Audre Lorde: The Uses of the Erotic

Audre Lorde’s essay “The Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power” explores the concept of “the erotic” as a source of immense power that disrupts oppression. She challenges the conventional and limited understanding of the erotic as merely sexual and advocates for a broader, empowering perspective.

Lorde explores how there is power when you follow intuition. The erotic goes beyond explicity sexual connotations and instead spreads to a powerful and creative force that encompasses creativity, spirituality, and sensuality. Lorde promotes “desire as a creative force for revolutionary change.” She also writes, “The very word erotic comes from the Greek word eros, the personification of love in all its aspects- born of Chaos, and personifying creative power and harmony. When I [Lorde] speak of the erotic, then, I speak of it as an assertion of the lifeforce of women; of that creative energy empowered, the knowledge and use of which we are now reclaiming in our language, our history, our dancing, our loving, our work, our lives” (Lorde 1987).

This essay overall advocates for a holistic and empowering understanding of the erotic as a force that extends beyond the sexual realm, but that doesn’t reject sexuality or separate it completely. The piece is an offering- to individuals, specifically women, that embracing the erotic, and its connection with joy, liberation, and power, there are endless possibilities for self-discovery and resistance against all forms of oppression.

Supplemental material:

The Erotic is Power, Kartikey Tripathi

https://www.delhipoetryslam.com/blogs/staff-picks/the-erotic-is-power

Lorde’s Poetry

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/audre-lorde