What does liberation feel like in the body and how do we know when we’ve mistaken violence or an ideology for freedom? In this episode, Tara Rae Behr shares her journey from an evangelical upbringing , where purity culture and child rearing looked like spanking and lots of shame, to almost leaving psychotherapy to pursue a career in “conscious sex work.” Like many women disentangling themselves from extreme religious upbringings, Tara wondered if there was something healing in re-enacting violence through sex or if liberation could be found by swinging to the opposite end of the spectrum. While confronting the scandals of evangelical leaders like Ted Haggard as well as her own mentorship with a BDSM “therapist,” Tara discovered that both purity culture and liberal pro-prostitution views of the body and sexuality are in fact distortions of true intimacy . Through MDMA-assisted therapy, Tara began recovering suppressed memories of childhood abuse, leading her to confront her parents and break ties with a BDSM mentor. In this deeply reflective conversation, Tara explores what it means to discern right from wrong outside of dogma , how much of her religious upbringing still informs her moral compass, and how she now envisions sexuality beyond objectification. Tara asks how we can befriend ourselves, reclaim intimacy with our own bodies , and reconnect with the Earth—instead of falling into the abyss of the transhumanist vision of the body as a forever modifiable machine. p.s. The things I want to say but don't say live on my substack. Subscribe for $6/month and unlock all premium content → Classes for Ex-Liberal Women → ChatGPT confessions, critiques of pornified nEw aGe goddess culture & why I took down the German New Medicine episode // Substack BONUS → Tara's Website Follow Tara on Substack & Instagram ✦✦✦ Follow Whose Body Is It on Instagram → Shop Activist Stickers → The BEST grass-fed beef sticks, skin care and more → Music // Time by ASHUTOSH Music promoted by Free Stock Music Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License
