Acknowledgments

This is the acknowledgments page for my ongoing book series, Sex Positivity versus Sex Coercion, or Gothic Communism (the one-page promo is where readers can learn about the entire book project; i.e.,  the abstract and summaries per volume, cover illustrations, project history and logo design).  This project has been ongoing since July 2022 and has over sixty models (eighteen of them muses, many from the body of workers I’ve drawn in the past before starting this book series); the acknowledgements page is made, simply enough, to acknowledge and thank them for their contributions. Also thanked are various artists who were paid to take part, as well as close friends, old professors, exes, and content creators (mainly on YouTube, but also elsewhere on, including the music, videogame and film industries).

Permissions: Any publicly available images are exhibited for purposes of education, transformation and critique, thus fall under Fair Use; private nude material and collabs with models are specifically shared with permission from the original owner(s). For more details about artist permissions, refer to the book disclaimer attached to each series of my blog-style book promotion; i.e., for my upcoming volumes; e.g., “Brace for Impact,” “Searching for Secrets,” and “Deal with the Devil.” 

Concerning Buggy Images: Sometimes the images on my site don’t always load and you get a little white-and-green placeholder symbol, instead. Sometimes I use a plugin for loading multiple images in one spot, called Envira Gallery, and not all of the images will load (resulting in blank white squares you can still right-click on). I‘ve optimized most of the images on my site, so I think it’s a server issue? Not sure. You should still be able to access the unloaded image by clicking on the placeholder/right-clicking on the white square (sometimes you have to delete the “?ssl=1” bit at the end of the url). 

Acknowledgments

“I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.” 

—J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring (1954)

(artist: Joseph Severn)

The British Romantic, John Keats, once described William Wordsworth’s poetry as indicative of the “egotistical sublime”; i.e., pertaining to an isolated genius whose self-centered nature makes the truth of their work self-evident. In reality, Wordsworth’s poems were based on the diary of his less-famous and -celebrated sister, Dorothy, whose meticulous chronicling of their various “wanders“ (1798) laid the foundation for her brother’s Romantic canon. As Gavin Andre Sukhu writes on the subject in 2013,

When reading the Grasmere Journal in conjunction with the poetry of William Wordsworth, Dorothy’s journal appears to be a set of notes written especially for him by her. As a matter of fact, Dorothy made it quite clear in the beginning of her journals that she was writing them for William’s “pleasure” (source).

Simply put, Keats was wrong. Wordsworth could not have written his famous poetry without his sister, whose close friendship and watchful eye he greatly cherished and relied upon!

Like Wordsworth’s poems, Sex Positivity could not have been written alone; I needed the help of various friends, associates, and enemies. While I arguably wouldn’t be a Marxist without the eye-opening abuse of neoliberal Capitalism, I also wouldn’t be openly trans without the many lovers and friends who taught me the value of things beyond Capitalism (“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world…”). It is the latter group—those friends who stood by my side and didn’t abuse me—that I wish to honor.

Special thanks, then, to those people. Not only did their knowledge, bravery, generosity and love make this book possible in its current form; they made it fun, too. Yet, as I am blessed to have many different kinds of friends, I’ll thank each in turn. Please excuse my lists and organizing; I just like to be thorough and complete in my thanksgivings!

First, to my seventeen muses—Casper Clock, Crow, Sinead, Bay, Mugiwara Art, Harmony Corrupted, Romantic Rose, Angel Witch, Mercedes the Muse, Krispy Tofuuu, Ms. Reefer & Ayla, Quinnvincible, Blxxd Bunny, Nyx, Maybel & Jackie, and Itzel: You’ve all lent me tremendous emotional support and helped me through some really hard times. Your solidarity during our combined struggle helped make this book possible. To each of you, I wanted to give an extra-special thank you:

  • To Bay: Thank you for your invaluable contributions to Sex Positivity, puppy, and for being such a wonderful partner. Meeting you so late into the book’s construction was incredibly serendipitous, but also fortunate in that you gave excellent daily feedback, provided many interesting (and germane) ideas to explore, and just frankly inspired and motivated me in so many different ways that, combined, transformed and expanded the landscape of this book more than anyone else (who all, I should add, pitched in a great amount). For example, from the date that we met (June 14th, 2023) until the altering of this entry (July 19th) you inspired me to create over fifty new, collage-style exhibits (about 25% of my book’s total exhibits up to this point); on top of that, from July 24th to August 16th, the book increased another 150 pages, gaining an additional 88,000 words and 123 new images (many of which were exhibits). You’re a person of great mana—incredibly loving and sweet, but also gorgeous, cultured and diverse in your many interests and passions; our minds also think very much alike and I absolutely love it and adore you for it while having weaved your contributions into this book like a tapestry with your assistance. I cannot imagine this project (or my life) without you in it, injecting into both things of yourself that have changed how I see the world in ways I cannot imagine being different or without. I love you so very, very much, muffin, and am glad to have met you the way that we did!

(artist: Angel Witch)

  • To Angel Witch: Thank you for being so much fun to work with, cutie, and all around just a very nice person and beautiful friend! You’re absolutely gorgeous and incredibly sweet—someone who’s very good about communicating their boundaries while respecting mine, and I feel proud to include you in my book!
  • To Sinead: Thank you, fae, for being an excellent communicator, teacher and friend. Your careful, nuanced instruction has helped me grasp and maintain the nuances of fat positivity versus fat liberation, and I feel the project has only benefited from your targeted, informative contributions (and zine suggestions). Also thank you for appreciating my work, embodying it through the example that you clearly set for yourself and effortlessly lead by! You’re incredibly fun to talk to but also work/play with, and your ample, flawless body is the very stuff that dreams are made of!
  • To Crow: Thank you, puppy, for being such a game and receptive collaborator, and for treating me as well as you do; you’re a wonderful partner—gorgeous, delightful, and sweet—and spending time with you has been so, so much fun! You’ve given me so much to enjoy and look forward to: making someone I love feel good. It delights me that I’ve found a sweetie who I can pour my boundless love (and cum) into. So all the kisses and snuggles, baby!
  • To Mercedes: Thank you, mommy, for inspiring my work. It meant so much when you first approached me and asked to be drawn, as I’d never had an artist/model do that before. But I absolutely love and respect what you stand for and think that you’re incredibly legitimate, hot and valid. Thank you for being you!
  • To Itzel: Thank you, daddy, for making me feel so pretty and special, but also offering me guidance and protection—like the little princess I always to be!
  • To Bunny: Thank you, bun-bun, for your financial support and monumental kindness as a friend, but also offering as much reference material as you did—i.e., the collaborative shoots whose images grace the front and back covers of this book, but also your impressive galleries to inspire the illustrations on its inner pages. Know that the additional exhibits based on your excellent OF shoots inspired many artworks by me, a commission by someone else, and multiple write-ups.

(artist: Krispy Tofuuu)

  • To Krispy and Quinn: You are both incredibly gorgeous and friendly to work with—treating me like a person and an equal, first and foremost. That means so, so much!
  • To Casper Clock: Thank you, Casper—for having such an amazing ass and work ethic, and for just being all-around so wonderful to work with! You’re the best!
  • To Mugiwara Art: Thank you, Mugi, for being so fun to play with and talk to, and for working together despite some initial confusions (and for helping me address them as well as you did). Thank you as well, then, for teaching me about plural people and for giving me a chance to represent them more in my work (re: sex-positive demons).
  • To Harmony Corrupted: Thank you, mommy, for being so fun to talk to deeply about different complicated subjects and expressing a continued interest in my work (which led to an entire module[!] for Volume Two, doubling it in size), but also for being so easy to work and play with. You’re amazing in bed, have the world’s best ass (so peachy and fuckable), and are fascinating to talk to. I love watching your SO fuck you with his big dick, and am grateful for him being so kind to you. I feel like you’re a dark spirit, overall; i.e., different, but alluring and sweet inside your beautiful darkness. Also, while we have a lot of common interests, you’re also very nice and good about communicating (in and out of bed). I really value that!
  • To Chryssi (Ms. Reefer) & Ayla: Thank you both for being so wonderful to work with. You were my first AMAB couple (which, as a trans woman, I really appreciate), and playing and working with you both has been so much fun! To Chryssi, in particular—thank you, mommy, for being so good in bed; both of you are wonderful people and it was an absolute pleasure meeting you both, but you make my girl cock feel amazing! To Ayla—thank you for fucking Chryssi so nicely with your huge dick! You’re both adorable!
  • To Rose: Thank you for communicating so quickly and well, but also for producing such lovely content on short notice. You’re absolutely gorgeous and working with you was an absolute treat!

(artist: Nyx)

  • To Nyx: Thank you for inspiring this project, comrade! Your close bond with nature, back in West Virginia, is inspiring (“Mountain Mama, take me home!”), as is your amazing body (having the best ass and thighs ever) and giant heart! Working with you inspired me to come out as trans, and go on to write and illustrate Sex Positivity (six books, nearly two million words, hundreds of exhibits and collages, over a hundred unique illustrations by me, thousands of images total, and dozens of collaborations with illustrators and sex workers of all walks). Bless you, mommy!
  • To Maybel & Jackie: Thank you both for producing such excellent content, and Maybel in particular for being so sweet and supportive. You’re both awesome!

Moreover, all seventeen of you treated me like I had genuine value—that I wasn’t “just” an artist whose work was “free” during our exchanges. That means the world, really. I will cherish your priceless contributions and immeasurable kindness beyond words. From the bottom of my heart, thank you, babes!

Second, to my long-time friends, associates and diamonds in the rough:

(artist: Persephone van der Waard, of Ginger. Originally illustrated to celebrate their coming out as trans, but revised in a more devilish form for this book.)

  • To Ginger, first and foremost: My best friend—who’s been there for me more times than I can count—thank you from the bottom of my heart; more than anyone else, your deep support, crucial humor and endless hours talking together about shared ideas, struggles and solutions have been foundational—about sex positivity as a virtue have been essential to shaping the writing inside these pages. Thank you, for saving me from Jadis and other abusers who either meant me harm or otherwise took advantage; and for teaching me about figure drawing, including but not limited to: drawing boobs and faces, but rib cages and pelvises. You are a saint, as fierce as a dragon in a pinch, and a most excellent hobbit all-around; may the hair on your toes never fall out; may the rest of your days be plentiful, memorable and comfortable!
  • To Fen: For teaching me about animals, empathizing with them, and how to draw their floofy tails, but also for being there for me in a crucial moment. Like Ginger, you saved me from Jadis and for that, I will always be grateful. But you’re also incredibly chill and fun to spend time with and I appreciate that greatly. Never change, my friend.
  • To Lydia: A mega-special thank you for your friendship over the years (over ten at this point) and for your own special help with this project. While you were less direct in your overall engagement with the manuscript, your contributions still made a difference. For one, you were someone I felt comfortable coming out to, who—when I realized for myself that I was trans—was able to drip-feed it to you. And when I finally said, “I probably seem different to you now,” you replied that I was the third person who told you that: “No, you seem exactly the same; you seem different to yourself.” As it turns out, you explained that I wasn’t the first; I was third out of three people who came out to you (and as you said to another person who came out to you, to which you added, “You don’t have to feel bad about it or like I wouldn’t want to talk to you anymore. True be told, as the sole girl in a classful of boys, it kind of made me want to talk to you even more!”). Likewise, our conversations about horror, science fiction and fantasy are something I always enjoy and draw inspiration from, spiced by your endless grit and “give zero fucks” sense of humor. Thank you, my friend.
  • To Odie: Thank you for generously supporting my work over the years and for always asking me to draw unique, interesting and diverse things! You’ve made a huge difference in my life and I appreciate your patronage and friendship very much!
  • To Drs. Craig Dionne, Bernard Miller, Xavi Reyes, Paul Wake, Sam Hirst, Dale Townshend, Eric Acton, and David Calonne: Thank you for staying in touch over the years and giving me feedback, encouragement and ideas. To Craig, in particular—I wouldn’t have pushed so hard to go to grad school if not for your initial glowing praise and support. Thank you for that! And to the rest of the Humanities faculty at EMU and MMU I haven’t mentioned by name—I enjoyed all of your classes and the opportunity to absorb and learn from what you had to offer!
  • To Dr. Sorcha Ní Fhlainn: Thank you for recommending The Monstrous-Feminine to me at MMU; it inspired me a lot in writing this book!
  • To Dr. Sandy Norton: Thank you for lending me tremendous emotional/material support and kindness in the most trying of times. You always encouraged me to write, too, and valued my “great heart.” Per your instructions, I’ve poured as much of it as I could into this book—to better help those in need (also, thank you for your 1968 copy of The Pearl: A Journal of Facetive and Voluptuous Reading (1968). It’s everything I wished Austen had been and provided a much-needed “other side of the coin” to consider when writing my own book about such matters).

(artist: Angel)

  • To Angel: Thank you for being a really wonderful friend and for showing me a lot of cool things to include in Sex Positivity that I wouldn’t have otherwise! Meeting you was a delight I can scarce express and working with you—on my art, or helping you with yours—has been an absolute treat.
  • To my good friend, Seren: You were, are, and always will be best girl. Not only have you always had my back, but your dress sense is impeccable and your sweet kindness knows no bounds (also, you have great taste in literature and in horror). Thank you for being so understanding and wonderful, babydoll. Kisses and hugs galore!
  • To Dani: Thank you for modeling specifically for this project on short notice and for generally being cool and sweet!
  • To Meowing from Hell: Thank you for the abundance of reference material early on and for sharing my work as much as you did; it made a giant difference (even if you ultimately disagreed with my politics/identity and treated me fairly poorly because of it)!
  • To Emma: Thank you for keeping my spirits (and other things) up during this book’s creation!

Of course, the painful knowledge of my enemies also went into the melting pot—i.e., older abusive lovers, which include the likes of Zeuhl, Jadis, and Cuwu. While I am leery of giving too much credit, I do have some thoughts to impart to these individuals:

  • To Zeuhl: My scarecrow. A small part of me will always miss you the most—for being one of the most interesting and cool people I’ve ever met—yet also recognizes how, seemingly on a whim, you selfishly hurt me worse than anyone else (and offered the most brainless explanation imaginable); no bullshit, you did some really fucked up stuff and basically turned into a shadow of your former self, but I’ll still cherish the love we shared, overseas. It was fun while it lasted!
  • To Jadis: My tinman and wicked witch. Though you hurt me badly, I still learned a great deal from you and your beautiful wickedness. I have no desire to see you again, though, and write this message as a final parting gift: I wrote Sex Positivity to heal from what you did; your heartless abuse was my dragon to slay and now I have. After countless nights of terror spent under your thrall, I can safely say with joy and pride, “You have no power over me!”
  • And to Cuwu: My cowardly lion. Our friendship may have been brief, and you were pretty shitty and callow towards the end, but it was still hella saucy and helped pushed me to come out as trans and write this book (which contains many Marxist terms/colloquialisms that I learned personally from you); also thank you for lending me your copy of A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things and for introducing me to SpongeBob. It really was a good show.

(artist: Ronin Dude)

Special thanks to all the other models involved; their efforts breathed tremendous beauty, inspiration and meaning into my work. This extends to 33 additional collaborators, whose various contributions were absolutely vital: Tana the Puppy, Bovine Harlot, Forte, Venusinaries, Eldritch Babe, Roxie Rusalka, Drooling Red, Autumn Anarchy, Ashley Yelhsa, UrEvilMommy, Keighla Night, Scarlet Love, Jazminskyyy, Cedar, Bubi, Lil Miss Puff, XCumBaby98, Mischievous Kat, Soon2Bsalty, Lovely Babe 2017, Mikki Storm, Mei Minato, Red’s References, Dulci, Angel Witch, Jericho, Lady Nyxx, Miss Nia Sax, Annabel Morningstar, Coffin Milf, Ebonnyy, Scoobsboobs and Miss Misery. I wrote it for all of you, but also every sex worker/cutie I’ve drawn over the years. In hard times, know that you’re all special, valid people; that your signature kindness, warm personalities, and stunning bodies enrich the world!

Special thanks to the artists (other than Odie) who agreed to be commissioned for the book: Lucid-01, Adagadegelo, Autumn Anarchy, Marlon Trelie, Jim32, and Dcoda.

Special thanks to the ace and/or neurodivergent people in my life, whose constant feedback and support has proven invaluable!

Special thanks to my mother—for never having an English dictionary in the house, and for giving me a room of one’s own to complete my work. This book wouldn’t exist without the sanctuary and means you provided to see it through.

I’d also like to thank the content creators on YouTube whose political discourse and general content not only proved incredibly helpful in writing this book: Theremin Trees, Rebecca Watson, Essence of Thought, Sheep in the Box, J. Aubery, Jessie Gender, Professor Lando, Three Arrows, Schafer Scott, Xevaris, Rhetoric & Discourse, Satenmadpun, The Majority Report, Hasan Piker, The Kavernacle, Fascinating Horror, YUGOPNIK, Broey Deschanel, Macabre Storytelling, Sisyphus 55, John the Duncan, Noah Samsen, Bad Empanada, The Living Philosophy, Heckin’ Steve, Ashley Gavin, Spikima Movies, MarshSMT, Behind the Bastards, Genetically Modified Skeptic, Eldena Doubleca5t, STRANGE ÆONS, F.D. Signifier, Hakim, Shaun, Non Compete, Moonic Productions, Another Slice, Atun-Shei Films, Kay and Skittles, Second Thought, blameitonjorge, Georg Rockall-Schmidt, D’Angello Wallace, Thought Slime, Dreading, Caelan Conrad, Little Hoots, Tirrrb, Skip Intro, Anansi’s Library, GDF, (fellow Dutch person) Brows Held High, and Renegade Cut. Even you centrists, broken clocks and chudwads: Joon the King, Turkey Tom, penguinz0, Knowing Better, The People Profiles, More Plates More Dates, and Collative Learning. Thank you all for your wonderful (or at least telling) video essays, political commentaries, and documentaries!

Out of the above YouTubers, though, I wanted to give further special praise and thanks to those meriting it; i.e., for their incredible work as a whole, but also individual video essays and ideas they produced/discussed and which I found especially (in)formative in my own output. These are just as much those who “ring a bell” when I think of them as those who are foundational to my book series, but also my approach to synthesizing praxis; i.e., regarding those I find fun and accessible during the educational elements (the mark of a good video essayist):

  • To Renegade Cut: I first encountered your work through your 2019 “Thanos Was Wrong – Eugenics and Overpopulation.” And while your work in thinking critically about popular media is often quite solid (e.g., “Frank Grimes – The Cult of Work” or “Kai Winn – Better Villain Than Khan,” 2019 and 2022), I especially enjoy your real-world political analysis and activism. There’s tons of videos you’ve done in that area, but for me, your best and most comprehensive—the one that single-handedly introduced me to a lot of useful terms relative to my own anti-fascism work, like “obscurantism”—was “What Is (and Is not) Anti-Fascism?” (2022); i.e., which breaks down a lot of complicated ideas in a self-contained and well-researched video. Your humor is often quite dead-pan and dry and I’m also here for that, and while I think your eventual turn away from such things to give yourself an extended break in the midst of rising crisis is unfortunate, I also understand why you did so and want you to know what your work before then didn’t go to waste!
  • To Brows Held High: I first encountered your work with “STARSHIP TROOPERS, Part 1: HEINLEIN” (2021), which went on to single-handedly inform much of my writing about Aliens in 2021; e.g., “The Promethean Quest and James Cameron’s Military Optimism in Metroid,” but also its discontinued book series: Neoliberalism in Yesterday’s Heroes. I eventually absorbed said series into my PhD work and Sex Positivity book series. So essentially, that one video by itself gave me a rock-solid foundation for critiquing Heinlein/coining “military optimism”—a term that would, itself, go on to formalize my other academic ideas, “canonical essentialism” and Tolkien and Cameron’s refrains (the High Fantasy treasure map and shooter/Metroidvania); i.e., hence inform and reinforce pretty much all my critiques written on Metroidvania, as a whole (re: my 2025 Metroidvania Corpus). The sequel video, “STARSHIP TROOPERS, Part 2: VERHOEVEN,” is also interesting—and you raise a lot of solid and fair critiques about Dutch culture and misogyny in Paul Verhoeven’s work!
  • To Anansi’s Library: I found your radical perspective formative to “burning Rome,” and especially enjoyed/used your exposure of Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks (“Fanon, Blackness, and Gender,” 2020), as well as your discussions about having experienced police brutality, first-hand (“Police Brutality,” 2021). Also, your cat rocks and your name is also Persephone, which is cool as Hell (so to speak)!
  • To GDF: While your video, “The Iraq War Wasn’t About Oil” (2024), is frankly a bit of a headscratcher, you also introduced me to Robert Asprey’s War in the Shadows (1975) with “How The Irish Got So Good At Smoking British Soldiers” (2023); i.e., hence his vital idea of guerrilla warfare, counterterror and the “paradox of terror” that I came to rely on extensively in my own writing. Likewise, your coverage of guerrilla war in older American conflicts like Vietnam, Iraq and Korea was illuminating, but also smaller exchanges that likewise shined a light on American hypocrisy/foreign policy (e.g., “How Israel Cucked the United States,” 2024).
  • To Skip Intro: I encountered your 2021 copaganda series in early 2023, when writing Volume Three and initially expanding my glossary. The term “copaganda” as I use it comes directly from you, and frankly your entire series on copaganda is essential viewing for its comprehensiveness and holistic approach to the subject matter/research area (and the guests you routinely have on, too).
  • To Caelan Conrad/Little Hoots: I first encountered your channels/content with your 2022 “What Is A Groomer?” The entire video is useful for its wider historical coverage and (mis)use of the term, but I especially enjoyed the section on “Satanic Panic,” civil rights, and the AIDS crisis; all helped me conceptualize moral panics more broadly, meaning in an intersectional sense.
  • To Dreading: I first encountered your 2022 videos exposing sexual predators, such as Bill Cosby, Kevin Spacey, Brian Singer and Stephen Collins. While your videos are well-researched, in general, these ones are long enough to be informative but not so long that they drag on (usually from excessive amounts [hours upon hours] of in-court testimony); i.e., to the degree that I often reference them in my own work, doing so when talking about homonormative behavior and tokenized predation at large!
  • To Thought Slime: I’ve been aware of your channel since at least 2018 (originally recommended by an ex). You cover a wide variety of topics, but I especially enjoy your activist work and close-reads in ways that overlap; e.g., “GIVE ME SUPERMAN’S UNDERWEAR, I AM NORMAL” (2023), a video that taught me about the Comics Code Criteria of 1954 (similar to the Hayes Code in cinema): an idea I found especially useful in writing about comic book characters like Captain America, but also Wonder Woman and even non-comic-book examples like Ellen Ripley. But beyond your many interesting and eclectic takes—and your refreshingly humorous synthesizing of these with being openly queer and defending it through your social/activist work—I especially have enjoyed/relied upon your amazing Eyeball Zone series, which unto itself has repeatedly introduced me to a variety of small channels, creators and ideas I’d never have found on YouTube otherwise (and which served as the inspiration for the title of my Poetry Module book section, “The Eyeball Zone“).
  • To Second Thought, YUGOPNIK, and Hakim: All three of your deviate away from the usual BreadTube clichés and problems, breaking down a variety of complicated concepts quickly and well. While Second Thought does this from an American standpoint—and introduced me to the neoliberal trifecta of worker/owner division, infinite growth and efficient profit I’d go on to use in my own Gothic Communist manifesto—Hakim comes from Iraq (and makes excellent book suggestions; e.g., William Blum’s 1995 Killing Hope and David Michael Smith’s Endless Holocausts: Mass Death in the History of the United States Empire, 2023) and YUGOPNIK from Eastern Europe. In turn, each gives a non-American perspective that comes together nicely with Second Thought’s domestic voice; i.e., in your collective Deprogram podcast series. In short, it’s solidarity 101 and you’re all rockstars!
  • To Bad Empanada: Your postcolonial work is excellent, but some of your ideas are too reductive, hypocritical and nihilistic for me to recommend you without substantial caveats; e.g., “all first-worlders are bad,” even though you’re a white straight guy from Australia. Likewise, your at-times SWERF-y ideas on sex work and GNC activism occasionally cross over into Stalinist areas of problematic (re: “make it taboo again“); i.e., you have a big mouth and tend to shoot said mouth off about things you don’t know much if anything about—so much so that I’ve devoted hundreds of pages of academic rivalry responding to just how stupid and harmful those statements are (e.g., pretty much my entire “Understanding Vampires” chapter). Also, your ability to critically analyze popular media essentially boils down to confirmation bias and “find what I want to attack my political enemies [however valid your animus with them is] and forget everything else”; e.g., your opinions about anime and other popular media forms being remarkably reductive and myopic (essentially arguing “all anime is pedophilic,” which is nonsense). All that being said… your entire postcolonial work/activist endeavors on Palestine and your essays refuting Zionists in so-called “progressive” circles remain wholly invaluable, as do your various excellent essays on the Iraq War, Lebensraum, South America and American geo-politics, climate change denial, Jewish Exceptionalism, and so on. Also, you introduced me to Ward Churchill’s “Some People Push Back” (2005), which was incredibly useful!
  • To Atun-Shei Films: Beyond your introductory “Checkmate, Lincolnites!” series, I frankly enjoy your holistic approach to research and application much more; i.e., I can take or leave your Nazi roleplay fetish, which I understand why you do—to camp Nazis ‘n all—but find it’s not your most interesting work. Instead I consider your work with animal rights activists and abolitionists to be wholly essential (your platforming of Zionists, not so much). In particular, I especially enjoyed a phrase that came up on one of your videos: “power aggregates”—an expression from In Range TV noting that “power aggregates” against potential/actual revolt, discussed in your 2021 video, “Fighting for Freedom: The Weapons and Strategies of the 1811 Slave Revolt; timestamp: 20:55). Great stuff!
  • To Non Compete: Your honesty in slowly turning more and more Communist over years and years of checked privilege/wake-up calls is valid, useful and refreshing, as is your moving to Vietnam to encounter different systems to better understand (and enjoy) how they work opposite the United State (see: “America’s Officially Fascist. Now What?” 2024). I especially enjoy your discussions about fascism being “Imperialism come home to empire” in service to capital, and strange forms of fascism like “MAGA Communism” (2022).
  • To Behind the Bastards: Your podcast covers a ton of people who historically suck, and learning the truth behind their façades (when historically trying to whitewash how terrible they are in service to Capitalism) has proved invaluable to me; i.e., to how I approach my own dialectical-material scrutiny of any darling I kill. All your videos/guests are informative and funny—e.g., your Bobby Fischer, Nicholas II or Adam Scott segments—but I especially benefitted from your Vince McMahon series, which taught me about “kayfabe” much more in-depth and how it works less on or offstage and more in between the two.
  • To John the Duncan: Neoliberalism can be a difficult concept to wrap one’s head around, and your videos about it explain everything succinctly and well (e.g., “Neoliberalism: Class War and Pacification,” 2020). You also discuss gender theory and activism against genocide in your work, which revolves around preventing it vis-à-vis neoliberalism in your own PhD material. In short, you’re an inspiration of mine and helped me wrap my head around academia and application tied to all of these things (and Foucault and prisons, though I never watched your Chicken Run video)!
  • To Hasan Piker: Hasan’s a bit of a nepo baby and dude bro with an embarrassing early career making material no different than Steven Crowder if we’re all being honest (Joon the King’s “Everyone Hates Hasan Piker,” 2025), but his general understanding of socio-political theory is solid and today he fights for marginalized groups around the world, including Palestine. He’s not perfect, and I think he’s a bit elitist (saying, for example, “black and/or trans people, be quiet, and let me speak to angry white/straight people for you”), but he did introduce me to the idea of cops being “class traitors”—a concept I would go on to use extensively in my own work.
  • To Shaun: Someone whose lengthy videos have consistently pushed back against bad-faith impostors not just in online leftist circles, like BreadTube, but also against American exceptionalism/Pax Americana as a whole (e.g., “Harry Potter” and “Dropping the Bomb: Hiroshima & Nagasaki,” 2022 and 2020). Especially useful to my work in 2024 and beyond, though, was Shaun introducing me to Ursula K. Le Guin’s essential “Those Who Walk Away from Omelas” (1973; source, from Shaun: “Palestine,” 2024; timestamp: 57:11)—a thought experiment about tokenism and selective liberation/genocide I’ve gone on to reference many, many times (e.g., “Remember the Fallen: An Ode to Nex Benedict,” 2024). He’s basically the perfect straight ally and I love his work.
  • To Essence of Thought: Essence of Thought, aka Ethel Thurston (she/they) is a trans investigative YouTuber and video essayist; i.e., one whose extensive and impressively researched/cited work has catalogued tokenistic abuse ranging from atheists like Richard Dawkins and Rationality Rules, famous problematic authors like C.S. Lewis, bad-faith “leftist” impostors like Ian Kochinski, and many real-life events involving trans rights (frankly too many to list). All of this is essential, insofar as Ethel combines thorough and biting research with careful and nuanced application while investigating real-life sexual predators in marginalized communities. That being said, I especially benefited from their exploring of parasocialism in “Lily Orchard Sexted A 16 Year Old – 2nd Victim Testimony” (2022). In short, Ethel does it all—educating and investigating in ways that perfectly combine stellar citation skills (always timestamping their citations and giving the scripts to all of their videos with the citations listed and numbered, which frankly just rules) with genuine and outpouring empathy for GNC people (and other minorities) at large. I’m glad to have them in my corner and have learned much from my own examination of their work. To that, their brave 2022 exposé regarding Buck Angel and Contrapoints/Natalie Wynn’s defending of the former’s NERF-y behavior inspired and informed my book series’ earlier (2022/2023) work—i.e., when investigating and writing about TERFs and other exclusionary feminisms in tokenized circles—and Ethel remains someone I eagerly watch and cite to this day!
  • To Professor Lando: Not someone I cite too often, admittedly, but who makes awesome, fun and easy-to-parse shorter videos explaining stigmatized ideas of sex, gender and performance (e.g., “Twinks, Femboys, Otters, and Bears Explained,” 2023) that—for all their brevity—contain a ton of useful ideas and applications regarding things normally demonized by heteronormative society at large. While there’s undoubtedly people who delve into these topics much more in length (like myself), Lando makes it quick and accessible: to curious audiences who may not actually be queer but nonetheless want to learn about such things in good faith; i.e., in ways that poke fun, but also come from an instructor whose “normal” appearance belies a queer core that he passes onto his students.
  • To Kay and Skittles: Someone whose literary analysis is both informative, just the right length, funny and insightful (and has a cute animal mascot, Skittles the ferret). I especially enjoyed “How Enemy At The Gates Lies To You: Saving Private Ryan, Othering, And Cold War Narratives” (2023) in how it introduced me to Howard Zinn’s “Private Ryan Saves War” (1998)—a piece that went on to inform my appreciation for Zinn beyond just A People’s History of the United States (1980); i.e., vis-à-vis Edward Said’s Orientalism and American exceptionalism in popular war media at large.
  • To Theremin Trees: A practicing therapist who breaks down a lot of applied therapist jargon through applied theory. This includes, in their case, personal experience (“My Cluster B Parent Died and I Felt…. Nothing Much,” 2023), but also tons of testimony from anonymous sources the therapist has worked with (e.g., “Letting Go of Fixing People,” 2020). This approach inspired my own; i.e., when working with other sex workers behind aliases we collectively use to speak about difficult subjects; re: Cuwu, myself and healing from rape through dialectical behavioral therapy, sex (work) and drug use. Also, Theremin Tree’s music and self-designed visual aids are both stylish and second-to-none (along with their relaxing and verbose vocal delivery); i.e., which help make Theremin Trees’ complex-on-paper ideas even more accessible in practice. Highly, highly recommended!

Thank you to Karl Jobst (for your good detective work, not your racism or pick-up artistry), Bismuth, Summoning Salt, and the other members of the YouTube speedrunner documentarian community for making such well-researched content; it contributed to my own graduate work and towards this book. Thanks as well to Jeremy Parish and Scott Sharkey for their research into Metroidvania (even if they hate the term now), and for Jeremy Parish’s books on Metroid (e.g., The Anatomy of Metroid, 2014) but also on the subject of videogames in general; they were fun reads!

Thanks to the various content creators, actors, speedrunners, and streamers I’ve interviewed over the years for my various interview series, whose reflections have helped me rethink what the Gothic even is. Without your contributions, this book as it currently exists would not be possible:

Kailey (to the left) and Sam (to the right) on-set (courtesy of Greg Massie)

Thanks to Boss Ross, Frank Frazetta, Zdzisław Beksinski, Stephen Gemmell, and Ridley Scott (and associate artists; e.g., Mobius, Giger and Cobb, etc) for having a profound and lasting influence on my artwork, imagination and life. Some of you haunted my childhood; others came later and blew my mind. But you’re all rockstars.

Lastly, thank you to the many, many other artists hitherto unmentioned whose work is featured all throughout Sex Positivity. Some of you are recent discoveries, be they models from the present or masters from the past. However, I have followed and studied some of you for many years, and now feel very differently than I did once upon a time! For example, I can see the sexist, racist and otherwise xenophobic/fascist undertones in Frazetta. All the same, his canon is still worthy of dialectical-material study—to learn from the past and appreciate the sex-positive lessons in his work, however imperfect! May they shape the world into something better.

Thank you all very much for reading! Be brave and don’t be afraid to learn! Nazi pigs and neoliberals, fuck off.

—Persephone van der Waard

P.S., To learn more about me, refer to my About the Author page.

(artist: Persephone van der Waard)