Summary of adrienne maree brown's Pleasure Activism

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 I’m going to read you a story by Octavia Butler, then we’re going to talk about how the power of the erotic makes us give up, of necessity, being satisfied with suffering and self-negation.

#2 Octavia Butler’s story about giving up and being satisfied with suffering and self-negation is a myth. We’re going to prove it to you. -> I began to make decisions about whether I wanted to do things in my life and in the movements I was part of by checking for my orgasmic yes. I began to faciliate these movements for social and environmental transformation, with a focus on Black liberation.

#3 I learned to check for my orgasmic yes, and in doing so, I began to faciliate social and environmental transformation movements with a focus on Black liberation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Sep 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9798350001273

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

Book preview

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

I am the granddaughter of a woman who had seven children with a few men. She raised the children with the help of her family. She drank and kept a freezer full of pops that all the neighborhood kids could visit. I was never sure about how to think of my grandmother growing up. I felt kinship for her.

#2

I began to make decisions about whether I wanted to do things in my life and in the movements I was part of by checking for my orgasmic yes. And to feel for resistance inside, the small place in my gut that knows before I do that something is not a fit for me and will not increase my aliveness.

#3

I learned from writers like Anaïs Nin, Erica Jong, and Alice Walker about what sex could be, what my body was for, and how to be sexually liberated outside of a framework of wanting or needing men.

Insights from Chapter 2

#1

The erotic is a resource within each of us that lies in a deeply female and spiritual plane, and it has been suppressed by Western society. It is a short step from there to the false belief that only by the suppression of the erotic can women be truly strong.

#2

The erotic is about the fullness and satisfaction we feel when we accomplish a task. It is not about demanding the impossible from ourselves or others. It is about appreciating the rich life we can create when we are able to fully feel that sense of satisfaction and completion.

#3

The erotic is a kernel of joy within us that we have been raised to fear. But once we begin to feel deeply all the aspects of our lives, we begin to demand that they feel in accordance with that joy.

#4

The erotic cannot be felt secondhand. When we look away from the importance of the erotic in the development and sustenance of our power, or when we look away from ourselves as we satisfy our erotic needs in concert with others, we use each other as objects of satisfaction rather than share our joy in the satisfying.

#5

I believe that we can use each other as numbers, as followers, and as a mass of bodies rather than a solidarity of many unique bodies with unique needs who choose to be together because it brings them joy and liberation.

Insights from Chapter 3

#1

I have always been driven by the desire to map my own destiny and the destiny of my generation. I grew up around jazz musicians, and my mother raised me around theater and the folk festival scene. I was not devoid of life and desire as a child.

#2

I found the Audre Lordes and the James Baldwins and the Toni Cade Bambaras and the Essex Hemphills and the Marlon Riggses, and more. They were more than people. They were saints in