A color photograph shows a person sitting alone in a dark room, reading a book with a small clip-on reading lamp attached to it. The person wears glasses and a light-colored shirt, their face illuminated by the warm glow of the lamp while the rest of the room remains in deep shadow. A black and white cat sits beside them, also partially lit by the reading light. The scene is enveloped in darkness with hints of furniture and a textured wall barely visible in the background. The contrast between the focused light from the book lamp and the surrounding darkness creates an intimate, quiet atmosphere. The warm tones of the light stand out against the cool, dark greens and blacks of the shadowy room.
An analog photograph shows a young woman standing with her back to the camera, leaning forward with her hands resting on a wooden table. Her posture is slightly tilted, drawing attention to the gentle line of her back, softly highlighted by ambient light. She’s wearing only simple black underwear, which contrasts with the warm tones of the image and adds a sense of quiet intensity. Her light blonde hair falls loosely over her neck and shoulders, enhancing the natural and intimate feel of the scene. In the background, the interior of a room is visible — blurred outlines of furniture and several light sources create a bokeh effect, giving the composition a cinematic and moody atmosphere. The photo is bathed in subdued, warm coloring, with a soft vignette that focuses the viewer’s gaze on the figure and evokes a sense of stillness, introspection, and quiet emotion.
👋 Hello kolektiva.social and Fediverse! New instance, new intro, etc. etc.
I'm a 🦵🏼 white 🇪🇺 European :queercat_enby: queer nonbinary male who's naive enough to think he can make the world a better place, yet cynical enough to joke about it.
I'm increasingly convinced that relentless activism and bottom-up change is the only way up for this wretched society. I'm mostly invested in climate activism (purely theoretically, of course), but I realize much more is needed.
In the process of turning from ally to accomplice.
I'm deeply into music, including but not limited to stoner doom, queercore, psychedelic cumbia, 70's funk, unorthodox black metal, hardcore punk and its offspring (NOT The Offspring), jazz (the weird kind), ambient, and anything with microtones. Yeah. This is why I dread the question "what music do you like?"
Oh yeah, I'm also a philosophy PhD in two deep deep rabbit holes: posthumanist environmentalism and eroticism/intimacy/nonmonogamy. Trying to make one tunnel system out of them.
Human Sexual Evolution: The Transformation of Intimacy, Desire, and Identity in the Modern World by Behzad Ghorbani, 2025
Sex, love, and intimacy have never been static concepts. Across human history, our understanding of relationships and desire has evolved in response to shifting cultural, technological, and biological forces.
Today, in the modern world, these forces are accelerating at an unprecedented rate, raising urgent questions about the future of human connection.
Human Sexual Evolution: The Transformation of Intimacy, Desire, and Identity in the Modern World explores how neuroscience, psychology, and technology are reshaping our most fundamental experiences of attraction, bonding, and sexuality.
At the core of human relationships lies a complex interplay of biological imperatives and social constructs. This book examines the evolutionary foundations of human sexuality, tracing how mate selection, romantic attachment, and reproductive strategies have been shaped by natural selection. Through the lens of neuroscience, it explores how neurotransmitters such as dopamine, oxytocin, and serotonin govern passion, infatuation, and long-term attachment, shedding light on why love is both intoxicating and painful. It also investigates how aging, monogamy, and shifting gender dynamics influence our experience of relationships over time.
▶️ Adrian MUCKLE & Benoît TRÉPIED, Under the Colonial Radar? The History and Memory of an “Invisible” Mixed-Race Household in New Caledonia
👉 https://doi.org/10.1017/ahsse.2024.20
▶️ Lauren BENTON & Adam CLULOW, How Not to Possess an Island: Pitcairn and the Legal Circuits of British Empire in the Pacific World
👉 https://doi.org/10.1017/ahsse.2024.21
How to understand interracial intimacies in a colonial context, when they mainly developed "under the administrative radar," thus leaving few traces? Following the trajectory of one such family in New Caledonia with ethnographic and archival work, Adrian Muckle and Benoît Trépied reflect on the possibilities and limits of such intimate relationships, whose invisibility reveals tells us much about the limitations of colonial control.
▶️ Adrian MUCKLE & Benoît TRÉPIED, Under the Colonial Radar? The History and Memory of an “Invisible” Mixed-Race Household in New Caledonia
👉 https://doi.org/10.1017/ahsse.2024.20
Disability Intimacy: Essays on Love, Care, and Desire by Alice Wong, 2024
The much-anticipated follow up to the groundbreaking anthology Disability Visibility: another revolutionary collection of first-person writing on the joys and challenges of the modern disability experience, and intimacy in all its myriad forms.
What is intimacy? More than sex, more than romantic love, the pieces in this stunning and illuminating new anthology offer broader and more inclusive definitions of what it can mean to be intimate with another person. Explorations of caregiving, community, access, and friendship offer us alternative ways of thinking about the connections we form with others—a vital reimagining in an era when forced physical distance is at times a necessary norm.
But don't worry: there's still sex to consider—and the numerous ways sexual liberation intersects with disability justice. Plunge between these pages and you'll also find disabled sexual discovery, disabled love stories, and disabled joy.