All of the photographs in this NSFW Sunday are from creative director Tina Colleen and photographer Amanda Clare and have been used with permission. The inclusion of a visual here should not be interpreted as an assertion of the model’s gender identity or sexual orientation. If you’re a photographer or model and think your work would be a good fit for NSFW Sunday, please email carolyn at autostraddle dot com.

Welcome to NSFW Sunday!

From the Black Queer Goddess Project: The Plus-Size Femme by creative director Tina Colleen and photographer Amanda Clare>.

+”When people ask me what I get out of gaming, trauma therapy, or kink activities, my answer to all three is the same: They each provide me with access to a contained emotional experience with a clear beginning, middle, and end that I control,” writes Seraphina Malizia at the Establishment:

“In therapy, there are also opportunities to experience stress response without the attendant fear. Through a process called titration, trauma therapists encourage their clients to add material ‘a drop at a time,’ thus preventing their clients from re-traumatizing themselves while simultaneously building up their tolerances to the feelings that trauma creates. Therapists like CK are always aware that their clients may have to ‘tap out,’ and rely on informed consent at the outset of their therapeutic relationships to allow both themselves and their clients to feel safe bringing their trauma into the room.

Kink, when done well, provides the same outlet. With warm ups and the natural rise and fall of a scene, tops can bring their bottoms to areas of deep physical and psychological endurance. Safewords and good negotiation give the bottom a sense of safety and trust that allow them to fully give themselves over to the scene and find anything from cathartic release to the depths of their ability to endure pain or obedience.”

From the Black Queer Goddess Project: The Plus-Size Femme by creative director Tina Colleen and photographer Amanda Clare.

+You can make a sex tape that’s actually sexy. You can also take the perfect nude.

+Lesbian dating is just as hard as straight people dating and doesn’t exempt anyone from possibly having a negative experience, which you already knew.

+Break-Up Boss is an app that can help you get over your breakup.

+If you screenshot an Instagram story, people will know.

+It’s past Valentine’s Day, but you can always do rituals to bring love into your life.

Oskar and Romaine from the Black Queer Goddess Project: The Plus-Size Femme by creative director Tina Colleen and photographer Amanda Clare.

+Here’s what electro sex is like, writes S. Nicole Lane at Broadly:

“When using electro-sensation play toys, the pleasure hormone dopamine and adrenaline are triggered, Dr. Harmony explains: ‘Dopamine, specifically, is known to trigger the pleasure responses in the brain that contribute to an altered state.’

Electro-sensation play falls under the umbrella of sensation play, she adds. ‘It’s a type of play that focuses on engaging or deprivation of senses.’

Electro-sensation play can create an intense experience, particularly if you enjoy being submissive sexually, but it’s important to note that electro-play shouldn’t cause unbearable pain. The sensation is similar to intense exfoliation during a facial, or gentle slap on the ass—it hurts so good.”

Victoria and Tatiana from the Black Queer Goddess Project: The Plus-Size Femme by creative director Tina Colleen and photographer Amanda Clare.

+Here are 15 questions that can help you evaluate the strength of your relationship.

+Zodiac compatibility is complicated.

+Lesbian and queer and poly marriage can look like whatever you want it to.

+Check out Bust’s free feminist erotica.

+Tumblr now turns on “safe mode” by default. Adult content creators are also now all over Instagram, but constantly worrying about getting deleted.

+Fishnets are sexy.

Tina and Lovia from the Black Queer Goddess Project: The Plus-Size Femme by creative director Tina Colleen and photographer Amanda Clare.

+There are 14 kinds of love that English doesn’t have a word for, writes Tim Loas at Tonic:

“When it comes to love between people, the first three are the non-romantic forms of care, affection and loyalty we extend towards family (storgē), friends (philia), and ourselves (philautia). Then, embracing romance, Lee’s notions of pragma, mania, and ludus are joined by the passionate desire of ‘epithymia,’ and the star-crossed destiny of ‘anánkē.’

Again, these labels all bring together related terms from diverse languages. For instance, the spirit of anánkē is found in terms like the Japanese ‘koi no yokan,’ which roughly means ‘premonition of love,’ capturing the feeling on first meeting someone that falling in love will be inevitable. And likewise the Chinese term ‘yuán fèn’ can be interpreted as a binding force of irresistible destiny.

Finally, there are three forms of selfless, ‘transcendent’ love, in which one’s own needs and concerns are relatively diminished. These are the compassion of agápē, ephemeral sparks of ‘participatory consciousness,’ such as when we are emotionally swept up within a group dynamic (koinonia), and the kind of reverential devotion that religious believers might hold towards a deity (sebomai).”

From the Black Queer Goddess Project: The Plus-Size Femme by creative director Tina Colleen and photographer Amanda Clare.

+All of the photos in this week’s NSFW Sunday are from creative director Tina Colleen, a black plus-size queer writer, poet, activist, creative director, and producer, and photographer Amanda Clare. Colleen’s photography series Black Queer Goddess Project: The Plus-Size Femme includes models Tatiana Cruz, Lovia Delva, Romaine Kelly, Victoria Saint-Lôt, Oskar Sinclair as well as Colleen. Also involved were photographer Amanda Clare, MUA Iventt Gonzalez, hairstylist Helene Marie, headwraps from Cee Cee’s Closet, and earrings from And And NYC.

Colleen’s vision for the project involves both body positivity and showcasing black queer plus-size femme beauty:

“The body positive movement is becoming racially diverse, but it still markets to primarily a heterosexual audience. I wanted to celebrate black queer plus-size femmes as: beautiful, sensual, strong, and soft without encouraging fetishism. Additionally, I wanted the images to be relatable. Mainstream body positivity often showcases plus-size women with slim tummies, long legs, and toned bodies. This is not a true representation of the plus-size community. I was deliberate with the body types I portrayed.

In addition to body positivity, I truly wanted to showcase this group of women as desirable. Lovia who identifies as androgynous and Tatiana who identifies as no-label are slimmer than Victoria and I, that representation was intentional. I rarely see this combination of queer couples. People often assume because you are plus-size you cannot attract slimmer women. To be honest, I felt this way for years. Yet by meeting Tatiana and Victoria, I learned this is not necessarily the case.”

On her work, Colleen says:

“My own truth and struggles in the LGBTQ+ community drive my work. I felt invisible, I felt like I wasn’t wanted and I did not see any representation of myself. This hurt so much. Instead of waiting for someone to create this representation, I decided to create what I wanted to see, for myself.

People often ask why I chose black cis-females for this project, this is because that is who I am. I cannot create positivity, love, and representation for others until I first create it for myself. Additionally, black women, in general, are often depicted as the least attractive woman in society due to Eurocentric notions that have plagued the world for hundreds of years in various ways.”

Find Tina Colleen on Instagram @tinac_productions or on her “Fat Black Femme Queer” Facebook page.

Victoria and Tatiana from the Black Queer Goddess Project: The Plus-Size Femme by photographer Tina Colleen.

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