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This project is now well over two years old!

Season 1 of ‘She Dares To Say’ ran from January 2021–January 2022 comprising 35 mailouts, which featured alternating personal essays written by me and pieces from guest writers and/or thinkers on sexuality, diversity, and coloniality, and additional monthly Postscript content for paid subscribers.

The most popular and well-received of these were ‘#03: On writing realistic sex scenes’ from March 2021, where I shared elements of my own sex scene-writing process and explained how I learned about desire and sex from books and mainstream films and TV as a child; and also, ‘Guest post: Decolonising My Desire’ written by Gayathiri, who unpacked some of their pleasure lineage for readers.

Both these pieces were highly personal, revealing some of our true feelings about the way we’d come to understand elements of our selfhood, which is why I think so many of you liked them.

Season 2 ran from February 2022–March 2023 comprising 30 mailouts, which featured audio extracts and accompanying verbatim transcripts from the interview series I’ve been running about sexuality, along with a couple of bonus essays and additional monthly Postscript content for paid subscribers.

I’ve enjoyed every second spent in the company of all of the people who shared their stories of how they experienced their sexuality, and many of the revelations aired in the interviews stay with me for a very long time, like ‘B’’s recollection of seeing the naked female form for the first time when she was five or six via a comic strip about a prisoner in a cell in pornographic images taped to its walls, ‘F’’s admission that she’s a sexual synesthete, which means that she experiences the physical sensations of desire and pleasure as colours too and ‘J’’s memory of putting naked dolls in her pants when she was five years old.

I always felt so privileged that people were sharing some of the most precious and secret parts of themselves and had entrusted me with making this information public via this email newsletter project.

I’ve now drawn the ‘Authenticity Arena’ season to a close and am gearing up to prep next season’s content.

I’ve already been thinking about a few ideas which includes…

– A new season of ‘Authenticity Arena’ interview extracts
I’ve been continuing my in-depth follow-up chats with the folks who leave their email addresses for me to pick in in the sexuality survey. NB. The sexuality survey is still open and anyone over the age of 18 can fill it in, wherever you are in the world. Our discussions still continue to be wonderfully insightful and generative and I’m sure you’d enjoy them.

Having said that….

Since hundreds of you read these mailouts each month, I thought I’d give you lot the opportunity to let me know what you’d like to read and/or listen to in this newsletter next season.

So, what would you like to receive in these mailouts?

1. Audio extracts and transcripts of sexuality survey follow-up interviews

2. Behind the scene of my writing and general creative process

3. Return to themes of coloniality

4. Return to personal essays

5. Or something else (Please send over your suggestions!)

Please let me know in the comments below, by replying directly to this email or by emailing me via almazohene@substack.com.

I’ll keep welcoming feedback throughout April and will publish some of your thoughts in the next mailout on Wednesday 3 May, with a view to beginning the new season on Wednesday 7 June.

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Paid subscribers will receive some bonus content next week as usual. To receive this extra mailout, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid subscription.

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I’m Almaz Ohene, a Creative Copywriter, Freelance Journalist and Accidental Sexpert.

Recent work:
– As part of the new monthly content offering from boutique brand strategy agency Brand By Me, I’m writing regular content on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Here’s the link to my first piece: How to Build Equity Into Your Brand.

Available for commissions. Info via almazohene.com/contact-faqs.

This content is free, but it takes time to create and upload each piece. I know that hundreds of you open and read these mailouts month after month, after month (as Substack provides stats reporting), so if this project is something that you value, please consider becoming a paid subscriber of ‘She Dares to Say’.

If you would prefer to make a one-off donation, feel free to send a contribution via PayPal.

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