Self-Sovereignty, Self-Efficiency, Self-Mastery, and Solidarity: Relationship Anarchism & Anarchist Naturalism

Messanger, “Hey Damien, What are your thoughts on Topics as: Wife Swap, Swinging, or Hedonism and Orgies? Awaiting your response. Thank you.”

My response, I live relationship anarchism and part of that for me and many others involves non-monogamy. To me, people own themselves and if the people involved agree then it is a normal thing people do.

“Relationship anarchy (sometimes abbreviated RA) is the application of anarchist principles to intimate relationships. Its values include autonomy, anti-hierarchical practices, lack of state control, anti-normativity, and community interdependence. RA is explicitly anti-amatonormative and anti-mononormative and is commonly, but not always, non-monogamous. This is distinct from polyamory, solo poly, swinging, and other forms of “dating”, which may include structures such as amatonormativity, hierarchy of intimate relationships, and autonomy-limiting rules. It has also been interpreted as a new paradigm in which closeness and autonomy are no longer considered dilemmas within a relationship.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relationship_anarchy#:~:text=Relationship%20anarchy%20%28sometimes%20abbreviated%20RA%29%20is%20the%20application,type%20of%20non-monogamy%2C%20but%20moreso%20is%20explicitly%20anti-mononormativity.

Anarcho-naturist (including nudism) for me, involves free love, nudism, an ecological worldview, small ecovillages, and most prominently nudism avoiding the artificiality society of modernity, well as promoting body positivity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-naturism#:~:text=Anarcho-naturism%20advocates%20vegetarianism%2C%20free%20love%2C%20nudism%2C%20hiking%20and,artificiality%20of%20the%20industrial%20mass%20society%20of%20modernity

Messanger, “Got it, So what are the thoughts when it comes to Incest? And there’s consent between both the people.”

My response, Incest, if both are adults, can do as they wish, as all adults.

Messanger, “Well, then where does it lead a couple, and the family and their kids that will be brought up? P.S: Are you married?”

My response, Yes, I have been married for 16 years. And, as for children, I got a vasectomy as a direct choice to not have any children. My wise is bisexual and we have enjoyed other women together.

The Professional Bio of Damien Marie AtHope

The Personal Bio of Damien Marie AtHope

My personality is ENTJ-A (ENTJ Personality Type – “Chief” Profile):

Extraverted (E), Intuitive (N), Thinking (T), and Judging (J) – A (assertive)

While ENTJs 16personalities.com takes this typing a step further with a hyphenated suffix at the end of the 4-letter code, either the letter A (assertive) or T (turbulent). Guess which one this ENTJ got? A, of course. ENTJ-A.

The ENTJ personality type is nicknamed the “Chief” and belongs to the NT Intellectual temperament. ENTJs are natural and decisive leaders. They are analytical, efficient, and hardworking. They live in the world of ideas and have a great ability to debate. Their goal-oriented and self-confident nature enables them to take charge. They thrive on achievement. ENTJs direct their energy outward. They are gregarious, talkative, and very assertive. They are enthusiastic and expressive. Chiefs are Intuitive and future-oriented. They are imaginative, complex, and abstract in their thinking. ENTJs are Thinkers. They are logical and objective. They make decisions with their head rather than their heart. ENTJs are rational, impersonal, and critical in thought. They are firm with people and are thick-skinned. ENTJs are decisive, enjoy finishing tasks, and seek closure. They like structure and schedules. They are disciplined and responsible. ENTJs are independent. They seek autonomous and productive relationships. They are competitive and interested in what other people know. They turn most of their relationships into opportunities to teach or mentor. Although very career-oriented when they are committed to a relationship they put a lot of effort into it. Chiefs are often avid learners and voracious readers. They have unlimited curiosity and desire to gain knowledge and mastery. They do well in school as long as they are engaged. They are self-motivated and can learn very well on their own. They can have a hard time relaxing. Chiefs do not like to waste time. ENTJs make up 4% of all 16 personality types. ENTJs are one of the least common personality types. Of the Extraverted types, ENTJs are the rarest (along with ENFJs). 1 in every 18 males is an ENTJ (5.5% of all males). 1 in every 40 females is an ENTJ (2.5% of all females). Female ENTJs are one of the rarest type-gender combinations. There are significantly more male ENTJs than there are female ENTJs, with males outnumbering females by more than 2 to 1. One reason there are more male ENTJs is that males tend to be Thinkers (T) while females are more often Feelers (F). ref

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Why care? Because we are Dignity Beings.

*Axiological Dignity Being Theory*

Axiological Dignity: “Value Consciousness vs Value-Blindness”

Compare and Contrast (Damien as religious and non-religious)

Real Morality vs. Pseudo Morality

Religions Promote Pseudo-Morality

Think there is no objective morality?

True Morality Not the Golden Rule…

Axiological Atheism Morality Critique: of the bible god

Black women of Courage (Addressing Anarchism and the Black Revolution)

Feminist atheists as far back as the 1800s (Addressing Anarcho-Feminism)

Let’s make it simple: Atheism is the reality position. Theism is the anti-reality position! I am will to power!

In regards to “Will to power,” I had a friend who liked it and I heard that term. I use it in my way meaning a rising of self-mastery.

Here are my blogs on non-monogamy/poly:

A Hierarchy (Greek: hierarkhia, ‘rule of a high priest’, from hierarkhes, ‘president of sacred rites’)

Navigating Dignity: of significance in Well-being, Motivation, Morality, Ethics, Rights, Law, and Politics

Capitalism is an unethical economic system based on profit over people.

No one owns the Earth, so it must be shared ethically.

Self-ownership/Body-ownership: Sexual Consent, Abortion, Genital Mutilation, Prostitution, Drugs, and the Right to Die

Self-ownership, Human Rights, and Societal Liberty or Freedoms

The Need for Consent and the value of Body Ownership: Healthy Sex Talk with Kids

Axiological Ethics not Pseudo Morality

Empathy and Human Dignity?

Let’s address relationship anarchism, anarchist naturalism, and partners-children-abortion-consent, etc.

My Related Videos:

Relationship Anarchism

“Relationship anarchy (sometimes abbreviated RA) is the application of anarchist principles to intimate relationships. Its values include autonomy, anti-hierarchical practices, lack of state control, anti-normativity, and community interdependence. RA is explicitly anti-amatonormative and anti-mononormative[a] and is commonly, but not always, non-monogamous. This is distinct from polyamory, solo poly, swinging, and other forms of “dating”, which may include structures such as amatonormativity, hierarchy of intimate relationships, and autonomy-limiting rules. It has also been interpreted as a new paradigm in which closeness and autonomy are no longer considered dilemmas within a relationship.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Belief (Theism) and Disbelief (Atheism) in Anarchism and Socialism? (Video)

Belief (Theism) and Disbelief (Atheism) in Anarchism and Socialism: Blog post

Green Anarchism, Eco-Anarchism, and Anarcho-Naturism? (Video)

Green Anarchism, Eco-Anarchism, and Anarcho-Naturism: Blog post

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Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

“Organizational forms exist that are both alternative and complementary to hierarchy. Heterarchy is one such form. A heterarchy is a system of organization where the elements of the organization are unranked (non-hierarchical) or where they possess the potential to be ranked a number of different ways. Definitions of the term vary among the disciplines: in social and information sciences, heterarchies are networks of elements in which each element shares the same “horizontal” position of power and authority, each playing a theoretically equal role. In biological taxonomy, however, the requisite features of heterarchy involve, for example, a species sharing, with a species in a different family, a common ancestor which it does not share with members of its own family. This is theoretically possible under principles of “horizontal gene transfer.” ref, ref

“A heterarchy may be parallel to a hierarchy, subsumed to a hierarchy, or it may contain hierarchies; the two kinds of structure are not mutually exclusive. In fact, each level in a hierarchical system is composed of a potentially heterarchical group which contains its constituent elements.” ref

“The concept of heterarchy was first employed in a modern context by cybernetician Warren McCulloch in 1945. As Carole L. Crumley has summarised, “[h]e examined alternative cognitive structure(s), the collective organization of which he termed heterarchy. He demonstrated that the human brain, while reasonably orderly was not organized hierarchically. This understanding revolutionized the neural study of the brain and solved major problems in the fields of artificial intelligence and computer design.” ref

“In a group of related items, heterarchy is a state wherein any pair of items is likely to be related in two or more differing ways. Whereas hierarchies sort groups into progressively smaller categories and subcategories, heterarchies divide and unite groups variously, according to multiple concerns that emerge or recede from view according to perspective. Crucially, no one way of dividing a heterarchical system can ever be a totalizing or all-encompassing view of the system, each division is clearly partial, and in many cases, a partial division leads us, as perceivers, to a feeling of contradiction that invites a new way of dividing things. (But of course, the next view is just as partial and temporary.) Heterarchy is a name for this state of affairs, and a description of a heterarchy usually requires ambivalent thought… a willingness to ambulate freely between unrelated perspectives.” ref

“A hierarchy (from Greek: ἱεραρχία, hierarkhia, ‘rule of a high priest’, from hierarkhes, ‘president of sacred rites’) is an arrangement of items (objects, names, values, categories, etc.) that are represented as being “above”, “below”, or “at the same level as” one another. Hierarchy is an important concept in a wide variety of fields, such as philosophy, architecture, design, mathematics, computer science, organizational theory, systems theory, systematic biology, and the social sciences (especially political philosophy).” ref

“A hierarchy can link entities either directly or indirectly, and either vertically or diagonally. The only direct links in a hierarchy, insofar as they are hierarchical, are to one’s immediate superior or to one of one’s subordinates, although a system that is largely hierarchical can also incorporate alternative hierarchies. Hierarchical links can extend “vertically” upwards or downwards via multiple links in the same direction, following a path. All parts of the hierarchy that are not linked vertically to one another nevertheless can be “horizontally” linked through a path by traveling up the hierarchy to find a common direct or indirect superior, and then down again. This is akin to two co-workers or colleagues; each reports to a common superior, but they have the same relative amount of authority. Organizational forms exist that are both alternative and complementary to hierarchy. Heterarchy is one such form.” ref

“Normative generally means relating to an evaluative standard. Normativity is the phenomenon in human societies of designating some actions or outcomes as good, desirable, or permissible, and others as bad, undesirable, or impermissible. A norm in this normative sense means a standard for evaluating or making judgments about behavior or outcomes. Normative is sometimes also used, somewhat confusingly, to mean relating to a descriptive standard: doing what is normally done or what most others are expected to do in practice.” ref

“In the social sciences, the term “normative” has broadly the same meaning as its usage in philosophy, but may also relate, in a sociological context, to the role of cultural ‘norms‘; the shared values or institutions that structural functionalists regard as constitutive of the social structure and social cohesion. These values and units of socialization thus act to encourage or enforce social activity and outcomes that ought to (with respect to the norms implicit in those structures) occur, while discouraging or preventing social activity that ought not to occur. That is, they promote social activity that is socially valued (see philosophy above). While there are always anomalies in social activity (typically described as “crime” or anti-social behavior, see also normality (behavior)) the normative effects of popularly endorsed beliefs (such as “family values” or “common sense“) push most social activity towards a generally homogeneous set. From such reasoning, however, functionalism shares an affinity with ideological conservatism.” ref

Non-monogamy

“Non-monogamy (or nonmonogamy) is an umbrella term for every practice or philosophy of non-dyadic intimate relationship that does not strictly hew to the standards of monogamy, particularly that of having only one person with whom to exchange sex, love, and/or affection. In that sense, “nonmonogamy” may be accurately applied to extramarital sex, group marriage, or polyamory. It is not synonymous with infidelity, since all parties are consenting to the relationship structure, partners are often committed to each other as well as to their other partners, and cheating is still considered problematic behavior with many non-monogamous relationships.” ref

“More specifically, “nonmonogamy” indicates forms of interpersonal relationship, intentionally undertaken, in which demands for exclusivity (of sexual interaction or emotional connection, for example) are attenuated or eliminated, and individuals may form multiple and simultaneous sexual and/or romantic bonds. This stands in contrast to monogamy, yet may arise from the same psychology. According to Jessica Fern, a psychologist and the author of Polysecure: Attachment, Trauma and Consensual Nonmonogamy, as of September 2020, about 4% of Americans, nearly 16 million people, are “practicing a non-monogamous style of relationship” while the 2016 study said that over 21% of Americans engaged in consensual non-monogamy at “some point in their lifetime.” In January 2020, a YouGov poll found that about one-third of US adults believe that “their ideal relationship is non-monogamous to some degree.” ref

“Many terms for non-monogamous practices are vague, being based on criteria such as “relationship” or “love” that are themselves subjectively defined. There are forms of non-monogamy whose practitioners set themselves apart by qualifiers, such as “ethically non-monogamous” which intends a distancing from the deceit or subterfuge they perceive in common cheating and adultery. This usage creates distinctions beyond the definitions of the words. For example, though some relations might literally be both polygamous and polyamorous, polygamy usually signifies a codified form of multiple marriages, based on established religious teachings such as Plural marriage, a form of polygyny associated with the Latter Day Saint movement in the 19th-century and with present-day splinter groups from that faith, as well as evangelical sects that advocate Christian Plural Marriage.” ref

“Polyamory is based on the preferences of the participants rather than social custom or established precedent. There is no one ‘right’ way to engage in non-monogamy (although there are widely agreed on ‘wrong’ ways). Because of this, the terms for the various kinds of relationships can be vague and sometimes interchangeable. but there are some distinctions that are worth defining. For example, swingers may intentionally avoid emotional and social connections to those—other than their primary partner—with whom they have sex, so may or may not be polyamorous but are non-monogamous.” ref

“Some useful terms are Metamour or Meta, the common term for a person with whom a partner is shared, V-Structure, one person is equally involved with two partners, and Triads / Quads. The latter is when three or four participants make up the primary partnership.” ref

“Forms of non-monogamy are varied. They include a casual relationship, sometimes called friends with benefits, which is a primarily physical relationship between two people with low expectations of commitment or emotional labor, and an open relationship (incl. open marriage), referring to one or both members of a committed (or married) couple have the express freedom to become sexually active with others.” ref

“Other forms include sexual activities involving more than two participants at the same time, referring to group sex orgies, and threesomes, a primarily sexual arrangement involving three people. There’s also relationship anarchy where participants are not bound by set rules in relationships other than whatever is explicitly agreed upon by the people involved, and swinging, which refers to similar to an organized social activity, often involving some form of group sex and sometimes simply trading partners with other swingers.” ref

“There are also concepts such as Polyfidelity, where participants have multiple partners but restrict sexual activity to within a certain group, and a situation where there is a main romantic relationship with all other relationships being second to it, known as primary/secondary. One of the most well-known forms is polygamy, where one person is married to multiple partners. This has two primary sub-forms: polyandry where a woman has multiple husbands, group or conjoint marriage, and polygyny, referring to a man has multiple wives. The latter is more widespread in Africa than in any other continent, especially in West Africa and in North America, it is practiced by some Mormon sects, such as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS Church).” ref

“Although it’s sometimes confused with it, there is polyamory, referring to when participants have multiple romantic partners It comes in various forms, such as hierarchical polyamory, where there is a primary romantic relationship with all other relationships being secondary to it, kitchen table polyamory which refers to people are expected to know one another and be comfortable in each others’ company, and parallel polyamory, with relationships between people who are kept separately, all may be aware of each other, but are not expected to be friends. There’s also group marriage, where several people form a single familial unit, and each person is considered to be married to all other members. Line families are a form of group marriage intended to outlive its original members by the ongoing addition of new spouses and poly families, which is similar to group marriage, but some members may not consider themselves married to all other members.” ref

“Michael Shernoff cites two studies in his report on same-sex couples considering non-monogamy. Morin (1999) stated that a couple has a very good chance of adjusting to non-exclusivity if at least some of the following conditions exist. This includes both partners wanting their relationship to remain primary, the couple having an established reservoir of goodwill, and a minimum of lingering resentments from past hurts and betrayals. Other conditions include the partners in agreement on the question of monogamy/non-monogamy and the partners feeling similarly powerful and autonomous. Additionally, Green and Mitchell (2002) stated that direct discussion of the following issues can provide the basis for honest and important conversations, including openness versus secrecy, volition, and equality versus coercion and inequality.” ref

“Other issues include clarity and specificity of agreements versus confusion/vagueness, honoring keeping agreements versus violating them, and how each partner views non-monogamy. According to Shernoff, if the matter is discussed with a third party, such as a therapist, the task of the therapist is to “engage couples in conversations that let them decide for themselves whether sexual exclusivity or non-exclusivity is functional or dysfunctional for the relationship.” ref

“The concepts of monogamy and marriage have been strongly intertwined for centuries, and in English-language dictionaries one is often used to define the other, as when “monogamy” is “being married to one person at a time.” A common antonym is polygamy, meaning to have more than one spouse at one time. As a result, monogamy is deeply entrenched within many religions, and in social regulations and law, and exceptions are condemned as incursions on both morality and public health.” ref

“To some, the term non-monogamy semantically implies that monogamy is the norm, with other forms of relational intimacy being deviant and therefore somehow unhealthy or immoral. This concern over sexually transmitted diseases is despite the common practice of regular testing and sharing of recent test results prior to engaging in sexual activity.” ref

“It is often assumed that people who participate in non-monogamous sexual relationships have a higher rate of STIs. Despite reporting a higher number of sexual partners, research suggests that the risk of transmitting STIs is no higher than they are among the monogamous population. This is because the non-monogamous community is more likely to be regularly tested and more open about their results. The stigma of receiving a positive result is diminished, resulting in better treatment options and fewer people who are unwittingly transmitting the disease because they were not told by the person who gave it to them.” ref

Consensual Non-Monogamy

“Consensual non-monogamy (CNM), and its subset ethical non-monogamy (ENM), are the practice of non-monogamous intimate or sexual relations that are distinguished from infidelity by the knowledge and consent of those involved, and from polygamy by the various partners not being in a single marriage. Forms of consensual non-monogamy include swinging, polyamory, open relationships, Relationship Anarchism, Anarchist Naturalism, and cuckolding fetishism, etc.” ref

“Consensual non-monogamy can take many different forms, depending on the needs and preferences of the individuals involved in specific relationships. As of 2019, over one-fifth of the United States population has, at some point in their lives, engaged in some sort of consensual non-monogamy.” ref

“It is common for swinging and open couples to maintain emotional monogamy while engaging in extra-dyadic sexual relations. Similarly, the friend/partner boundary in forms of consensual non-monogamy other than polyamory is typically fairly clear. Unlike other forms of non-monogamy, though, “polyamory is notable for privileging emotional intimacy with others.” Polyamory is distinguished from some other forms of ethical non-monogamy in that the relationships involved are loving intimate relationships, as opposed to purely sexual relationships.” ref

“Andie Nordgren popularized the term “relationship anarchy” in her 2012 Tumblr essay “The short instructional manifesto for relationship anarchy” that she translated from her own Swedish-language “Relationsanarki i 8 punkter“. Other relevant writings exploring this topic within a similar time frame include “A Green Anarchist Project on Freedom” and “Love and Against the Couple Form.” ref

“Workshops at OpenCon 2010 discussed relationship anarchy, and the Open University professor Dr. Meg Barker discussed it in a 2013 presentation. In the International Non-Monogamies and Contemporary Intimacies Conferences, since 2016, different aspects of relationship anarchy have been studied. In March 2020, the first book dedicated monographically to RA was published, so far only in Spanish: “Anarquía Relacional. La revolución desde los vínculos.” ref

Anarchist Naturalism

“Anarcho-naturism, also referred to as anarchist naturism and naturist anarchism, appeared in the late 19th century as the union of anarchist and naturist philosophies. In many of the alternative communities established in Britain in the early 1900s, “nudism, anarchism, vegetarianism and free love were accepted as part of a politically radical way of life”. In the 1920s, the inhabitants of the anarchist community at Whiteway, near Stroud in Gloucestershire, “shocked the conservative residents of the area with their shameless nudity”. Mainly, it had importance within individualist anarchist circles in Spain, France, Portugal, and Cuba.” ref

“Anarcho-naturism advocates vegetarianism, free love, nudism, hiking, and an ecological world view within anarchist groups and outside them. Anarcho-naturism also promotes an ecological worldview, small ecovillages, and most prominently nudism as a way to avoid the artificiality of the industrial mass society of modernity. Naturist individualist anarchists see the individual in their biological, physical, and psychological aspects and try to eliminate social determinations.” ref

Free love?

“Free love is a social movement that accepts all forms of love. The movement’s initial goal was to separate the state from sexual and romantic matters such as marriage, birth control, and adultery. It stated that such issues were the concern of the people involved and no one else. The movement began around the 19th century, but was notably progressed by the hippies in the Sixties.” ref

“Much of the free love tradition reflects a liberal philosophy that seeks freedom from state regulation and church interference in personal relationships. According to this concept, the free unions of adults (or persons at or above the age of consent) are legitimate relations which should be respected by all third parties whether they are emotional or sexual relations. In addition, some free love writing has argued that both men and women have the right to sexual pleasure without social or legal restraints. In the Victorian era, this was a radical notion. Later, a new theme developed, linking free love with radical social change, and depicting it as a harbinger of a new anti-authoritarian, anti-repressive sensibility.” ref

“According to today’s stereotype, earlier middle-class Americans wanted the home to be a place of stability in an uncertain world. To this mentality are attributed strongly-defined gender roles, which led to a minority reaction in the form of the free-love movement.” ref

“While the phrase free love is often associated with promiscuity in the popular imagination, especially in reference to the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s, historically the free-love movement has not advocated multiple sexual partners or short-term sexual relationships. Rather, it has been argued that sexual relations that are freely entered into should not be regulated by law, and may be initiated or terminated by the parties involved at will.” ref

“The term “sex radical” is often used interchangeably with the term “free lover”. By whatever name, advocates had two strong beliefs: opposition to the idea of forced sexual activity in a relationship and advocacy for a woman to use her body in any way that she pleases.” ref

“Laws of particular concern to free love movements have included those that prevent an unmarried couple from living together, and those that regulate adultery and divorce, as well as age of consent, birth control, homosexuality, abortion, and sometimes prostitution; although not all free-love advocates agree on these issues. The abrogation of individual rights in marriage is also a concern—for example, some jurisdictions do not recognize spousal rape or treat it less seriously than non-spousal rape. Free-love movements since the 19th century have also defended the right to publicly discuss sexuality and have battled obscenity laws.” ref

Relationship of “Free love” to feminism?

Free-Love Ideals and Utopian socialism?

“Sharing the free-love ideals of the earlier social movements—as well as their feminism, pacifism, and simple communal life—were the utopian socialist communities of early-nineteenth-century France and Britain, associated with writers and thinkers such as Henri de Saint-Simon and Charles Fourier in France, and Robert Owen in England. Fourier, who coined the term feminism, argued for true freedom, without suppressing passions: the suppression of passions is not only destructive to the individual, but to society as a whole. He argued that all sexual expressions should be enjoyed as long as people are not abused, and that “affirming one’s difference” can actually enhance social integration.” ref

“Robert Owen argued that marriage formed one of an “awful trinity” of oppressors to mankind, as well as religion and private property, and his son Robert Dale was a leading proponent of free divorce. The Saint-Simonian feminist Pauline Roland took a free-love stance against marriage, having four children in the 1830s, all of whom bore her name.” ref

“The German composer Richard Wagner advocated something like free love in several of his works, and began a family with Cosima Liszt, then still married to the conductor Hans von Bülow. Though apparently scandalous at the time, such liaisons seemed the actions of admired artists who were following the dictates of their own wills, rather than those of social convention, and in this way, they were in step with their era’s liberal philosophers of the cult of passion, such as Fourier, and their actual or eventual openness can be understood to be a prelude to the freer ways of the twentieth century.” ref

“Friedrich Nietzsche spoke occasionally in favor of something like free love, but when he proposed marriage to that famous practitioner of it, Lou Andreas-Salome, she berated him for being inconsistent with his philosophy of the free and supramoral Superman, a criticism that Nietzsche seems to have taken seriously, or to have at least been stung by. The relationship between composer Frédéric Chopin and writer George Sand can be understood as exemplifying free love in a number of ways. Behavior of this kind by figures in the public eye did much to erode the credibility of conventionalism in relationships, especially when such conventionalism brought actual unhappiness to its practitioners.” ref

Origins of the Utopian socialism movement

“The eminent sociologist Herbert Spencer argued in his Principles of Sociology for the implementation of free divorce. Claiming that marriage consists of two components, “union by law” and “union by affection”, he argued that with the loss of the latter union, the legal union should lose all meaning and dissolve automatically, without the legal requirement for a divorce. Free love particularly stressed women’s rights since most sexual laws discriminated against women: for example, marriage laws and anti-birth control measures.” ref

The United States and Utopian socialism

“Free love began to coalesce into a movement in the mid to late 19th century. The term was coined by the Christian socialist writer John Humphrey Noyes, although he preferred to use the term ‘complex marriage‘. Noyes founded the Oneida Community in 1848, a utopian community that “[rejected] conventional marriage both as a form of legalism from which Christians should be free and as a selfish institution in which men exerted rights of ownership over women”. He found scriptural justification: “In the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven” (Matt. 22:30). Noyes also supported eugenics; and only certain people (including Noyes himself) were allowed to become parents. Another movement was established in Berlin Heights, Ohio.” ref

“In 1852, a writer named Marx Edgeworth Lazarus published a tract entitled “Love vs. Marriage pt. 1”, in which he portrayed marriage as “incompatible with social harmony and the root cause of mental and physical impairments.” Lazarus intertwined his writings with his religious teachings, a factor that made the Christian community more tolerable to the free love idea. Elements of the free-love movement also had links to abolitionist movements, drawing parallels between slavery and “sexual slavery” (marriage), and forming alliances with black activists.” ref

“American feminist Victoria Woodhull (1838–1927), the first woman to run for the presidency in the U.S. in 1872, was also called “the high priestess of free love”. In 1871, Woodhull wrote: “Yes, I am a Free Lover. I have an inalienable, constitutional and natural right to love whom I may, to love as long or as short a period as I can; to change that love every day if I please, and with that right neither you nor any law you can frame have any right to interfere.” ref

“The women’s movement, free love, and Spiritualism were three strongly linked movements at the time, and Woodhull was also a spiritualist leader. Like Noyes, she also supported eugenics. Fellow social reformer and educator Mary Gove Nichols was happily married (to her second husband), and together they published a newspaper and wrote medical books and articles, a novel, and a treatise on marriage, in which they argued the case for free love. Both Woodhull and Nichols eventually repudiated free love.” ref

“Publications of the movement in the second half of the 19th century included Nichols’ Monthly, The Social Revolutionist, Woodhull & Claflin’s Weekly (ed. Victoria Woodhull and her sister Tennessee Claflin), The Word (ed. Ezra Heywood), Lucifer, the Light-Bearer (ed. Moses Harman) and the German-language Detroit newspaper Der Arme Teufel (ed. Robert Reitzel). Organizations included the New England Free Love League, founded with the assistance of American libertarian socialist Benjamin Tucker as a spin-off from the New England Labor Reform League (NELRL). A minority of freethinkers also supported free love.” ref

“The most radical free love journal was The Social Revolutionist, published in the 1856–1857, by John Patterson. The first volume consisted of twenty writers, of which only one was a woman.” ref

“Sex radicals were not alone in their fight against marriage ideals. Some other nineteenth-century Americans saw this social institution as flawed, but hesitated to abolish it. Groups such as the Shakers, the Oneida Community, and the Latter-day Saints were wary of the social notion of marriage. These organizations and sex radicals believed that true equality would never exist between the sexes as long as the church and the state continued to work together, worsening the problem of subordination of wives to their husbands.” ref

“Free-love movements continued into the early 20th century in bohemian circles in New York’s Greenwich Village. A group of Villagers lived free-love ideals and promoted them in the political journal The Masses and its sister publication The Little Review, a literary journal. Incorporating influences from the writings of the English thinkers and activists Edward Carpenter and Havelock Ellis, women such as Emma Goldman campaigned for a range of sexual freedoms, including homosexuality and access to contraception. Other notable figures among the Greenwich-Village scene who have been associated with free love include Edna St. Vincent Millay, Max Eastman, Crystal Eastman, Floyd Dell, Mabel Dodge Luhan, Ida Rauh, Hutchins Hapgood, and Neith Boyce. Dorothy Day also wrote passionately in defense of free love, women’s rights, and contraception—but later, after converting to Catholicism, she criticized the sexual revolution of the sixties.” ref

“The development of the idea of free love in the United States was also significantly impacted by the publisher of Playboy magazine, Hugh Hefner, whose activities and persona over more than a half-century popularized the idea of free love to some of the general public.” ref

Anarchism and issues related to love and sex?

“Major anarchist thinkers (except Proudhon) generally supported women’s equality. Free love advocates sometimes traced their roots back to Josiah Warren and to experimental communities, viewing sexual freedom as an expression of an individual’s self-ownership. Free love particularly stressed women’s rights. In New York’s Greenwich Village, “bohemian” feminists and socialists advocated self-realisation and pleasure for both men and women. In Europe and North America, the free love movement combined ideas revived from utopian socialism with anarchism and feminism to attack the “hypocritical” sexual morality of the Victorian era.” ref

“The major male anarchist thinkers, with the exception of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, strongly supported women’s equality. Mikhail Bakunin, for example, opposed patriarchy and the way the law “subjects [women] to the absolute domination of the man.” He argued that “[e]qual rights must belong to men and women” so that women can “become independent and be free to forge their own way of life.” Bakunin foresaw “the full sexual freedom of women” and the end of “the authoritarian juridical family“. Proudhon, on the other hand, viewed the family as the most basic unit of society and morality, and thought women had the responsibility of fulfilling a traditional role within the family.” ref

“In Oscar Wilde‘s The Soul of Man Under Socialism, he passionately advocates for an egalitarian society where wealth is shared by all, while warning of the dangers of authoritarian socialism that would crush individuality. He later commented, “I think I am rather more than a Socialist. I am something of an Anarchist, I believe.” Wilde’s left libertarian politics were shared by other figures who actively campaigned for homosexual emancipation in the late 19th century, including John Henry Mackay and Edward Carpenter. “In August 1894, Wilde wrote to his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, to tell of “a dangerous adventure.” He had gone out sailing with two lovely boys, Stephen and Alphonso, and they were caught in a storm.” ref

“We took five hours in an awful gale to come back! [And we] did not reach pier till eleven o’clock at night, pitch dark all the way, and a fearful sea. . . . All the fishermen were waiting for us.”…Tired, cold, and “wet to the skin,” the three men immediately “flew to the hotel for hot brandy and water.” But there was a problem. The law stood in the way: “As it was past ten o’clock on a Sunday night the proprietor could not sell us any brandy or spirits of any kind! So he had to give it to us. The result was not displeasing, but what laws!”…Wilde finishes the story: “Both Alphonso and Stephen are now anarchists, I need hardly say.” ref

Free love and Anarchism?

“An important current within American individualist anarchism was free love. Free love advocates sometimes traced their roots back to Josiah Warren and to experimental communities, and viewed sexual freedom as a clear, direct expression of an individual’s self-ownership. Free love particularly stressed women’s rights since most sexual laws discriminated against women: for example, marriage laws and anti-birth control measures. The most important American free love journal was Lucifer the Lightbearer (1883–1907) edited by Moses Harman and Lois Waisbrooker but also there existed Ezra Heywood and Angela Heywood’s The Word (1872–1890, 1892–1893). Also, M. E. Lazarus was an important American individualist anarchist who promoted free love.” ref

“Free Society (1895–1897 as The Firebrand; 1897-1904 as Free Society) was a major anarchist newspaper in the United States at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries. The publication staunchly advocated free love and women’s rights, and critiqued “Comstockery” — censorship of sexual information. Deliberately defying “Comstockism” in an act of civil disobedience, The Firebrand published Walt Whitman‘s “A Woman Waits for Me” in 1897; A. J. Pope, Abe Isaak, and Henry Addis were quickly arrested and charged with publishing obscene information for the Whitman poem and a letter “It Depends on the Women”, signed by A.E.K. The A.E.K. letter presented various hypotheticals of women refusing or assenting to sex with their husbands or lovers, and argued that true liberation required education of both sexes and particularly women.” ref

“In New York’s Greenwich Village, “bohemian” feminists and socialists advocated self-realisation and pleasure for women (and also men) in the here and now, as well as campaigning against the first World War and for other anarchist and socialist causes. They encouraged playing with sexual roles and sexuality, and the openly bisexual radical Edna St. Vincent Millay and the lesbian anarchist Margaret Anderson were prominent among them. The Villagers took their inspiration from the (mostly anarchist) immigrant female workers from the period 1905-1915 and the “New Life Socialism” of Edward Carpenter, Havelock Ellis, and Olive Schreiner. Discussion groups organised by the Villagers were frequented by Emma Goldman, among others. Magnus Hirschfeld noted in 1923 that Goldman “has campaigned boldly and steadfastly for individual rights, and especially for those deprived of their rights. Thus it came about that she was the first and only woman, indeed the first and only American, to take up the defense of homosexual love before the general public.” In fact, prior to Goldman, heterosexual anarchist Robert Reitzel (1849–98) spoke positively of homosexuality from the beginning of the 1890s in his German-language journal “Der arme Teufel” (Detroit).” ref

“In Europe and North America, the free love movement combined ideas revived from utopian socialism with anarchism and feminism to attack the “hypocritical” sexual morality of the Victorian era, and the institutions of marriage and the family that were seen to enslave women. Free lovers advocated voluntary sexual unions with no state interference and affirmed the right to sexual pleasure for both women and men, sometimes explicitly supporting the rights of homosexuals and prostitutes. For a few decades, adherence to “free love” became widespread among European and American anarchists, but these views were opposed at the time by the dominant actors of the Left: Marxists and social democrats. Radical feminist and socialist Victoria Woodhull was expelled from the International Workingmen’s Association in 1871 for her involvement in the free love and associated movements. Indeed, with Marx’s support, the American branch of the organization was purged of its pacifist, anti-racist and feminist elements, which were accused of putting too much emphasis on issues unrelated to class struggle and were therefore seen to be incompatible with the “scientific socialism” of Marx and Engels.” ref

“French and Spanish individualist anarchist circles had a strong sense of personal libertarianism and experimentation. Free love contents started to have a strong influence in individualist anarchist circles and from there it expanded to the rest of anarchism also appearing in Spanish individualist anarchist groups.” ref

“In this sense, the theoretical positions and the vital experiences of French individualism are deeply iconoclastic and scandalous, even within libertarian circles. The call of nudist naturism, the strong defense of birth control methods, the idea of “unions of egoists” with the sole justification of sexual practices, that will try to put in practice, not without difficulties, will establish a way of thought and action, and will result in sympathy within some, and a strong rejection within others.” Periodicals involved in this movement include L’En-Dehors in France and Iniciales and La Revista Blanca in Spain.” ref

“The main propagandist of free love within European individualist anarchism was Émile Armand. He advocated naturism (see anarcho-naturism) and polyamory and he came up with the concept of la camaraderie amoureuse. He wrote many propagandist articles on this subject such as “De la liberté sexuelle” (1907) where he advocated not only a vague free love but also multiple partners, which he called “plural love”. In the individualist anarchist journal L’En-Dehors he and others continued in this way. Armand seized this opportunity to outline his theses supporting revolutionary sexualism and “camaraderie amoureuse” that differed from the traditional views of the partisans of free love in several respects.” ref

“Later Armand submitted that from an individualist perspective nothing was reprehensible about making “love”, even if one did not have very strong feelings for one’s partner. “The camaraderie amoureuse thesis”, he explained, “entails a free contract of association (that may be annulled without notice, following prior agreement) reached between anarchist individualists of different genders, adhering to the necessary standards of sexual hygiene, with a view toward protecting the other parties to the contract from certain risks of the amorous experience, such as rejection, rupture, exclusivism, possessiveness, unicity, coquetry, whims, indifference, flirtatiousness, disregard for others, and prostitution.” He also published Le Combat contre la jalousie et le sexualisme révolutionnaire (1926), followed over the years by Ce que nous entendons par liberté de l’amour (1928), La Camaraderie amoureuse ou “chiennerie sexuelle” (1930), and, finally, La Révolution sexuelle et la camaraderie amoureuse (1934), a book of nearly 350 pages comprising most of his writings on sexuality.” ref

“In a text from 1937, he mentioned among the individualist objectives the practice of forming voluntary associations for purely sexual purposes of heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual nature or of a combination thereof. He also supported the right of individuals to change sex and stated his willingness to rehabilitate forbidden pleasures, non-conformist caresses (he was personally inclined toward voyeurism), as well as sodomy. This led him to allocate more and more space to what he called “the sexual non-conformists”, while excluding physical violence. His militancy also included translating texts from people such as Alexandra Kollontai and Wilhelm Reich and establishments of free love associations which tried to put into practice la camaraderie amoureuse through actual sexual experiences.” ref

“The prestige in the subject of free love of Armand within anarchist circles was such as to motivate the young Argentinian anarchist América Scarfó to ask Armand in a letter on advice as to how to deal with the relationship she had with notorious Italian anarchist Severino Di Giovanni. Di Giovanni was still married when they began the relationship. “The letter was published in L’En-Dehors” on 20 January 1929 under the title “An Experience”, together with the reply from E. Armand”. Armand replied to Scarfó “Comrade: My opinion matters little in this matter you send me about what you are doing. Are you or are you not intimately in accord with your personal conception of the anarchist life? If you are, then ignore the comments and insults of others and carry on following your own path. No one has the right to judge your way of conducting yourself, even if it were the case that your friend’s wife be hostile to these relations. Every woman united to an anarchist (or vice versa), knows very well that she should not exercise on him, or accept from him, domination of any kind.” ref

“The treatment of the issue of love by the influential Italian anarchist Errico Malatesta deserves attention. Malatesta says in Love and Anarchy, “Let’s eliminate the exploitation of man by man, let’s fight the brutal pretention of the male who thinks he owns the female, let’s fight religious, social and sexual prejudice, let’s expand education and then we will be happy with reason if there are no more evils than love. In any case, the ones with bad luck in love will procure themselves other pleasures, since it will not happen like today, when love and alcohol are the only consolations of the majority of humanity.” ref

Self-ownership

“Self-ownership, also known as sovereignty of the individual or individual sovereignty, is the concept of property in one’s own person, expressed as the moral or natural right of a person to have bodily integrity and be the exclusive controller of one’s own body and life. Self-ownership is a central idea in several political philosophies that emphasize individualism, such as libertarianism, liberalism, and anarchism.” ref

I do realize there is always the individual (with their own experiences, past, support, supplies, or needs) and even the ideas of “group”, “family”, or “brothers”, and “sisters”, are cultural labels to connect but the individual is the only real thing the entire time just with different shared experiences that themselves contain individual, not an actual group experience.

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Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

The self?

“American libertarian socialist Stephen Pearl Andrews frequently discussed the sovereignty of the individual in his writings. In The Science of Society, he says that protestantism, democracy, and socialism are “three partial announcements of one generic principle” which is “the sovereignty of the individual”. Andrews considered the sovereignty of the individual to be “the basis of harmonious intercourse amongst equals, precisely as the equal Sovereignty of States is the basis of harmonious intercourse between nations mutually recognizing their independence of each other.” ref

Discussion of the boundary of self with respect to ownership and responsibility has been explored by legal scholar Meir Dan-Cohen in his essays on The Value of Ownership and Responsibility and the Boundaries of the Self. The emphasis of this work illuminates the phenomenology of ownership and our common usage of personal pronouns to apply to both body and property—this serves as the folk basis for legal conceptions and debates about responsibility and ownership. Another view holds that labor is alienable because it can be contracted out, thus alienating it from the self. In this view, the choice of a person to voluntarily sell oneself into slavery is also preserved by the principle of self-ownership.” ref

Labour markets and private property

“For anarcho-communist political philosopher L. Susan Brown: “Liberalism and anarchism are two political philosophies that are fundamentally concerned with individual freedom yet differ from one another in very distinct ways. Anarchism shares with liberalism a commitment to individual freedom while rejecting liberalism’s competitive property relations”. Scholar Ellen Meiksins Wood says that “there are doctrines of individualism that are opposed to Lockean individualism… and non-Lockean individualism may encompass socialism.” ref

“Right-libertarian conceptions of self-ownership extend the concept to include control of private property as part of the self. According to Gerald Cohen, “the libertarian principle of self–ownership says that each person enjoys, over himself and his powers, full and exclusive rights of control and use, and therefore owes no service or product to anyone else that he has not contracted to supply.” ref

“Philosopher Ian Shapiro says that labor markets affirm self-ownership because if self-ownership were not recognized, then people would not be allowed to sell the use of their productive capacities to others. He says that the individual sells the use of his productive capacity for a limited time and conditions but continues to own what he earns from selling the use of that capacity and the capacity itself, thereby retaining sovereignty over himself while contributing to economic efficiency.” ref

“A common view within classical liberalism is that sovereign-minded individuals usually assert a right of private property external to the body, reasoning that if a person owns themselves, they own their actions, including those that create or improve resources, therefore they own their own labor and the fruits thereof.” ref

“In Human Action, Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises argues that labor markets are the rational conclusion of self-ownership and argues that collective ownership of labor ignores differing values for the labor of individuals:

Of course, people believe that there is an essential difference between the tasks incumbent upon the comrades of the socialist commonwealth and those incumbent upon slaves or serfs. The slaves and serfs, they say, toiled for the benefit of an exploiting lord. But in a socialist system, the produce of labor goes to society of which the toiler himself is a part; here the worker works for himself, as it were. What this reasoning overlooks is that the identification of the individual comrades and the totality of all comrades with the collective entity pocketing the produce of all work is merely fictitious. Whether the ends which the community’s officeholders are aiming at agreeing or disagreeing with the wishes and desires of the various comrades are of minor importance. The main thing is that the individual’s contribution to the collective entity’s wealth is not requited in the shape of wages determined by the market.— Ludwig von Mises” ref

“Other scholars are critical of the idea of private property, specifically within anarchism. The anarchist Oscar Wilde said:

For the recognition of private property has really harmed Individualism, and obscured it, by confusing a man with what he possesses. It has led Individualism entirely astray. It has made gain, not growth its aim. So that man thought that the important thing was to have, and did not know that the important thing is to be. The true perfection of man lies, not in what man has, but in what man is…With the abolition of private property, then, we shall have true, beautiful, healthy Individualism. Nobody will waste his life in accumulating things, and the symbols for things. One will live. To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all”.— Oscar Wilde” ref

“Within anarchism, the concept of wage slavery refers to a situation perceived as quasi-voluntary slavery, where a person’s livelihood depends on wages, especially when the dependence is total and immediate. It is a negatively connoted term used to draw an analogy between slavery and wage labor by focusing on similarities between owning and renting a person. The term “wage slavery” has been used to criticize economic exploitation and social stratification, with the former seen primarily as unequal bargaining power between labor and capital (particularly when workers are paid comparatively low wages, e.g. in sweatshops) and the latter as a lack of workers’ self-management, fulfilling job choices and leisure in an economy. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, thinkers such as Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Karl Marx elaborated the comparison between wage labor and slavery in the context of a critique of societal property not intended for active personal use while Luddites emphasized the dehumanization brought about by machines. Emma Goldman famously denounced “wage slavery” by saying: “The only difference is that you are hired slaves instead of block slaves”.” ref

“Within left-libertarianism, scholars such as Hillel Steiner, Peter Vallentyne, Philippe Van Parijs, Michael Otsuka, and David Ellerman root an economic egalitarianism in the classical liberal concepts of self-ownership and land appropriation, combined with geoist or physiocratic views regarding the ownership of land and natural resources (e.g. those of John Locke and Henry George). Left-libertarians “maintain that the world’s natural resources were initially unowned or belonged equally to all, and it is illegitimate for anyone to claim exclusive private ownership of these resources to the detriment of others. Such private appropriation is legitimate only if everyone can appropriate an equal amount, or if those who appropriate more are taxed to compensate those who are thereby excluded from what was once common property”. This position is articulated in contrast to the position of other libertarians who argue for a right to appropriate parts of the external world based on sufficient use, even if this homesteading yields unequal results. Some left-libertarians of the Steiner–Vallentyne type support some form of income redistribution on the grounds of a claim by each individual to be entitled to an equal share of natural resources.” ref

“John Locke wrote in his Two Treatises on Government that “every man has a Property in his own Person”. Libertarian philosopher Robert Nozick interprets Locke as saying that the individual “has a right to decide what would become of himself and what he would do, and as having a right to reap the benefits of what he did”. Josiah Warren was the first who wrote about the “sovereignty of the individual.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Sex-Positive Feminism

“Sex-positive feminism, also known as pro-sex feminism, sex-radical feminism, or sexually liberal feminism, is a feminist movement centering on the idea that sexual freedom is an essential component of women’s freedom. Some sex-positive feminists believe that women and men can have positive experiences as sex workers and that where it is illegal, prostitution should be decriminalized. They argue that prostitution is not necessarily bad for women if prostitutes are treated with respect and if the professions within sex work are destigmatized. Other sex-positive feminists hold a range of views on prostitution, with widely varying views on prostitution as it relates to class, race, human trafficking, and many other issues. All feminists generally agree that prostitutes themselves should not be criminalized or penalized.” ref

“Some feminists became involved in the sex-positive feminist movement in response to efforts by anti-pornography feminists to put pornography at the center of a feminist explanation of women’s oppression. This period of intense debate and acrimony between sex-positive and anti-pornography feminists during the early 1980s, often referred to as the feminist sex wars, ushered in the third wave of feminism in the early 1990s. Other feminists identifying as sex-positive became involved in the debate, not in opposition to other feminists, but in direct response to what they saw as patriarchal control of sexuality.” ref

“Sex-positive feminism centers on the idea that sexual freedom is an essential component of women’s freedom. They oppose legal or social efforts to control sexual activities between consenting adults, whether they are initiated by the government, other feminists, opponents of feminism, or any other institution. They embrace sexual minority groups, endorsing the value of coalition-building with marginalized groups. Sex-positive feminism is connected with the sex-positive movement.” ref

“Sex-positive feminism brings together anti-censorship activists, LGBT activists, feminist scholars, producers of pornography and erotica, among others. Sex-positive feminists generally agree that prostitutes themselves should not be criminalized or penalized.” ref

“Gayle Rubin summarizes the conflict over sex within feminism. She says that one feminist stream criticizes the sexual constraints and difficulties faced by sexually active women (e.g., access to abortion), while another stream views sexual liberalization as an extension of “male privilege.” ref

“Sex-positive feminists reject the vilification of male sexuality that many attribute to radical feminism, and instead embrace the entire range of human sexuality. They argue that the patriarchy limits sexual expression and are in favor of giving people of all genders more sexual opportunities, rather than restricting pornography. Sex-positive feminists generally reject sexual essentialism, defined by Rubin as “the idea that sex is a natural force that exists prior to social life and shapes institutions”. Rather, they see sexual orientation and gender as social constructs that are heavily influenced by society.” ref

“Some radical feminists reject the dichotomy of “sex-positive” and “sex-negative” feminism, suggesting that instead, the real divide is between liberal feminism and radical feminism.” ref

“Sex-radical feminists in particular, come to a sex-positive stance from a deep distrust in the patriarchy’s ability to secure women’s best interest in sexually limiting laws. Other feminists identify women’s sexual liberation as the real motive behind the women’s movement. Naomi Wolf writes, “Orgasm is the body’s natural call to feminist politics.” Sharon Presley, the National Coordinator of the Association of Libertarian Feminists, writes that in the area of sexuality, government blatantly discriminates against women.” ref

“The social background in which sex-positive feminism operates must also be understood: Christian societies are often influenced by what is understood as ‘traditional’ sexual morality: according to the Christian doctrine, sexual activity must only take place in marriage, and must be vaginal intercourse; sexual acts outside marriage and ‘unnatural sex’ (i.e. oral, anal sex, termed as “sodomy“) are forbidden; yet forced sexual intercourse within marriage is not seen as immoral by a few social and religious conservatives, owing to the existence of so-called ‘conjugal rights’ defined in the Bible at 1 Corinthians 7:3-5.” ref

“Such organization of sexuality has increasingly come under legal and social attack in recent decades. In addition, in certain cultures, particularly in Mediterranean countries influenced by Roman Catholicism, traditional ideas of masculinity and female purity. This has led to what many interpret as a double standard between male and female sexuality; men are expected to be sexually assertive as a way of affirming their masculinity, but for a woman to be considered ‘good’, she must remain pure. Indeed, Cesare Lombroso claimed in his book, The Female Offender, that women could be categorized into three types: the Criminal Woman, the Prostitute, and the Normal Woman. As such, highly sexed women (prostitutes) were deemed as abnormal.” ref

“Feminists “ranging from Betty Friedan and Kate Millett to Karen DeCrow, Wendy Kaminer, and Jamaica Kincaid” supported the right to consume pornography. Feminists who have advocated a sex-positive position include writer Kathy Acker, academic Camille Paglia, sex educator Megan Andelloux, Susie Bright, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Diana Cage, Avedon Carol, Patrick Califia, Betty Dodson, Nancy Friday, Jane Gallop, Laci Green, porn performer Nina Hartley, Josephine Ho, Amber L. Hollibaugh, Brenda Howard, Laura Kipnis, Wendy McElroy, Inga Muscio, Joan Nestle, Marcia Pally, Carol Queen, Candida Royalle, Gayle Rubin, Annie Sprinkle, Tristan Taormino, Ellen Willis, and Mireille Miller- Young.” ref

Sex positivity

“According to sexologist and author Carol Queen in an interview with researcher and professor Lynn Comella, she said, “[sex positivity] is the cultural philosophy that understands sexuality as a potentially positive force in one’s life, and it can be […] contrasted with sex-negativity, which sees sex as problematic, disruptive, dangerous. Sex-positivity allows for and […] celebrates sexual diversity, differing desires, and relationships structures, and individual choices based on consent… [negative sexual experiences caused by lack of information, support, and choices] are the cultural conditions that sex-positivity allows us to point out as curtailers of healthy, enjoyable sexual experience.” ref

“She also added, “This sense that many of us were being denied space and credentials to speak for ourselves and speak about issues within our community is what […] led to the efflorescence of sex-positive feminism. And it is why there is a sex-positive feminism and not just sex-positivity.” ref

Historical roots of Sex-Positive Feminism

“Authors such as Gayle Rubin and Wendy McElroy see the roots of sex-positive feminism stemming from the work of sex reformers and workers for sex education and access to contraception, such as Havelock Ellis, Margaret Sanger, Mary Dennett and, later, Alfred Kinsey and Shere Hite. However, the contemporary incarnation of sex-positive feminism appeared more recently, following an increasing feminist focus on pornography as a source of women’s oppression in the 1970s.” ref

“The rise of second-wave feminism was concurrent with the sexual revolution and rulings that loosened legal restrictions on access to pornography. In the 1970s, radical feminists became increasingly focused on issues around sexuality in a patriarchal society. Some feminist groups began to concern themselves with prescribing what proper feminist sexuality should look like. This was especially characteristic of lesbian separatist groups, but some heterosexual women’s groups, such as Redstockings, became engaged with this issue as well. On the other hand, there were also feminists, such as Betty Dodson, who saw women’s sexual pleasure and masturbation as central to women’s liberation. Pornography was not a major issue during this era; radical feminists were generally opposed to pornography, but the issue was not treated as especially important until the mid-1970s.” ref

“There were, however, feminist prostitutes-rights advocates, such as COYOTE, which campaigned for the decriminalization of prostitution.” ref

“The late 1970s found American culture becoming increasingly concerned about the aftermath of a decade of greater sexual freedom, including concerns about explicit violent and sexual imagery in the media, the mainstreaming of pornography, increased sexual activity among teenagers, and issues such as the dissemination of child pornography and the purported rise of “snuff films“. (Critics maintain that this atmosphere amounted to a moral panic, which reached its peak in the mid-1980s.). These concerns were reflected in the feminist movement, with radical feminist groups claiming that pornography was a central underpinning of patriarchy and a direct cause of violence against women. Robin Morgan summarized this idea in her statement, “Pornography is the theory; rape the practice.” ref

“Andrea Dworkin and Robin Morgan began articulating a vehemently anti-porn stance based in radical feminism beginning in 1974, and anti-porn feminist groups, such as Women Against Pornography and similar organizations, became highly active in various US cities during the late 1970s. As anti-porn feminists broadened their criticism and activism to include not only pornography, but prostitution and sadomasochism, other feminists became concerned about the direction the movement was taking and grew more critical of anti-porn feminism. This included feminist BDSM practitioners (notably Samois), prostitutes-rights advocates, and many liberal and anti-authoritarian feminists for whom free speech, sexual freedom, and advocacy of women’s agency were central concerns.” ref

“One of the earliest feminist arguments against this anti-pornography trend amongst feminists was Ellen Willis‘s essay “Feminism, Moralism, and Pornography” first published in October 1979 in the Village Voice. In response to the formation of Women Against Pornography in 1979, Willis wrote an article (the origin of the term, “pro-sex feminism”), expressing worries about anti-pornography feminists’ attempts to make feminism into a single-issue movement, arguing that feminists should not issue a blanket condemnation against all pornography and that restrictions on pornography could just as easily be applied to speech that feminists found favorable to themselves.” ref

“Rubin calls for a new feminist theory of sex, saying that existing feminist thoughts on sex had frequently considered sexual liberalization as a trend that only increases male privilege. Rubin criticizes anti-pornography feminists who she claims “have condemned virtually every variant of sexual expression as anti-feminist,” arguing that their view of sexuality is dangerously close to anti-feminist, conservative sexual morality. Rubin encourages feminists to consider the political aspects of sexuality without promoting sexual repression. She also argues that the blame for women’s oppression should be put on targets who deserve it: “the family, religion, education, child-rearing practices, the media, the state, psychiatry, job discrimination, and unequal pay…” rather than on relatively un-influential sexual minorities.” ref

“McElroy (1995) argues that for feminists in the 1970s and 1980s, turning to matters of sexual expression was a result of frustration with feminism’s apparent failure to achieve success through political channels: in the United States, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) had failed, and abortion rights came under attack during the Reagan administration.” ref

“Chinese scholar Elaine Jeffreys observes that the ‘anti-prostitute’ position gained increased critical purchase during the establishment of the international movement for prostitutes in 1985, demanding recognition of prostitutes’ rights as an emancipation and labor issue rather than of criminality, immorality, or disease.” ref

“By the 2000s, the positive-sex position had driven various international human rights NGOs to actively pressure the Chinese government to abandon its official policy of banning prostitution in post-reform China and recognize voluntary prostitution as legitimate work.” ref

Anarcha-feminism and Sex-Positive Feminism

Main article: Anarcha-feminism

“Anarcha-feminism was inspired by late 19th and early 20th century authors and theorists such as anarchist feminists Emma Goldman, Voltairine de Cleyre, and Lucy Parsons. In the Spanish Civil War, an anarcha-feminist group, Mujeres Libres (“Free Women”) linked to the Federación Anarquista Ibérica, organized to defend both anarchist and feminist ideas, while Stirnerist Nietzschean feminist Federica Montseny held that the “emancipation of women would lead to a quicker realization of the social revolution” and that “the revolution against sexism would have to come from intellectual and militant ‘future-women.’ According to this Nietzschean concept of Federica Monteseny’s, women could realize through art and literature the need to revise their own roles.” ref

“Since the 1860s, anarchism’s radical critique of capitalism and the state has been combined with a critique of patriarchy. Anarcha-feminists thus start from the precept that modern society is dominated by men. Authoritarian traits and values—domination, exploitation, aggression, competition. etc.—are integral to hierarchical civilizations and are seen as “masculine.” In contrast, non-authoritarian traits and values—cooperation, sharing, compassion, sensitivity—are regarded as “feminine,” and devalued. Anarcha-feminists have thus espoused the creation of a non-authoritarian, anarchist society. They refer to the creation of a society, based on cooperation, sharing, mutual aid, etc. as the “feminization of society.” ref

“Although she was hostile to first-wave feminism and its suffragist goals, Emma Goldman advocated passionately for the rights of women, and is today heralded as a founder of anarcha-feminism, which challenges patriarchy as a hierarchy to be resisted alongside state power and class divisions. In 1897 she wrote: “I demand the independence of woman, her right to support herself; to live for herself; to love whomever she pleases, or as many as she pleases. I demand freedom for both sexes, freedom of action, freedom in love, and freedom in motherhood.” ref

“A nurse by training, Emma Goldman was an early advocate for educating women concerning contraception. Like many contemporary feminists, she saw abortion as a tragic consequence of social conditions, and birth control as a positive alternative. Goldman was also an advocate of free love, and a strong critic of marriage. She saw early feminists as confined in their scope and bounded by social forces of Puritanism and capitalism. She wrote: “We are in need of unhampered growth out of old traditions and habits. The movement for women’s emancipation has so far made but the first step in that direction.” ref

Sex education

“Goldman in her essay on the Modern School also dealt with the issue of Sex Education. She denounced that “educators also know the evil and sinister results of ignorance in sex matters. Yet, they have neither understanding nor humanity enough to break down the wall which puritanism has built around sex…If in childhood both man and woman were taught a beautiful comradeship, it would neutralize the oversexed condition of both and would help woman’s emancipation much more than all the laws upon the statute books and her right to vote.” ref

“Mujeres Libres (English: Free Women) was an anarchist women’s organization in Spain that aimed to empower working class women. It was founded in 1936 by Lucía Sánchez Saornil, Mercedes Comaposada and Amparo Poch y Gascón and had approximately 30,000 members. The organization was based on the idea of a “double struggle” for women’s liberation and social revolution and argued that the two objectives were equally important and should be pursued in parallel. In order to gain mutual support, they created networks of women anarchists. Flying day-care centres were set up in efforts to involve more women in union activities.” ref

“In revolutionary Spain of the 1930s, many anarchist women were angry with what they viewed as persistent sexism amongst anarchist men and their marginalized status within a movement that ostensibly sought to abolish domination and hierarchy. They saw women’s problems as inseparable from the social problems of the day; while they shared their compañero’s desire for social revolution they also pushed for recognition of women’s abilities and organized in their communities to achieve that goal. Citing the anarchist assertion that the means of revolutionary struggle must model the desired organization of revolutionary society, they rejected mainstream Spanish anarchism’s assertion that women’s equality would follow automatically from the social revolution. To prepare women for leadership roles in the anarchist movement, they organized schools, women-only social groups, and a women-only newspaper so that women could gain self-esteem and confidence in their abilities and network with one another to develop their political consciousness.” ref

“Lucía Sánchez Saornil was a main founder of the Spanish anarcha-feminist federation Mujeres Libres who was open about her lesbianism. At a young age, she began writing poetry and associated herself with the emerging Ultraist literary movement. By 1919, she had been published in a variety of journals, including Los Quijotes, Tableros, Plural, Manantial, and La Gaceta Literaria. Working under a male pen name, she was able to explore lesbian themes at a time when homosexuality was criminalized and subject to censorship and punishment. Dissatisfied with the chauvinistic prejudices of fellow republicans, Lucía Sánchez Saornil joined with two compañeras, Mercedes Comaposada and Amparo Poch y Gascón, to form Mujeres Libres in 1936. Mujeres Libres was an autonomous anarchist organization for women committed to a “double struggle” of women’s liberation and social revolution. Lucía and other “Free Women” rejected the dominant view that gender equality would emerge naturally from a classless society. As the Spanish Civil War exploded, Mujeres Libres quickly grew to 30,000 members, organizing women’s social spaces, schools, newspapers, and daycare programs.” ref

Queer anarchism and Sex positivity

Main article: Anarcho-queer

“Anarchism‘s foregrounding of individual freedoms made for a natural marriage with homosexuality in the eyes of many, both inside and outside of the Anarchist movement. Emil Szittya, in Das Kuriositäten-Kabinett (1923), wrote about homosexuality that “very many anarchists have this tendency. Thus I found in Paris a Hungarian anarchist, Alexander Sommi, who founded a homosexual anarchist group on the basis of this idea.” His view is confirmed by Magnus Hirschfeld in his 1914 book Die Homosexualität des Mannes und des Weibes: “In the ranks of a relatively small party, the anarchist, it seemed to me as if proportionately more homosexuals and effeminates are found than in others.” Italian anarchist Luigi Bertoni (whom Szittya also believed to be homosexual) observed that “Anarchists demand freedom in everything, thus also in sexuality. Homosexuality leads to a healthy sense of egoism, for which every anarchist should strive.” ref

“Anarcho-syndicalist writer Ulrich Linse wrote about “a sharply outlined figure of the Berlin individualist anarchist cultural scene around 1900”, the “precocious Johannes Holzmann” (known as Senna Hoy): “an adherent of free love, [Hoy] celebrated homosexuality as a ‘champion of culture’ and engaged in the struggle against Paragraph 175.” The young Hoy (born 1882) published these views in his weekly magazine, (“Kampf”) from 1904 which reached a circulation of 10,000 the following year. German anarchist psychotherapist Otto Gross also wrote extensively about same-sex sexuality in both men and women and argued against its discrimination. In the 1920s and 1930s, French individualist anarchist publisher Émile Armand campaigned for acceptance of free love, including homosexuality, in his journal L’En-Dehors.” ref

“From 1906, the writings and theories of John Henry Mackay had a significant influence on Adolf Brand’s organization Gemeinschaft der Eigenen. The individualist anarchist Adolf Brand was originally a member of Hirschfeld’s Scientific-Humanitarian committee, but formed a break-away group. Brand and his colleagues, known as the Gemeinschaft der Eigenen, were heavily influenced by homosexual anarchist John Henry Mackay. They were opposed to Hirschfeld’s medical characterization of homosexuality as the domain of an “intermediate sex”. and disdained the Jewish Hirschfeld. Ewald Tschek, another homosexual anarchist writer of the era, regularly contributed to Adolf Brand’s journal Der Eigene, and wrote in 1925 that Hirschfeld’s Scientific Humanitarian Committee was a danger to the German people, caricaturing Hirschfeld as “Dr. Feldhirsch.” ref

“Der Eigene was the first Gay journal in the world, published from 1896 to 1932 by Adolf Brand in Berlin. Brand contributed many poems and articles himself. Other contributors included Benedict Friedlaender, Hanns Heinz Ewers, Erich Mühsam, Kurt Hiller, Ernst Burchard, John Henry Mackay, Theodor Lessing, Klaus Mann, and Thomas Mann, as well as artists Wilhelm von Gloeden, Fidus, and Sascha Schneider. The journal may have had an average of around 1500 subscribers per issue during its run, but the exact numbers are uncertain. After the rise to power by the Nazis, Brand became a victim of persecution and had his journal closed.” ref

Anarchist homophobia?

“Despite these supportive stances, the anarchist movement of the time certainly wasn’t free of homophobia: an editorial in an influential Spanish anarchist journal from 1935 argued that an Anarchist shouldn’t even associate with homosexuals, let alone be one: “If you are an anarchist, that means that you are more morally upright and physically strong than the average man. And he who likes inverts is no real man, and is, therefore, no real anarchist.” ref

“Daniel Guérin was a leading figure in the French Left from the 1930s until his death in 1988. After coming out in 1965, he spoke about the extreme hostility toward homosexuality that permeated the Left throughout much of the 20th century. “Not so many years ago, to declare oneself a revolutionary and to confess to being homosexual were incompatible,” Guérin wrote in 1975. In 1954, Guérin was widely attacked for his study of the Kinsey Reports in which he also detailed the oppression of homosexuals in France: “The harshest [criticisms] came from Marxists, who tend seriously to underestimate the form of oppression which is antisexual terrorism. I expected it, of course, and I knew that in publishing my book I was running the risk of being attacked by those to whom I feel closest on a political level.” Later sexual anarchists continued in that vein. In 1993, the “Boston Anarchist Drinking Brigade” criticized “anti-porn activists who are frankly censorious.” ref

“Émile Armand advocated naturism (see anarcho-naturism) and polyamory. He also called for forming voluntary associations for purely sexual purposes of heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual nature or of a combination thereof. Anarcha-feminism was inspired by late 19th and early 20th century authors and theorists such as anarchist feminists Emma Goldman, Voltairine de Cleyre, and Lucy Parsons. Emil Szittya, in Das Kuriositäten-Kabinett (1923), wrote about homosexuality that “very many anarchists have this tendency… Homosexuality leads to a healthy sense of egoism, for which every anarchist should strive.” ref

The writings of the French bisexual anarchist Daniel Guérin offer an insight into the tension sexual minorities among the Left have often felt. He was a leading figure in the French Left from the 1930s until his death in 1988. After coming out in 1965, he spoke about the extreme hostility toward homosexuality that permeated the Left throughout much of the 20th century. “Not so many years ago, to declare oneself a revolutionary and to confess to being homosexual were incompatible,” Guérin wrote in 1975. In 1954, Guérin was widely attacked for his study of the Kinsey Reports in which he also detailed the oppression of homosexuals in France.” ref

“The harshest [criticisms] came from Marxists, who tend seriously to underestimate the form of oppression which is antisexual terrorism. I expected it, of course, and I knew that in publishing my book I was running the risk of being attacked by those to whom I feel closest on a political level.” After coming out publicly in 1965, Guérin was abandoned by the Left, and his papers on sexual liberation were censored or refused publication in left-wing journals. From the 1950s, Guérin moved away from Marxism-Leninism and toward a synthesis of anarchism and communism which allowed for individualism while rejecting capitalism. Guérin was involved in the uprising of May 1968, and was a part of the French Gay Liberation movement that emerged after the events. Decades later, Frédéric Martel described Guérin as the “grandfather of the French homosexual movement.” ref

“The British anarcho-pacifist Alex Comfort gained notoriety for writing the bestseller sex manual The Joy of Sex (1972) in the context of the sexual revolution. Queer Fist appeared in New York City and identifies itself as “an anti-assimilationist, anti-capitalist, anti-authoritarian street action group, came together to provide direct action and a radical queer and trans-identified voice at the Republican National Convention (RNC) protests.” Anarcha -feminism continues in new forms such as the Bolivian collective Mujeres Creando or the Spanish anarcha-feminist squat Eskalera Karakola. Contemporary anarcha-feminist writers/theorists include L. Susan Brown and the eco-feminist Starhawk.” ref

“The issue of free love has a dedicated treatment in the work of French anarcho-hedonist philosopher Michel Onfray in such works as Théorie du corps amoureux : pour une érotique solaire (2000) and L’invention du plaisir : fragments cyréaniques (2002). “Anarchists in high heels” are anarchists (or sometimes radicals or libertarians) who work in the sex industry. The term can be found being used in XXX: A Womanʼs Right to Pornography by Wendy McElroy where porn actress, Veronica Hart, makes this comment upon hearing the word ‘feminist’:

“I donʼt need Andrea Dworkin to tell me what to think or how to behave.” […] “And I donʼt appreciate being called psychologically damaged! I have friends in the business who call themselves ‘Anarchists in High Heels.’ Theyʼd love to have a word with her.” ref

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Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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I strive to be unbiased or unbigoted.

I strive to be a good human ethical in both my thinking and behaviors thus I strive to be:

Anti-racist, Anti-sexist, Anti-homophobic, Anti-biphobic. Anti-transphobic, Anti-classist, Anti-ablest, Anti-ageist, and as Always ???? Antifascist ????

In fact, I want to strive to avoid as much as I can bigoted thinking towards others based on their perceived membership or classification based on that person’s perceived political affiliation (Well: within reason, justice, and ethics), sex/gender, beliefs (Well: within reason, justice, and ethics), social class (Well: within reason, justice, and ethics), age, disability, religion (Well: within reason, justice, and ethics), sexuality (Well: within reason, justice, and ethics), race, ethnicity, language (Well: within reason, justice, and ethics), nationality, beauty, height, occupation (Well: within reason, justice, and ethics), wealth (Well: within reason, justice, and ethics), education, sport-team affiliation, music tastes or other personal characteristics (Well: within reason, justice, and ethics).

Although, I am a “very”, yes, VERY strong atheist, antitheist as well as antireligionist, My humanity is just as strong and I value it above my disbelief.

My kind of people are those who champion humanity, the ones who value kindness, love justice, and support universal empowerment for all humans; we are all equal in dignity, and all deserve human rights, due self-sovereignty.

“From the late 1940s to the 1960s, the bohemian free-love tradition of Greenwich Village in America was carried on by the beat generation, although differing with their predecessors by being an apparently male-dominated movement. The Beats also produced the first appearance of male homosexual champions of free love in the U.S., with writers such as Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs. Like some of those before, the beats challenged a range of social conventions, and they found inspiration in such aspects of black culture as jazz music. The Beat movement led on the West Coast to the activities of such groups as the Merry Pranksters (led, according to Grateful Dead historian Dennis McNally, not by novelist Ken Kesey, but by hipster and driver Neal Cassady) and the entire San Francisco pop music scene, in which the implications of sexual bohemianism were advanced in a variety of ways by the hippies. The study of sexology continued to gain prominence throughout the era, with the work of researchers Alfred Kinsey and Masters and Johnson supporting challenges to traditional values regarding sex and marriage.” ref

“With the Summer of Love in 1967, the eccentricities of this group became a nationally recognized movement. Despite the developing sexual revolution and the influence of the Beatniks had in this new counterculture social rebellion, it has been acknowledged that the New Left movement was arguably the most prominent advocate of free love during the late 1960s. Many among the counterculture youth sided with New Left arguments that marriage was a symbol of the traditional capitalist culture which supported war. “Make Love Not War” became a popular slogan in the counterculture movement which denounced both war and capitalism. Images from the pro-socialist May 1968 uprising in France, which occurred as the anti-war protests were escalating throughout the United States, would provide a significant source of morale to the New Left cause as well.” ref

“Canadian Justice Minister, and future Prime Minister, Pierre Elliot Trudeau‘s 20 December 1967 statement “there’s no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation” was a very public declaration justifying his government’s decriminalization of sexual activity between same sex partners in Canada, following 1967’s Summer of Love.” ref

“Second wave feminism continued to question traditional Judeo-Christian teaching on sexuality, while groups like Moral Majority and the Christian right opposed change, after Roe v Wade greatly increased access to abortion in the United States.” ref

“After the Stonewall riots, gay rights became an increasingly prominent issue, but by the early 21st century gay activists had shifted their focus to same-sex marriage rather than free love. Divorce and blended families became more common, and young couples increasingly chose to live together in common-law marriages or domestic partnerships rather than marrying in church or formalizing or legalizing marriage through the court system.” ref

“Sadomasochism (BDSM) has been criticized by anti-porn feminists for eroticizing power and violence and for reinforcing misogyny (Rubin, 1984). They argue that women who choose to engage in BDSM are making a choice that is ultimately bad for women. Sex-positive feminists argue that consensual BDSM activities are enjoyed by many women and validate these women’s sexual inclinations. They argue that feminists should not attack other women’s sexual desires as being “anti-feminist” or internalizing oppression and that there is no connection between consensual sexually kinky activities and sex crimes.” ref

“While some anti-porn feminists suggest connections between consensual BDSM scenes and rape and sexual assault, sex-positive feminists find this to be insulting to women. It is often mentioned that in BDSM, roles are not fixed to gender, but personal preferences. Furthermore, many argue that playing with power (such as rape scenes) through BDSM is a way of challenging and subverting that power, rather than reifying it.” ref

“While the negativities about BDSM are discussed a lot, sex-positive feminists are focusing on safety in the BDSM community. Consent is the most important rule when it comes to BDSM.” ref

“Cara Dunkley and Lori Brotto discuss the importance of consent in their journal:

Consent represents an ongoing interactive and dynamic process that entails several precautionary measures, including negotiations of play, open communication of desires and boundaries, mutually defining terms, the notion of responsibility and transparency, and ensuring protection from harm through competence and skill.” ref

Sexual orientation

“McElroy argues that many feminists have been afraid of being associated with homosexuality. Betty Friedan, one of the founders of second-wave feminism, warned against lesbianism and called it “the lavender menace” (a view she later renounced). Sex-positive feminists believe that accepting the validity of all sexual orientations is necessary in order to allow women full sexual freedom. Rather than distancing themselves from homosexuality and bisexuality because they fear it will hurt mainstream acceptance of feminism, sex-positive feminists believe that women’s liberation cannot be achieved without also promoting acceptance of homosexuality and bisexuality.” ref

Gender identity

“Some feminists, such as Germaine Greer, have criticized transgender women (male-to-female) as men attempting to appropriate female identity while retaining male privilege, and transgender men (female-to-male) as women who reject solidarity with their gender. One of the main exponents of this point of view is Janice Raymond. In The Whole Woman, Greer went so far as to explicitly compare transgender women to rapists for forcing themselves into women’s spaces.” ref

“Many transgender people see gender identity as an innate part of a person. Some feminists also criticize this belief, arguing instead that gender roles are societal constructs, and are not related to any natural factor. Sex-positive feminists support the right of all individuals to determine their own gender and promote gender fluidity as one means for achieving gender equality. Patrick Califia has written extensively about issues surrounding feminism and transgender issues, especially in Sex Changes: Transgender Politics.” ref

“Like feminism itself, sex-positive feminism is difficult to define, and few within the movement (particularly the academic arm of the movement) agree on any one ideology or policy agenda. An example of how feminists may disagree on whether a particular cultural work exemplifies sex-positivity is Betty Dodson’s critique of Eve Ensler‘s The Vagina Monologues. Dodson argues that the play promotes a negative view of sexuality, emphasizing sexual violence against women rather than the redemptive value of female sexuality. Many other sex-positive feminists have embraced Ensler’s work for its encouragement of openness about women’s bodies and sexuality.” ref

Statutory rape laws

Further information: Age of consent and Statutory rape

“There is debate among sex-positive feminists about whether statutory rape laws are a form of sexism. As illustrated by the controversy over “The Little Coochie Snorcher that Could” from The Vagina Monologues, some sex-positive feminists do not consider all consensual activity between young adolescents and older people as inherently harmful. There has been debate among feminists about whether statutory rape laws benefit or harm teenage girls and about whether the gender of participants should influence the law’s treatment of sexual encounters. Some sex-positive feminists argue that statutory rape laws were made with non-gender neutral intentions and are presently enforced as such, with the assumption that teenage girls are naive, nonsexual, and in need of protection.” ref

“Sex-positive feminists with this view believe that “teen girls and boys are equally capable of making informed choices in regard to their sexuality” and that statutory rape laws are actually meant to protect “good girls” from sex. Other feminists are opposed or ambivalent about strengthening statutory rape statutes because these preclude young women from entering consensual sexual relationships, even if competent to consent.” ref

“These feminists view statutory rape laws as more controlling than protective – and of course, part of the law’s historic role was protecting the female’s chastity as valuable property. One writer also noted that, at that time, in some states, the previous sexual experience of a teenager could be used as a defense by one accused of statutory rape. She argued that this showed that the laws were intended to protect chastity rather than consent.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

While hallucinogens are associated with shamanism, it is alcohol that is associated with paganism.

The Atheist-Humanist-Leftist Revolutionaries Shows in the prehistory series:

Show one: Prehistory: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” the division of labor, power, rights, and recourses.

Show two: Pre-animism 300,000 years old and animism 100,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”

Show tree: Totemism 50,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”

Show four: Shamanism 30,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”

Show five: Paganism 12,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”

Show six: Emergence of hierarchy, sexism, slavery, and the new male god dominance: Paganism 7,000-5,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Capitalism) (World War 0) Elite and their slaves!

Show seven: Paganism 5,000 years old: progressed organized religion and the state: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Kings and the Rise of the State)

Show eight: Paganism 4,000 years old: Moralistic gods after the rise of Statism and often support Statism/Kings: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (First Moralistic gods, then the Origin time of Monotheism)

Prehistory: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” the division of labor, power, rights, and recourses: VIDEO

Pre-animism 300,000 years old and animism 100,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”: VIDEO

Totemism 50,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”: VIDEO

Shamanism 30,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”: VIDEO

Paganism 12,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Pre-Capitalism): VIDEO

Paganism 7,000-5,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Capitalism) (World War 0) Elite and their slaves: VIEDO

Paganism 5,000 years old: progressed organized religion and the state: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Kings and the Rise of the State): VIEDO

Paganism 4,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (First Moralistic gods, then the Origin time of Monotheism): VIEDO

I do not hate simply because I challenge and expose myths or lies any more than others being thought of as loving simply because of the protection and hiding from challenge their favored myths or lies.

The truth is best championed in the sunlight of challenge.

An archaeologist once said to me “Damien religion and culture are very different”

My response, So are you saying that was always that way, such as would you say Native Americans’ cultures are separate from their religions? And do you think it always was the way you believe?

I had said that religion was a cultural product. That is still how I see it and there are other archaeologists that think close to me as well. Gods too are the myths of cultures that did not understand science or the world around them, seeing magic/supernatural everywhere.

I personally think there is a goddess and not enough evidence to support a male god at Çatalhöyük but if there was both a male and female god and goddess then I know the kind of gods they were like Proto-Indo-European mythology.

This series idea was addressed in, Anarchist Teaching as Free Public Education or Free Education in the Public: VIDEO

Our 12 video series: Organized Oppression: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of power (9,000-4,000 years ago), is adapted from: The Complete and Concise History of the Sumerians and Early Bronze Age Mesopotamia (7000-2000 BC): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szFjxmY7jQA by “History with Cy“

Show #1: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Samarra, Halaf, Ubaid)

Show #2: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Eridu “Tell Abu Shahrain”)

Show #3: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Uruk and the First Cities)

Show #4: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (First Kings)

Show #5: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Early Dynastic Period)

Show #6: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (King/Ruler Lugalzagesi)

Show #7: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Sargon and Akkadian Rule)

Show #8: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Naram-Sin, Post-Akkadian Rule, and the Gutians)

Show #9: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Gudea of Lagash and Utu-hegal)

Show #10: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Third Dynasty of Ur / Neo-Sumerian Empire)

Show #11: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Amorites, Elamites, and the End of an Era)

Show #12: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Aftermath and Legacy of Sumer)

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

The “Atheist-Humanist-Leftist Revolutionaries”

Cory Johnston ☭ Ⓐ Atheist Leftist @Skepticallefty & I (Damien Marie AtHope) @AthopeMarie (my YouTube & related blog) are working jointly in atheist, antitheist, antireligionist, antifascist, anarchist, socialist, and humanist endeavors in our videos together, generally, every other Saturday.

Why Does Power Bring Responsibility?

Think, how often is it the powerless that start wars, oppress others, or commit genocide? So, I guess the question is to us all, to ask, how can power not carry responsibility in a humanity concept? I know I see the deep ethical responsibility that if there is power their must be a humanistic responsibility of ethical and empathic stewardship of that power. Will I be brave enough to be kind? Will I possess enough courage to be compassionate? Will my valor reach its height of empathy? I as everyone, earns our justified respect by our actions, that are good, ethical, just, protecting, and kind. Do I have enough self-respect to put my love for humanity’s flushing, over being brought down by some of its bad actors? May we all be the ones doing good actions in the world, to help human flourishing.

I create the world I want to live in, striving for flourishing. Which is not a place but a positive potential involvement and promotion; a life of humanist goal precision. To master oneself, also means mastering positive prosocial behaviors needed for human flourishing. I may have lost a god myth as an atheist, but I am happy to tell you, my friend, it is exactly because of that, leaving the mental terrorizer, god belief, that I truly regained my connected ethical as well as kind humanity.

Cory and I will talk about prehistory and theism, addressing the relevance to atheism, anarchism, and socialism.

At the same time as the rise of the male god, 7,000 years ago, there was also the very time there was the rise of violence, war, and clans to kingdoms, then empires, then states. It is all connected back to 7,000 years ago, and it moved across the world.

Cory Johnston: https://damienmarieathope.com/2021/04/cory-johnston-mind-of-a-skeptical-leftist/?v=32aec8db952d

The Mind of a Skeptical Leftist (YouTube)

Cory Johnston: Mind of a Skeptical Leftist @Skepticallefty

The Mind of a Skeptical Leftist By Cory Johnston: “Promoting critical thinking, social justice, and left-wing politics by covering current events and talking to a variety of people. Cory Johnston has been thoughtfully talking to people and attempting to promote critical thinking, social justice, and left-wing politics.” http://anchor.fm/skepticalleft

Cory needs our support. We rise by helping each other.

Cory Johnston ☭ Ⓐ @Skepticallefty Evidence-based atheist leftist (he/him) Producer, host, and co-host of 4 podcasts @skeptarchy @skpoliticspod and @AthopeMarie

Damien Marie AtHope (“At Hope”) Axiological Atheist, Anti-theist, Anti-religionist, Secular Humanist. Rationalist, Writer, Artist, Poet, Philosopher, Advocate, Activist, Psychology, and Armchair Archaeology/Anthropology/Historian.

Damien is interested in: Freedom, Liberty, Justice, Equality, Ethics, Humanism, Science, Atheism, Antiteism, Antireligionism, Ignosticism, Left-Libertarianism, Anarchism, Socialism, Mutualism, Axiology, Metaphysics, LGBTQI, Philosophy, Advocacy, Activism, Mental Health, Psychology, Archaeology, Social Work, Sexual Rights, Marriage Rights, Woman’s Rights, Gender Rights, Child Rights, Secular Rights, Race Equality, Ageism/Disability Equality, Etc. And a far-leftist, “Anarcho-Humanist.”

With religion, it is like your brain is in a noose, squeezing out any hope of critical thinking about religious beliefs. Leaving the victim faith-drunk as if all the oxygen of their mental freedom is cut off and hope for self-mastery is but some far away fantasy out of reach.

My Thought on the Evolution of Gods?

Animal protector deities from old totems/spirit animal beliefs come first to me, 13,000/12,000 years ago, then women as deities 11,000/10,000 years ago, then male gods around 7,000/8,000 years ago. Moralistic gods around 5,000/4,000 years ago, and monotheistic gods around 4,000/3,000 years ago.

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

I wore a mask in this show to remind others the need is still here to do so because of COVID.

Reason is a revolutionary process that requires a change in thinking from what may be preferred to what is Reason.

It is axiology thinking that truly helps in “is–ought” because the “is” was supposedly established by logic/rationalism and empiricism, these are both internal and external or said differently there represent “Reason and Evidence” and this is not a closed system, neither is confirming an “ought.”

Here is the critical thinking link I was talking about in the video: Foundation for Critical Thinking https://criticalthinking.org

Our Conception of Critical Thinking…

There are many ways to articulate the concept of critical thinking, yet every substantive conception must contain certain core elements. Consider these brief conceptualizations of critical thinking… “Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness…”

~ A statement by Michael Scriven & Richard Paul, presented at the 8th Annual International Conference on Critical Thinking and Education Reform, 1987. (Click here for a more complete version.)

“Critical thinking is self-guided, self-disciplined thinking which attempts to reason at the highest level of quality in a fairminded way. People who think critically attempt, with consistent and conscious effort, to live rationally, reasonably, and empathically. They are keenly aware of the inherently flawed nature of human thinking when left unchecked. They strive to diminish the power of their egocentric and sociocentric tendencies. They use the intellectual tools that critical thinking offers – concepts and principles that enable them to analyze, assess, and improve thinking. They work diligently to develop the intellectual virtues of intellectual integrity, intellectual humility, intellectual civility, intellectual empathy, intellectual sense of justice, and confidence in reason. They realize that no matter how skilled they are as thinkers, they can always improve their reasoning abilities and they will at times fall prey to mistakes in reasoning, human irrationality, prejudices, biases, distortions, uncritically accepted social rules, and taboos, self-interest, and vested interest. They strive to improve the world in whatever ways they can and contribute to a more rational, civilized society. At the same time, they recognize the complexities often inherent in doing so. They strive never to think simplistically about complicated issues and always to consider the rights and needs of relevant others. They recognize the complexities in developing as thinkers, and commit themselves to life-long practice toward self-improvement. They embody the Socratic principle: The unexamined life is not worth living, because they realize that many unexamined lives together result in an uncritical, unjust, dangerous world.”

~ Linda Elder, September, 2007 ref

https://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/critical-thinking-where-to-begin/796

Types of Nudists?

1. Naturists

2. Nudists (family-oriented)

3. Clothing Optional (less family-oriented or mostly adult-oriented)

4. Hedonist (only adult-oriented)

And yet I am told, DON’T wear a mask by many people in Florida… https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2022/05/20/florida-covid-cases-jump-53-tampa-bay-transmission-levels-rise/

https://news.google.com/covid19/map?hl=en-US&mid=%2Fm%2F02xry&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen

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Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Kindness is often a window by which we can see the awakened humanity of others.

There is no human right to be found attractive to others.

Don’t let anger become an unethical behavior.

Too often is it not our EGO that blinds us from our humanity needed to see beyond a “self” limited mindset and/or a mind of selfishness.

Self-Sovereignty, Self-Efficiency, Self-Mastery, & Solidarity: Relationship & Naturalist Anarchism: VIDEO

Relationship Anarchism Anarchist Naturalism script for Cory

Damien, lives relationship anarchism and part of that for him and many others involves non-monogamy. To Damien, people own themselves and if the people involved agree, then it is a normal thing people do.

“Relationship anarchy (sometimes abbreviated RA) is the application of anarchist principles to intimate relationships. Its values include autonomy, anti-hierarchical practices, lack of state control, anti-normativity, and community interdependence. RA is explicitly anti-amatonormative and anti-mononormative and is commonly, but not always, non-monogamous. This is distinct from polyamory, solo poly, swinging, and other forms of “dating”, which may include structures such as amatonormativity, hierarchy of intimate relationships, and autonomy-limiting rules. It has also been interpreted as a new paradigm in which closeness and autonomy are no longer considered dilemmas within a relationship.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relationship_anarchy#:~:text=Relationship%20anarchy%20%28sometimes%20abbreviated%20RA%29%20is%20the%20application,type%20of%20non-monogamy%2C%20but%20moreso%20is%20explicitly%20anti-mononormativity.

Damien is an Anarcho-naturist (including nudism and free love), and for him, like many others involves free love, nudism, an ecological worldview, small ecovillages, and most prominently nudism avoiding the artificiality society of modernity, well as promoting body positivity.

“Anarcho-naturism, also referred to as anarchist naturism and naturist anarchism, appeared in the late 19th century as the union of anarchist and naturist philosophies. In many of the alternative communities established in Britain in the early 1900s, “nudism, anarchism, vegetarianism and free love were accepted as part of a politically radical way of life”. In the 1920s, the inhabitants of the anarchist community at Whiteway, near Stroud in Gloucestershire, “shocked the conservative residents of the area with their shameless nudity”. Mainly, it had importance within individualist anarchist circles in Spain, France, Portugal and Cuba. Anarcho-naturism advocates vegetarianism (But this is the one part where Damien differs as Damien is not a vegetarian nor a vegan but is a Meat-Reducer and eats around 50%, at least of meat alternatives), free love, nudism, hiking, and an ecological world view within anarchist groups and outside them. Anarcho-naturism also promotes an ecological worldview, small ecovillages, and most prominently nudism as a way to avoid the artificiality of the industrial mass society of modernity. Naturist individualist anarchists see the individual in their biological, physical and psychological aspects and try to eliminate social determinations.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-naturism#:~:text=Anarcho-naturism%20advocates%20vegetarianism%2C%20free%20love%2C%20nudism%2C%20hiking%20and,artificiality%20of%20the%20industrial%20mass%20society%20of%20modernity

Now to address anti-hierarchical:

“A hierarchy (from Greek: ἱεραρχία, hierarkhia, ‘rule of a high priest’, from hierarkhes, ‘president of sacred rites’) is an arrangement of items (objects, names, values, categories, etc.) that are represented as being “above”, “below”, or “at the same level as” one another. Hierarchy is an important concept in a wide variety of fields, such as architecture, philosophy, design, mathematics, computer science, organizational theory, systems theory, systematic biology, and the social sciences (especially political philosophy). A hierarchy can link entities either directly or indirectly, and either vertically or diagonally. The only direct links in a hierarchy, insofar as they are hierarchical, are to one’s immediate superior or to one of one’s subordinates, although a system that is largely hierarchical can also incorporate alternative hierarchies. Hierarchical links can extend “vertically” upwards or downwards via multiple links in the same direction, following a path. All parts of the hierarchy that are not linked vertically to one another nevertheless can be “horizontally” linked through a path by traveling up the hierarchy to find a common direct or indirect superior, and then down again. This is akin to two co-workers or colleagues; each reports to a common superior, but they have the same relative amount of authority. Organizational forms exist that are both alternative and complementary to hierarchy. Heterarchy is one such form.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierarchy

“A heterarchy is a system of organization where the elements of the organization are unranked (non-hierarchical) or where they possess the potential to be ranked a number of different ways. Definitions of the term vary among the disciplines: in social and information sciences, heterarchies are networks of elements in which each element shares the same “horizontal” position of power and authority, each playing a theoretically equal role. In biological taxonomy, however, the requisite features of heterarchy involve, for example, a species sharing, with a species in a different family, a common ancestor which it does not share with members of its own family. This is theoretically possible under principles of “horizontal gene transfer”. A heterarchy may be parallel to a hierarchy, subsumed to a hierarchy, or it may contain hierarchies; the two kinds of structure are not mutually exclusive. In fact, each level in a hierarchical system is composed of a potentially heterarchical group which contains its constituent elements.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterarchy

Now to address anti-normativity:

“Normative generally means relating to an evaluative standard. Normativity is the phenomenon in human societies of designating some actions or outcomes as good, desirable, or permissible, and others as bad, undesirable, or impermissible. A norm in this normative sense means a standard for evaluating or making judgments about behavior or outcomes. Normative is sometimes also used, somewhat confusingly, to mean relating to a descriptive standard: doing what is normally done or what most others are expected to do in practice. In this sense a norm is not evaluative, a basis for judging behavior or outcomes; it is simply a fact or observation about behavior or outcomes, without judgment. Normative statements make claims about how institutions should or ought to be designed, how to value them, which things are good or bad, and which actions are right or wrong. For example, “children should eat vegetables”, and “those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither” are normative claims. On the other hand, “vegetables contain a relatively high proportion of vitamins”, and “a common consequence of sacrificing liberty for security is a loss of both” are positive claims. Whether a statement is normative is logically independent of whether it is verified, verifiable, or popularly held. There is large debate in philosophy surrounding the normative and whether you can get a normative statement from an empirical one (ie whether you can get an ‘ought’ from an ‘is’, or a ‘value’ from a ‘fact’). Aristotle is one scholar who believed that you could in fact get an ought from an is. He believed that the universe was teleological and that everything in it has a purpose. To explain why something is a certain way, Aristotle believed you could simply say that it is trying to be what it ought to be. On the contrary, David Hume believed you cannot get an ought from an is because no matter how much you think something ought to be a certain way it will not change the way it is. Despite this, Hume used empirical experimental methods whilst looking at the normative. Similar to this was Kames, who also used the study of facts and objective to discover a correct system of morals.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normativity

Nihilism (basically a-axiology)

“Nihilism (/ˈnaɪ(h)ɪlɪzəm, ˈniː-/; from Latin nihil ‘nothing’, and English -ism) is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, such as objective truth, knowledge, morality, values or meaning. Different nihilist positions hold variously that human values are baseless, that life is meaningless, that knowledge is impossible, or that some set of entities do not exist or are meaningless or pointless. Scholars of nihilism may regard it as merely a label that has been applied to various separate philosophies, or as a distinct historical concept arising out of nominalism, skepticism, and philosophical pessimism, as well as possibly out of Christianity itself. Contemporary understanding of the idea stems largely from the Nietzschean ‘crisis of nihilism’, from which derive the two central concepts: the destruction of higher values and the opposition to the affirmation of life. Earlier forms of nihilism, however, may be more selective in negating specific hegemonies of social, moral, political, and aesthetic thought. In popular use, the term commonly refers to forms of existential nihilism, according to which life is without intrinsic value, meaning, or purpose. Other prominent positions within nihilism include the rejection of all normative and ethical views (Moral nihilism), the rejection of all social and political institutions (Political nihilism), the stance that no knowledge can or does exist (Epistemological nihilism), and a number of metaphysical positions, which assert that non-abstract objects do not exist (Metaphysical nihilism), that composite objects do not exist (Mereological nihilism), or even that life itself does not exist.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihilism

To Damien, “Nihilism” is an emotional response to realizing the world is built on lies thus as a reactionary response they stop seeing “value” and feel morality is fake. As an axiologist thinker Damien too see this error in society at large and the error of nihilism as well, yes society is not just or morality driven but to this, Damien calls for the efforts of change and adherence to justice as well as championing reasoned morality and prosocial ethics that make reverent dignity. And to Damien, Dignity relates to so many things, such as Self-Sovereignty, Self-Efficiency, Self-Mastery, and Solidarity.

Damien’s personality is ENTJ-A (and ENTJ Personality Type is labeled the “Chief” Profile):

While ENTJs tests on 16personalities.com takes this typing a step further with a hyphenated suffix at the end of the 4-letter code, either the letter A (assertive) or T (turbulent). Guess which one Damien the ENTJ got? A (assertive), of course. ENTJ-A. Extraverted (E), Intuitive (N), Thinking (T), and Judging (J) – A (assertive)

“The ENTJ personality type is nicknamed the “Chief” and belongs to the NT Intellectual temperament. ENTJs are natural and decisive leaders. They are analytical, efficient, and hardworking. They live in the world of ideas and have a great ability to debate. Their goal-oriented and self-confident nature enables them to take charge. They thrive on achievement. ENTJs direct their energy outward. They are gregarious, talkative, and very assertive. They are enthusiastic and expressive. Chiefs are Intuitive and future-oriented. They are imaginative, complex, and abstract in their thinking. ENTJs are Thinkers. They are logical and objective. They make decisions with their head rather than their heart. ENTJs are rational, impersonal, and critical in thought. They are firm with people and are thick-skinned. ENTJs are decisive, enjoy finishing tasks, and seek closure. They like structure and schedules. They are disciplined and responsible. ENTJs are independent. They seek autonomous and productive relationships. They are competitive and interested in what other people know. They turn most of their relationships into opportunities to teach or mentor. Although very career-oriented when they are committed to a relationship they put a lot of effort into it. Chiefs are often avid learners and voracious readers. They have unlimited curiosity and desire to gain knowledge and mastery. They do well in school as long as they are engaged. They are self-motivated and can learn very well on their own. They can have a hard time relaxing. Chiefs do not like to waste time. ENTJs make up 4% of all 16 personality types. ENTJs are one of the least common personality types. Of the Extraverted types, ENTJs are the rarest (along with ENFJs). 1 in every 18 males is an ENTJ (5.5% of all males). 1 in every 40 females is an ENTJ (2.5% of all females). Female ENTJs are one of the rarest type-gender combinations. There are significantly more male ENTJs than there are female ENTJs, with males outnumbering females by more than 2 to 1. One reason there are more male ENTJs is that males tend to be Thinkers (T) while females are more often Feelers (F).”

https://personalitymax.com/personality/entj/

Now to address anti-amatonormative:

“Amatonormativity is a set of societal assumptions that everyone prospers with an exclusive romantic relationship. Arizona State University professor of philosophy Elizabeth Brake coined the term to capture societal assumptions about romance. Brake wanted to describe the pressure she received by many to prioritize marriage in her own life when she did not want to. Amatonormativity extends beyond social pressures for marriage to include general pressures involving romance. The word amatonormativity comes from amatus, which is the Latin word for “loved”, and normativity, referring to societal norms. Another word which is similarly related to the word Amatonormativity is amative. Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word amative as: strongly moved by love and especially sexual love. Relating to or indicative of love. Elizabeth Brake describes the term as a pressure or desire for monogamy, romance, and/or marriage. The desire to find relationships that are romantic, sexual, monogamous, and lifelong has many social consequences. People who are asexual, aromantic, and/or nonmonogamous become social oddities. According to researcher Bella DePaulo it puts a stigma on single people as incomplete and pushes romantic partners to stay in unhealthy relationships because of a fear the partners may have of being single. According to Brake, one way in which this stigma is institutionally applied is the law and morality surrounding marriage. Loving friendships, queerplatonic, and other relationships are not given the same legal protections romantic partners are given through marriage. This legality also de-legitimizes the love and care found in other non-marital relationships. Brake wrote a book, Minimizing Marriage, in which she defines amatonormativity as “the widespread assumption is that everyone is better off in an exclusive, romantic, long-term coupled relationship, and that everyone is seeking such a relationship.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amatonormativity

Now to address anti-mononormative:

“Mononormative (comparative more mononormative, superlative most mononormative) Of or pertaining to the practices and institutions that privilege or value monosexual and monogamous relationships as fundamental and “natural” within society. Mononormativity (countable and uncountable, plural mononormativities) The assumption that romantic and sexual relationships can only occur, or are only normal, between two monogamous partners. Related ideas involve heteronormative (comparative more heteronormative, superlative most heteronormative) Of or pertaining to the practices and institutions that privilege or value heterosexuality, heterosexual relationships, and traditional gender roles as fundamental and “natural” within society. Much of the language used when discussing wedding planning is heteronormative, which can alienate homosexual couples. cisnormative (comparative more cisnormative, superlative most cisnormative) (LGBT, neologism) Of or pertaining to cisnormativity. Homonormativity (LGBT) The assumption that sexual and romantic attraction and activity between people of the same sex is normal, either as the only normal, or in a culture which also treats opposite-sex activity as normal (and typically assumes all people are either male or female). (LGBT) The adoption of heterosexist values, beliefs, and norms into the gay or queer community. Cisnormativity (LGBT, neologism) The assumption that all human beings are cisgender, i.e. have a gender identity which matches their biological sex. Cissexism Bias or prejudice favoring cisgender people over Trans or Non-Binary people; transphobia.”

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mononormative

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mononormativity#English

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/heteronormative#English

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/homonormativity

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cissexism#English

Now to address Non-monogamy:

“Non-monogamy (or nonmonogamy) is an umbrella term for every practice or philosophy of non-dyadic intimate relationship that does not strictly hew to the standards of monogamy, particularly that of having only one person with whom to exchange sex, love, and/or affection. In that sense, “nonmonogamy” may be accurately applied to extramarital sex, group marriage, or polyamory. It is not synonymous with infidelity, since all parties are consenting to the relationship structure, partners are often committed to each other as well as to their other partners, and cheating is still considered problematic behavior with many non-monogamous relationships. More specifically, “nonmonogamy” indicates forms of interpersonal relationship, intentionally undertaken, in which demands for exclusivity (of sexual interaction or emotional connection, for example) are attenuated or eliminated, and individuals may form multiple and simultaneous sexual and/or romantic bonds. This stands in contrast to monogamy, yet may arise from the same psychology. According to Jessica Fern, a psychologist and the author of Polysecure: Attachment, Trauma and Consensual Nonmonogamy, as of September 2020, about 4% of Americans, nearly 16 million people, are “practicing a non-monogamous style of relationship” while the a 2016 study said that over 21% of Americans engaged in consensual non-monogamy at “some point in their lifetime.” In January 2020, a YouGov poll found that about one-third of US adults believe that “their ideal relationship is non-monogamous to some degree.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-monogamy#:~:text=Non-monogamy%20%28or%20nonmonogamy%29%20is%20an%20umbrella%20term%20for,with%20whom%20to%20exchange%20sex%2C%20love%2C%20and%20affection.

Now to address Free Love:

“Free love is a social movement that accepts all forms of love. The movement’s initial goal was to separate the state from sexual and romantic matters such as marriage, birth control, and adultery. It stated that such issues were the concern of the people involved and no one else. The movement began around the 19th century, but was notably progressed by the hippies in the Sixties. Much of the free love tradition reflects a liberal philosophy that seeks freedom from state regulation and church interference in personal relationships. According to this concept, the free unions of adults (or persons at or above the age of consent) are legitimate relations which should be respected by all third parties whether they are emotional or sexual relations. In addition, some free love writing has argued that both men and women have the right to sexual pleasure without social or legal restraints. In the Victorian era, this was a radical notion. Later, a new theme developed, linking free love with radical social change, and depicting it as a harbinger of a new anti-authoritarian, anti-repressive sensibility. According to today’s stereotype, earlier middle-class Americans wanted the home to be a place of stability in an uncertain world. To this mentality are attributed strongly-defined gender roles, which led to a minority reaction in the form of the free-love movement. While the phrase free love is often associated with promiscuity in the popular imagination, especially in reference to the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s, historically the free-love movement has not advocated multiple sexual partners or short-term sexual relationships. Rather, it has been argued that sexual relations that are freely entered into should not be regulated by law, and may be initiated or terminated by the parties involved at will. The term “sex radical” is often used interchangeably with the term “free lover”. By whatever name, advocates had two strong beliefs: opposition to the idea of forced sexual activity in a relationship and advocacy for a woman to use her body in any way that she pleases. Laws of particular concern to free love movements have included those that prevent an unmarried couple from living together, and those that regulate adultery and divorce, as well as age of consent, birth control, homosexuality, abortion, and sometimes prostitution; although not all free-love advocates agree on these issues. The abrogation of individual rights in marriage is also a concern—for example, some jurisdictions do not recognize spousal rape or treat it less seriously than non-spousal rape. Free-love movements since the 19th century have also defended the right to publicly discuss sexuality and have battled obscenity laws.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_love

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope (Said as “At” “Hope”)/(Autodidact Polymath but not good at math):

Axiological Atheist, Anti-theist, Anti-religionist, Secular Humanist, Rationalist, Writer, Artist, Jeweler, Poet, “autodidact” Philosopher, schooled in Psychology, and “autodidact” Armchair Archaeology/Anthropology/Pre-Historian (Knowledgeable in the range of: 1 million to 5,000/4,000 years ago). I am an anarchist socialist politically. Reasons for or Types of Atheism

My Website, My Blog, & Short-writing or Quotes , My YouTube, Twitter: @AthopeMarie, and My Email: damien.marie.athope@gmail.com

Self-Sovereignty, Self-Efficiency, Self-Mastery, and Solidarity: Relationship Anarchism & Anarchist Naturalism

My Related Videos:

Relationship Anarchism

Consensual Non-Monogamy

Anarchist Naturalism

Relationship of “Free love” to feminism?

Free-Love Ideals and Utopian socialism?

Origins of the Utopian socialism movement

The United States and Utopian socialism

The self?

Labour markets and private property

Sex-Positive Feminism

Sex positivity

Historical roots of Sex-Positive Feminism

Anarcha-feminism and Sex-Positive Feminism

Sex education

Queer anarchism and Sex positivity

Anarchist homophobia?

I strive to be a good human ethical in both my thinking and behaviors thus I strive to be:

Sexual orientation

Gender identity

Statutory rape laws

The Atheist-Humanist-Leftist Revolutionaries Shows in the prehistory series:

Relationship Anarchism Anarchist Naturalism script for Cory

Now to address anti-hierarchical:

Now to address anti-normativity:

Now to address anti-amatonormative:

Now to address anti-mononormative:

Now to address Non-monogamy:

Now to address Free Love:

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope (Said as “At” “Hope”)/(Autodidact Polymath but not good at math):

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