“To ignore sex and embodied pleasure in the cause of Indigenous liberation is to ignore one of our greatest resources. It is to deny us one of our most precious gifts. Every orgasm can be an act of decolonization.” –Daniel Heath Justice (Cherokee Nation) in Sovereign Erotics
I first learned the term “pleasure activism” in my Intro to WGS Theory class my second year of college, but it was not until spring of my third year that I took a class of the same name. I was not sure what to expect from a class called Pleasure Activism Across Time, but having taken a class with its professor, Lisa Speidel, before, I knew I was in good hands. The class included theory and personal stories that forced us to examine what we knew; what did we think of when we heard the word “pleasure”? What did that word mean to us? Most of class time was spent sharing our own stories, and engaging in activities such as writing about the parts of ourselves we love (or want to love), creating class-wide short stories together, and checking in with our neighbors at the beginning of class. Even when I came to class feeling stressed and exhausted, I left in much better spirits. And this, lifting my spirits, is at the crux of pleasure activism in practice; learning and doing the work, but allowing ourselves to feel pleasure in the process.
Therefore, when I found out that the theme for this Iris issue was about the body and/or disembodiment, I was reminded of the lessons I took from Professor Speidel’s Pleasure Activism Across Time. In particular, two texts came to mind: Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good by adrienne maree brown, and The Body Is Not An Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love by Sonya Renee Taylor. brown’s Pleasure Activism is a series of essays that ask the question: “how do we make social justice the most pleasurable human experience?” The essays range in genre and topic from interviews to personal thoughts, including a chapter obsessing over Beyoncé. Meanwhile, Taylor’s The Body Is Not An Apology is about learning to love every part of ourselves, something Taylor considers radical because society teaches us to feel guilt and shame rather than love and joy. These texts have helped me examine the ways I view my body and to notice when, and question why, I feel guilty or ashamed. And yet, I was struggling to pinpoint a specific message to write about for Iris, and then I thought, who better to ask than the professor who introduced these texts to me?
Professor Lisa Speidel teaches many classes within the Women Gender and Sexuality Studies department at UVA. Some of these classes include Race and Power in Gender and Sexuality (what I took with her pre-Pleasure Activism), Intro to WGS Studies, Men and Masculinities, Human Sexualities, and of course, Pleasure Activism Across Time. In our interview, she informed me that she tries to include elements of pleasure activism and discussions around sex/sex education in every class she teaches, but her courses such as Pleasure Activism allow her to dig deeper into how we can access our joy and prioritize what brings us pleasure.
Therefore, pleasure activism reminds us that when we are doing the work to disassemble systems of oppression, utilizing joy and pleasure is not only good for our mental and physical health, but also an important form of activism.
For those unfamiliar with the term, Professor Speidel describes “pleasure activism” as “accessing joy and pleasure as a way to fight against systemic oppression.” Historically, people in positions of power and oppressive institutions restrict others’ pleasure in order to maintain control. For example, colonizers in North America condemned Indigenous expressions of gender and sexuality that did not conform to a heteronormative binary structure. And because pleasure and forms of expression have become wrapped up with tools of oppression, tapping into pleasure is an act of defiance, of resistance, in and of itself. Therefore, pleasure activism reminds us that when we are doing the work to disassemble systems of oppression, utilizing joy and pleasure is not only good for our mental and physical health, but also an important form of activism.
That being said, what does pleasure activism mean to Lisa Speidel specifically? When I asked her this question, she pointed out that this work is ongoing, “ever-changing.” She tells me that even though she has found her voice, her discovery of herself as a sexual being still continues. Looking fondly off to the side she remarks, “what will I be like in my 70s” and follows the comment with a soft laugh. When I asked if she ever felt out of sync with her body, she told me about dealing with menopause, specifically how she deals with her body changing and the frequent cases of insomnia. For her, getting back to feeling good in her body involves rest, movement, and laughter. More specifically, yoga and walks bring her a lot of peace and pleasure, as well as an impromptu afternoon “siesta.” I was touched when she told me that “I definitely like to laugh with my kid. One of the best sounds is her laughter.” She reminds me “laughter is resilience, laughter is resistance.”
Professor Speidel’s pleasure activist mantra she takes from the words of Audre Lorde: “self-care is not self-indulgence, it’s an act of political warfare.” This sentiment is but one of the important aspects of her class that Professor Speidel wants her students to take away. Others include recognizing their own unique value, telling themselves “I’m worthy of respectful love, care, and joy,” and accessing pleasure as a form of empowerment that builds skills to fight against oppression. She wants her students to interact with the world in ways that allow them to explore and prioritize what pleasure means to them, outside of academic theory. As I have seen from my own experience in her class, Professor Speidel learns from her students as well. Whether it is discussing the readings or writing our own fictional stories, she considers each exchange as community formation, building something together that brings us closer to a more pleasurable future.
So, what steps can we take towards achieving a pleasure-filled future?
Touching on the title of Sonya Renee Taylor’s work, I wanted to know from Professor Speidel what it means to her when we say that “the body is not an apology.” She responded that “there are so many identities that have been socialized to apologize for existing…[and] we don’t even know to what extent we apologize.” According to Taylor, we came into this world free of self-hatred, and we apologize because we have been socialized to feel guilt for existing, or taking up space, in certain ways. Much of Taylor’s work, which bleeds into Speidel’s Pleasure Activism, is unlearning this toxic behavior – how do we return to the beginning, the “before”? During this process kindness and forgiveness are essential. We’re all human after all.
So, what steps can we take towards achieving a pleasure-filled future? Professor Speidel says to start with reading Pleasure Activism by adrienne maree brown and The Body Is Not An Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor. I say to take Pleasure Activism Across Time with Lisa Speidel. Other first steps include stepping out of our comfort zone by having uncomfortable conversations and checking out unfamiliar resources. And to remember that often the little things make getting up and fighting for something worthwhile. Therefore, pleasure activism can look like eating the food that makes our body happy, taking a walk, watching shows like Sex Education and Heartstopper, cuddling with pets, or listening to your favorite album for the fourth time that day (The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess by Chappell Roan, for example).
Pleasure activism can even be taking a moment to appreciate the influential teachers and role models in your life, and the pleasure of knowing someone like Lisa Speidel.
