Radical Intimacy

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As Hilton Als writes in his New Yorker reflection on The Argonauts, this book is an “articulation of [Nelson’s] many selves”. This is not only with regard to the many “Maggies” we as readers meet – Maggie the academic, Maggie the lover, Maggie the step-parent, Maggie the mother, Maggie the stalked – but also in how Nelson blends different aspects of her artistic and literary life into the prose itself. The book compounds the many elements of Nelson’s expansive oeuvre, where she has worked across and within poetry, criticism, non-fiction and memoir. A punchy and impassioned account of inspiring ideas about alternative ways to live … Radical Intimacy is the compassionate antidote to a callous society’ In this reflective book, activist and writer Munroe Bergdorf reveals how transitioning is a universal part of the human experience, and something that all of us can relate to. By w riting from her personal experience of gender transition and integrating theory from key experts and activists, Bergdorf reveals how we can understand transitioning as a shared experience. By shining a light on the inevitable reality of change, it aims to bring us together and build a more understanding and inclusive world. Nelson traverses her own negotiations with these questions within the text, while we as readers are invited along for the ride and asked to look inward. These questions are also pertinent to sociologists and those who are engaged in social research more generally. Often within the discipline of sociology there is a dismissal of LGBTQI+ topics as “me-search” or “too micro” to be applicable to wider society. However, as shown within The Argonauts, queer life stories need to be told to offer critical interventions within our contemporary socio-political moment. Below, read an excerpt of Rosa's powerful case for moving beyond the traditional, heteronormative notion of a relationship.

What are the ethical implications of telling another’s story? Who gets to speak and why? What are the limits of the citation and can we exist beyond it? If our world is so bound up in questions of the seeable and sayable, then what power is enacted when we foreground the bodies, minds and lives of others in our work? As The Argonauts seems to suggest, perhaps intimacy, with (and despite) its problems, might offer new insights that are grounded in empathy, but nevertheless generative. Nelson’s work embraces the messiness, complexity and contradictions that are inherent in all social life: in our ideas, institutions and within each individual.It is a devastating reality that so much of our lifeforce is directed towards labour, rather than love. Anyway, if you finish reading Radical Intimacy and think you'd like something else on the subject, read 'all about love' by bell hooks.

Most people don’t think about their love lives in terms of capitalism," writes Sophie K Rosa in her book Radical Intimacy. "But how we practise and speak about such relationships is revealing." Proposes radical answers for people longing for real intimacy, just as she proposes the need to centre all forms of intimacy as radical praxis. We are invited to look for the possibilities of abundant post-capitalist relating, and how they might nurture us in overcoming the systems which trap us in scarcity. It’s great. Please read it!’ Rosa invites us to intentionally expand our political imagination beyond the commodification of self-care, supremacy of heteronormativity and patriarchy, the atomised units of the nuclear family, and the individualisation of private housing. Radical Intimacy is a grounding, hopeful work that explores how we can build intimacy in abundance and richness – a reminder for people and political movements feeling the alienation and weight of capitalism that collective, radical, and profound alternatives are possible. Through lenses such as family, self-care, sex, death, home, and friendship, Rosa looks into the limitations of intimacy in a capitalist world, exacerbated by ingrained notions of monogamy and by current political systems and policing of women's bodies. Cited frequently and fundamentally are contemporary writers and thinkers like Luke de Noronha, Katherine Angel, Mia Mingus, and Torrey Peters, alongside the likes of bell hooks, James Baldwin, and Audre Lorde. Rosa also peppers the book with contemporary examinations, ones that will resonate particularly with Britain's politically-conscious, pop-culture-inclined readers. The wildly popular British reality show Love Island is utilised to illustrate instances of toxic monogamy and infidelity; Britney Spears' curtailed freedom under a conservatorship is cited in a larger conversation surrounding family, ownership, and oppression. We believe everyone deserves the gift of wellness, regardless of their finances. This is why we offer three pricing tiers — and yes, you get the same content no matter what you pay.Most people struggle under capitalism to locate enough time and energy to nurture relationships at all. Being able to tend to our intimate relationships should not be a privilege. It is a devastating reality that so much of our lifeforce is directed towards labour, rather than love. While "Who has time for that?" is often a throwaway dismissal of the idea that people might maintain more than one intimate partnership, it could instead be a question of intimate justice. Rather than giving up on alternative visions for our relationships as inexorably impossible, and rather than cajoling individuals to build ‘radical’ relationships that may not make sense for their lives, let us imagine and fight for a future in which multitudinous love, in multivalent forms, will be conceivable for everyone. The combination of citation and speech from others intermingled within the prose makes it difficult to know where the author ends and another takes her place. Excellent ... Instead of resigning ourselves to a lonely life in a New Gilded Age, Radical Intimacy points towards the long and difficult path to a kinder, better future’ Every course includes access to a private online community with fellow course members. Ask questions, share your stories, and enjoy benefiting from the encouragement and wisdom of others. I cannot say that I read the book without some discomfort (which is often the case when I read reflections on trans lives from cis perspectives), particularly the discussion about Dodge’s medical transition. Within the discussions of hormones, surgery and recovery, Nelson does not decentralise herself from the discussion. Though she is writing “personally”, I think there are limits to how deep one can delve into such private matters. Love may be deeply embodied, but even the (dis)embodied voice(s) of this memoir cannot speak from everywhere, or from everyone – and neither can we as social researchers.

Learning the art of building true intimacy gives you the opportunity to grow deeper, more enriching bonds with others, and even yourself. By turning your attention inward to gain clarity on your divine needs and how to fulfill them, you can transform all of your relationships. With the right expert guidance, anyone can increase their capacity for love in a way that nourishes their heart and soul. Some of this political work must come from within the intimate realm itself, as it always has. The Wages for Housework campaign – launched by the International Feminist Collective in 1972 – demanded that women’s labour in marriage and the nuclear household under capitalism be categorised as work, and therefore its refusal as strike. ‘They say it is love. We say it is unwaged work. They call it frigidity. We call it absenteeism’, proclaimed Federici’s Wages against Housework, explaining: "We want to call work what is work so that eventually we might rediscover what is love and create what will be our sexuality which we have never known." To this day, such resistance is invoked in calls – for example, by the actor Bette Midler in response to the 2021 anti-abortion law in Texas – for women to mount (heterosexual) sex strikes as a form of protest. Structural power overwhelmingly shapes the intimate realm; but the intimate realm must also organise to challenge structural power. The Argonauts is a queer cult classic; not only in terms of its discussion of sex, sexuality and gender, but also for how it queers literary conventions. Though Nelson mostly focuses on her own perspectives of her relationship with Dodge, her text is deeply reflexive throughout. The Argonauts is a work that highlights our need to be open to critique and to be accountable for ourselves, both through communication with others and through self-reflection. For sociologists, reflexivity is a key part of doing social research.Want more sex and dating stories in your inbox? Sign up for Mashable's new weekly After Dark newsletter . The standout stuff for me was the criticism of psychiatry, the pathologization of trauma, and the way that mental illness is so racialised in the UK. I'd probably recommend these sections to others even though I didn't vibe with most of the rest of the book because it was really cohesive and the conclusions that were drawn were presented so well.