THE PILLOW BLOG

 

Video interview by the Goethe-Institut China with Beata on “Pornography & Society”
Beate Absalon Beate Absalon

Video interview by the Goethe-Institut China with Beata on “Pornography & Society”

What materials can help us get to the bottom of the elusive nature of sexuality? How are our bodies and their desires entangled in power dynamics—and how do we deal with that? Alone or with others? Publicly or privately? By emphasizing the beautiful or the difficult aspects? Through play or seriousness? By being sweet or angry? Do we even have to decide—and why is it always so much about deciding “This is good and this is bad!” when it comes to sexuality? For the issue of the online magazine “yì” focusing on “Pornography and Society,” Silvan Hagenbrock, online editor at the Goethe-Institut China, spoke with Beata about her work and vision.
Watch the video here.

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Sex /vs./&/?/ Violence. An Attempt at Conceptual Delimitation Through Distinction
Beate Absalon Beate Absalon

Sex /vs./&/?/ Violence. An Attempt at Conceptual Delimitation Through Distinction

“What is sex?” we asked during a discussion session at Xplore. Anna Natt and Matís invited us to break down this impossible question into more specific parts: “How do you use the word ‘sex’?”, “How do you have sex?”, and “How do you know you’ve had sex?” One participant explained that he was attending this discussion group because he thought it was a good idea to hear, at a sex-positive event, what “sex” actually means to the participants here. Community = shared language. Makes sense. But after the first round, it becomes clear that “sex” means something different to everyone. And yet it would be too easy to stop at private language and pseudo-enlightened platitudes like “Everyone sees it differently, everyone is right, no one is right. Namaste.” Surely we can find good arguments for common ground to agree on convincing definitions. The answers to the questions vary between references to specific…

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Sexual moralism – Compulsory sex – Sex positivity – Sex negativity
Beate Absalon Beate Absalon

Sexual moralism – Compulsory sex – Sex positivity – Sex negativity

I’d like to take a stand in favor of sex negativity. Why?
1) For all the wonderful things that the “sex-positive” label makes possible, it also presents some weaknesses, stumbling blocks, pitfalls, and misunderstandings. These go hand in hand with an uncritical understanding of sex-positivity, when a overly one-sided diagnosis of the problem is made: that sex is primarily suppressed and treated as a taboo.
2) I’d like to propose a very specific understanding of sex-negativity that cannot be confused with either a religiously conservative or politically right-wing hostility toward sex.
3) More broadly, I would like to move away from binary divisions and make it clear that sex negativity and sex positivity do not have to be two opposing forces, but rather could be seen as two progressive strategies—coming from opposite directions—that pull in the same direction, thereby jointly creating a huge…

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A mixed bag, please! Definitional difficulties
Beate Absalon Beate Absalon

A mixed bag, please! Definitional difficulties

Difficulties in understanding. When, in a friendly gathering, people are recounting their wildest romantic escapades and then the extra detail slips out: “…and then we also had sex.” Yikes! And what were all those other things you did together? Actually, it’s a classic question: where does sexuality begin and where does it end? Generally speaking, the term refers exclusively to the act of penetration. This is particularly surprising when the people in the conversation are individuals who otherwise celebrate sexuality in all its diversity and engage in various experiments, techniques, games, and desires that go beyond the heteronormative framework…

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