Blog

Surviving the Future: Abolitionist Queer Strategies

I wrote an essay for this anthology in 2020 about Covid, HIV, and what pandemics teach us about queerness and community. So excited it’s finally coming out!

“With queer and trans lives under attack, Surviving the Future: Abolitionist Queer Strategies could not be more necessary. Preorder from PM Press and support at tinyurl.com/STFKS

Help publish the book edited by Scott Branson, Raven Hudson, and Bry Reed with a Foreword by Mimi Thi Nguyen. This transformative collection reveals the most current ideas in radical queer movement work and revolutionary queer theory. These queers cast off progressive narratives of liberal hope while building mutual networks of rebellion and care. Learn more, see all the rewards, praise, bios of the editors, and much more.”

Hope you check it out!

Ambergris and Apathy: When Whales Speak Out to an Empty Sea

“It’s been over 18 years since I was hospitalized for an eating disorder. I am now double the weight I was back then, and in many ways, I am happier. I have a much healthier relationship with food, I cook almost everything I eat from scratch every day, and I no longer starve myself to prove I have control. I have a doctor who is more interested in making my current body function at the best level it can, rather than trying to force me to diet or undertake surgeries. I don’t put up with people in my life who try to tell me how I should feel about my body, what I should eat, or how I should live. For the most part, I had made my peace in my 30s and considered the issue mostly behind me.

Then the Covid 19 pandemic happened.”

Read more over on Medium.

The Spirited Debate About Ghosting

“The idea that people owe other people a certain type of communication style also seems ineffectual and problematic. I feel that in a consent culture, it’s vital that people don’t feel pushed to “owe” each other anything outside of respect for each other’s autonomy. I don’t think that demanding people be coerced into interacting with people they don’t want to is a sensible or desirable alternative.”

Read more

GrottoPod Episode 40: Kitty Stryker On Activism, Consent and Juggalos

“Activist, sex worker, lecturer, Juggalo, editor and writer Kitty Stryker has no shortage of interests and no trouble staying busy. Already a widely-published journalist and essayist, her new book Ask: Building Consent Culture, shows that she’s also no stranger to excellent timing. The anthology features work from other activist writers, including Carol Queen and Virgie Tovar. Kitty brings her effervescent personality to the GrottoPod this week to discuss her unique life and outlook — and equally unique approach to a book tour.”

Listen here

So You’re a Journalist Covering A Protest

I talk a lot about consent culture and the world of polyamory, or BDSM. But it’s also very relevant in other areas of our society – like this piece on covering a protest in an ethical way.

“The police have actively collaborated with the alt-right to identify and harass protesters — often using your coverage.

So, as a journalist too, while yes, I have a right to photograph people in a public space, I know ethically that it is actively dangerous to marginalized people. Sometimes exercising your rights is not the ethical thing to do. Personally, I now know to ask before I take a photo, never release photos of a crowd where people can be identified, and be prepared to answer to people who are understandably concerned about my intentions.”

Read more over on Medium

Livvy Libertine Reviews “Ask: Building Consent Culture”

“Kitty Stryker is aiming to start a conversation we should already be having and to push the idea of consent forward with her book, “Ask: Building Consent Culture.” Covering the idea of consent everywhere from in the bedroom to out in the community and places in between, Ms. Stryker’s book is a striking anthology of consent and how it should ideally function throughout today’s society.”

Read more at Livvy Libertine! And order your own copy here.

The Bachelor Franchise Has a Consent Problem

“‘Bachelor in Paradise’, a show that revolves around getting a bunch of heterosexual folks drunk and encouraging them to awkwardly hook up to prevent being kicked off, seems like it’s always been a fertile ground for consent violations. The alcohol is free and plentiful, and sexual behaviour is what can keep you in the camera’s spotlight… not only saving you from elimination, but ensuring you get that valuable screen time. From the season I watched, I could name multiple instances where I would expect the intoxication levels of the couple to be considered legally problematic for consent. It made me wonder why the producers and crew, knowing that this was a festering petri dish of rape culture, would not have considered the legal repercussions of filming potential sexual assaults under the influence without intervening.”

Continue reading over on Medium