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How exactly do you even play in so-called sex-positive spaces, and is it really just about sex, or is it actually about something else too—but what do you call that?
Beate Absalon Beate Absalon

How exactly do you even play in so-called sex-positive spaces, and is it really just about sex, or is it actually about something else too—but what do you call that?

While walking with a friend, we talk about my perception and experience of the so-called sex-positive spaces - out of her open curiosity, as she has not yet experienced these spaces first-hand. I start by describing a bit of the 'infrastructure': how it all started for me in the first place, how I first stumbled into a workshop by chance at a dance school where ropes and floggers were also used, how I then met Schwelle7 and Matís, whom I told about writing my master's thesis on Shibari and who then recruited me as an assistant for a bondage course in no time at all. Finally, the more difficult part, trying to describe what interests me about the rooms in the first place. I mention the classics that many people in the "scene" report about. How liberating it is to let people...

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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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Beyond 'sex-positive' and 'sex-negative'
Beate Absalon Beate Absalon

Beyond 'sex-positive' and 'sex-negative'

What’s your take on “sex positivity”? Just the term itself, for now!
When I first heard the term, I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that such a sensual and dazzling realm was described with such a cold and mathematical expression—one whose sound reminded me of the phrasing of unpleasant medical diagnoses. Or I was reminded of the pejorative accusations of “positivism” I’m familiar with from scientific contexts—when the blind spots are pointed out that arise when, in exploring a topic, the approach is limited to a one-dimensional accumulation and piling up of facts, even though there’s also an abundance of knowledge that cannot be reduced to positive terms, that cannot be clearly answered with “yes” or “no.” In these initial associations with “positivity,” the term is not judgmental at first, but simply denotes a factual “something is there,” “something is above zero.” Of course, “sex positivity” does not merely want to emphasize that there is simply sex…

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