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Pleasure through Pressure is not Liberation
Pleasure used to be taboo. Now it’s an expectation. Neither brings us freedom.
I developed Chakrubs, the original crystal sex toy company, in 2012. At that time, the conversations around sexuality were different. Being new to the adult scene was scary. At my first tradeshow with my products, I remember seeing banners with tongue-in-cheek mottos like, “The sexiest show on earth!” paired with exaggerated, almost cartoonish imagery - a glossy- lipped model suggestively biting her finger, eyes wide with faux innocence. Sexuality was still seen as taboo, and in spaces like this, the only way to package it for public consumption was through a kind of performative, winking absurdity.
The popularity of my booth, though, proved to me that my inkling that there was a deeper conversation to be had was right. There was a quiet, unconscious need to deepen our reverence for our erotic selves and to understand what held us back from taking pleasure in, well, pleasure.
What was missing from the conversation about sex was energy. Intention. An acknowledgment of the deep pains we repress and the vulnerability of wanting to feel good. When I started Chakrubs, it was partly because I felt like I wasn’t just looking for quick orgasms that other toys on the market promoted. I was longing for a way to reclaim a connection to myself that had been lost or ignored from years of the mishandling of my sexuality.
Chakrubs took off. And I think it’s because I wasn’t alone in this underlying feeling. Chakrubs found a way to remove shame not only from self-pleasure but from sharing about sexual trauma. After the Me Too movement gained momentum, these conversations about sexual trauma went into hyperdrive in the mainstream. There became a cultural urgency to understand what it meant to feel safe in our bodies, to heal, and to redefine pleasure on our own terms.
But in just a few years, the conversation changed again. Pleasure was no longer whispered about - it was everywhere, celebrated, promoted. And then, I started to feel something new. Pleasure was no longer just accepted. It was expected.
In trying to remove shame from pleasure, we’ve added shame to not feeling enough sexual pleasure. The irony is that this pressure often presents itself as empowerment. But what kind of empowerment tells us we’re still not enough? And if you’re not fully sexually expressed, you must still be repressed. We’ve moved from shaming pleasure to pressuring it. But isn’t the whole point of pleasure to relieve pressure? To offer freedom rather than another expectation to meet?
I felt this shift personally. I was invited to speak on panels about sexuality, feeling like it was assumed I woke myself up every morning with an orgasm (as promoted by many sexual wellness advocates in this space). The assumption was that to be sexually liberated meant to be sexually very active, open to every new expression of sexuality – that if I was going to keep up the image of being the founder of Chakrubs, I had to embody the fantasy of someone who had it all figured out. Naked. Kundalini awakened. A goddess, glowing and all-knowing.
Pleasure comes from being awake to how I feel. Sexuality is nuanced and complex - it unfolds, blooms, and shrivels up again. This is what makes it fascinating enough to be a lifelong study for me. I’ve realized that even discomfort, uncertainty, and restraint are part of that unfolding. All my feelings are gifts. The feeling that comes from my unfurling connection to sex isn’t about reaching some perfect state - it’s about staying present with the experience, however it reveals itself to me.
The opposite of disassociation isn’t stimulation. It’s presence. Somewhere along the way, the conversation shifted from liberating sexuality to almost demanding it. And in that shift, we have created a new kind of disconnection.
Pleasure is not another thing to achieve. It is not another way to prove your worth. It is something to experience in a way that is true to you – not in the way that is expected of you. By taking intentional time to be with myself in the intimate moments that Chakrubs encourages, I have learned to surrender to life, to trust that moments of ecstasy and love will find me. I don’t need to force it. I don’t need to perform it. Sometimes, liberation looks like accepting that we still have certain ‘hang-ups.’ I can be free even while working through them.
That, to me, is freedom.
Photo by Jaimie Sanchez-Skriba @jaimiecskr
{
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"title" : "Pleasure through Pressure is not Liberation",
"author" : "Vanessa Cuccia",
"category" : "essays",
"url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/pleasure-through-pressure-not-liberation",
"date" : "2025-03-21 16:25:00 -0400",
"img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/6E1A4430-4.jpg",
"excerpt" : "Pleasure used to be taboo. Now it’s an expectation. Neither brings us freedom.",
"content" : "Pleasure used to be taboo. Now it’s an expectation. Neither brings us freedom.I developed Chakrubs, the original crystal sex toy company, in 2012. At that time, the conversations around sexuality were different. Being new to the adult scene was scary. At my first tradeshow with my products, I remember seeing banners with tongue-in-cheek mottos like, “The sexiest show on earth!” paired with exaggerated, almost cartoonish imagery - a glossy- lipped model suggestively biting her finger, eyes wide with faux innocence. Sexuality was still seen as taboo, and in spaces like this, the only way to package it for public consumption was through a kind of performative, winking absurdity.The popularity of my booth, though, proved to me that my inkling that there was a deeper conversation to be had was right. There was a quiet, unconscious need to deepen our reverence for our erotic selves and to understand what held us back from taking pleasure in, well, pleasure.What was missing from the conversation about sex was energy. Intention. An acknowledgment of the deep pains we repress and the vulnerability of wanting to feel good. When I started Chakrubs, it was partly because I felt like I wasn’t just looking for quick orgasms that other toys on the market promoted. I was longing for a way to reclaim a connection to myself that had been lost or ignored from years of the mishandling of my sexuality.Chakrubs took off. And I think it’s because I wasn’t alone in this underlying feeling. Chakrubs found a way to remove shame not only from self-pleasure but from sharing about sexual trauma. After the Me Too movement gained momentum, these conversations about sexual trauma went into hyperdrive in the mainstream. There became a cultural urgency to understand what it meant to feel safe in our bodies, to heal, and to redefine pleasure on our own terms. But in just a few years, the conversation changed again. Pleasure was no longer whispered about - it was everywhere, celebrated, promoted. And then, I started to feel something new. Pleasure was no longer just accepted. It was expected.In trying to remove shame from pleasure, we’ve added shame to not feeling enough sexual pleasure. The irony is that this pressure often presents itself as empowerment. But what kind of empowerment tells us we’re still not enough? And if you’re not fully sexually expressed, you must still be repressed. We’ve moved from shaming pleasure to pressuring it. But isn’t the whole point of pleasure to relieve pressure? To offer freedom rather than another expectation to meet?I felt this shift personally. I was invited to speak on panels about sexuality, feeling like it was assumed I woke myself up every morning with an orgasm (as promoted by many sexual wellness advocates in this space). The assumption was that to be sexually liberated meant to be sexually very active, open to every new expression of sexuality – that if I was going to keep up the image of being the founder of Chakrubs, I had to embody the fantasy of someone who had it all figured out. Naked. Kundalini awakened. A goddess, glowing and all-knowing.Pleasure comes from being awake to how I feel. Sexuality is nuanced and complex - it unfolds, blooms, and shrivels up again. This is what makes it fascinating enough to be a lifelong study for me. I’ve realized that even discomfort, uncertainty, and restraint are part of that unfolding. All my feelings are gifts. The feeling that comes from my unfurling connection to sex isn’t about reaching some perfect state - it’s about staying present with the experience, however it reveals itself to me.The opposite of disassociation isn’t stimulation. It’s presence. Somewhere along the way, the conversation shifted from liberating sexuality to almost demanding it. And in that shift, we have created a new kind of disconnection.Pleasure is not another thing to achieve. It is not another way to prove your worth. It is something to experience in a way that is true to you – not in the way that is expected of you. By taking intentional time to be with myself in the intimate moments that Chakrubs encourages, I have learned to surrender to life, to trust that moments of ecstasy and love will find me. I don’t need to force it. I don’t need to perform it. Sometimes, liberation looks like accepting that we still have certain ‘hang-ups.’ I can be free even while working through them.That, to me, is freedom.Photo by Jaimie Sanchez-Skriba @jaimiecskr"
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"title" : "100+ Years of Genocidal Intent in Palestine",
"author" : "Collis Browne",
"category" : "essays",
"url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/100-years-of-genocidal-intent",
"date" : "2025-10-07 18:01:00 -0400",
"img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/1920-jerusalem.jpg",
"excerpt" : "Every single Israeli prime minister, president, and major Zionist leader has voiced clear intent to erase the Palestinian people from their lands, either by forced expulsion, or military violence. From Herzl and Chaim Weizmann to Ben-Gurion to Netanyahu, the record is not ambiguous:",
"content" : "Every single Israeli prime minister, president, and major Zionist leader has voiced clear intent to erase the Palestinian people from their lands, either by forced expulsion, or military violence. From Herzl and Chaim Weizmann to Ben-Gurion to Netanyahu, the record is not ambiguous:{% for person in site.data.genocidalquotes %}{{ person.name }}{% if person.title %}<p class=\"title-xs\">{{ person.title }}</p>{% endif %}{% for quote in person.quotes %}“{{ quote.text }}”{% if quote.source %}— {{ quote.source }}{% endif %}{% endfor %}{% endfor %}"
}
,
{
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"category" : "",
"url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/dignity-before-stadiums",
"date" : "2025-10-02 09:08:00 -0400",
"img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/EIP_Cover_Morocco_GenZ.jpg",
"excerpt" : "No one expected a generation raised on smartphones and TikTok clips to ignite a spark of protest shaking Morocco’s streets. But Gen Z, the children of the internet and speed, have stepped forward to write a new chapter in the history of uprisings, in their own style.The wave of anger began with everyday struggles that cut deep into young people’s lives: soaring prices, lack of social justice, and the silencing of their voices in politics. They didn’t need traditional leaders or party manifestos; the movement was born out of a single hashtag that spread like wildfire, transforming individual frustration into collective momentum.",
"content" : "No one expected a generation raised on smartphones and TikTok clips to ignite a spark of protest shaking Morocco’s streets. But Gen Z, the children of the internet and speed, have stepped forward to write a new chapter in the history of uprisings, in their own style.The wave of anger began with everyday struggles that cut deep into young people’s lives: soaring prices, lack of social justice, and the silencing of their voices in politics. They didn’t need traditional leaders or party manifestos; the movement was born out of a single hashtag that spread like wildfire, transforming individual frustration into collective momentum.One of the sharpest contradictions fueling the protests was the billions poured into World Cup-related preparations, while ordinary citizens remained marginalized when it came to healthcare and education.This awareness quickly turned into chants and slogans echoing through the streets: “Dignity begins with schools and hospitals, not with putting on a show for the world.”What set this movement apart was not only its presence on the streets, but also the way it reinvented protest itself:Live filming: Phone cameras revealed events moment by moment, exposing abuses instantly.Memes and satire: A powerful weapon to dismantle authority’s aura, turning complex political discourse into viral, shareable content.Decentralized networks: No leader, no party, just small, fast-moving groups connected online, able to appear and disappear with agility.This generation doesn’t believe in grand speeches or delayed promises. They demand change here and now. Moving seamlessly between the physical and digital realms, they turn the street into a stage of revolt, and Instagram Live into an alternative media outlet.What’s happening in Morocco strongly recalls the Arab Spring of 2011, when young people flooded the streets with the same passion and spontaneity, armed only with belief in their power to spark change. But Gen Z added their own twist, digital tools, meme culture, and the pace of a hyper-connected world.Morocco’s Gen Z uprising is not just another protest, but a living experiment in how a digital generation can redefine politics itself. The spark may fade, but the mark it leaves on young people’s collective consciousness cannot be erased.Photo credits: Mosa’ab Elshamy, Zacaria Garcia, Abdel Majid Bizouat, Marouane Beslem"
}
,
{
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"author" : "EIP Editors",
"category" : "",
"url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/a-shutdown-exposes-how-fragile-us-governance-really-is",
"date" : "2025-10-01 22:13:00 -0400",
"img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/EIP_Cover_Gov_ShutDown.jpg",
"excerpt" : "Each time the federal government shutters its doors, we hear the same reassurances: essential services will continue, Social Security checks will still arrive, planes won’t fall from the sky. This isn’t the first Governmental shutdown, they’ve happened 22 times since 1976, and their toll is real.",
"content" : "Each time the federal government shutters its doors, we hear the same reassurances: essential services will continue, Social Security checks will still arrive, planes won’t fall from the sky. This isn’t the first Governmental shutdown, they’ve happened 22 times since 1976, and their toll is real.Shutdowns don’t mean the government stops functioning. They mean millions of federal workers are asked to keep the system running without pay. Air traffic controllers, border patrol agents, food inspectors — people whose jobs underpin both public safety and economic life — are told their labor matters, but their livelihoods don’t. People have to pay the price of bad bureaucracy in the world’s most powerful country, if governance is stalled, workers must pay with their salaries and their groceries.In 1995 and 1996, clashes between President Bill Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich triggered two shutdowns totaling 27 days. In 2013, a 16-day standoff over the Affordable Care Act furloughed 850,000 workers. And in 2018–2019, the longest shutdown in U.S. history stretched 35 days, as President Trump refused to reopen the government without funding for a border wall. That impasse left 800,000 federal employees without paychecks and cost the U.S. economy an estimated $11 billion — $3 billion of it permanently lost.More troubling is what happens when crises strike during shutdowns. The United States is living in an age of accelerating climate disasters: historic floods in Vermont, wildfire smoke choking New York, hurricanes pounding Florida. These emergencies do not pause while Congress fights over budgets. Yet a shutdown means furloughed NOAA meteorologists, suspended EPA enforcement, and delayed FEMA programs. In the most climate-vulnerable decade of our lifetimes, we are choosing paralysis over preparedness.This vulnerability didn’t emerge overnight. For decades, the American state has been hollowed out under the logic of austerity and privatization, while military spending has remained sacrosanct. That imbalance is why budgets collapse under the weight of endless resources for war abroad, too few for resilience at home.Shutdowns send a dangerous message. They normalize instability. They tell workers they are disposable. They make clear that in our system, climate resilience and public health aren’t pillars of our democracy but rather insignificant in the face of power and greed. And each time the government closes, it becomes easier to imagine a future where this isn’t the exception but the rule.The United States cannot afford to keep running on shutdown politics. The climate crisis, economic inequality, and the challenges of sustaining democracy itself demand continuity, not collapse. We need a politics that treats stability and resilience not as partisan victories, but as basic commitments to one another. Otherwise, the real shutdown isn’t just of the government — it’s of democracy itself."
}
]
}
