Have you ever found yourself unable to look away from something, either because you find it repulsive or too beautiful for words? Like the sweat in a fight to the death, a new baby covered in blood and vaginal fluids or the arched-back shock of climax, being human is a visceral, gooey and sublime experience. 

sub·lime /səˈblīm/

Of such excellence, grandeur, or beauty as to inspire great admiration or awe.

The body leaks. Even the pheromones we excrete to attract lovers or mates are found in our bodies’ oils and sweat. We are wet, and we are horny.

horn·y /ˈhôrnē/

Feeling or arousing sexual excitement.

Excretion of fluids occurs during moments of connection, vulnerability, intimacy and pleasure. Pleasure is political. Adrienne Maree Brown writes in Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good: “Pleasure activism includes work and life lived in the realms of satisfaction, joy and erotic aliveness that bring about social and political change.” 

A capitalist system functions by a few hoarding the resources that are needed by the many. So the population exhausts themselves just to merely survive. Additionally, the few convince the many that they are less than (less happy, less healthy, less sexy, etc.) if they don’t purchase what capitalism deems necessary for happiness. 

But what is liberated pleasure? Embodied radical pleasure requires a return to our own bodies and ourselves. “We are in an era of rejecting the rigidity and lies of authoritarian systems that aim to separate us from listening to the wisdom of our bodies in order to control us,” Brown writes. 

Obviously, pleasure isn’t always sexual. But that’s what this column will focus on: sex. It’s such a nasty taboo, such a deliciously titillating realm. 

Maybe it’s my history growing up repressed in the church, but sex has always been on my mind – and more than likely, on yours, as well. Brown asks: “How do we live, love, suck, fuck and liberate ourselves? How come we’re not talking about sex or desire anymore in relationship to liberation?”

This question drives Mother of Goo. Let me be your guide to investigate what forms of pleasure this city has to offer. With no sex clubs and so few sex shops that I can count them on one hand, Winnipeg appears to be barren on the surface when it comes to accessible sex resources. But there is a big sex-positive community in this city making things happen. 

Each month, Mother of Goo will research an activity/community on the sensual-sexual spectrum. I’ll write about all my gooey, stimulating experiences here for you sexy readers to gorge on. I’ll share with you ways to discover your own pleasure and liberation from right where you are.

Are your toes ready to curl? 

Madeline Rae is a pleasure activist, writer and artist living on Treaty 1. Rae holds a BFA Honours in performative sculpture and is completing a BA in psychology, while pursuing a career in sex therapy. She is trained in client-centred sex education and harm reduction. She can be found at motherofgoo.com.

Published in Volume 75, Number 03 of The Uniter (September 24, 2020)