amaevis

Wow. The reblogs are a fucking mess.

Audre Lorde is not untouchable, any more than any other human is untouchable.

Audre Lorde was not sex positive. And, more materially to me, she was transmisogynist.

As for BDSM, let us not buy into the ableist notion that we are all of equal ability and therefore can negotiate and consent on those terms. We collectively have a responsibility to ensure that everyone’s individual integrity is sacrosanct. All of us, as we age, enter different stages of agency. When we are young, we have no choice but to trust the people around us to steward our lives. As we become elderly, the same becomes true again.

BDSM is play, and one of the functions of play is rehearsal for real life. Power differential exists in real life, even in a healthy society. So does the need for trust, stewardship, and assignment of agency. If we pretend that we are all human adults of full faculties at all times (an ableist notion), then how do we confront this very real phenomenon that applies to at least a quarter of everyone’s life?

Audre Lorde’s rejection of BDSM as a reification of unhealthy dominance alone betrays a gross misunderstanding of power as it relates to ability.

(via phdreamsanddenials)