#sexuality

There are politics in sexual relationships because they occur in the context of a society that assigns power based on gender and other systems of inequality and privilege. ↗

— Susan Shaw

#sexuality #contemporary

What all of this suggests is that we need a more complex understanding of identities. If we identify on the basis of race, class, sexuality, or gender alone we cannot make sense of the ways these identifications combine and change over time. The used-to-be-working class now professional woman, the woman of mixed racial parentage who appears white, the divorced mother who is now a lesbian, the former lesbian who is now straight, or the former lesbian who is now a man. Identities are always in motion; they are mobile (Ferguson, 1993). This is particularly the case for those who have been placed in identity categories that do not quite seem to fit; it is also true of many more of us, in varied ways. Just ask our current President, whose own origin story, of which he has spoken and written eloquently, is exceedingly complex. We need, I believe, a conception of identities that embraces this complexity, that takes into account temporality and also specificity. ↗

— Arlene Stein

#sexuality #sociology #change

Sadly, the signals that allow men and women to find the partners who most please them are scrambled by the sexual insecurity initiated by beauty thinking. A woman who is self-conscious can't relax to let her sensuality come into play. If she is hungry she will be tense. If she is "done up" she will be on the alert for her reflection in his eyes. If she is ashamed of her body, its movement will be stilled. If she does not feel entitled to claim attention, she will not demand that airspace to shine in. If his field of vision has been boxed in by "beauty"--a box continually shrinking--he simply will not see her, his real love, standing right before him. ↗

— Naomi Wolf

#beauty #body-image #cosmetic-surgery #cosmetics #culture

Fear triggers the fight-or-flight response, fueled by adrenaline, which, as it turns out, is chemically related to amphetamines. Granted, it's a very different kind of high for mindfuckers: not a mellow, floaty "my vulva is one with the universe" high but a jittery, revved-up "oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck" kind of high. Endorphins are like great downers but adrenaline is uppers all the way. And it's just as addictive. Don't believe me? Go ask anyone who likes to jump off bridges or out of airplanes. - Edge ↗

— Tristan Taormino

#bdsm #edge-play #sexuality #bdsm

You are the evil scientist of your desires. - Ignacio Rivera ↗

— Tristan Taormino

#sexuality #bdsm

For a while after the rape, I was afraid of my own sexuality, because I got raped right about the time when I started developing physically. ↗

— Fiona Apple

#afraid #after #because #developing #got

I never thought I'd be in a position where people would be talking about my sexuality and saying how good I look in underwear. ↗

— Fiona Apple

#good #how #i #look #never

Everybody's journey is individual. If you fall in love with a boy, you fall in love with a boy. The fact that many Americans consider it a disease says more about them than it does about homosexuality. ↗

— James A. Baldwin

#boy #consider #disease #does #everybody

Bisexuality immediately doubles your chances for a date on Saturday night. ↗

— Woody Allen

#chances #date #doubles #immediately #night

There is not enough celebration of companionship. Relationships aren't just about eroticism and sexuality. ↗

— Francesca Annis

#celebration #companionship #enough #eroticism #just