Rachel Feldman

If you identify as Poly/Non-monogamous, Kinky/fetishistic, Queer/Trans, or Anti-capitalist you already know the tyrannical way normativity polices “others” who deviate from conventional cultural scripts. Even more so when your preferred expressions of intimacy and embodiment are deemed “problematic”. I do not equate “healthy” with “normal”, nor aim to be prescriptive about how you “ought“ to experience being in this world. Living along the fringes of normativity isn’t an easy choice. But it can be a worthy choice, fulfilling and purposeful! Yet it may also be accompanied by high costs that feel compromising to dignity & self-worth. Following a Master’s program in Human Rights at Columbia University, I obtained an M.A in Marriage & Family Therapy, believing that the optimal way to address the existential challenges most particular to our current social landscape hinges on our ability to address how we internalize broader social discourse at the local level of individual experience.