Panel Idea time for WisCon: Kink Bingo / Being Politically Sex Positive

[sasha_feather]

j00j and I are doing idea generation for a proposed WisCon panel on kink. Please comment! We need to come up with a description, and possibly suggest people for the panel and things to discuss.

Being politically sex positive: Kink Bingo, Fandom, and understanding Kink through fiction

Points to indclude:
kink is a lens through which you can see the world
it can be an oppressed identity
No kink-bashing, everyone's kink is OK, kink as an umbrella that includes infinite things
define terms: squick, BDSM, others
Intersectionality

ETA: Thank you for leaving comments; I may not respond to all comments. This panel is being planned partly in response to a disappointing panel at Think Galacticon entitled "Dangerous Sexuality".

Comments

[j00j]

Yes, thank you so much for this.

Yeah, I have no idea how much work it takes to keep kink bingo relatively safe (and I thank you for doing it as a regular k_b reader), but I see enough anti-kink comments here and there in other parts of fandom (thinking of a certain fanfic flamingo post, or all the "I don't like [kink] but I like your fic" type comments, both of which are probably pretty mild compared to some of the stuff you see) that I can only imagine how difficult it is.

"People always want to have conversations about what kinks are problematic, but a kink is only a tool, a lens, a language; to do social justice within kink communities has often meant, and I think should continue to mean in fandom, talking about what actions or approaches or specific stories are problematic, and why." I think that's what I've been heading towards and totally failing to articulate. Again, thank you.


Maybe one of the questions we should be discussing on the panel (if we still feel we can do this. I am intimidated as hell) is what does it mean to be politically sex positive? And framing what safer space might look like? Ground rules for this panel would be really important-- I've seen the "ISN'T ALL BDSM INHERENTLY HARMFUL???" argument come up once in awhile at Wiscon before, and I'd rather start with some principles in place than stop to do 101 stuff.

[j00j]

Also, still mulling over defining kink. Discussing fandom and real-life practice (where real life practice= kink in peoples' actual lives in physical space or online space, rather than an online space vs physical space distinction, I assume) together do make things complex. Narrative kinks is an interesting discussion, but perhaps beyond the scope of where this panel may be headed? Would using the kink_bingo list of kinks be helpful in defining? Later I will look for helpful definitions.