Abstinence 15.12.2025

11:30h-15h


We have a right to our kinks and to our fatigue, both

- Maggy Nelson


Do you need a break from sex? Do you feel lustless, bored, frustrated? Are you (wondering if you are) asexual? Or is it just not worth the bother? 

Abstinence could be like fasting or detoxing or like going on strike. It could feel like coming home. Or it could be incredibly hot to resist temptation. 

Whatever the angle - could there be abundance in abstinence?

From nonsexual erotics to spinster sensualities and non-pleasure activism: we'll explore our relationship to sex and its dry seasons by:

  • verbally and somatically reflecting on the meaning of sex and sharing experiences and questions with each other
  • offering input on the cultural history of voluntary celibacy and its empowering potential (and how to distinguish it from moralistic purity culture) - inspired by badass sources from Hildegard von Bingen to Julia Fox
  • doing breathwork that focuses on the pleasures of rest rather than climax
  • offering playful interactions exploring the intimacy of "no", of feelings beyond arousal, of refraining, of resisting as well as of vows and of solitude
  • reading forbidden smut by spicy female mystics tormented by holy ecstasy
  • creative exercises on scores such as writing one's prude manifesto or wondering how would one fuck spirit / god / goddess / goddex?
  •  

All of this in a curious, honest and light-hearted atmosphere where consent is key.

This workshop responds to a turning (off) point where sex positivity is met with disillusionment and scepticism. Come to connect and reconstruct new ways of intimacy from the rubble of a sexual culture which is luckily falling apart.


COSTS AND DISCLAIMER

Please note that reporters from the German TV Channel ARD will be present and will do a recording of the workshop. Therefore the workshop is for free (or donation based if you would like to contribuite something).


You can stay anonymous if you like and the film team will take care that your face won't be visible in the documentary. Still, it's easier if being recorded is not a problem for you. If you are open for an interview then you are also welcome to chat with one of the journalists about why you are interested in a workshop like this :) The documentary will be about the fact that people are having less sex and how younger generations are approaching sexpositivity. In the end you might end up in the same documentary as Ikkimel!


SAVE YOUR SPOT

just write an email to post@beateabsalon.de


THE FACILITATORS

BEATA

Beata is the author of "Not giving a fuck. Von lustlosem Sex und sexloser Lust", a psychosocial counselor interested in the fact that people are inconvenient and a cultural theorist invested in the nuances of consent.

Instagram: @beateabsalon

REBECCA

read languages at Cambridge and now studies how bodies speak. Interested in the parts of us we don't fully control, she trained in massage, yoga, chi gong and sexological bodywork. She explores tantra, pranayama and butoh to dig deeper into swamps of being and what happens when we die. 

Instagram: @feel_more_bln