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By Nicole Mazzeo
For two months this winter, I took time off from Pleasure Pie projects to reflect and do some self care. I wanted to check in with myself and my community to make sure that my activism (by “activism,” I mean everything I do with Pleasure Pie, including zine making, having events, giving workshops, writing, etc.) is as effective as possible, and that it’s not unintentionally harmful in any way (and if it is, fix that). When Rape Feels Familiar3/20/2016
By anonymous Pleasure Pie contributor
[Content warning] 
I had a dream last night that I was raped by a neighbor when I visited his house. In the dream I was fifteen years old and he was in his late 30s or early 40s.
Masturbation Zine Call for Submissions!2/22/2016  Art by The Venus Emporium. Find them on Etsy. We’re making a zine about masturbation! Why?
2015 Holiday Gift Guide!12/6/2015  Obviously, the best gift is always a kitten, but if for some reason that’s not enough, we’ve come up with some empowering holiday gift ideas!
Click here to go to the gift guide! If your creations are physical items (zines, books, illustrations, art pieces, worksheets, stickers, etc.)
How to Plan Your Own DIY Workshop10/29/2015 By Nicole Mazzeo  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! By Nicole Mazzeo
[The “Sparknotes” version is at the bottom, for people with limited time/attention spans.] I’m not talking about respect for a person’s right to choose whether or not to continue a pregnancy, or respect for a fetus’s right to life (no comment on either of those right now). I’m talking about respect for people who you disagree with. Your “opponents.” Have you ever heard a pro-choice advocate talk about “pro-lifers”? Or a pro-life advocate talk about … “pro-abortion-ers”? (Or whatever anti-abortion people call pro-choice people.) If so, it’s likely that you’ve heard this done in a way that paints the disagreeing party as bumbling idiots. Not just bumbling idiots, but conniving, deceitful, bumbling idiots with really bad intentions. Sexuality events in Boston in October!9/29/2015  We just put out the October issue of Boston’s Sex Positive Newsletter, which lists all the awesome sexuality-related events we can find in the Boston area. Click here to check it out!
Also, Karen (the Pleasure Pie intern) made this amazing ghost condom graphic. Karen = the best! :D On Abstinence Vows: An Art Plate9/29/2015 The Story Behind “Embrace Pleasure”9/23/2015  Is sex dirty? Is enjoying sex a bad thing? Is it only okay if you always do it with the same person? Or if you’ve made a forever commitment with them?
Why do we have so many restrictions on our sexual enjoyment? What are we afraid might happen if we embrace sexual pleasure?  Come write a letter to your teenage self saying everything you wish you knew about sex (and bodies, relationships, gender, etc.) as a teenager. Then we’ll have an open mic where you can read your letter (if you want to).
Summer Tour Recap!8/21/2015  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!) 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!
Local sex-positive mastermind Kit Stubbs, Ph.D., is in the process of launching [drumroll please…] The Effing Foundation for Sex-Positivity! The Effing Foundation aims to foster sex-positive artists, activists, educators, and entrepreneurs, and celebrate diverse expressions of human sexuality. [Full disclosure: Kit and I are friends and we sometimes collaborate on sex-positive projects.] I sat down with Kit to ask them some questions about their plans for the new nonprofit, how they navigate being a sex-positive activist, and what brought them to sex-positivity in the first place.  One survivor’s reflections:
Sometimes I try to imagine what it would be like to live in a body that wasn’t repeatedly touched, fondled, and/or used without my consent. My relationship to my body has been shaped by all these experiences of people touching me against my will, since I was a kid. When I was raped at age 23, it felt weirdly unsurprising and familiar because I had experienced so much non-consensual sexual touching in my life already. I decided to make a map of my body that shows where people have touched me against my will. |
