Pleasure Pie | Sex-Positive Zines & Activism
  • Home
  • About
    • About Us
    • Projects
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events!
    • Past Events
    • Event Photos
  • Workshops
  • Colleges
  • Shop
    • Etsy Store
    • Wholesale
  • Articles
  • Resources
    • Free Printables!
    • Resources for Sexuality Educators & Activists
    • Boston Area Resources
    • Affirming Therapists for Circumcision Trauma
    • Online Resources

How to Make Your Event Financially Accessible

10/28/2022

 
There is no universal definition of what it means to be financially accessible. What is accessible for one person might be very different from what is accessible for another.

I’ve talked to sex-positive event organizers who see a sliding scale ticket price that starts at $15 as being very financially accessible. My feeling is that even a scale that starts at $1 can be exclusionary for some people. If you’re broke and you’re figuring out where you’re going to spend money in a day, you might have $3 to spend on lunch, and if $1 of that is required for admission to an event that you are really interested in attending, then you're forced to decide between having some crackers (or whatever you can find for $2) and going to the event, or having a bagel (or another $3 lunch) and skipping it.

Read More

Pleasure Pie in 2017!

1/14/2018

 
Picture
​2017 was a tough year for the United States. Like many of you, we here at Pleasure Pie asked ourselves, "WTF should we do?" as things spiraled downward on a national level. Should we drop the sex-positivity stuff and do more direct political engagement? Should we stick to what we know, and push for a culture of consent and healthy sexual expression at a time when the need for this is even more visible than usual (with the "locker room talk" and allegations of sexual assault against so many politicians and celebrities)?

Read More

Anti-Trump Zine Making Station

8/13/2017

 
In November, we made this “Oh God, Oh God, Trump Is Our Next President” zine making station at the local theater company Company One’s production of the feminist play REVOLT. Here are some photos of the zines people made.
Picture

Read More

How to Plan Your Own DIY Workshop

10/29/2015

 
​By Nicole Mazzeo
Picture
You, too can put on a workshop! You don’t need to be an official “educator” or have certification (or even a college degree).
​
You do need passion for the subject and willingness to put time and effort into it. And you should know a good amount about the topic you’re going to cover. I recommend reading things on the internet (or, you know, books) – and fact checking anything you want to use. You can do it!

Read More

Emerging Sex Positive Activist Workshop!

10/15/2015

 
Picture

Read More

Summer Tour Recap!

8/21/2015

 
This August I traveled to Maryland and Virginia to be a part of two sexuality conferences, Amorous Revolt and the Woodhull Sexual Freedom Summit. It was awesome to meet so many people who are passionate about creating a more sexually accepting culture!
Picture
Typing up zine idea suggestions for people who need a little inspiration in my zine making workshop. Thank you to Reid Mihalko for capturing this moment! (And thank you to njoy for letting me use your table space for a moment!)
Picture
A zine someone made in my Sex Positive Zine Making Workshop at Woodhull, inspired by Sarah Mueller’s amazing lube workshop.
Picture
An arty penis zine someone made at my zine making workshop at Woodhull.
Picture
A close up of one artist’s zine.
Picture
The zine I started in my zine making workshop at Woodhull.
Picture
A pep talk I wrote myself when I was feeling anxious at Woodhull. It got cut off because a friend approached me in the middle of it, and I welcomed the external support. I am glad to have been a part of the Woodhull experience, and glad for the effort I made in this moment of anxiety. :)
Picture
My friends at The Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health let me use some of their table space for Pleasure Pie zines, and I am eternally grateful! It was a great opportunity to put my work out there in a community of enthusiastic, supportive sex geeks. Also, I put up the Thoughtful Penis Series on the wall behind the table, because why not? Photo from the CSPH Instagram.
Unfortunately I didn’t think to take any photos at Amorous Revolt, and I haven’t seen any posted on the internet yet. But I’ll post some if I find any!

​Thank you so much to everyone who donated to our Sex Positive Summer Tour fundraiser for making this all possible!!!

Smutty consent performance

9/21/2014

 
I know I’ve written a lot of posts that include the phrase “first ever” and its starting to sound gimmicky. But lately Pleasure Pie has given me a lot of opportunities to try things for the first time. About a week ago, I did my first ever performance!
Picture
Onstage at the Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health’s (CSPH) 3rd annual Smut Night in Providence, RI.
Picture
I wasn’t really sure how I could perform a zine, but the application specifically said that they were accepting zine performances, so I trusted that I could figure it out if I was accepted. I really wasn’t expecting them to accept my application because the description I gave of my performance didn’t sound at all smutty.

But they did! I was psyched because I’ve admired the CSPH’s work for a long time. And I was nervous because it was starting to hit me that I had never performed anything before, and I wasn’t that confident about the concept I submitted to them.

So I started practicing with Eric and we quickly came up with ideas for making it funner and sexier. But those ideas required that I have a second performer. Eric isn’t a performer either, but he agreed to do it with me, so long as I don’t give him many lines.

As the event neared, I started having flashbacks to the time I did a speech about polyamory at an event at Bridgewater State University. I was invited to speak by one of the event planners, but the other people in charge didn’t seem to want me there at all. Their approach to MCing was to goof around and tell borderline sex-negative and body shaming jokes. I think they thought that even a brief speech would be boring. They pretty much told me to get off the stage as quickly as I could. So I went up and started reading from my notes, and the (large) crowd kept chattering. I was really nervous, with it being possibly the first time I ever spoke in front of a crowd, and I felt completely unwanted. I rushed through what I had to say with little to no inflection in my voice, and left the stage wondering whether any of the 100+ people in the room got anything out of it.

In planning for Smut Night I was really worried that I would freeze up again once I got in front of the crowd. I kept telling myself, “Say things with feeling! Be dramatic!” But in our practice sessions, I continued to be monotone because I couldn’t get past the fact that no one was actually watching us.
When the night of the event finally came and Eric and I found ourselves in front of a real audience (which was a thousand times more welcoming and supportive than the one at Bridgewater, by the way) we both got so much energy from the crowd. We went all out with the over the top theatrics. My hands were visibly shaking with nervous and excited energy (someone from the front row later told me they noticed). I even knocked over the mic stand by pulling the microphone too far away during a chaotic fake-make-out scene. We improvised, goofed around, and ogled each other. I told people to buy the zine way too many times. We had a lot of fun, and I think the audience could tell. A bunch of strangers told me afterward that they loved our performance. :)

Also, someone called my zine “a Puritan’s nightmare.” That was fun to hear. I just looked up the definition of Puritan and found “someone who follows a strict moral code and who believes that pleasure is wrong.” I didn’t realize how accurate that review was until now.

Thanks so much to the Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health for putting on a great event and giving us the opportunity to be a part of it!

I’m looking forward to possibly expressing my dramatic inclinations in future performances. Currently brainstorming new Pleasure Pie performance ideas.

    Categories

    All
    Abortion
    Activism
    Adolescence
    Anti Trump
    Art
    Asexuality
    Body Positive
    Communication
    Consent
    Dirty Talk
    Disability
    Erotic
    Events
    Flirting
    Free Printables
    Gender Roles
    Gift Guides
    Global Sexual Rights
    Holidays
    Insecurity
    Intersectionality
    Interviews
    Kink & BDSM
    Masturbation
    Menstruation
    Nipples
    Painful Sex
    Penises
    Personal Stories
    Pleasure
    Politics
    Polyamory
    Queer
    Race
    Relationships
    Sex Letters Project
    Sex Positive Movement Building
    Sex Toys
    Sexual Assault
    Sexual Coercion
    Sexual Dysfunction
    Sexual Health
    Sexual Shame
    Sex Work
    Stickers
    STIs
    Transgender
    Trauma
    Vaginas
    Workshops & Performances
    Zines

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    September 2020
    January 2019
    November 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014

Get Pleasure Pie Emails
PROJECTS
Boston's Sex-Positive Newsletter
zine distro

SHOP
​OUR online STORE

Free stuff
Free printables
Free resources
​FOR UNIVERSITIES
EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS
​
tabling at your event
WORKSHOPS
Wholesale

Free Resources

​Etc.
Get involved​
​events
​
CONTACT
hello@pleasurepie.org
  • Home
  • About
    • About Us
    • Projects
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events!
    • Past Events
    • Event Photos
  • Workshops
  • Colleges
  • Shop
    • Etsy Store
    • Wholesale
  • Articles
  • Resources
    • Free Printables!
    • Resources for Sexuality Educators & Activists
    • Boston Area Resources
    • Affirming Therapists for Circumcision Trauma
    • Online Resources