Saying Yes! A Sex-Positive Art- and Ficbitathon
I figure this is as good of a place for promotion as any, so here goes!

So on Ye Olde LJ, I'm running Saying Yes!, a sex-positive art- and ficbitathon. Our first round will begin on January 4, 2010, and conclude on January 18. We're running the challenge in prompt-tree format (further explanation here and here, and more examples and demonstrations will follow) in order to give participants the most flexibility in what prompts they'd like to work with, and how detailed they want those prompts to be.

Saying Yes! is a challenge designed to showcase characters who like sex, enjoy sex, and want sex -- characters fully capable of giving informed consent, and giving it enthusiastically. It's about characters who don't view sex or any of its aspects as something demeaning or shameful and don't pass similar value judgments on their partners' choices. There are a lot of stories out there, both fanfic and published, where characters enjoy sex despite themselves, and where a character who takes on a certain role or performs certain behaviors during sex is thought of as weaker or lesser. Sex and sex roles become imposed rather than sought out, and desire is passive, the result of things done to a character rather than things a character actively seeks out and wants.

In contrast, stories and art for Saying Yes! show how being the submissive or bottoming partner during sex is FUN and not demeaning -- and that bottoming and submission are far from the same thing. In these creative works, characters shout "Yes!" instead of "No!," and characters can get up to all kinds of kinky crazy fun without ever being made to feel shamed for their desires.

To lead up to the challenge, I'm hosting a feature on the community called UNDONE SUNDAYS. Every other Sunday, I'll make a post in this journal that's somehow related to Saying Yes! and its aims, and that'll let you guys jump in on the discussion, too. Whether it's sharing links to sex-positive websites/blogs/writing/fic/organizations/toy stores/etc., holding flashficathons or round-robin writing events, or simply swapping stories, there's going to be something fun to do. Participating in these posts is hardly mandatory, but they'll be there for anyone who's online and feels like joining in.

I hope you'll consider participating in this challenge, or cheering our participants on when this goes live. We need as many yeses as we can muster, after all.