like has been) read by everyone but you
Black Women's Reading Challenge: nonfiction by a Black LGBTQ writer
September 10, 2019
So grateful for this book and its affirmation that pleasure and sexuality are important, and not frivolous, parts of life. There's a tendency in left communities to treat pleasure as something that inherently amplifies capitalist bullshit, and sexuality/eroticism as inherently traumatic and unredeemable, and the book did a good job of addressing these issues and asserting a place for pleasure and joy.
I wish that there had been more transfeminine voices, though! It was amazing to have so many different perspectives, but that felt lacking.
I wish that there had been more transfeminine voices, though! It was amazing to have so many different perspectives, but that felt lacking.
January 7, 2022
3.5? this was overall enjoyable, but i wanted a lot more in many ways. a lot of my thoughts are worded well in this review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
i wish it’d engaged more w actual politics, maybe a little more theory. there are still so many avenues to be explored and i felt like some of them weren’t given the attention they deserve. maybe it’s partly my straightedge-ness, but i really would’ve loved more exploration of how bodily autonomy doesn’t always mean drug use, and active choice in that regard is important in a multitude of ways beyond (but including!) what feels good. i also was a /little/ disappointed by the lack of discussion of kink/bdsm/power exchange, bc i just think there’s such a wonderful potential for (anarchist) theorizing around consensual playing with power and exploring pleasure in non-normative way.
i like the variety of perspectives amb brought in, and the intentions with which the diversity was handled. wish it’d been a little more intentional with incorporating queer history - it was implied a couple times but never discussed - disability justice, and prison abolition (which i feel like was tangentially mentioned as well but definitely not in depth.) the engagement with sex work was good, but could’ve been a larger thing as well (but maybe i just say that bc i’ve read and written quite a bit on SW as of late.)
i really enjoyed rereading the Lorde essay the book starts with, and also rly liked the pieces regarding pleasure after abuse, it’s smth i have been thinking abt more over the past year or so. also very much had fun with the essays on adornment and empowerment through self-expression in a variety of ways — although i also think that section could’ve benefitted from trans perspectives!!
regardless, overall, 3.5. enjoyable but not groundbreaking for me, and i think u should know what you’re in for before reading.
i wish it’d engaged more w actual politics, maybe a little more theory. there are still so many avenues to be explored and i felt like some of them weren’t given the attention they deserve. maybe it’s partly my straightedge-ness, but i really would’ve loved more exploration of how bodily autonomy doesn’t always mean drug use, and active choice in that regard is important in a multitude of ways beyond (but including!) what feels good. i also was a /little/ disappointed by the lack of discussion of kink/bdsm/power exchange, bc i just think there’s such a wonderful potential for (anarchist) theorizing around consensual playing with power and exploring pleasure in non-normative way.
i like the variety of perspectives amb brought in, and the intentions with which the diversity was handled. wish it’d been a little more intentional with incorporating queer history - it was implied a couple times but never discussed - disability justice, and prison abolition (which i feel like was tangentially mentioned as well but definitely not in depth.) the engagement with sex work was good, but could’ve been a larger thing as well (but maybe i just say that bc i’ve read and written quite a bit on SW as of late.)
i really enjoyed rereading the Lorde essay the book starts with, and also rly liked the pieces regarding pleasure after abuse, it’s smth i have been thinking abt more over the past year or so. also very much had fun with the essays on adornment and empowerment through self-expression in a variety of ways — although i also think that section could’ve benefitted from trans perspectives!!
regardless, overall, 3.5. enjoyable but not groundbreaking for me, and i think u should know what you’re in for before reading.
July 21, 2019
I didn't know how much I needed to read this.
January 5, 2021
what a fitting book to start off 2021! this is a chonky read, but well worth it. there is so much to learn about how we can make room for pleasure in our lives all the time, and adrienne maree brown + all the book contributors start to open that door for us. if you felt called by audre lorde's uses of the erotic, this book will take you further along different pathways about what it means to experience pleasure and then demand no less than a pleasurable, fulfilling life.
i feel particularly called to the parts about developing an embodied connection to pleasure, seeding little pieces of pleasure in our every day lives, nurturing liberated relationships with those around us, and centering pleasure as a key principle in building a just and liberated world. adrienne maree brown shows us that self-actualization and radical love/care/pleasure are central to building new worlds. overall would recommend this read, but there are definitely heavy & possibly triggering topics to take note of before reading, including sexual violence, child sexual abuse, & drug use.
i feel particularly called to the parts about developing an embodied connection to pleasure, seeding little pieces of pleasure in our every day lives, nurturing liberated relationships with those around us, and centering pleasure as a key principle in building a just and liberated world. adrienne maree brown shows us that self-actualization and radical love/care/pleasure are central to building new worlds. overall would recommend this read, but there are definitely heavy & possibly triggering topics to take note of before reading, including sexual violence, child sexual abuse, & drug use.
March 12, 2019
A great book with amazing homework and points of praxis, I definitely see myself returning to this book to refresh myself and realign my desire and pursuit in living a pleasurable life.
The only reason I don’t give it a 5 is because there were a few too many transmisogynist dog whistles (in one essay a contributor uses the term “womyn” rather than “woman”) in this book for my liking. I believe adrienne maree brown herself does a good job of being inclusive in her writing and placing a disclaimer that she is writing from her experience, which I appreciate. That being said, there was a lot of pussy power moments in this book and no space for trans women to speak about their own pleasure. One of the best essays in this collection is, in fact, written by a trans woman, and I believe that essay to be the only one written by a trans woman (“Beyond Trans Desire,” if there’s another essay written by a trans woman in this collection, please let me know). I would have preferred more trans women voices.
The only reason I don’t give it a 5 is because there were a few too many transmisogynist dog whistles (in one essay a contributor uses the term “womyn” rather than “woman”) in this book for my liking. I believe adrienne maree brown herself does a good job of being inclusive in her writing and placing a disclaimer that she is writing from her experience, which I appreciate. That being said, there was a lot of pussy power moments in this book and no space for trans women to speak about their own pleasure. One of the best essays in this collection is, in fact, written by a trans woman, and I believe that essay to be the only one written by a trans woman (“Beyond Trans Desire,” if there’s another essay written by a trans woman in this collection, please let me know). I would have preferred more trans women voices.
September 26, 2019
grounding, transformative, and healing. i want everyone to read this book.
honoring what she calls her political lineage from octavia butler to audre lorde — adrienne maree brown blesses us with data and knowledge around harm reduction, generative boundaries, transformative justice, and other pleasure activism methodologies.
this absolutely rich text held me and asked me where it hurt, told me it's going to be okay, encouraged me to use my unbridled joy as a compass to move through the unjust world.
honoring what she calls her political lineage from octavia butler to audre lorde — adrienne maree brown blesses us with data and knowledge around harm reduction, generative boundaries, transformative justice, and other pleasure activism methodologies.
this absolutely rich text held me and asked me where it hurt, told me it's going to be okay, encouraged me to use my unbridled joy as a compass to move through the unjust world.
April 26, 2021
Una lectura maravillosa y muy necesaria. No solo me ha permitido acercarme al placer desde el activismo —y al activismo desde el placer—, sino que me ha ayudado a hacer un trabajo personal muy profundo que me ha llevado a plantearme muchas cosas.
Además de eso, me ha permitido conocer los nombres de muchas activistas negras centradas en el cuerpo, en el placer y en el buen trato, lo que me ha parecido maravilloso.
Además de eso, me ha permitido conocer los nombres de muchas activistas negras centradas en el cuerpo, en el placer y en el buen trato, lo que me ha parecido maravilloso.
January 10, 2021
Wow wow wow. It took me almost six months to read this book because I spent so much time underlining and trying to soak up the dense goodness in little chunks. Reading this book and learning about pleasure activism has changed the way that I interact with my own desire, my body, and the communities that I am grateful to be apart of. I cried when I finished it. Everyone should read Pleasure Activism.
April 26, 2020
a liberatory, healing text that orients and prioritizes pleasure as a way to lead revolutions (internally and externally). what a restorative book that adm gifted to all of us: a text that i know i'll revisiting to remind myself that leading my life with pleasure will be joyous to not only myself, but also to others.
this book fed my curiosity, my yearning for more radical perspectives on how to simply live(!), and my ultimate goal to find myself (like really find myself)
"center pleasure as an organizing principle"..."take the time to affirm the people and affirm the learning that sometimes masquerades as failure. be unconditional in your committment to movement, be transformational in every area of your life and work, and center pleasure and joy as resistance: laughter, dance, taking time for the relationships"...
"you are a miracle. act like it. don't waste it."
this book fed my curiosity, my yearning for more radical perspectives on how to simply live(!), and my ultimate goal to find myself (like really find myself)
"center pleasure as an organizing principle"..."take the time to affirm the people and affirm the learning that sometimes masquerades as failure. be unconditional in your committment to movement, be transformational in every area of your life and work, and center pleasure and joy as resistance: laughter, dance, taking time for the relationships"...
"you are a miracle. act like it. don't waste it."
Read
February 21, 2021Not the book I thought it was going to be. But like all good things, it landed on my lap just when I needed it. Stretching, funny, provoking, heartbreaking. I need to broaden my meanings of 'erotic' and 'pleasure' - cause now I understand that I am working towards these 2 ideas in my work. Lots of unlearning to do.
March 4, 2020
I found this book wholly disappointing and uninspiring
December 30, 2023
2.5/5
When I came into Black feminist thought I was pulled to sayings like “pleasure is radical”, “rest is revolutionary”, “community will save us” and a lot of other phrases that populate the Black feminist rhetorical wealth. The more time I spent in these spaces the more I become disillusioned by these phrases and the way they were typically invoked. I found that too often they served not as a serious praxis but to work on a sort of feeling politics of affirmation which was often belied by the fact that there was little critical interrogation into the nuances of the expressions. In this light I was excited by the prospect of 'Pleasure Activism': a full text treating the idea of the politics of pleasure. I had read We Will Not Cancel Us: And Other Dreams of Transformative Justice by adrienne marie brown earlier and though it is a work that I think has its own issues it at least to me had an interesting enough thesis for me to feel like brown could utter something new into the Black feminist echo chamber on pleasure. It’s press description says:
These are lofty questions that in actuality the book comes nowhere close to answering.
My faith waned at the beginning of the book when she talked about the book taking as its foundation Audre Lorde’s ‘Uses of the Erotic’: an essay which has seemingly become de rigueur to cite in all Black feminist work on pleasure regardless of how relevant it is to the argument that is being made. In reproducing the entire essay at the beginning of the book she footnotes Lorde’s use of the term ‘women-identified women’ with:
The term ‘women-identified women’ was popular with radical lesbian feminists throughout the 70s as a way to identify women who centred their life around community with other women, which was imagined to have some potentially sapphic slippage. In other words, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that Lorde was not thinking about trans women when she uses that term, which should be obvious to anyone who has any considerable engagement with Lorde’s work or even simply does a close reading of that essay. That brown is not aware of this raises questions about her engagement with the material that she purports to be the wellspring of her work.
Though well-intentioned, brown and the people she brings on to interview in this collection evacuate the pleasure from most of the things they talk about; most especially sex – and sex takes up a lot of the book (which maybe should be expected from its pop art cover of animals copulating). Sex begins to sound like a homily through the suffusive buzzy tone of an anti-septic sex-ed substitute teacher who loves crystals strung across all the essays. Where they were not predictable they were often Procrustean, cruising on assumptions they felt no need to justify. This is where I can acknowledge my bias. Vague spiritual rhetoric grates me, and in this book it animates so many overestimations of the ‘healing’ or ‘radical’ nature of things that are basic and mundane to me. In this vein the book struck me more as self-help than political writing.
A lot of the essays, through no fault of their own, are overly self-contemplative – brown invites these types of contributions as it is effectively structured as a series of interviews between her and people whose voice she admires on pleasure (most of whom the reader has no clue they are). I don’t think this is inherently a problem – I think there is something potentially radical about getting readers to take seriously voices they are unfamiliar with. However, if there is a case to be made for a politics of pleasure, I am not going to be convinced that we will locate it through excessive self-regard. brown’s church of self-contemplative politicized pleasure is a popular one. Movements like Soft Life exemplify how easy it is for marginalized people’s pleasure to be coopted into capitalistic and consumerist logics especially when coupled with uncritical ideas of self-care. Yet brown refuses to interrogate the most necessary questions such as “which pleasures are revolutionary?”, “how might our pleasures be coerced by the very systems she perceives pleasure is liberating us from?”. There is no structural analysis here beyond vague nominal nods that her and her clerks make to the isms and phobias that are conspiratorially imagined to have a vested interest in stopping our pleasure.
This is part of a broader issue of the modern non-academic anthology – those easily producible publishing Frankensteins in which different authors are tapped on to submit work. There is, of course, nothing inherently wrong with the anthology, but so often the social anthology claims to have some sort of thesis that is supposed to be produced from the reader gleaning the connections between the texts. Very rarely do they say something cohesive – often they are just scattered ramblings from different people who might have similar thoughts, but are most certainly not advancing a thesis. In other words, I wish brown called this book something like ‘Musings on Pleasure: Reflections and Conversations With My Friends’ and claimed the book for what it is rather grandiosely trying to pass the text off as something more: from its tagline, blurb, introduction and title – all of which produce a sense of a bigger scope than what is actually offered. I might have been more empathetic to the outcome were this the case. However for what it strives to be this text fell flat for me.
The only essays I personally enjoyed from this collection were Joan Morgan’s 'Why We Get Off: Moving Towards a Black Feminist Politics of Pleasure', 'Fuck You, Pay Me: The Pleasures of Sex Work' by Chanelle Gallant and 'On Fear, Shame, Death and Humour: A Conversation Between the Rocca Family and Zizi'. But from seeing a bunch of other reviews it seems that people were helped in some ways by the ideas in the book and that I think is worth noting.
I expected to be invited into a world of rethinking the potential of pleasure with this one. Instead I found this book itself deeply unpleasurable to read.
When I came into Black feminist thought I was pulled to sayings like “pleasure is radical”, “rest is revolutionary”, “community will save us” and a lot of other phrases that populate the Black feminist rhetorical wealth. The more time I spent in these spaces the more I become disillusioned by these phrases and the way they were typically invoked. I found that too often they served not as a serious praxis but to work on a sort of feeling politics of affirmation which was often belied by the fact that there was little critical interrogation into the nuances of the expressions. In this light I was excited by the prospect of 'Pleasure Activism': a full text treating the idea of the politics of pleasure. I had read We Will Not Cancel Us: And Other Dreams of Transformative Justice by adrienne marie brown earlier and though it is a work that I think has its own issues it at least to me had an interesting enough thesis for me to feel like brown could utter something new into the Black feminist echo chamber on pleasure. It’s press description says:
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?
These are lofty questions that in actuality the book comes nowhere close to answering.
My faith waned at the beginning of the book when she talked about the book taking as its foundation Audre Lorde’s ‘Uses of the Erotic’: an essay which has seemingly become de rigueur to cite in all Black feminist work on pleasure regardless of how relevant it is to the argument that is being made. In reproducing the entire essay at the beginning of the book she footnotes Lorde’s use of the term ‘women-identified women’ with:
I am not able to ask Audre Lorde her intended distinctions here, but I can ask that you as readers consider the text through the lens of her time rather than ours—in this day and age, when I hear “women-identified women,” I can bristle in search of transphobia. This book will in no way support any identity of woman that does not include cis and trans women. The way I want to explore pleasure includes everyone of any gender and all genders who is looking for a different way to be in power with each other and willing to experiment with a feminine, erotic use of power.
The term ‘women-identified women’ was popular with radical lesbian feminists throughout the 70s as a way to identify women who centred their life around community with other women, which was imagined to have some potentially sapphic slippage. In other words, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that Lorde was not thinking about trans women when she uses that term, which should be obvious to anyone who has any considerable engagement with Lorde’s work or even simply does a close reading of that essay. That brown is not aware of this raises questions about her engagement with the material that she purports to be the wellspring of her work.
Though well-intentioned, brown and the people she brings on to interview in this collection evacuate the pleasure from most of the things they talk about; most especially sex – and sex takes up a lot of the book (which maybe should be expected from its pop art cover of animals copulating). Sex begins to sound like a homily through the suffusive buzzy tone of an anti-septic sex-ed substitute teacher who loves crystals strung across all the essays. Where they were not predictable they were often Procrustean, cruising on assumptions they felt no need to justify. This is where I can acknowledge my bias. Vague spiritual rhetoric grates me, and in this book it animates so many overestimations of the ‘healing’ or ‘radical’ nature of things that are basic and mundane to me. In this vein the book struck me more as self-help than political writing.
A lot of the essays, through no fault of their own, are overly self-contemplative – brown invites these types of contributions as it is effectively structured as a series of interviews between her and people whose voice she admires on pleasure (most of whom the reader has no clue they are). I don’t think this is inherently a problem – I think there is something potentially radical about getting readers to take seriously voices they are unfamiliar with. However, if there is a case to be made for a politics of pleasure, I am not going to be convinced that we will locate it through excessive self-regard. brown’s church of self-contemplative politicized pleasure is a popular one. Movements like Soft Life exemplify how easy it is for marginalized people’s pleasure to be coopted into capitalistic and consumerist logics especially when coupled with uncritical ideas of self-care. Yet brown refuses to interrogate the most necessary questions such as “which pleasures are revolutionary?”, “how might our pleasures be coerced by the very systems she perceives pleasure is liberating us from?”. There is no structural analysis here beyond vague nominal nods that her and her clerks make to the isms and phobias that are conspiratorially imagined to have a vested interest in stopping our pleasure.
This is part of a broader issue of the modern non-academic anthology – those easily producible publishing Frankensteins in which different authors are tapped on to submit work. There is, of course, nothing inherently wrong with the anthology, but so often the social anthology claims to have some sort of thesis that is supposed to be produced from the reader gleaning the connections between the texts. Very rarely do they say something cohesive – often they are just scattered ramblings from different people who might have similar thoughts, but are most certainly not advancing a thesis. In other words, I wish brown called this book something like ‘Musings on Pleasure: Reflections and Conversations With My Friends’ and claimed the book for what it is rather grandiosely trying to pass the text off as something more: from its tagline, blurb, introduction and title – all of which produce a sense of a bigger scope than what is actually offered. I might have been more empathetic to the outcome were this the case. However for what it strives to be this text fell flat for me.
The only essays I personally enjoyed from this collection were Joan Morgan’s 'Why We Get Off: Moving Towards a Black Feminist Politics of Pleasure', 'Fuck You, Pay Me: The Pleasures of Sex Work' by Chanelle Gallant and 'On Fear, Shame, Death and Humour: A Conversation Between the Rocca Family and Zizi'. But from seeing a bunch of other reviews it seems that people were helped in some ways by the ideas in the book and that I think is worth noting.
I expected to be invited into a world of rethinking the potential of pleasure with this one. Instead I found this book itself deeply unpleasurable to read.
March 21, 2020
I thought this was an edited book of essays about the revolutionary value of pleasure. And I guess it sort of is. I enjoyed most of it. Many pieces are written by Adrienne Marie brown, and I like her work. The other contributors are great also. My only complaint I guess would be—not that it’s repetitive (although it is a little), but just that the short format doesn’t quite get into a lot of ideas too deeply. I had hoped that pleasure wouldn’t be conflated with sexuality too much, but it sort of was for most of these pieces. I liked that the focus was on mostly black and brown perspectives. I guess I wished that there was more depth to some of the work. Like a couple pieces about #metoo are super short. There’s a piece that talks about aziz ansari for example that talks about what’s bad sex, or what the account by Grace at babe.com could mean—and I had hoped for more expansion about the poverty of language and communication within hookup culture at the very least—but it really didn’t go there. I don’t want to read anything else about consent and the body for a while—I feel like these ideas represent a compulsion to try to render complex ideas about human interactions into materialism. Like the answer to why porn hub’s most searched terms are racist and sexist doesn’t come down to democratizing desire. I don’t want to read more stuff about sensual self care.
I wanted to read about how imperialism and capitalism have contaminated a lot of our capacity for pleasure. I came to this book for more in depth answers than I got i guess.
I still like amb a lot. I’ll probably try her podcast next.
I wanted to read about how imperialism and capitalism have contaminated a lot of our capacity for pleasure. I came to this book for more in depth answers than I got i guess.
I still like amb a lot. I’ll probably try her podcast next.
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