Embracing Difference and Critiquing Sex

In the wake of celebrating my birthday, moving out of my apartment in Santa Barbara and back home for the summer, I’d like to direct anyone reading this to two authors who have their stuff together this week for some thoughtful insight.

First, this article here, as messaged to me by a friend. I appreciate this article so much because it reiterates a point I so strongly believe in, and even focused on in my workshop last month: embrace difference. Embrace it in coalitional politics between different communities, religious and non-religious, because it can be so beneficial in our politics. Race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religiosity, ability—the possibilities are endless.  Embrace it in the varying experiences of those religiously and LGBTQ identified. Whether active or inactive in their church, everyone’s voice and experience is crucial in queer religious movements. Embrace it in general, because it’s not always about our own way or own experience.

Second, an article here, on the New York Times website from a Feminist Studies professor at none other than...UCSB (shameless plug). As someone who is personally critical of many representations of gay sex scenes in mainstream media (are men’s bodies really supposed to look like that? Why is everyone white and adhere to their gender assigned at birth and its traditional representations?), it’s useful to be critical of the societal harms these images perpetuate and utilize the potential that representations of sex have as powerful societal statements.