 What
I Learned From Sex and the City by Lilian Calles Barger
I've never watched Sex and the City, nor am I holding
out this essay as life-changing or revelation-producing or anything, but
I like this these quotes because they look at the erotic
so generously, and because they dovetail so nicely with
Audre Lorde's "Uses
of the Erotic," which really was revelatory for me.
When we think about the body, what is more encompassing
than sexuality? More than the merely erotic, our sexuality is a compelling
desire to give ourselves fully to another--to a work and to the community.
We bring our sexuality to everything we do. Because sexuality is always socially
and spiritually situated, the need for belonging, affirmation, and meaning
that is not satisfied in a community will readily show up as sexual desire.
This holistic understanding of sexuality is foreign to the contemporary mindset,
yet it is unavoidable in life...
With its pain
and pleasure, the body is the place where the most profound human desire is
exposed--the desire to be fully known, yet fully loved.
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