alternative practices

Twisty of I Blame the Patriarchy offers the flipside of my recent discussion of BDSM in two posts about the patriarchy-affirming nature of even the safest, sanest, and consensualist BDSM sexplay.

Emily Jenkins in Salon writes on sexual moderates, people who like sex just fine but don't obsess over it, don't feel the need to define every aspect of their lives in relation to sex -- and the way our culture marginalizes what is probably a pretty normal attitude about sex as weird, dysfunctional, frigid, etc.:

Originally posted at Savage Minds on November 16, 2005.

Every time I teach the section on marriage in my Intro to Anthro class, I inevitably face the same question. The book lists four types of marriage: monogamy, polygyny, polyandry, and group marriage. and someone always asks "What about swingers?" (Of course, I live and teach in Vegas...) The question points to a limitation of the concept of marriage not just for anthropological understanding but even within our own everyday usage.

Originally posted at Savage Minds on December 14, 2005.