Happy Valentine's! To celebrate, the second volume in my Sex Positivity series—my manifesto/instruction volume, aka Volume One—is now out! To access both it and my first volume (my thesis volume, aka Volume Zero), simply go to my website's 1-page promo and pick up your own copies for free. While you're there, you can also learn about the other volumes, project history and logo design/promo posters!
Update, 4/9/2025: I just completed "Make It Real" for Volume One's 2025 promotion rollout, followed by releasing the second edition of the volume, itself. The entirety of its changes are contained in "A 2025 Foreword: On Volume One's New Edition Focusing on Ludo-Gothic BDSM (and Cuwu)." Alongside it, I also released new editions for Volume Zero (small changes) and the modules to Volume Two: "Redirected the hyperlinks for quotes from Volumes Zero and One to the online book promotions: 'The Total Codex' and 'Make It Real.' Updated the abstract, acknowledgments and glossaries." This means all my book volumes are available in PDF format, as well as post-by-post in a blog-style format (except for Volume Three, which isn't out yet)! Give 'em a look!
The manifesto volume is a far lengthier, X-rated and more developed version of my manifesto blogpost* (which I expanded on [after my thesis volume] went live). You can still read the original blogpost, which has been up on Blogger for over a year now and shall continue to remain up as a matter of historical record. However, it was written before my thesis volume and consequently features arguments that are fairly underdeveloped. Conversely, the manifesto volume takes the original blogpost and expands on simplified versions of my thesis arguments; i.e., focusing on practical versions of simplified theory that readers can use in their own daily lives, using active and conscious Gothic poetics during class/culture war to achieve intersectional worker solidarity united against the elite and Capitalist Realism.
*The full volume's 497 pages/~187,000 words and 326 unique images (minus the paratextual documents) versus the original blogpost's 293 pages/~53,500 words and 83 unique images, but also dozens of collabs with different sex workers (and several illustrators) unique to the finished volume; e.g., Blxxd Bunny as the cover model, below [Blogger being dumb about censored images so here's a tamer one]:
Some additional details about me and the project: My name is Persephone van der Waard and I am currently writing and illustrating a non-profit book series on sex positivity and the Gothic. Made in collaboration with other sex workers, the project is a four-volume set called Sex Positivity versus Sex Coercion, or Gothic Communism: Liberating Sex Workers under Capitalism through Iconoclastic Art (2023). Before today, only my thesis volume/Volume Zero was available online. However, now the manifesto/Volume One is online as well! The two remaining volumes—the Humanities primer/Volume Two, and praxis volume/Volume Three—are scheduled to release during the remainder of 2024.
Some work history surrounded the manifesto (as my writing of the book has been rather non-linear. In fact, I essentially wrote it backwards; you can excess the entire changelog on my website):
My thesis volume released on October 8th, and I've spent four months after that expanding and polishing my original blogpost to get it ready for today. I started writing the blogpost on July 22nd, 2022. However, exactly a year ago on Valentine's, I reduced it down to my manifesto and transported everything over to Microsoft Word. After that, I continued to make small changes to the manifesto on Blogger until June 2023, when I decided to focus on my thesis volume. Once that released, I took a small break (a couple weeks) before beginning my prep for Volume One.
This included substantially rewriting older portions, but also expanding on and—at times—writing new sections/essays from scratch. It also involved illustrating many pictures based on models...
(model and artist: Roxie Rusalka and Persephone van der Waard)
(model and artist: Casper Clock and Persephone van der Waard)
(artists: Autumn Anarchy and Persephone van der Waard)***
Persephone van der Waard is the author of the multi-volume, non-profit book series, Sex Positivity—its art director, sole invigilator, illustrator and primary editor (the other co-writer/co-editor being Bay Ryan). Persephone has her independent PhD in Gothic poetics and ludo-Gothic BDSM (focusing on partially on Metroidvania), and is a MtF trans woman, anti-fascist, atheist/Satanist, poly/pan kinkster, erotic artist/pornographer and anarcho-Communist with two partners. Including multiple playmates/friends and collaborators, Persephone and her many muses work/play together on Sex Positivity and on her artwork at large as a sex-positive force. That being said, she still occasionally writes reviews, Gothic analyses, and interviews for fun on her old blog (and makes YouTube videos talking about politics). To learn more about Persephone's academic/activist work and larger portfolio, go to her About the Author page. To purchase illustrated or written material from Persephone (thus support the work she does), please refer to her commissions page for more information. Any money Persephone earns through commissions goes towards helping sex workers through the Sex Positivity project; i.e., by paying costs and funding shoots, therefore raising awareness. Likewise, Persephone accepts donations for the project, which you can send directly to her PayPal, Ko-Fi, Patreon or CashApp. Every bit helps!
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