We Fuck Together; We Fight Together

This article originally appeared in Pornceptual: Guerilla Issue

All hail, as we cometh together today. To those who might beseech us to look no further, we say fear us not, for we come in peace. Archaic, our words may sound. Yet compelled we are to speak the truth loud and clear, for it appears that still today the liberties of one’s life, one’s future and one’s sexuality nonetheless seem doomed by the oppressive state that we ourselves still find us in. Why? I hear thou say, do we still speak in such old-fashioned words? We wish we wouldn’t. Yet forced we are. Because until the day where each and every one of us stands equal, without judgement, without conviction, without anxieties or fears, then such is the language we shall speak. For this is the language of the past and regrettably, it is in the past that we still dwell. Can’t ye see the foolishness of such? How many decades must we let slip before we finally say we live in a just world? 2017 and still, one feels as though the discourse hath not changed. Behold, for still today, we make distinctions between men and women as though the two genders were set in stone. Taketh, for example, this, in the United Kingdom and other monarchies around the world, it is still by law that an inherited estate hath to go to the oldest son. What about women? I heareth thee say. Fair readers, our most humble apologies for such shocking news but whoever hasn’t been blessed with a penis cannot consume the fruits of their inheritance! That is, unless one taketh advantage of the Gender Recognition Act (2004), just like Lord Balfour intends to do, and maketh his eldest daughter become a sir so the lady can profit from her inheritance!

Oh, the loopholes one must wend through just to showeth how archaic the governing laws still art in this day and age. But do we live amongst the likes of Jane Austen or Donna Haraway? And if anyone can change their gender according to their needs where does that posit years and years of endless battling to get the recognition people have long fought for? Yet it is not Lord Balfour’s actions that may seem deplorable, but rather the government’s for still abiding to such olden laws. How is it so, that in the 21st century privileges are still being granted to some above others? Whilst aristocracy still appears to confound the many who hope for its dissolution, until that time, alloweth we not to turn a blind eye on this patriarchal notion and fight back. But how can we speak in modern English if our very state in current times promotes such legislations? From the suffragette movements of the late 19th century to the sexual revolution of the 60’s, the Stonewall Riots in New York City and the formation of the Gay Liberation Front all the way to LGBTQ+ rights in present times, we have come a long way — but more needs to be done. Despite still living in a somewhat archaic world, we must speak up and fight against the prejudices our society still holds against the socially constructed notions of gender, sexuality and dominance. Sexuality, gender and identity, just like language itself, are not transfixed static elements but rather fluid ever-evolving notions. As poetic as olde English sounds, let’s not forget that it too developed into the language we speak today. So let’s not cling onto the past and live in real time by speaking in current English once and for all! Here, we come together as one, irrespectively of our binary biological narrative, regardless of sexual orientation, sexual preference or identity. Here, we stand together as a united front and show to you the beauty that lies within sexuality in all its colours and multitudes, in all shapes and forms and embracing all differences. Because gender can be defined as a colour spectrum, meaning that in between what we regard as female on one side and male on the other, lies a whole range of gender identities that heteronormativity seems to ignore. To stand for equal representation doesn’t mean conformity, we’re not merging all these different identities together to form one, but rather standing for freedom of expression and individuality.

No one is trying to claim that the world should be genderfluid just as no one is declaring to see the abolition of sexes — the beauty doesn’t lie in the destruction of notions but rather in their acceptance. The distinction between gender identity and sexual orientation might be an obvious one to us, but it is regularly still confused. However, the internet has been a vital platform in kickstarting the conversation and spreading awareness about all the different ways one can identify and all the sexualities one might be attracted to. People whose identities and sexual preferences were ostracised in the reality of everyday life found comfort amongst the multitudes of blogs, pages and video platforms the internet provided for them to freely express themselves and find like-minded people. What would have been considered ‘deviant’ or ‘out of the norm’ before, is now part of the vernacular allowing for the liberty of sexual expression in all its variants, fetishes and forms. The internet, as well as platforms like independent magazines, films and literature, have been instrumental in revolutionising the way we regard sex and our sexuality — rather than seeing these topics as taboo, we now, irrespectively of gender or orientation, explore areas of our sexuality that we wouldn’t have, had these platforms not ‘normalised’ the conversation.

The current liberation of gender from the binding notions of dominance and submission means we can now regard sex as an act of engagement rather than an act of conquest. This allows for the exploration of sex in all its forms meaning that irrespectively of identity or sexual inclination, all the nuances of sex are now open for you to explore. The digital sexual revolution that has been attributed to the emergence of pornography alone, was actually made up of voices, at first tiny and dispersed, that then gradually became stronger, unified and then recognised within the general discourse. Today, we stand here together, feeling more liberated than ever — all our voices unified as one in this monologue to prove that it is only by creating a dialogue, by uniting together irrespectively of apparent binary differences and by showing the beauty of sexuality in all the different ways it manifests itself, that we can push for a fairer and therefore more liberated society. So let’s fuck together and let’s fight together to make this battle history!