I would be really interested in getting my teeth into a discussion of this too, maybe at WisCon maybe somewhere else...
The relationship between desire and politics is really complicated and personal and weird, and some of the best writing about it I've seen is in Samuel Delany's work––both sff, especially Tales of Neveryon, and his later work in what he calls 'pornotopias,' where he explores race and slavery as kinks. His take is basically that if there is a power structure, people will eroticize it, and that eroticizing fucked up things is part of how we negotiate being in the world and doesn't mean condoning them.
(But when it comes to 'all kinks are okay,' I think it is right but I can't even square it with my social justice commitments for my *own* kinks really...)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2011-09-13 04:23 am (UTC)The relationship between desire and politics is really complicated and personal and weird, and some of the best writing about it I've seen is in Samuel Delany's work––both sff, especially Tales of Neveryon, and his later work in what he calls 'pornotopias,' where he explores race and slavery as kinks. His take is basically that if there is a power structure, people will eroticize it, and that eroticizing fucked up things is part of how we negotiate being in the world and doesn't mean condoning them.
(But when it comes to 'all kinks are okay,' I think it is right but I can't even square it with my social justice commitments for my *own* kinks really...)