Helen Boyd Kramer's journal on gender and stuff
This is good stuff – a candid discussion about the role of porn in our real life, actual sex lives, and the amazing Nina Hartley is in it!
There’s a short, teaser version of the clip, too, if you don’t have time right now to watch the whole thing, but it’s a very worthwhile 20+ minutes.
(& I’m just going to add: the banana/nutella business is not only crass, it’s wrong. Anal does not necessarily involve fecal matter. See Tristan Taormino’s short clip about anal here.)
The Feminist Porn Book is out. Here’s one of my favorite excerpts, by none other than the amazing Nina Hartley, which I’ve gone and excerpted:
Actress Cornelia Otis Skinner said, Woman’s virtue is man’s greatest invention. That phrase is both true and telling: everyday men and women both carry the heavy load and pay the cost for this retrograde notion of virtue. Female sexual agency remains a contentious subject that sparks fierce debate and displays of moral outrage, bigotry, and murderous violence. Our culture continues to punish women for their sexuality, from woman-on-woman slut shaming, to continuing attempts by local, state, and federal government agencies to limit access to effective family planning. Our country’s honor killings–ranging from the murder of abortion providers to the killing of a partner in a fit of jealous If-I-cant-have-you-then-nobody-can-have-you! rage–are almost always connected to women’s sexual autonomy and/or health.
I love Nina Hartley.
I’ve always been a fan of Buck Angel’s – because he comes from an industry where genitals couldn’t be more important (porn) and yet he managed to make having a vagina work, and that as a person who is undoubtedly male. He also did the first trans-on-trans porn, with Alannah Starr, waaaaay back in 2005, and taught an entire porn crew how not to stutter when saying “her penis” and “his vagina”.
But the cool thing is that he’s now decided to do sex ed, as because he’s retiring from porn. Do also check out this interview with him by Tristan Taormino. Right now he’s down at Southern Comfort (oh, the irony of the name for a trans man with a famous vagina) which happens this fall weekend annually.
My books received a lovely mention in Dan Savage’s Savage Love column this week, when a 23 year old woman wrote in confused by her boyfriend’s desire to be pegged, made-up and corseted. Tristan Taormino was the guest author, standing in for Dan on vacation. & I’m pleased as punch.
Today my friend Tristan Taormino’s Radio Show airs for the first time! 5 pm Pacific Time, 8 pm Eastern Time.
Sex Out Loud explores the world of sexuality from every angle. Tristan Taormino will interview leading authors, educators, artists and icons and give listeners an uncensored, inside look at alternative sexual practices and communities. She’ll delve into topics from the popular to the taboo, including sex education and sexual health, erotic fantasies, BDSM, non-monogamy, the adult industry, and more. Tristan and her guests will also answer listeners’ questions live. Her first guest will be Dan Savage, sex advice columnist, author, co-creator of the “It Gets Better” campaign, and star of MTV’s “Savage U.” Upcoming guests include Kate Bornstein, Buck Angel, Jaclyn Friedman, Jessica Valenti, Bobbi Starr, Susie Bright, and her daughter, Aretha Bright. Continue reading “Sex Out Loud: New Radio Show”
Tristan Taormino’s Take Me There:Trans and Genderqueer Erotica
Tristan Taormino edited an anthology of trans erotica called Take Me There
Kate Bornstein (@KateBornstein), author and editor of many books including Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation, which just won a Lambda Literary Award!
Patrick Califia (@PatrickCalifia), world-renowned writer, activist, and sex radical, author of dozens of books including Speaking Sex to Power: The Politics of Queer Sex
S. Bear Bergman (@SBearBergman), co-editor of Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation and author of Butch is a Noun and The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You, which just went into its second printing
Ivan Coyote (@IvanCoyote), author of Missed Her and one of my personal faves, Closer to Spiderman, who is currently touring all over Canada
Julia Serano, author of Whipping Girl, currently at work on a new book
Laura Antoniou (@lantoniou), author of the groundbreaking series The Marketplace, which was the first SM erotica series featuring a transman as the romantic hero. She wrote a story especially for this book all about Chris Parker!
Helen Boyd (@helen_of_boyd), author of She’s Not the Man I Married and My Husband Betty
Sandra McDonald, author of the Lambda Literary Award winner, Diana Comet and Other Improbable Stories
Rachel Kramer Bussel (@Raquelita), queen of erotica whose latest anthology is Gotta Have It: 69 Stories of Sudden Sex
Toni Amato, co-editor of Pinned Down by Pronouns and frequent Best Lesbian Erotica contributor
Gina de Vries, genderqueer femme, Paisan pervert, writer, performer, cultural worker, activist, editor of Becoming: Young Ideas on Gender, Identity, and Sexuality
Rahne Alexander (@foucauldian_ho), musician, multimedia artist, guitarist and vocalist in the bands The Oops and The Degenerettes
Giselle Renarde (@GiselleRenarde), erotica writer and editor of Future Histories: Transgendered Sci-Fi Erotica
Alicia E. Goranson, playwright, screenwriter, and author of Supervillianz
Rachel K. Zall, poet, performing artist, activist and author of The Oxygen Catastrophe
Tobi Hill-Meyer (@Tobitastic), activist, filmmaker, writer, and Feminist Porn Award winner
Shawna Virago, singer/songwriter and activist
Andrea Zanin (@sexgeekAZ), organizer, educator, and writer
Sinclair Sexsmith (@mrsexsmith), creator of The Sugarbutch Chronicles and frequent Best Lesbian Erotica contributor
Skian McGuire, one of my favorite erotica writers ever
Arden Hill, writer and poet
Anna Watson, writer and creator of The Femme Bibliography Project
It comes out in October but you can pre-order it now.