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Walls screamed with jealousy,Ā
For three demons were in folds,Ā
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My wife has asked me this. My answer was to watch first and then take turns fucking her after he cums. Hopefully we can keep taking turns for several hours!
Express yourself freely and fully
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Love unconditionallyā¤
I never quite thought of it (or felt it) quite that viscerally, but this is 90% of my personal intimacy philosophy, in a nutshell (albeit without the eye stabbing or conflation of expectation and hope). Love is not transactional; it is autotelic.
(As a side note, another key distinction, in my mind: reciprocity vs. mutuality. I do not believe that desiring mutuality of loving sentiment is antithetical to autotelic love ā unlike acts/expressions of āloveā with the objective of eliciting reciprocity in terms of actions.)
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Do we know who or what we are...a moment needed to immerse in deep thoughts š
So what spurred this project is a culmination of a few things. Namely, frustration with the imprecise and incomprehensible words, Platonic, Romantic, and Sexual. The English language hasnāt been great at adapting the words for personal relationships as our times and values change.
I fell into Anarchism only very recently, stumbling into the language of ārelationship anarchyā through the internet in discussion with forms of polyamory years ago when I started this blog. Over the last year, Iāve been getting into radical politics and finding how my un-politicized opinions were validated, and then stretched the more I learned and studied up. While Iām still learning more about Radical politics, Anarchism, Marxism, Queer and Feminist theory specifically, the more I wanted to link some of my perspectives on intimate relationships with these political and theoretical texts.
āThe Personal is Political.ā - Carol Hanisch, Feminist Author.
@mythr1derā wrote a post detailing a bit of the frustration I also share in regards to how the Dichotomy between Platonic and Sexual (which almost all definitions of Romance boil back into), leave much to be desired when discussing attraction, desire, intimacy and relationships in general. I believe that this very simple dichotomy reflects, oddly enough, capitalism and the history of the role of state power in culture. I rant a little bit about it as a response to @mythr1derāās post here.Ā
Itās long, and incomplete, but I proposed an idea of just building entirely new words, so we can build an entirely new map for talking about love, desire, attraction, and relationships that actually discuss what its like to be next to someone you like to be next to!Ā
What is intimacy? Itās closeness right? To be near some āintimateā part of another person, or them near something meaningful about why youāre you. I wanted to start this series by talking about what it means to be close to someone. If you remember my birthday without Facebook, that might make me feel a bit special. But if you remember how badly I was abused by an old friend, its because I trusted you enough to share some of the sadness that Iām not as loud about.
Intimacy isnāt always trauma, sometimes its tears of joy hearing that your cousin is out of prison, or the laughter of your friends. Being close to each other in a hyper-digitized age is a bit tricky, but phone calls, facetime, snapchat are only some of the tools we use to keep each other updating on what weāre feeling. Whether its about our love life, sex life, work life, or home life, just sharing that information can be real special, and bonding.
When we say that we have friends or that we are [Queer] Platonic Partners, does that mean weāve decided how often weāre gonna talk or what weāre gonna talk about? What if we just send each other memes or rant about politics? Am I supposed to devalue those interactions because they arenāt the person Iām crying on the phone with?
Intimacy can be as deep as childhood scars and as simple as surprising me with my favorite snack. It all just means you know who I am, what I like, and what I care about. I want to intentionally forge those connections. And this why I set these definitions first.Ā
Other Words:
AĀ Daekkon (n.)Ā would be person/partner whom youāve developed intentionally this kind of relationship with.Ā
If you desired this kind of relationship with a certain person, youād be feelingĀ Daekeen (adj.)Ā for/about that person.
People who are desiring or actively doing these activities together areĀ Daekkoning (v.).Ā
This would be understood asĀ DaekkonicĀ (adj.)Ā behavior; as in, āMy roomate isnāt super talkative with me, but isĀ deakkonic (adj.)Ā with Sandra from the Mosque.āĀ
āTom is going through it, heās feltĀ deakkonically (adv.)Ā deprived since the move.ā
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In our sex-negative, ironically repressed culture, we seem to think that if youāre touching your bodies together at all, it means *something*.Ā Ā I want to remove that idea. I want to reclaim physical affection. I want to be touch and be touched by others. I donāt want my afab friends who have experienced some sort of sexual violence in their lives, to ever feel weary about the fact that Iām physically affectionate. Itās been my #1 Love Language for the last 10 years.Ā
Fighting r*pe culture is a full-time fight, but I think adding a word, and therefore an idea[l], can be useful in reclaiming safety, and boundaries regarding bodily autonomy, for all of us. Clear communication and respected boundaries and asking consent for everything are the bedrock we need to continually practice. And as trust builds, I believe this could be very useful theoretically tool for improving the quality of our relationships and help create clearer discussion about our individual boundaries, needs, and desires. I feel like this leads me to a relevant question. What activities are inherently platonic, romantic or sexual? Is holding hands inherently romantic when almost all of us have done it with a friend? What about those of us who are religious or spiritual and have held hands with members of church, mosque or synagogue; do you think weāre out here non-stop blushing at the Pastor? Or when we held hands with family members? Doesnāt sound like it holds up, huh?Ā
What about snuggling a roommate? Holding a teammate while celebrating a victory? The kiss my bestfriend gave me on our shared birthday dinner? Are we left to through our Aro and Ace friendsā out of the discussion, just because our culture has bad takes on sex and romance as the only forms possible of significant physical touch? Physical touch is such an important way to communicate love and affection, as well as care, concern, and comfort. They donāt get to cast their shadow on this space anymore!
Other Words:
If you had this desire for someone, or wanted to approach cultivating these forms of affection in a relationship, you could say youāre feelingĀ PhaddishĀ (adj.)Ā for that person.
.Participating or initiating acts of a non-sexual physical intimacy Phadronic (adj.) quality are said to beĀ phade-ing/phading (v.).
AĀ Phadrone (n.)Ā could be the name of a person/partner you share this kind of relationship with.Ā
Phadroning (v.)Ā would the act of cultivating this kind of intimacy with another person.Ā
Phadronically (adv.)Ā could describe a certain level of intimacy implicit in a physical touch between to particular people.
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Now lets talk about Sex. Thatās the thing the everyoneās mind always gravitates to when discuss words like, intimacy, attraction, desire. Itās the thing we want to stay away from when you use the Platonic or Friendly. But, lets be real. Havenāt many of us had sex with people didnāt even consider friends? Or people who became ourĀ āStrictly Platonicā friends after we may have had sex, once or several times, with them?
People who gravitate toward polyamory or non-monogamy tend have had aĀ āhoe-phase.ā The boundary between friend and lover, or partner and fuckbuddy have been blurred in a good chunk of peopleās lives. Non-monogamous or not, I think itās useful to talk directly about our sexual experiences, desires, fantasies, and how different it can be with different people, or in different stages of our lives. But what makes an experience sexual? Maybe that sounds redundant or obvious; I mean, itās got the word SEX in it, maybe thatās got something to do with it? But maybe notā¦Ā
Lets ask an odd question. Is sex inherently sexual? Who wouldnāt assume the answer is automatically yes? Well, my first thought is to talk to those in the Adult Entertainment industry or friends of ours who are sex-workers, in whatever capacity. Is every client sexy or shoot erotic? Those of us who have sex, have we never been doing it and been bored through most of at least one experience?Ā
If sex is inherently sexual, why do we have so many Sexual Health Educators, Marriage Counselors, Pornstars, Yoga Teachers, Personal trainers and Writers telling us how to have sexy sex? Dating Coaches and Websites, telling us how we are getting something thatās supposed to sound so easy wrong.
Iāve come to the opinion that sex isnāt about body parts, genitalia, certain body motions, or even clothing [or lack thereof]. I believe that sex, or eroticism, is all about the context and the people involved. Thereās nothing inherently sexy about fruit, or food in general, but if woman eats a banana in public, there are at least several men in area thinking of something than her healthy food choices.Ā
This is why talking about sex directly is good. And understanding it as an energy that you imbue to any activity or circumstance, could help have better sex; and and on the flip-side, show us how we may need to more aware of how we may take up space with our body language. I do also feel, that in part, some of our Ace friends (those who arenāt sex repulsed), may be able to find some resonance with this model; sex doesnāt have to feel passionate or any particular way at all (other than good?), because sex isnāt about sexiness, but about human connection and pleasure.
Other Words:
Serotic (adj.)Ā activities include any activity that is engaged due to, or is infused with, sexual desire and/or erotic intention. It also describes the type of desire youāre feeling for another person.Ā
AĀ Serato (n.)Ā is any person you engage in serotic activities or feelings with.Ā
An activity that was originallyĀ un-serotic (adj.), but became sexually or erotically charged, we could described as having becomeĀ Serotically (adv.)Ā charged.Ā
When you are cultivating or charging an act with serotic energy, you areĀ Seroticizing (v.)Ā that activity
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Lately, especially since diving into Radical Politics, I find less and less desire in defining Who I Am as a part of a relationship unit. Itās an overlay from monogamy, The Couple being the only social unit that is recognized, as itās necessary to the Nuclear Family; a super important thing for Capitalism to sustain itself. The relationships I cultivate with others, with whatever forms of intimacy or interactions therein, cant be understood by that model. I am more than my interactions with a handful of people; I am a human person, and my engagement with the world isnāt actually reducible to whether or not Iām having sex with someone or not.Ā
Weāve talked about multiple forms of intimacy, and some of the desires or interests associated with them. Have you noticed that in the desire, or need, to discuss relationships on a basis of, āsex: yes or no?ā, that we havenāt talked about the webs that form because we are all reliant on each other to survive? Not everyone in your community or workplace or online spaces, youāll get to know or talk to. Do they, as people, matter less because they arenāt in your contacts list or your DMās?Ā Ā
This is a space where not a lot of us to tend think or engage as much. An easy word to discuss this space is community. But is a community the people or the place you spend your time, whether online or off? Is the community the place you live and your neighbors? Is it the people who may share some of your identifiers or face similar forms of oppression, despite living in a different city, state, country?
We are multi-dimensional beings, and with the use of technology, there are so many ways to form relationships, and share resources. I think theĀ ācommunityā is any space you find yourself in, which means that mutual aid is something you are always able to engage in. Whether itās feeding the homeless guys who hang out by the intersection, or dropping a few bucks in a trans kidās venmo, mutual aid is so much easier.
But what if that feels so inconsequential? Itās not! But it does, from time to time, feel like the problems of the world are so big, and that you and so many you know are suffering in ways you wish you could help. Well, community organizing is always happening somewhere, online and off. It becomes important to join up with others in order feel like we can actually make a positive impact on the lives of others. We donāt have to wait on a government whoās interest isnāt ours, donāt have to wait for some politician to fail on a promise to Make Things Better.
We have each other, and we are all we really have. At the end of the day, all of our concepts are man-made. COVID-19 showed us how drastically things could be different if the people in power made decisions that actually benefited us. A lot of us understand the need to do something. Capitalism says that competition is what drove human kind into evolution, the fight for survival in a meaningless, terrifying world. Anarchism, as Iām learning, throws the whole idea in the trash where it belongs.
Peter Kropotkin, whose been called both the Godfather and Santa Claus of Anarchism, penned inĀ Mutual Aid: A Factor of EvolutionĀ (1902),Ā āunder any circumstances sociability is the greatest advantage in the struggle for life.ā
We are better off together. Capitalism and the property relationships in our compulsively monogamous society try to tell us other wise. We donāt have to follow that model.
Other Words:
To Mudshop (v.)Ā is to build a mudship with a particular person, organinzation, or community;Ā Mud-shopping (v.).Ā
AĀ Mudshipper (n.)Ā is an individual in a mudship of any scale.Ā
Iāve said a lot. I hope this reads as accessible to as many people as it can be. I built this because I want to tell the people in my life why I love them as dearly as I do. And that Iād love to build relationships with as many awesome, lovely people as I can.
If you try to use the words Romantic and Platonic while you look at this post, and find it almost impossible, Iāve done my job.
I hope those words die along with oppressive ideas they uphold.
How to know if polyamory is not right for you:
1.You are choosing polyamory in the hopes ofĀ fixing a broken monogamous relationship.
2.The thought of having to consider, spend time with, and commit to multiple people feels exhausting.
3.Anything outside of monogamy feels "unnatural" to you.
4.You haven't spent time self-reflecting and understanding your triggers, insecurities, and past trauma relating to love and relationships.