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. By Christina Bartson
During a recent Sunday brunch with my crew, my girlfriend was retelling her night’s sexscapades and blurted out a now infamous line her guy dropped right before things got hot-and-heavy. They’re making out, and he comes up for air, takes her by the shoulders and says completely seriously, “Ok, wanna make a game plan?” He wanted to make a game plan for sex. We’ve laughed over this a thousand times, and frequently reference it in conversation because it’s funny, sure, but it’s also an ingenious sex-positive concept. A game plan for sex—both parties are collaborating to make decisions together, both people have equal power, both are consenting verbally. It warrants communication, and most importantly, a game plan means a thorough warm up. I’m talking about foreplay—a critical time for partners to turn up the heat and set some game rules. Anyways, you know you play better when you’re properly limbered up. One survivor’s thoughts after a rape. Names have been changed.
Dear James, I’m writing you to share my feelings about our interactions in the past couple of weeks. Some of your actions have been hurtful to me, and I thought that maybe if I put my thoughts into writing, you might be able to see where I’m coming from.  Emma started her internship at Pleasure Pie only a little over week ago and has already done so much.
Emma helps to keep Pleasure Pie connected to you by:
 The vulva soap with the vintage wrapping paper it came in. Two days ago, I moved into a previously uninhabited apartment in Charlotte, North Carolina. Yesterday, when I took my first shower in the apartment, I stepped into the shower to find a millipede trying, and failing, to climb up the shower wall. While I’ve come far with my long-time bug phobias, millipedes are one of the few critters that can still make me scream, cry, and rethink my living situation. So I cried through my first shower (after the millipede had been removed) and insisted that my partner Eric stay in the bathroom until I was done, just in case.
Today, I bravely ventured into the shower on my own (with the help of a newly installed shower drain with little holes that a millipede should never be able to fit through) while Eric went to a nearby cafe. But there was one thing giving me courage today (other than the new drain): I was going to be washing with a beautiful, detailed, life size vulva soap.  As a teenager, I was really confused about the concept of a “tease.” I heard some of my male peers say, more or less, that teases were the worst and they hated them. I weeded out from their comments that the basic definition of a tease was a girl who fooled around with a guy, but didn’t have sex with him. Wait, did that mean I was a tease?
Don’t Tell Me-ow to Dress11/9/2014 It was great to hear from other feminists at Boston’s Emerging Feminist Scholar and Activist Expo. As usual, my favorite part was seeing the awesome crafts people make on the spot (there was a zine making workshop!). Lucky for you, the maker of my favorite creation allowed me to take a photo of her piece to share here. Check it out!  A Breakdown of my Current Projects11/8/2014  What exactly is Pleasure Pie? Well, what better way to tell you than telling you exactly what Pleasure Pie does? Here is a breakdown of all Pleasure Pie’s current projects. You can always check back for updates on the Projects page.
Queer Art for Queer People: The Femme Show10/14/2014 I’m so excited to be tabling at The Femme Show this weekend! Storytelling, poetry, burlesque, drag, a bake sale, and Pleasure Pie merch… it’s going to be an amazing event!  |
