{"id":5533,"date":"2008-11-25T09:26:43","date_gmt":"2008-11-25T14:26:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com?p=5533"},"modified":"2008-11-25T09:50:30","modified_gmt":"2008-11-25T14:50:30","slug":"i_always_imagin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/25\/i_always_imagin\/","title":{"rendered":"I&#8217;ve Never Cuddled Brown Before"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I always imagined that my great (Desi-)American (nonfiction) novel would take readers on the misadventures of a single desi girl, with the first chapter starting with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cuddleparty.com\/\">The Cuddle Party<\/a>. That&#8217;s right, a party where people cuddle. I have been borderline obsessed with this idea for the past few years, and thought it would be a perfect first misadventure. The parties are usually gender balanced, cost a small fee, and are moderated to take you on a journey through the power of touch. Not an orgy. Just of hugging and cuddling.<\/p>\n\n<p>I never actually made it to a party, though I had every intention to. I thought I had missed my opportunity when I found out last month (through the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cuddlela.com\/\">Cuddle Party LA<\/a> listserv &#8211; yes, I subscribe) that they had cuddled their last party. Never to fear, intrepid <a href=\"http:\/\/current.com\/items\/89557966\/first_time_cuddle_party.htm\">Current TV<\/a> reporter and fellow brown girl Tania Rashid to the rescue. [via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boingboing.net\/2008\/11\/24\/inside-a-cuddle-part.html\">boingboing<\/a>]<br \/>\n<center><object width=\"400\" height=\"400\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/current.com\/e\/89557966\/en_US\"><\/param><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\"><\/param><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\"><\/param><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"><\/param><embed type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" src=\"http:\/\/current.com\/e\/89557966\/en_US\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" wmode=\"transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" ><\/embed><\/object><\/center><\/p>\n\n<p>Three points of interest for me from the video:<\/p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>I love that Tania&#8217;s biggest fear before going into the party was exotification of the small brown girl by the big white slimy people. And her mocking quote, &#8220;I never had brown before.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>I love that her source of empowerment from the experience was her ability to say &#8220;No.&#8221; May not have been the point of the cuddle parties, but hey, at least the brown homegirl got empowered.<\/li>\n<li>I love <a href=\"http:\/\/current.com\/currenttv.htm\">Current TV <\/a>and their user generated five minute long shows. A voice like Tania&#8217;s (young, brown, female) would have been lost if it wasn&#8217;t for spaces like <a href=\"http:\/\/current.com\/\">Current<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n<p>I think Tania and I could be fast friends. She definitely had more bravado than I would have in the same situation and I think I could use having a girl like her around as I go on single desi girl misadventures. Now, I wonder&#8230; do you think she&#8217;d be down to go with me to a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.polyamorysociety.org\/\">Polyamorous Society<\/a> meeting?<!--more--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I always imagined that my great (Desi-)American (nonfiction) novel would take readers on the misadventures of a single desi girl, with the first chapter starting with The Cuddle Party. That&#8217;s right, a party where people cuddle. I have been borderline &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/25\/i_always_imagin\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[48],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5533"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5533\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}