Kinksters love talking about resistance. Sometimes it’s demonized, like in the image of the sub who can’t submit or  the rope partner who has some impediment to becoming totally transparent in order to “share authentically.” Other times, kink itself is framed as a practice of political resistance, a political act that goes against sexual conservatism...

In this session, we’ll read bondage and restraint as sexual practices within the context of BDSM against a broader history of restraint. Turning towards the anti-psychiatric work of Franco Basaglia and the ubiquity of physical restraint as a tool of the medical establishment and carceral state, we’ll start to contend with what it means to...

Gossip, we are told, is something immensely corrosive. It tears groups apart. It presents a special danger to anyone involved in anything stigmatized or illegal. At the same time, gossip is held up as one of the best ways to keep ourselves safe, a recourse and resource for the marginalized to navigate danger and harm...