Member-only story
reflections since my first Munch
This is a paragraph from my first article about my journey back into kink:
“Kink is still me and I am still kink, I love talking about the creative ways humans find to entertain themselves and express themselves, and I don’t really go in for taboos, so finding a community that is sex positive, understands consent (and therefore presumably is less infiltrated by unconscious misogyny) and is accepting are the foundations I wish to grow my social life on.”
I like it as a sort of manifesto of what I’m doing and why. It also introduces some reflection points.
Debriefing my first Munch
The person I was originally going to meet outside the venue — the woman I met the week before — ended up changing her arrival time so I was put in touch with someone else in the group and met her downstairs in the bar. We got a drink and went upstairs to the meeting room.
We chatted a bit about therapy and what we thought about the community. Soon a couple joined us. They had been together three weeks and had been introduced by the woman I was chatting with. Kind people, funny and easy to talk/listen to.
The four of us sat around a table and got to know each other a little, sharing stories of neurodivergence, work and time spent on the forum. Around us tables were filling up with people who obviously knew each other, food was delivered to some, general chat and merriment ensued.
As an introvert, taking my time and really checking in with what feels comfortable, I noticed my ease at being ‘adopted’ by an extrovert and happily fell into the ‘adoptee’ role. I joined her as she began talking to other people on the adjacent table and was able to settle into my comfortable observer role, interjecting every now and then with something to say but really allowing myself to sit back and take my time.
Being an introvert in a social situation
I mention this introvert/extrovert relationship, plus giving myself permission to sit back, because I think this will be the basis of everything new I go into. And because it’s the thing I shamed myself for (and presumably society shamed me for first) for so long previously, trying so…
