Bringing Love to the classroom...

Being in the porn industry for about fourteen years plus, as we learned in her special guest lecture, Sinnamon Love has really done it all...

From personal interviews, Professor Miller-Young reports that:

"Sinnamon Love had been attending nursing school while raising two children as a single mother when she started performing in adult films. She was behind on her bills even though she was working full time at a children's clothing store. Love was stressed that she spent most of her day between work and school and did not have enough time with her children."

(Miller-Young 33)

As Love put it, welfare was not an option for her. She was determined to support herself and her family on her own. And due to the limited opportunities and flexibility in the workplace offered to single mothers, pornography was the best option; "the often inflexible and demanding nature of conventional work that motivates entry into pornography. Porn is appealing because it offers more flexibility and independence," (Sharon A. Abbott 23). One Love started the business however, she was hooked; "Love gave up her plans for nursing school because she realized she could make even more than a nurse if she focused on building a career as a porn actress," (Miller-Young 33).

Many factors contributed to Love's successful career. For one, she entered the business at a time where there weren't as many actresses on the scene, especially those in her market- Love is a beautiful and petite Black woman who is very adventurous sexually. And as she put it, she wouldn't do anything in front of the camera that she wouldn't do in her personal life.

"Like prostitutes, a few [pornstars] make a great deal of money while most make a modest or meager living," (Abbott 20). Love managed to be one of the few by playing her cards right. She works on various projects and in various markets including BDSB fetish, managing new actress, producing films, and running multiple websites herself. By "being her own boss", Love challenges notions that women are just objects in the porn industry.

According to some studies, "'becoming known' is a greater motivating factor to enter the industry than money" (21). Although this may be true for some, Love stresses how she still does not consider herself a "pornstar". Indeed, it was not until rapper Naz recognized her and proved himself to be a huge fan that Love realized what an impact her career has really had.

Mireille Miller-Young, "Hardcore Desire: Black Women Laboring in Porn- Is It Just Another Job?" Colorlines Magazine, Fall 2005, 31-35

Sharon Abbot, "Motivations for Pursuing an Acting Career in Pornography," Sex for Sale, Prostitution, Pornography and the Sex Industry, Ronald Weitzer, ed., New York: Routledge, 2000, 17-34.

Siobhan Brooks, "Dancing Towards Freedom"

In "Dancing Towards Freedom", Siobhan Brooks writes from her perspective about what happened in San Fransisco when her and her co-workers at the peep show, "The Lusty Lady", started to unionize.

The Lusty Lady had some qualities to it that made it ideal for the first sex worker business to unionize. For one, it was a peep show, not a strip club, where girls danced together in a room, separated by glass between themselves and the customers. They were paid hourly, not by tips. The business was said to run like a "family", under better, safer, and cleaner conditions compared to neighboring strip clubs. Further, as Brooks reports, "most of the women at the Lusty Lady are students, artists, or both; they are very intelligent and creative, refuting the stereotype of strippers as brainless sex bunnies," (Brooks 252).

Although it seems as though the Lusty Lady is an ideal place to work for women in the business, the women discovered that it was not all it was worked up to be. Especially for Brooks, a woman of color, she realized that specifically in terms of racism, the Lusty Lady was no exception; "I did not notice the race relations on stage at first because, as with many job settings, the racism is very covert. Now I feel a sense of family and support from the dancers and support staff, while simultaneously being aware of the racism" (252).

Brooks "noticed that I was almost always the only woman of color on stage with the white dancers," (253). Further, white dancers were rude with the few customers of color that did come in; "some of the dancer reacted to customers of color; many were impatient with Asian and Latino customers who could not understand English well, and some dancers were hesitant about dancing for Black customers," (253).

Management also fell into racist ideology. They believed that women of color were not as desirable by customers, and therefore did not schedule these women in the "Private Pleasures Booths" where more money was to be made. Brooks mentioned how "the few Black women (about six out of seventy women) were hardly every performing in the Private Pleasures booth, though we were all available to do it," (253). Management responded to complaints of this discrimination by saying that "white men did not want to pay extra to see Black dancers," (254).

This type of institutionalized racism is extremely harmful to people of color, in this case the dancers and the customers. Brooks reveals how she "internalized the notion that I was not as attractive as the other dancers...I had to fight insecurities about my appearance in the presence of white women, since they are perceived as the ideal beauty standard," (253). Further negative impacts were that women of color then choose to work at other businesses where the working conditions were worse, but they could make better money. We see this pattern of lower quality clubs servicing customers of color, and therefore employing more women of color. Complete race and class segregation and discrimination; "Black women make less money in the business than other women, a fact reflective of the general economy," (253).

Though the Lusty Lady has since successfully unionized, the same race relations persist. Internal tension between the dancers themselves, as well as women of color workers and management continue to push women of color to lower quality work places. As Brooks says, it is true that as a Black woman, her "freedom in the work place is always limited by white supremacy" (255). However, she continues "to fight racist policies, practices, and attitudes, and I know I am not alone," (255). How can you contribute to the fight?

Siobhan Brooks, "Dancing Towards Freedom," Whores and Other Feminists, Jill Nagle, ed., New York: Routledge, 1997, 57-65

Chicks with Dicks!!: Lesbian Pornography

Heather Butler, in her piece "What Do You Call A Lesbian with Long Fingers? The Development of Lesbian and Dyke Pornography", outlines the characteristics of lesbian's depicted in mainstream pornography and how the depiction has changed through time and with the advent of Queer pornography. She carefully reviews "attempts to authenticate lesbian sexuality through representation, as well as to interpellate the potential lesbian viewer," which legitimate Queer identity on screen, and also as active consumers of porn (Heather Butler 167).

The main characteristic of lesbians as shown in mainstream porn is that the two or more women are prepping themselves for "real sex" with a man; "the 'lesbian,' as she is typically represented in heterosexual pornography, is most often used as a warm-up for sex between a man and a woman," (168). This trend started back in stag films where two girls are usually having a good time with themselves, and once it starts to get hot, the man enters. This theme is still present in mainstream porn today, a theme that denies lesbian identity entirely, and shows not a bisexual identity, but rather a "bi-curious", but not so serious, sexuality.

Queer pornographers, and a small handful of mainstream pornographers, have attempted then to change this pattern and represent a sincere lesbian identity, "to represent lesbianism as an actual choice, not contingent on heterosexuality and a lifestyle that remains discrete from the heterosexual imperative," (170). Indeed, a lesbian identity is not fully defined by what one does sexually, but is contingent on an actual Queer lifestyle.

One way that pornographers have sought to represent lesbians, is with the figure of the Butch Dyke. The Butch Dkye is visual evidence of Queer identity and lifestyle. In mainstream pornography, the Butch Dyke may be limited to her gender role, in terms of being the "top", more aggressive partner. However, in Queer porn, the Butch Dkye has enjoyed a more varied sexual role, one that challenges mainstream notions of gender behavior; "with the figure of the butch, the lesbian gains maximum visibility... the butch destabilizes any fixed notions of gender that we might have had concerning masculinity and femininity," (169).

To further play with our notions of gender roles, Queer pornographers have twisted around with the use and power of the phallus; "Lesbian pornography inherently uncloaks the impotence behind the phallus model and proposes alternatives to simply 'taking it' or 'faking it,'" (168). With the use of dildos and strap on, pleasure moves from the body with the phallus, to the body receiving it. In mainstream pornography, the man's pleasure is at focus, he is the one who can produce the "money shot", the visual evidence that sex has taken place, been pleasurable, and is finished. In Queer porn then, the woman's pleasure is at focus, something we hardly see otherwise. Quoting Jackie Strano, Butler writes that the dildo is "a pleasure tool, an extension of my energy, attached to my clit... it exists to make a woman come, to give her pleasure... and does not come out or come down until she says it does according to her orgasmic wax and wane, not mine as a man's basic physiology would dictate" (187).

Indeed, as we saw in the Queer porn, "Sugar High Glitter City", the strap on can be used in a variety of ways to pleasure both partners. The dildo is not just the object of pleasure for the one wearing it, but rather, the pleasure is dictated by the receiver.

I recommend this film for those of you interested in authentic representations of Queer woman sex. Gender roles are fluid, there is a varied representation of bodies as well as racial diversity, and of course, safe sex and communication.

Heather Butler, "What Do You Call a Lesbian With Long Fingers? The Development of Lesbian and Dyke Pornography," Porn Studies, Linda Williams, ed., Durham: Duke, 2004, 167-197.

Safe, communicative, deep, meaningful, sexy sex

In Annie Sprinkle's "Herstory of Porn", Sprinkle goes through the details of her career as a porn star and how she has made a transition from mainstream, to feminist porn. This move was political, as well as spiritual.

In the performance, it is clear that Sprinkle is critiquing mainstream porn. One of the first conflicts happened during the AIDS scare that hit the industry. Sprinkle started a group called Pornographers Promoting Safer Sex. She wanted to use porn as an educational forum to promote and teach people how to have sexy safe sex; " I called on the porn industry to help educate the public. I figured if everyone in porn started using safer sex, people could see exactly how to do it and see that safer sex could be hot sex," (Sprinkle 2001:56). However, Sprinkle was in for a surprise as the porn industry did not share her goal of promoting safe sex. In the narrow confines of what is considered sexy for the industry, safe sex is not included and in some sort of cost benefit analysis, it seemed that the threat of consumers not buying videos where actors practiced safe sex, outweighed the possibility of death and disease; "unfortunately the heterosexual porn industry didn't take the challenge to use safe sex, and continued to use almost all unsafe sex. That's when I realized that for the most part, the porn industry wasn't a community that cared about people, but a business that really only cared about money" (2001: 56).

Someone who knows all too well the challenge of promoting safe sex in the mainstream porn industry is Tistan Taormino. Taormino is a sex educator and writer who has released a series of videos and books that are inspiring and helpful to the formation of people's sexualities and desires.

In Taormino's "Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women," the video starts off with the battle to get the mainstream distributor to take on her project. She had not done a video before and so the "man in charge" was hesitant to support her film. Further, the video was not your standard porn, but an educational aid for those interested in anal sex and play. With her enchanting powers and of course, an in office demonstration, it is agreed to do her film.

Women like Taorimino and Sprinkle are working not to censor porn, but to improve it and have a more diverse range of options to choose from; "I'm trying to change some of the outmoded ideas of pornography, and its limited view of what is sexy," (Sprinkle 1996:85). For Sprinkle, she wanted to move towards more sensual play where love and connection is evident; "I wanted to do a scene that was more sensuous, where the sex was slower and more meditative. Where it wasn't all so genitally focused but more full-bodies. Where the lovers connect with their hearts, and eyes," (2001:54).

It seems then that the old anti-porn "radical" feminists had it all wrong. The answer to the "porn problem" is not its censorship, but the production of more porn that shows a variety of bodies, sexualities, and fetishes as well as promoting safe sex and connection. The moral of the story then ladies is: pick up your camera and get to it!


Annie Sprinkle and Gabrielle Cody, "Anie Sprinkle's Herstory of Pron" Hardcore from the Heart: The Pleasures, Profits and Politics of Sex in Performance, New York: Continum, 2001.

Annie Sprinkle, "The Best is Yet To Come," in Tales from the Clit: A Female Experience of Pornography, Cherie Matrix, ed., San Francisco: AK Press, 1996.

"Hi, I'm here for the gang bang...?"

The story of Annabel Chong is that she is the star of the World's Biggest Gang Bang in which she had sex with 251 men, 5 men at a time.

Chong was known for her contradictions. She was an Asian college feminist porn star who was open to do what was sexually deviant on screen; "Chong achieved fame particularly for her affinity for doing perverse acts while proclaiming herself to be a feminist...she is regarded as a 'thinking' porn star in a kind of eroticization of the model minority stereotype" (Celine Parrenas Shimizu 13). Chong acted her way through college and was not silent about her feminist views. Although she is the Asian model minority in college, she contradicts this stereotype by not being passive and being a porn star, all attributing to her popularity; "her navigation of contradictory words and worlds- wholesome, intelligent student speaking in an educated manner, coexisting with porn stardom- and the specificity of her fame as based on extreme perversity, combine to contribute her appeal" (14).


Further, she contradicts what it is to be an Asian woman porn star. She is anything but passive and her physical appearance is not typical of other Asian women porn stars before her; "the smaller, shorter, and darker (more visibly Asian and less racially ambiguous) Chong fulfills the extremely perverse expectations for racialized sexuality in order to offer a radical critique of commodification and stardom," (14). Her fame and assertiveness challenges the idea of the passive and objectified Asian woman porn star.

Although Chong is assertive in her feminism and sexual desire, she may have been playing the fool to some extent. In doing the gang bang film, she wanted "to prove that women can work as 'studs,' not 'sluts'" (14). She is "a porn star that enjoys seeing herself sexually represented as a feminist claim to power" (15). However, we can't ignore that factors within the production of the video that exploited her. For example, the overall tone of the men working on the film to her is that she is the star, but still just an object. It is the male actors who receive a "pep talk" on being able to take breaks, eat, and making sure that they are pleasured because that is what they came there for. Chong does not get the same talk and no one is counting her orgasms. In addition, we only see her receiving oral pleasure at the start of the gang bang.

What further complicated her feminist stand is that she wasn't even paid for the project! "It is clear that she's been totally commodified in their minds- Bowen (director) doesn't even pay her for the gang bang video that he himself calls the best-selling video in porn history," (14). It seems true then that "her economic exploitation somewhat silences her powerful intellectual critique" (16). And, after her completion of this video, she is seen as used goods that can no longer be profitable in the business; "once her record of 251 guys is eclipsed, she's dismissed as 'all washed up,'" (14).

The question then is what has Annabel Chong really done for feminism? For women in the porn industry? For Asian women? It is difficult to tell. For myself, I am still having trouble equating what I saw on the screen as pleasurable. But those thoughts are part of the hegemonic view that women are degraded in porn and that that type of sex is not pleasurable at all. I suggest a personal investigation, as I still reconcile my own.

Celine Parrenas Shimizu, "Sex for Sale: Queens of Anal, Double, Triple, and the Gang Bang: Producing Asian/American Feminism in Pornography," Yale Journal of Law and Feminism, 18: 235, 2006.

Zabet Patterson looks at porn online

I'm on my way to college, away from home and the restrictions of my parents. No more rules, no more curfews, and lots of partying! Freshman year is going to be the best!

I'm so excited about my first laptop! It was my parents' graduation present to me. And the craziest thing happened last night. This really cute guy on my floor came over to copy my history notes. As I was printing them from my computer, he sat at the desk and told me he wanted to show me something. He down-loaded some file sharing software that everyone has been using in the dorms and then downloaded this video he said was shot in our dorms years before. I was totally excited to see a movie shot right here on campus!

But, what started off to be Sorority Initiations turned into a full on lesbian porn! I couldn't believe it! That with my laptop I could have direct and free access to porn videos. I don't know what it was, maybe a combination of being turned on and super nervous around the cute boy, but what I did know was that I wanted him out of the chair and my room so I could venture into the world of Internet porn on my own ["It is an anxiety concerning the possible lack of control and autonomy of that body when confronted with technology" (Patterson 104)].

It's been a week now and I've downloaded over 50 videos. Some are short and poor quality. Some are longer well-made home videos. Some are funny and strange with fetishes I didn't even know existed. Friday night the cute boy invited me to go out with him and his friends. They got pretty drunk and when we got back to his dorm, we started making out. But it was sloppy and he had bad breath and all I could think about was getting back to my laptop to watch more porn. Saturday night, I stayed in ["The 'body' of the computer clearly replaces the body of another human," (105)].

Ugh! My computer has been acting so slow lately. It even just shut off during a download and I had to start all over again! Yesterday I was waiting for a video to finish before I had class. 40 minutes had passed and it still hadn't finished. I had to leave to class without getting to see it ["from the perspective of the average viewer, a primary experience of looking for, and eventually at, cyberporn is precisely one of frustration and waiting," (109)].

So while I'm waiting for videos to download, I've been looking through actual porn websites, trying to find free access ones that have video previews and photo galleries. It's just so annoying to have to join certain sites and make up stupid names for myself. They should just have open access on all the sites so you can see things without logging in or waiting ["The promise of cyberporn is one of immediate gratification, yet the technological systems of the Internet, as well as the interfaces of cyberporn sites, necessitate delay: the delay of logging on, the delay of finding a site... the delay of waiting for the selected image, sequence of images, or video segment to appear," (109)]. But it's weird, even though I hate waiting, the obstacles make the final viewing even more exciting and rewarding as if I have cheated the system ["One might see this delay as intensifying the pleasure of the eventual visibility of the object by causing the object to acquire an illusory inaccessibility. But it makes more sense to see the satisfaction as taking place in the deferral satisfaction itself," (109)].

The Internet is making me crazy! Every time I think I have found the most sexy best ever video, I get a new one that blows my mind! It's like an addiction, a game to find the perfect video to get off ["To imagine the goal, then, is to project into a moment of perfect satisfaction- and the obtaining of a perfect image, one completely adequate to the subject's desire. But in comparison to this imagined perfect image, every image will always remain inadequate, and so the 'search' continues," (109)].

It just keeps getting better, and I will just keep on searching.....

Zabet Patterson, "Going On-Line: Consuming Pornography in the Digital Era," Porn Studies, Linda Williams, ed., Durham: Duke, 2004, 104-123.

http://www.i-k-u.com/

Shu Lea Cheang, a Japanese adult film maker, has revolutionized porn with her Sci-Fi erotic film, I.K.U. The premise of the film is that the GENOM Corporation, in the business of digital desire, has produced a variety of products to enhance the XXX Generation.

The biggest project of the Corporation is Reiko. Reiko is an I.K.U. Runner. Her job is not to love people, but to have sex with them. Upon orgasm, Reiko collects the data of the individuals' pleasure to return to I.K.U. Coders who put the information into Chips for sale to the sex consumer. In this sense, the women aren't human, therefore it is not sex work, but merely an administered, corporate research devise.

In a 2001 interview, Cheang comments on how I.K.U. makes reference to the future of sex and desire where technology aids us in "de-coding chemistry." She refers to one such device already in existence, the Nokia Sex Tracer. The Sex Tracer has your profile information and beeps you if someone with your similar interests is within close range. Though this is not exactly to the extent of orgasms in pill form as Cheang presents, we are on our way. Characters in the film take these orgasmic pills, displacing the body from pleasure. However, in a sort of resistant commentary, Cheang rejects this idea as the characters make it clear that the real deal is better, and actually needed to form the memories that will power their pill popping orgasm.

Cheang is also in an interesting bind because of Japanese obscenity law. Cheang creates and edits her film in sly and artistic ways to show sex without showing everything. To the point of almost being nauseating, Cheang's crazy camera angle, graphics, and jolting movement is a visual obstacle course.

However, Cheang also reveals how her camera work is a deliberate attempt "to reclaim the body, and the body parts of women." She shot a lot of genitals, particularly women's, "at angles that force you to look at them."

Although Cheang is clearly coming from a feminist standpoint, she has still been criticized by other feminists who have said "there were too many penis 'symbols' in the film." This leads to the next interesting factor of the film; when the I.K.U. runner retrieves data from her partner, she does so by inserting her fist and arm, which conveniently turn in to a phallic penis type of machine, into the vagina of the female, or anus of the male partner. Thus, critics have said that the penis/phallus is still the focus of the film, as in mainstream pornography.

But is that the case? What does it mean to give the woman the phallus in this sense? With some discussion, it is evident that the women cyborgs in this film are empowered and take on the phallus with new meaning. Cheang retorts that "the film is actually trying to deconstruct 'the big dick'... while claiming the pussy to be the center of the matrix." Indeed, once the information is stored, it is retrieved through the Runner's "pussy."

Libidoc and Dr. Jacobs, "Interview with Shu Lea Cheang," Libi-doc: Journeys in the Performance of Sex Art, Ljubljana, Maska, 2005, 37-54.

A night with Barbara DeGenevieve.....and her porn!

Tonight our class had the privilege to dialogue with Barbara DeGenevieve, artist, professor, and porn maker from the Chicago Art Institute, as well as enjoy some clips from her two adult films, Full Load and Rough Stuff.

Aside from her many art projects, DeGenevieve runs a queer adult website; www.ssspread.com
To access this site, one must become a member and pay monthly. When questioned why the site is not free, as the queer community represents a range of economic levels, DeGenevieve responded that they would not be able to pay their models or cover their expenses if the website were free. Further, DeGenevieve wants to stay away from the trends of mainstream porn sites that bombard you with advertisements and pop-ups; "we didn't want annoying ads, pop-up windows, and the gross commercialism you see on traditional porn sites" (DeGenevieve 2002).

DeGenevieve also strives to show a diverse range of body types among her models. Indeed, one of the traits of queer porn is that you see more than just Barbie dolls with long red nails on the screen. DeGenevieve comments that "of course there are tons of people who will never tire of watching 'perfect bodies' as they're presented by advertising and mainstream movies, but there's a large enough population either bored with this hollow ideal, or that never really found it fully satisfying to begin with." DeGenevieve's concept of reality also extends to shots filmed at the models' own home, revealing their "punk aesthetics" and environments that are definitely not mainstream.

In DeGenevieve's work, it is evident that she is challenging conventional notions of porn in terms of gender roles. DeGenevieve discusses how the anti-porn position believes that the "male gaze" in pornography objectifies women. DeGenevieve rejects this notion of gendered gaze, saying that "there is no male gaze, or female gaze for that matter, just the gaze. The gaze does objectify, but a woman's gaze objectifies just like a man's gaze." For DeGenevieve, women are also active viewers of pornography and further, it is not always the woman that they have to identify with. As we saw in her videos, queer and trans people role play and their gender roles are fluid. A viewer then is allowed "to make up any subject position, and a subject position has nothing to do with gender."

I would love to continue with all the "juicy" details of DeGenevieve's work, but I rather encourage you to join her website, or order her films, and support alternative queer porn.

Libidoc and Dr. Jacobs, "Interview with Barbara DeGenevieve ," in Libi_doce: Journeys in the Performance of Sex Art. Ljubljana, Maska, 2005, 142-147.

The Money Shot

Coming from the generation of "money shot" porn, the majority of porno films I have witnessed have all concluded with the external ejaculation of the man onto some part of the female body, most commonly the face, ass, or tits. Call me crazy, but I never really found such climax, well climactic. But then again, I'm not that into meat shots either.

However, my existence in this generation as well as a capitalist society leads me to discuss these themes, as Linda Williams does in her work on fetishes.

As stated below in my entry on Hustler, pornography plays a huge role in America's development of free speech rights and resistance to censorship. The film Deep Throat is another great example.



Deep Throat was the first porn film in theaters to show the public not only the male phallus, but the external ejaculation. Williams reports that before its creation, the only other film to show a penis was two documentaries on Danish sexual visual culture where massed-produced visual pornography was legalized. It is key here how discourse was manipulated into a more acceptable form, the informative documentary, but its essence still being about sex and showing it; “justify seeing this film as part of a quest for knowledge about the sexual mores of a different culture” (W p. 98).

Again, Deep Throat was a revolutionary release, just in the sense that is was released. Indeed, the fact that this graphic film was out there in the public was almost as alarming as the actual content itself; "what was new in these movies, aside from their occasional color and sound, was the simple fact of their exhibition on large, legal, public screens” (W p. 97). In the class order, sex is something low and dirty which should be kept out of the public eye. Thus, Deep Throat was highly contested.

But we all know that sex does sell and before protests even began, thousands had already seen the film. And for some, it was kind of a revelation of sorts. As Williams details, porn before these films were focused on Stage Films, in which only the female body was shown; a strip tease that worked itself up to showing inner lips and lesbian play. So, as one critic put it, when the male was finally showed in action, he had to stand and give his applause; “deep-throat fellatio followed by a money shot, which seemed to him an affirmation of an organ that had been kept under wraps for far too long” (W p. 100).

Can the coming penis really replace the "mysteries" of female orgasm? I certainly hope not as I agree that the money shot “is a poor substitute for the knowledge of female wonders that the genre as a whole still seeks” (W p. 94). However, in capitalistic society, the external ejaculated penis has more means to an end. As Williams discusses, current capitalistic modes focus on visibility. Before, when porn consisted of meat shots (penetration), one was unable to see most of what was going on. Now with money shots, there is more visual gratification to feed our consumerism; “the money shot seems the perfect embodiment of the illusory and insubstantial ‘one-dimensional’ ‘society of the spectacle’ of advanced capitalism- that is, a society that consumes images more avidly than it consumes objects” (W p. 106). Further, this visual is what sells. When you buy a porno, it is not because you like the actual item on the shelf, it is because you want to own that image that is not printed on the back cover; “what is most characteristic of late capitalist fetishistic consumption, then, is that increasingly nothing tangible is purchased” (W p. 107).

But as well all know, fetishes are not just that particular thing we obsess on, they speak louder to social functions; “Fetishes are thus short-term, short-sighted solutions to more fundamental problems of power and pleasure in social relations” (W p. 105). I might have been lucky however, others who see porn featuring the money shot, perhaps before they have even experienced sex for themselves, are being a bit brainwashed by those who want us to continue to consume this product, or action. When he "pulls out", it is a visual trick, telling us that this is the more pleasurable way to have sex; “viewers are asked to believe that the sexual performers within the film want to shift from tactile to a visual pleasure at the crucial moment of the male’s orgasm” (W p. 101). As Williams notes, women in the films also give auditory clues that this is pleasurable for them when they "ask for it" in dirty phrases like "I want to you to come on my face" or "let me see that hard cock". But this really does trick us again as usually the woman doesn't even see the climax as her eyes may be closed as he goes on her face or she is turned when he aims for her ass; “it is always quite evident that this spectacle is not really for her eyes” (W p. 101). Although some do like it, let us find out for ourselves without so much pressure!

So what is the solution? Change it up to conclude with the female orgasm? Perhaps push the marketing of the female squirting fetish? Williams and I disagree. We need to unpack things a little more to get to the sources of power and conflict and be able to create a market place of discourses that show a variety of pleasures; “while celebration of the clitoris thus might constitute one way to begin to challenge the power of a phallic economy of pleasure, it could do so only if the goal were not to set up an alternate organ of fetishistic worship but rather to dismantle the hierarchy of norm and deviation and so create a plurality of pleasures accepting of difference” (W p. 102).


Linda Williams, Chp 4 from Hard Core: Power, Pleasure, and the 'Frenzy of the Visible,'" Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1989.

Larry Flynt for President!!

Laura Kipnis Does Hustler

As the clip of Lary Flynt's Presidential candidacy speech shows, Flynt’s “career as a pornographer spilled out into the political arena” (K p. 123). Flynt, the creator and editor of Hustler magazine, has shown the American public for years how pornography is a vital tool of resistance against the repression of sexuality and free speech by the government.

As Flynt said in his speech, he is devoted to "moving the massive repressive hand of government from the crotch of the American people." As Kipnis discusses, Flynt fulfills his mission through the pages of Hustler in which we can see historically precedented amount of skin and pink, as well as political satire, both which challenge the conventions of what the female body is supposed to look like as well as societal behavioral norms; Flynt's "favorite tactic was to systematically and extravagantly violate, in the most profoundly offensive way possible, each and every deeply held social taboo, norm, and propriety he could identify” (K p. 123).

For starters, as Kipnis informs, Hustler was one of the first adult magazines to actually show the full bottom of the female, including her inner "pink". Flynt has been in too many legal disputs to name, but this was one of them. In each dispute, at the cost of fines and contempt charges, Flynt has won for the American public, more and more free speech rights; “pornography-via Larry Flynt- that has had a decisive effect on expanding the perimeters of political speech in this country” (K p. 123).

Hustler was always the first to "out smut" the competition. Kipnis reviews some of the key difference between Hustler, Playboy, and Penthouse. For one, Hustler keeps it real, showing a variety of female body types, sizes, ages and sexualities, even male-male sexuality has been shown. "The sexuality Hustler delivers is far from normative, with the most polymorphous array of sexual preferences regarded as equivalent to ‘normal sex,’... Hustler's body is often gaseous, fluid emitting, embarrassing body, once continually defying the strictures of social manners and mores" (K p. 131-132). In comparison, Hustler's competition represents a cleaner, glossier cover girl, one that reflects a "higher class" of pornography, one which sends the message that you don't have to feel as guilty to consume; Hustler "is neither the airbrushed top-heavy fantasy body of Playboy, nor the slightly cheesy, ersatz opulence of Penthouse, whose lingeried and sensitive crotch shots manage to transform female genitalia into ersatz objects d’art" (K p. 131-132).

With an analysis that is more than skin deep, Kipnis underlines how Hustler's first showing of the female bottom wasn't just to challenge its competition, it was to challenge class anxieties surrounding the body. The top half of the body and its senses represent the upper class. Facial beauty, in seeing, the breasts, all more acceptable areas of beauty. A little cleavage is always ok. In contrast, the lower half of the body- the genitals which are conveniently located next to the "organs of elimination" represent the lower class, the things which disgust the upper class and should not be caught in action in the public, let alone duplicated in print and circulated. By illuminating the lower part of the body, Hustler places the lower class on top; “The body and the social are both split into higher and lower strata, with images or symbols of the upper half of the body making symbolic reference to society’s upper echelons-the socially powerful-while the lower half of the body and its symbols (Hustler’s métier) makes reference to the lower tiers- those without special power” (K p. 134).

So, the next time you pick up a dirty magazine, remember, its not just about getting off, its about getring revolutionary!

Laura Kipnis, "Disgust and Desire: Huslter Magazine," in Bound and Gagged: Pornography and the Politics of Fantasy in America, New York: Grove, 1996, 122-132.

@ The Riviera...

http://www.rivieravideo.com/rivieravideo/index.php

This is the story of my trip to the Riviera:

I'm on Facebook trying to be cool, although I should be reading or doing something equally intelligent, when a note on my wall reminds me that I have to go to the Riviera Adult xxx shop for homework (place Women's Studies major joke, insult, and/or confusion here).

My mind slides and I think back to my very first visit @ the Riviera. Belle*, and Green* and I drove down there, listening to The Toadies on the way. I remember sitting in the backseat like the younger sister. The power and sexual authority of the two women in the front illuminated them, and my shyness.

Green was very vocal about her needs. She never ignored the fact that we all thought about sex constantly so she figured it was best to just talk about it and be honest and open. We all lived in the same house and knew who was getting some and who was not. Belle and Green shared a room and in keeping close quarters knew how to take turns for that personal time we all need. Green needed a new vibrator, and that's why we were there.

We pulled into the shady parking lot in the back and Green greeted some gentlemen leaving as we were making our way in. She spoke to the man at the counter like they were old friends. I had never been in a sex shop before and I wasn't quite sure what sex shop etiquette was. In my mind you were supposed to look down at all times, not say anything, do not make eye contact, and go in and leave as quickly as possible with whatever purchase you made in a black bag to cover the shame. Only creeps actually hung around and browsed through the store.

Ok, so maybe I wasn't that uptight, but you can understand why a girl would be. Not all sex stores are exactly women friendly.

After long and hard debate, Green picked out the vibrator she wanted. Just a small thing you could carry in a hand bag, for the woman on the go I suppose. Belle had told me before there was a strap on device that her and her new girlfriend were considering. I couldn't imagine a bulky leather object attached to either of their slim figures. But then Belle showed me the one they liked, and I could understand the attraction to the cute set; a soft purple velvet strap with a matching purple dildo that wasn't too big.

I skimmed the vibrators. This would be my first one. And what a better time to buy it then here with my two sources of women power. At first I was nervous. I couldn't make a decision. I wished my partner was there to help me.... No, I can do this on my own. I choose an affordable slim vibrator. One that did not look like an actual penis, but was an opal color with tints of purples and pinks. I imagined my vagina like a giant doorway and this object would be the key that would unleashed vaginal orgasms on call! (Ohh how ignorant I really was).

Years later, going back to the Riviera is different. I try to arrange a threesome of Rose*, Liberty* and I which then turns into a play date for just Liberty and me. Now I am in the front seat of experience, it is her first time.

Liberty picks me up in her truck. It was a gift; the best kind. We ride with the more mellow Thievery Corporation, though the soothing beats do not match her so-called reckless driving. After two U-turns plus some lefts and rights, we finally manage to park on the street in front of the Riviera.

I've been there so many times now that nothing really shocks me, even the huge 12 inch black dildo that has more girth than my forearm (which the owner kindly informed me that they sell 2 of a week). I want to take notes in my journal, but I don't want to embarrass Liberty. We look at the map conveniently placed in the front next to the over-priced couples section and try to figure out what all the subheadings mean. After a friendly stroll through the toy section (I smile at the purple velvet strap on), we move on to the endless racks of videos. I examine the best sellers; a combination of Jenna and anime porn.

What is new on this trip is that I'm not so interested in the toys or the movies. I went straight to the magazine shelves. Trying to be more "literary" I examine over and over the Small Favors Book One collection. I want to buy the sealed book and put in behind my pillow to read when I am alone and need to focus. But I don't want Liberty to get the wrong impression.

The owner casually interrupts us now and then to give us helpful hints and stats. We ask him what ProAm means. I'm still not sure what it means, or if he really knew to begin with, as ProAm can mean a couple of things. First, the style could be amateur in that there is only one camera. But usually it means that the male talent are "pros" and the women talent are "amateurs", or new bodies. This section is reasonably large as I am aware of how many new women enter the porn industry everyday. They become disposable as there is always a new, younger girl ready to take your place. They go too fast, trying to do everything so quickly, going from my first Lesbian experience and virgin asses, to gang bangs over night. Even in the porn industy, a women needs to be a Lady to survive.

The further into the store you go, the more "hardcore" it gets. All sorts of fetish play, body parts and "ethnic" specialties. I found it interesting that the "Bi" section was only refering to male bisexulaity, as there was already an only girls section and otherwise, women are assumed to be bi at all times. Their Black Hookers series is particularly extensive, as well as the MILF games. Liberty and I continue along the whole store, picking up ones that interest us, for whatever reason, to explore the back covers.

I imagine we are on the Blind Date show. Our first date @ The Riviera would just boost their ratings as sex really does sell. What a better place for us to get to know each other and share family stories about her Catholic school upbringing and my mom who has had threesomes. The episode concludes when we go to the back viewing room where the camera cannot follow, a talk bubble pops up with Buck Angel asking us if he can cum along.

We head back towards home, chatting along the way. Liberty asks if I need to do anything else before she drops me off. I think about extending our night, perhaps a trip to Borders to see if they have any new foreign fashion magazines in, and then maybe a casual drink at The Merc, but I play it safe and say no.

I went back the next day and bought Small Favors.

Sex Workers' Art Show...!!!

http://www.sexworkersartshow.com/

Last year the Sex Workers' Art Show dazzeled the audience of the MCC for the first time. The show brought in an interesting mix of the Women's Studies and ally department crowds, queer kids in the know, and of course the average "bro" or two who were just there for well, "naked ladies" as host of the show, Annie Oakley would put it. Either way, the show was a super sold-out success and I know I couldn't wait to see more.



This year, oddly enough, there was not as much "outsider" support economically as last year. (But thanks again to the Women's Studies Dept and Professor Miller-Young for bringing them and the MCC for the free space). But that was a shame considering once again the show was sold out and then some; filling the ile floors and standing in the back. Apparently those Sex Workers do know how we like it...

One main difference I saw between this year's and last year's show was the level of nudity. Last year, Julie Atlas Muz http://www.julieatlasmuz.com/ started the show off with her performace to Judice Priest's "Breakin' the Law" in which she not only smoked and cigarrette in the MCC and stamped it out on the stage, but she also was fully nude! In all, last year there was definately more "skin". This year no performer was completely nude, tops covered with pasties and bottoms covered with at least dollar bills.

And why am I paying particular attention to this? No, it's not because I was disapointed at the lack of nudity this year (believe me, I was over stimulated as it was), but it is like Burlesque teacher and performer Jo Weldon http://www.gstringsforever.com/ put it when she brought a member of the audience on stage to do a strip-tease teach-in; No woman should take her clothes off for free. Yes, I don't think our admissions fee reaches the going rate for these extravegant women and men.

Another issue brought to my attention by a roomate who also went to the show this year was that of representation. What kinds of sex workers did the performers represent? In terms of class, working conditions, and motives, do these sex workers represent the majority of workers in and out of the U.S.? The answer clearly is no, but it would be foolish to ignore the impact that their work has on all sex workers. For one, they are working to dispel myths about sex workers and show that they have a voice, and an artistic one at that, and can use that voice rather than simply being silent objects of consumption. Also, everyone in the performace is contributting greatly to the sex worker community through the different aspects of their work. Amber Dawn from Canada organizes an FTM top surgery fundraising group called For the Boys and is a sexual health educator in an AIDS organization. Kirk Read works with St James Infirmary in San Fransisco, a free health clinic for current and former sex workers where he also started a men sex worker support group. Reginald M Lamar's lyrics discuss issues of race and opression that can't be ignored in the lives of sex workers of color. Just to name a few....

Finally, on a personal level I would like to comment on Miss Dirty Martini http://www.missdirtymartini.com/



Ahe is my newly found role model, and well Goddess. Her moves were amazing and she glide across the stage beautifully. I was able to speak with her after the show; she gives all kinds of confindance and inspiration to my kind, that is the "pleasantly plump"; thank you Miss Martini...

On Freaks...

In between school, organizing, and blogging, yes I actually do things just for fun. Ok, well blogging is fun, but only when you can throw in those fun posts that make all the academic stuff worth it.

So this weekend I saw Little Miss Sunshine, an excellent film about a family and all the problems that go along with being in one.

I would like to particularly talk about the Little Miss Sunshine Pageant scene. The first clip shows all the contestants in the bathing suit walk through. All of the girls except Olive are wearing makeup, heals, and hair extensions. In an earlier scene one girl is getting spray tan on her legs. The point is that they are trying to win with the sexuality of these girls and to make them look as grown up as possible. Little Olive is the only one without makeup, in a simple one- piece, her hair down in a pony-tail, and even with a little tummy.

The next clip is of Olive's "talent" in which she is doing somewhat of a striptease to the ever appropriate Rick James' "Superfreak". The crowd is more or less disgusted (aside from the one pedifile in the audience) and try to pull her off the stage.

The point is, one is really no different from the other. What the other girls were doing was the same display of young, tabooed sexuality, but in a more subtile form. And becuase olive was not your typical pageant girl, she was stigmitzed and thrown out of the contest.

Little Miss Sunshine - Clip One

Little Miss Sunshine - Clip Two

Patricia Hill Collins Gets Her Freak On in Black Sexual Politics

As Patricia Hill Collins dives into the different meanings of terms such as freak and bitch, the important themes covered through out is that of discourse; who creates it, and who resists it. As Foucault discusses, hegemonic discourses control ideas circulating that define our realities, and even our bodies and self. In order to resist this negative naming and stereotyping, subcultures create new meanings of the same language used by dominant forces, in an in-your-face response that leaves most "outsiders" baffled.

The colonial creation of the term freak is discourse in the making. We have the dominant players, the Western white male, who comes to Africa to view the "inhumane objects" that are the African people, in particular, the fascinating African female body. With his power and privilege, the Western white male is able to define these bodies that are new to him, though had been in existence for years before. Instead of learning about these various populations within the context of their specific cultures and history, the Western white man sees them at the "Other" and compares them to himself, the hegemonic norm. That said, where Western civilization is just that, "civilized", African peoples are what Westerners are not, uncivilized, brutish, and animal-like; “under colonialism, West African people’s proximity to wild animals, especially apes, raised in Western imaginations of the spector of ‘wild’ sexual practices in an uncivilized, inherently violent wilderness” (C p. 120).

The most tragic and famous example of this shameful history is the life of Sarah-Bartmann.



As Professor Miller-Young discussed in class, Western scientists, or zoologist rather, who were fascinated by the bodies of African people literally stole African bodies, dead and alive, and took them back to Europe to study. It was believed that by looking at the proportions of the African body and their craneology, "experts" could prove they were descendants of Apes, while Westerners were of a distinct geneology. Sarah-Bartmann was put on display all her life. And though she never showed the men her genitals, upon her sudden death, all of her body parts were put in jars on display. Though some jars have been "lost", some justice was made when the rest of her remains were brought back to her home in Africa.

Noting this intense racist history of colonialism where the term freak has its origins, it is hard to believe that it is now part of everyday language and used frequently to express new meanings about the body and sexuality; “...the term freak came to permeate popular culture to the point at which it is now intertwined with ideas about sexuality, sexual identities, and sexual practices” (C p. 120). One well known use of the word as Collins points out, is in Funk musician Rick James' hit "Superfreak".

http://www.lyrics-top.com/178211-103621/SuperFreak/Rick-James.html


As the lyrics go, although the woman is from the "street" and is somewhat of a groupie, she is "alright" to Mr. James who gives his seal of approval to freaky girls and behavior.

The term has since continues to transform, as Collins details, giving the people who use the term to define themselves power, independence, and style; “the term has shown stunning resiliency, migrating onto the dance floor as a particular dance (Le Freak) and as a style of dancing that signaled individuality, sexual abandon, craziness, wildness, and new uses of the body” (C p. 121).

Missy Elliott also gets her Freak on in her hit song of the same title.



http://www.lyrics007.com/Missy%20Elliott%20Lyrics/Get%20Ur%20Freak%20On%20Lyrics.html

Although "get your freak on" is the chorus of the song, the lyrics seem to be more about Missy herself. She defines herself with power and as she says, "Shh, hush yo mouth Silence when I, spit it out" you better listen to what she has to say. This speaks more to the next part of Collins' article in which she discuses the term Bitch; “…only African American women can be ‘Bitches’ with a capital ‘B’. Bitches with a capital ‘B’ or in their language, ‘Black Bitches,’ are super-tough, super-strong women who are often celebrated” (C p 124).

Missy, along with her partner in crime, Lil' Kim, are Black Bitches. They are writing, producing, and marketing their music, and even their bodies as "many African American women rappers identify female sexuality as part of women's freedom and independence" (C p. 127).

Indeed, because the media is such a powerful source of discourse where so many go to get their knowledge, subcultures have created their own media to reclaim definitions of themselves; "Black popular culture and mass media [are] sites where ideas concerning Black sexuality are reformulated and contested" (C p. 121). Words like freak and bitch have been reclaimed by the same groups who were once oppressed by the terms to become modes of empowerment. Again, illustrating the power of language and discourse, and how they can be resisted and changed.

Patricia Hill Collins, Chp. 4: "Get Your Freak On: Sex, Babies and Images of Black Femininity," Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism, New York: Routledge, 2004, 119-148.

Reading Kobena Mercer on the photography of Robert Mapplethorpe

Debate has been centered around whether or not Mapplethorpe's intentions, in his portrait work with black male nude models, are to create "pornographic" photos to "shock the bourgeoisie". The debate seems to be stuck in a sort of binary; is the art porn? or is it art? and is it fine art? By examining Mapplethorpe's style and technique, it is evident that the artist uses the conventions of both fine art photography, and pornography. This combination, and perhaps contradiction, creates ambivalence in the works and in interpretations of it, which viewers experience. Kobena Mercer struggles with these interpretations in his original thoughts on Mapplethorpe, which he moves on to reevaluate.

The major use of fine art conventions evident in Mapplethorpe's photography is that of sculptural code, or the use of the Greek ideal body and pose.

Mapplethorpe takes the black male nude and places him in the ideal form of the Greek muscular body. As shown above, placing the subject on a pedestal, literally, as well as in the notion of high art. Within the discussed binary, there are two interpretations that Mercer covers. At first, this technique can be seen as using the stereotype of the black muscular man who society is afraid of. The sports star that no one wants to play against; "the idealized physique of a classical Greek male statue is superimposed on that most commonplace of stereotypes, the black man as sports hero, mythologically endowed with a ‘naturally’ muscular physique and an essential capacity for strength, grace and machinelike perfection: well hard" (M p. 178). Upon reflection, Mercer points out the subversive element of this tactic that he obscured in his earlier argument; “…the potentially subversive aspect of the homoerotic dimension in Mapplethorpe’s substitution of the black male subject for the archetypical white female nude was underplayed…” (p. 191). Indeed, by using the Greek ideal as the model for the black male subjects, Mapplethorpe shatters racist assumptions that the black male cannot be ideal, beautiful, and within the definitions of fine art.

In contrast, Mapplethorpe also uses techniques of pornography to send a message to viewers. The most obvious being the fragmentation of body parts; “the body-whole is fragmented into microscopic details- chest, arms, torso, buttocks, penis- inviting a scopophilic dissection of the parts that make a whole...The camera cuts away, like a knife, allowing the spectator to inspect the ‘goods’" (p. 183).

This photographic device is also used in pornography. A way of focusing on the items to be consumed, i.e. breast, penis, penetration, ect. In Mercer's first reading, he sites arguments anti-porn feminists have used against this strategy to show his frustration with putting the parts of black male men up for grabs; “the cropping and fragmentation of bodies- often decapitated, so to speak- is a salient feature of pornography, and has been seen from certain feminist positions as a form of male violence, a literal inscription of a sadistic impulse in the male gaze, whose pleasure thus consists of cutting up women’s bodies into visual bits and pieces” (p. 183). But again, upon reconsideration, Mercer discovers that perhaps he himself was caught up in the ambivalence of identifying with both the male models being looked at, as well as a gay black man looking at the models; “…the element of aggresivity in textual analysis-the act of taking things apart- might merely have concealed my own narcissistic participation in the pleasures (and anxieties) which Mapplethorpe’s text makes available, for black spectators as much as anyone else” (p. 193). In this dual dissection, Mercer was frustrated by the fragmentation of the male black bodies, but more so by his anxities at perhaps enjoying this gaze as viewers of pornography so often do.

When all is said and done, I think it is important to remember that the "hype" over Mapplethorpe's work had a lot to do with the moral panic at the time in the U.S. surrounding HIV/AIDS. Mapplethorpe and many of his models have passed from the disease, making Mapplethorpe's work an important reminder to our history, and to their lives. Indeed, Mapplethorpe's combined strategies were succesful in adding the subverssive voice to this history; “Mapplethorpe’s ironic juxtaposition of elements drawn from the repository of high culture-where the nude is indeed one of the most valued genres of the dominant culture- with elements drawn from below, such as pornographic conventions or commonplace stereotypes, can be seen as a subversive recoding of the ideological values supporting the normative aesthetic ideal” (p. 198-199).

Kobena Mercer, "Reading Racial Fetishism: The Photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe" Welcome to the Jungle: New Positions in Black Cultural Studies. New York: Routledge, 1994, 171-219.

On Focault...

Whenever I read Foucault, I can't help but have Salt 'N' Pepa's song "Let's Talk About Sex" in my head. At first it is humorous, and a way to alleviate me throughout the reading, but the more I think about it, with a Foucualt-ian analysis, the lyrics are quite telling.

First of all, we all know how important of a discourse hip hop and hip hop culture are in society. ("What is at issue, briefly, is the over-all 'discursive fact,' the way in which sex is 'put into discourse,'" F p. 11). In particular, youth looks a lot to music to find descriptions of reality that they can identify with. How common it is that we can hear a piece of music and be brought back to a certain stage in our lives and beliefs. That said, musicians and lyricists have a lot of power in terms of what type of knowledge they are producing to the public and can choose to be part of hegemonic discourses that perpetuate racist and sexist views, or they can be part of a counter-culture that resists such "norms". ("If sex is repressed, that is, condemned to prohibition, nonexistance, and silence, than the mere fact that one is speaking about it has the appearance of a deliberate transgressions" F p. 6).

Salt "N" Pepa has been part of this subversive group, representing themselves as strong women in both their lyrics, as well as rap style. Though the woman in the song appears to be using her sex to her advantage, nevertheless she is strong and has agency.

"Let's Talk About Sex" lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/saltnpepa/letstalkaboutsex.html



As the lyrics go, even though people may misunderstand us, we should talk about sex anyways, because that's how life is. And the only way to insure that our point gets across, is to try and try again, learning more every time through our interactions with others. The more perspectives you hear, the more varied your outlook on life is, and you can better understand the experiences of others, also known as the "marketplace of ideas". This line of thinking is in protest to the notion of censorship, that certain things should just be baned from the public. ("...modern prudishness was able to ensure that one did not speak if sex, merely through the interplay of prohibitions... by dint of saying nothing, imposed silence. Censorship" F. p 17).

Don't try to avoid sex because "it keeps coming up anyhow" and we can't stop this "discursive explosion" (F p. 17). The more you try to repress sex, the more you will realize it is every where. Sex sells, we see it on the streets, the television, and the written word. We look in the mirror every day when we dress and think about our bodies and our sex. We wonder what it is the other is thinking when they give a flirtatious glance. What are my child's peers telling her/him about sex that I don't know in a codified "rhetoric of allusion and metaphor" (F p. 17) ?

So where does that leave us? We have a responsibility- as women, men, queers, academics, activists, people who have sex, or don't- to talk about sex. Because if we don't, it will be the hegemonic discourses that define the sexual world. ( sex "had to be taken charge by analytical discourses... sex became a 'police' matter... the necessity of regulating sex through useful and public discourses" F p. 24-25) - i.e. abstinence only education, religion denouncing pre-marital and queer sex, or perhaps our protective fathers (that was a joke).

"Let's tell it how it is, and how it could be. How is was, and of course how it should be." Speak up! Whether it's in the bedroom, to friends, or in the classroom, make your opinion known. Otherwise our experiences will go unheard and be lost faster than we lost our virginity (also a joke).

As our sexualites are fluid, so is our future in terms of our sexual freedoms and who controls the information that is put out there. You bet I'll be there to talk about it and have a say in what is MY sex.

"At issue is not a movement bent on pushing rude sex back into some obscure and inacessible region, but on the contrary, a process that spreads it over the surface of things and bodies, arouses it, draws it out and bids it speak, implants it in reality and enjoins it to tell the truth: an entire glittering sexual array, reflected in a myraid of discourses, the obstination of powers, and the interplay of knowledge and pleasure" (F p. 72).

Michel Foucault The History of Sexuality Vol. 1
Vintage Books, New York
1972-1977

Learning How To Blog!

Mireille is helping me set up my blog today... woop woop!