The oppressive systems under which we all live make our every experience one of transaction, production, or accumulation. These experiences have convinced us to believe that only certain people\u2014those who identify as White or wealthy or able-bodied or male\u2014are deserving of or entitled to experience\u00a0pleasure. Likewise, these systems insist that pleasure is a luxury, only rightfully enjoyed as a reward for narrowly defined, capitalistic \u201csuccess,\u201d rather than an inherent\u2014and necessary\u2014human experience.<\/p>\n
In our work toward transformation, equity, and justice for all, many of us deny ourselves the actual experiences of aliveness that we\u2019re fighting for. In the face of urgent crises, we exalt the struggle, believing pleasure is something that is either inaccessible to us or that we don\u2019t deserve until we win our collective liberation.<\/p>\n
But without pleasure, there is no true liberation. The more just, equitable, compassionate world that we seek to build must include the experience of pleasure by all.<\/p>\n
In the 2022 summer issue of\u00a0YES! Magazine<\/em>, The Pleasure Issue, we will interrogate the underlying beliefs that keep us from feeling joy and satisfaction in our lives, including the beliefs that we don\u2019t deserve pleasure, that we can\u2019t access pleasure without money, that it\u2019s impossible for justice and pleasure to coexist,\u00a0that \u201cdoing the work\u201d has to be centered in pain and suffering, and that we can\u2019t take time for joy amid our struggles.<\/p>\n The solutions we\u2019ll explore will include unlearning individualism in favor of a collective worldview rooted in pleasure. At a collective level, this may include following the impulse of yes, seeking the experience of belonging, and leaning into feelings of delight, wonder, joy, and contentment. At the individual level, it may include discovering how to find balance in the things that give us pleasure, learning to harness the power and wisdom of pleasure, organizing with a focus on what we long for and love rather than what we are resisting, and listening to and living from the body.<\/p>\n Where are there compelling stories on these topics in your communities?\u00a0<\/strong>Send us your leads and pitches for reported stories on initiatives or groups that cultivate pleasure as a possibility for transformational change.<\/p>\n All of the stories we seek will be examples of excellent journalism and storytelling: stories\u202fthat are well-researched with compelling characters and that demonstrate struggle and resolution. Hurry and send your pitches to\u00a0summer2022@yesmagazine.org<\/a>\u00a0by\u202fJan. 23 to be considered for the summer issue. (After that, you can continue to send them to\u00a0submissions@yesmagazine.org<\/a>.)<\/p>\n All of the stories we seek will be examples of excellent journalism and storytelling: stories\u202fthat are well-researched with compelling characters and that demonstrate struggle and resolution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","footnotes":"","_tec_slr_enabled":"","_tec_slr_layout":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[2],"class_list":["post-597","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","hentry","tribe_events_cat-call-for-submission","cat_call-for-submission"],"ticketed":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anovelapproach.ca\/submission_calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anovelapproach.ca\/submission_calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anovelapproach.ca\/submission_calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tribe_events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anovelapproach.ca\/submission_calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/anovelapproach.ca\/submission_calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":598,"href":"https:\/\/anovelapproach.ca\/submission_calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/597\/revisions\/598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anovelapproach.ca\/submission_calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anovelapproach.ca\/submission_calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anovelapproach.ca\/submission_calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}