Welcome to my blog, BatorBrained! I’m here to write more about what being a bator means to me, my experiences with the bate brotherhood, and the role of pleasure in what it means to live a good life. I believe in what adrienne maree brown calls “pleasure activism”, a way of reclaiming pleasure as integral to our lives and as a powerful tool for a more liberated world. Puritanical notions of sex continue to animate American society toward more restrictive, shame-centered, and, frankly, boring ways of life. The sex workers and pornographers know that pleasure is political–we should too. Living our lives to maximize pleasure is also a core belief of many bators! The hedonist, the satyr, the devoted masturbator, all seeking pleasure as a cornerstone of being in this world.
Of course, we can also pursue pleasure at the expense of others, in ways that are exploitative or destructive. But these outcomes are part of the morality of humans, not the nature of pleasure. We are designed to experience pleasure; our job is to make sure everyone can experience as much of it as possible. This is a positive vision for the future and one that is much less abstract than many conversations about equity or justice might leave one with–when we’re all free, we can feel it. It will feel so, so good. Pleasure can bring together a body politic; bringing bodies together for pleasure can become a politic.
So, as we get there, I am interested in living for pleasure. That’s what made me adopt the label of ‘bator’ almost a decade ago. It’s what has made me happier in the last three years than the thirty-plus before them. Pleasure is for all of us and the bator brotherhood is hard at work.
Now it’s time for a bate break.
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