Feminist Carnival of Sexual Freedom and Autonomy XIX

The "Masks and Money" Edition!

I set twin themes for this edition: "roles we play in sex/sexuality/life", and "the ways in which money intersects with sex". However, nobody seems to have specifically written anything for those (you lazy sods), so this is just a collection of stuff I could find myself (and also some other cool pieces that don't fit those categories). I note that there aren't any more hosts lined up, so if you feel like joining the jovial crew, hop along to the Carnival website and send an email to the organiser!

A round-up of sex-pos happenings in the past month or so just wouldn't be complete without referencing the latest flounce by the anti-BDSM/porn/sex work crew. So before we get down to business, here's a quick recap of what I like to call...

The Becstar Debacle

The kindly folks at SM-Feminists welcomed visitor and commenter Becstar, a self-confessed anti-kink feminist, and endeavoured to explain what pro-kink feminism is all about. It all seemed to be going quite well, until...

the comments thread

and then...

This comment (and the discussion that followed it)

But it didn't stop there, with becstars dramatic flounce. The "debate" moved on, to Feministing, and the SM-feminist crew watched with awe from the sidelines. And were justifiably angry.

And so the wheels turn again.

Money

I didn't find a huge amount about this (I deliberately didn't want to do a generic list of "ooh, hookers!" posts, even though that's the obvious crossover between sex and money; I'm kind of guessing most people reading this carnival will be able to find plenty of stuff like that themselves). What there is, though, is wide-ranging and interesting.

Mz. Muse guesting at SM-feminists discussed BDSM: A Class Act? (the comments thread of which also played a part in the Becstar Debacle)

MORSEL, an Indian economics (I think) blog, writes about A village of sex workers.

Change.org presents the business boost from same-sex marriage.

I'll also add a plug for Ren Ev's money-spinning Smut Blog, where the word of the day is always "Fuck". If you can stomach it, stump up the cash and see what's on Ren's mind today. Definitely more "sex-pos" than "feminism" in that corner of the world, but still worth a mention.

Late addition: Belledame @ SM-Feminists talks about the budget route for kink, in Pervertables.

Roles We Play

The material on this subject was a lot more diverse, and a lot more plentiful. Feast your eyes, and brains (and possibly naughty bits, in some cases!) on this lot!

Goddess Glory - Strategic Female Deference

(Link is NSFW - contains pictures of sexual roleplay) Meta - Attempted Kidnapping, talking about difficulties in maintaining roles in roleplay (especially when, as a sub herself, Meta is not used to being the kidnapper).

Trinity @ SM-feminists - Transgression

Ren Ev on the censorship issues she faces for her own porn project.

Figleaf - Cosmopolitan Confirmation on the curious way in which a woman described as sexually powerful is portrayed photographically by a certain women's magazine.

Holly - Penetrating domination is a quick musing about the gender or significance of penetrating. Holly also wrote about the slut paradox.

Daisy - Some Thoughts On Insecurity And Butchness, which does exactly what it says on the tin.

Nikki touched on some similar themes in a post titled "Long hair"

Finally, for all the gaming geeks that I know exist in the sex pos feminist/feminist ex-pat circle of allies, I found a piece by Simon Forrester: Thoughts on Playing Female in Fallout 3.

Other

This is the stuff that was important to mention but didn't fall into either of the categories above. Enjoy!

Kink in Exile presents Research 101 for perves

In musical appreciatioon classes, from Belledame we have the youTube video of The Big Fat Gay Collab lipsynching to Lily Allen! Becky @ Happy Bodies also has a Lily Allen track she digs: Not Fair.

Shere Hite @ The Indypendent - The Uncelebrated Beauty of Men's Sexuality about the way male sexual bodies are actually excluded from most het porn.

Hope - Closets and Such, about how it feels to be kinky and watch Price of Pleasure in a room of non-kinky feminists.

Dw3t-Hthr in Niche, considers spiritual language to talk about sexuality.

In one of the best pieces about sex workers' rights this month, Born Whore gave us It's you I'm afraid of.

Jeff @ Dignity USA.Org (a site for LGBT Catholics) has a review of a book by John J. McNeill called Sex as God Intended: A Reflection on Human Sexuality as Play.

The Stranger ("Seattle's Only Newspaper", occording to their tagline) featured an interview with Dallas, of Pink and White Productions, which in Dallas' own words is a "queer/dyke/trans porn company that portrays authentic queer sex."

And that's all I've got for you.

Hopefully someone will step up to the plate for next month's Carnival, and I will see you all then!