![]() Pérez-Cortés asks some challenging questions that require readers to reconsider social norms and investigate what relationships might look like “if social mandates were replaced by mechanisms of self-management in small networks of bonds.” For Pérez-Cortés, the personal is very much political, and his work points to a revolution that begins at the most basic level of interpersonal relationships. The second portion of the book offers a more personal application, outlining how Pérez-Cortés applies these ideas to his own life and the practices of crafting relationships without authority. At root, Pérez-Cortés’ analysis focuses, on the myriad ways that power is created, encoded, and enforced through defining and regulating intimate relationships. ![]() Along the way, Pérez-Cortés explores queer and non-monogamous collectives, asexuality, and indigenous reactions to colonized views of intimacy. From the pioneering Swedes Andie Nordgren and Jon Jordas, who coined the term relationship anarchy, through works exploring the nature of intimacy from Anthony Giddens, Zygmunt Bauman, Jacob Strandell, and Ida Midnattsol (among others) to the speculative fiction of Octavia Butler, Ursula Le Guin, and Samuel Delany, Pérez-Cortés provides a thorough overview of the evolution of relationship anarchist thought. The first portion of the book offers a historical and intellectual overview of anarchic thought, grounding these ideas in the cradle of European feminism and politics from which anarchy originated. Instead, it is a philosophical thought experiment about the fundamental structure of relationships at the personal and collective levels. Relationship Anarchy: Occupy Intimacy! is not your average selfhelp or how-to book. ![]() Relationship Anarchy: Occupy Intimacy! is challenging because it examines and perhaps overturns some of the most deeply rooted - and often automatic - assumptions about what makes relationships “real” or “important.” While Pérez-Cortés uses the occasional big word like patriarchal or hegemonic, he does so when necessary to express big ideas rather than to intimidate readers or flex his intellectual muscles. This is not to say that the book is challenging in the way that it is difficult to understand - that is not the case. Recently translated from Spanish to English, Juan-Carlos Pérez-Cortés’ engaging and challenging book will appeal to readers interested in the philosophy of relationships. If you are one of those people who have hungered to escape from the social formulae that demand conformity to an unthinking norm and questioned fixed attitudes towards loving interactions that celebrate romance and belittle other forms of intimacy, then this book is for you. Too much freedom for some, without doubt, but, for others, relationship anarchy offers an unparalleled opportunity for authenticity. What had initially seemed absolute bedlam turns out to be merely the rejection of automatic acceptance of relationship conventions and instead a negotiation of something that works better for those involved. Over the years, however, talking to folks who identified as relationship anarchists has helped me better understand this idiosyncratic relationship style. ![]() Like many others who know litle about anarchy beyond stereotypes, I erroneously understood it to be a free-for-all of self-interest and mayhem. Years ago, when I first heard the phrase “Relationship Anarchy,” it brought to my mind burning loveseats, people yelling, and other unsettling images of chaos. In the hopes of having known how to care for and teach some, too, To those who have taught me and cared for me,
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