My Sex Writing 101 workshop September 12th in LA at CatalystCon and examples from The Village Voice, The Fix, Salon, The Daily Beast, Glamour, Harper's Bazaar

I'm gearing up to teach my Sex Writing 101 workshop ahead of CatalystCon on September 12th, which so far is the only place I've taught it because I think it's the best venue for a 3-hour, intense workshop where people are already generally in the sexuality field in some capacity and have a framework for the types of issues and ideas being discussed. This is a companion post to "How to make money writing about your sex life and 5 times I did." That one was about writing about your personal life, which will be covered in the workshop, but this post is about sex journalism, which will also be covered.



There is also room to overlap both of those in one piece or book, and I'll be highlighting the work of CatalystCon speakers like Joan Price (who's on my September 14th panel on Envelope-Pushing Erotica), Carol Queen (who's excellently blended both personal experience and journalism/advocacy pieces), Conner Habib, a prolific writer about sexuality topics and past Best Sex Writing contributor, Cunning Minx with her podcast Polyamory Weekly and ebook on polyamory (we are on a panel on September 13th on Shameless Self-Promotion: Marketing 101 for Activists). See the full CatalystCon schedule here.

I'll also be highlighting the work of many other people who write sex articles, such as Jillian Keenan, who wrote a Modern Love essay about spanking in The New York Times (yes, that's more of a personal essay, but since then she's gone on to write a lot about related topics in a more journalistic fashion) and a recent piece for Slate about kink as a sexual orientation, my friend Twanna Hines, who parlayed her blog Funky Brown Chick into a column for Metro, and much more.

In a nutshell, just as I think everyone has a personal sex essay in them they can publish and sell, I feel the same about other forms of nonfiction sex writing. I'm not saying everyone should do it, but if you want to, there are ways to mine your own life and the news and craft great pitches. I'll be teaching you how and getting you writing and pitching, and I hope you'll attend this workshop if you're at CatalystCon. Here are 8 examples of my own nonfiction sex writing over the years (please note they aren't all about how people have sex, but also about sexuality and culture and how our sexuality affects the rest of our lives), that I hope give a bit of breadth to the topics you can cover (which are vast, and new ones pop up every day, like the leaked nude Jennifer Lawrence photos):

"A Revolutionary Relationship", The Village Voice - one of my favorite of my columns, which I wrote almost 10 years ago (!!). Here's the opening:

I'm a little nervous when I pick up the phone to call Betty Dodson. After all, I had sex with her live-in partner, Eric, only a few weeks ago. While I know they have a long-term open relationship, that doesn't mean she'll exactly welcome me with open arms, even though she's agreed to the interview.

"Kinky, Sober and Free: BDSM in Recovery", The Fix

"Guybrators! Prostate massagers! Fleshlights! “Louie” and the expanding male sex toy market", Salon

'50 Shades of Grey' is The Subject of a Course at American University", The Daily Beast

"Erotic Lit Your Grandmother Will Like," The Daily Beast

"How to Talk Sexy (and Not Sound Stupid)", Glamour

"The O-Shot", Harper's Bazaar

Ready to write your own, CatalystCon attendees? Sign up for Sex Writing 101 on September 12th!

Read Jonathan Lethem, Carol Queen, Patrick Califia & more for only $1.99 in Kindle edition of Best Sex Wrting 2013

Best Sex Writing 2013 was my last year editing the series (though I am still editing the Best Bondage Erotica series and plenty of erotica!), and you can find Jon Pressick's call for Best Bondage Erotica 2015 here. Through the end of December, the Kindle edition of Best Sex Writing 2013 is on sale for $1.99 - it's a smart, wonderful read I'm proud of, and I'd love to have my editing of the series go out with a bang, so if you're looking for a sex nerd holiday gift for yourself or others, give this one a try.



Purchase Best Sex Writing 2013 from:

Amazon

Kindle (ebook)

Bn.com

Nook (ebook)

Books a Million

Indiebound (independent bookstores)

iBooks

Google Play

Audible audiobook

Cleis Press

About the book (aka, why I'm so giddy about it and want you to read it):

Foreword Carol Queen
Introduction: A Different Kind of Sexual Education

Live Nude Models Jonathan Lethem
Can a Better Vibrator Inspire an Age of Great American Sex? Andy Isaacson
Sex by Numbers Rachel Swan
Very Legal: Sex and Love in Retirement Alex Morris
Notes from a Unicorn Seth Fischer
Rest Stop Confidential Conner Habib
When on Fire Island… A Polyamorous Disaster Nicholas Garnett
Cherry Picking Julia Serano
Holy Fuck: The Fourth-and-Long Virgin Jon Pressick
Baby Talk Rachel Kramer Bussel
Dear John Lori Selke
Sex by Any Other Name Insiya Ansari
Enhancing Masochism Patrick Califia
Submissive: A Personal Manifesto Madison Young
Ghosts: All My Men Are Dead Carol Queen
Happy Hookers Melissa Gira Grant
Christian Conservatives vs. Sex: The Long War Over Reproductive Freedom Rob Boston
Porn Defends the Money Shot Dennis Romero
Lost Boys Kristen Hinman
The Original Blonde Neal Gabler

Introduction: A Different Kind of Sexual Education

As editor of the Best Sex Writing series, and a writer about sex in both fiction and nonfiction forms, I’m privileged to hear from lots of people about sexuality, whether asking for advice or wanting to talk about the big issues of the day, whether that means attacks on birth control or Fifty Shades of Grey. The biggest thing I’ve learned, though, is pretty basic: we are all always learning. You can indeed get a PhD in sexology, like foreword author and contributor Carol Queen did, but that doesn’t mean you simply give up and assume you know everything about the wide world of sexuality and sexual variation. You can’t; it’s impossible.

Part of why sex writing is so vital is because we all have things to learn—about ourselves, and about others. While this book will not teach you how to have sex, you will learn about what motivates others in their sexual desires, whether to engage in multiple relationships, perform sex work, come out as bisexual, build increasingly advanced vibrators, or more.

I think it’s safe to say that whether this is the first book about sex you’ve ever read or the thousandth, you will learn something about what makes people tick, about sexual desire and sexual community. The latter is as important to me as the former, because it’s within the community of sex writers, educators and activists that I’ve carved out a place for myself as a bisexual, feminist, kinky sex writer. Lori Selke writes in her open letter, “Dear John,” about feeling disillusioned by the judgments being passed around her local leather community. “See, my kinky leather identity grew firmly out of my queerness and my feminism. All three of those elements are important and in some ways inseparable. It’s important to me to pursue the sort of social justice that ensures that our consensual relationships are someday entered into from a place of roughly equal societal power. Without that aim, we’re simply perpetuating oppression.” I suspect many people aren’t aware of just how committed to their ideals those in the kink and leather communities are. To assume it’s all about whips, chains, bondage and spanking is to miss the point—of course it’s about those things, but it’s also about much more.

The educational lessons here are often much more personal. When Conner Habib opens his essay “Rest Stop Confidential” with, “I was fifteen the first time I found out that men have sex in public,” I must admit that, at thirty-seven, I have only seen men having sex in public at parties specifically designed for sex. The first of many firsts Julia Serano details in “Cherry Picking” begins, “The first time I learned about sex was in fifth grade.” We are all both capable of learning more, and impacted by what we did—or didn’t—learn about sex at a young age.

Some of what you’re about to read is sad or scary or disheartening; I cannot promise you a book of shiny happy sex bouncing off every page, because that is not the world we live in. There are laws to fight against, AIDS plaguing the gay community, internalized oppression, questions that may have no answers, or multiple answers. I didn’t select these essays and articles because they purport to have all the answers.

Last year’s guest judge, the noted sexual commentator Susie Bright, when asked about The Guardian’s Bad Sex award, responded, “There is no art without sex.” I think the same could be said for the news; sex is not a topic squirreled away on the back page of the paper; it’s on the front page, in the sports section, the business section, the editorials. It’s covered in fashion magazines and newsweeklies. In Best Sex Writing 2013, hot topics include New York Jets quarterback Tim Tebow’s virginity and the laws governing condom use in porn.

Sex education remains at the forefront of the news and continues to be “controversial,” though, like birth control, another political battleground of late in the United States, I would think it would be a no-brainer. Yet I can still read articles like one in Time about the Mississippi county, Tunica, with the highest teen pregnancy that is only recently getting on board with sex ed, via a law mandating it do so. “During the four years Ashley McKay attended Rosa Fort High School in Tunica, Miss., her sex education consisted mainly of an instructor listing different sexually transmitted diseases. ‘There was no curriculum,’ she says. ‘The teacher, an older gentleman who was also the football coach, would tell us, “If you get AIDS, you’re gonna die. Pick out your casket, because you’re gonna die.”’”

We should not be reading articles like this any longer, but we are, and it’s not just youths who are in dire need of sex education. Just today, I received an email from an acquaintance asking if I could chat because, “I have found a wonderful woman with whom i have begun to explore areas of my sexuality i really have never followed through on or even verbally fantasized about.” He has questions. So do many people, but they don’t know where to turn.

This book doesn’t purport to have all the answers, and is likely to raise many discussions and propose multiple answers to questions about open relationships, prostitution, sexual orientation and other topics. It cannot take the place of talking about sex—with your lovers, friends, parents, children, neighbors and coworkers. Those shouldn’t be the same conversations, but they can exist, and by making sex a topic we don’t shy away from, we start to educate ourselves about what others are thinking, feeling and doing. So I hope that you won’t read this book and keep it tucked away on your bookshelf (or e-reader); while you are more than welcome to do so, I hope you will introduce some part of what you’ve read into a conversation, take it off the page and into real life. You will very likely learn something, and that is a process that can easily snowball; there’s never an end, because it’s a lifelong process, one that I look forward to every day.

Rachel Kramer Bussel
New York City

Bloggers wanted for Best Sex Writing 2013 virtual book tour

Want a free copy of Best Sex Writing 2013 and to join the conversation about sexuality and culture? Sign up to be part of the virtual book tour. Your blog can be about anything, as long as you agree to post on your assigned date about the book. You'll get a copy (print or ebook) and I'll link back to you. Interested? Email bestsexwriting2013 at gmail.com with "Tour" in the subject line and your URL and name and mailing address (for print copy) or that you want an ebook copy and Cleis Press will be in touch about your date and posting instructions. For those who just want to read the book, it's for sale right now on Kindle and Nook and will be in print very soon.



Foreword Carol Queen
Introduction: A Different Kind of Sexual Education

Live Nude Models Jonathan Lethem
Can a Better Vibrator Inspire an Age of Great American Sex? Andy Isaacson
Sex by Numbers Rachel Swan
Very Legal: Sex and Love in Retirement Alex Morris
Notes from a Unicorn Seth Fischer
Rest Stop Confidential Conner Habib
When on Fire Island… A Polyamorous Disaster Nicholas Garnett
Cherry Picking Julia Serano
Holy Fuck: The Fourth-and-Long Virgin Jon Pressick
Baby Talk Rachel Kramer Bussel
Dear John Lori Selke
Sex by Any Other Name Insiya Ansari
Enhancing Masochism Patrick Califia
Submissive: A Personal Manifesto Madison Young
Ghosts: All My Men Are Dead Carol Queen
Happy Hookers Melissa Gira Grant
Christian Conservatives vs. Sex: The Long War Over Reproductive Freedom Rob Boston
Porn Defends the Money Shot Dennis Romero
Lost Boys Kristen Hinman
The Original Blonde Neal Gabler

Introduction: A Different Kind of Sexual Education

As editor of the Best Sex Writing series, and a writer about sex in both fiction and nonfiction forms, I’m privileged to hear from lots of people about sexuality, whether asking for advice or wanting to talk about the big issues of the day, whether that means attacks on birth control or Fifty Shades of Grey. The biggest thing I’ve learned, though, is pretty basic: we are all always learning. You can indeed get a PhD in sexology, like foreword author and contributor Carol Queen did, but that doesn’t mean you simply give up and assume you know everything about the wide world of sexuality and sexual variation. You can’t; it’s impossible.

Part of why sex writing is so vital is because we all have things to learn—about ourselves, and about others. While this book will not teach you how to have sex, you will learn about what motivates others in their sexual desires, whether to engage in multiple relationships, perform sex work, come out as bisexual, build increasingly advanced vibrators, or more.

I think it’s safe to say that whether this is the first book about sex you’ve ever read or the thousandth, you will learn something about what makes people tick, about sexual desire and sexual community. The latter is as important to me as the former, because it’s within the community of sex writers, educators and activists that I’ve carved out a place for myself as a bisexual, feminist, kinky sex writer. Lori Selke writes in her open letter, “Dear John,” about feeling disillusioned by the judgments being passed around her local leather community. “See, my kinky leather identity grew firmly out of my queerness and my feminism. All three of those elements are important and in some ways inseparable. It’s important to me to pursue the sort of social justice that ensures that our consensual relationships are someday entered into from a place of roughly equal societal power. Without that aim, we’re simply perpetuating oppression.” I suspect many people aren’t aware of just how committed to their ideals those in the kink and leather communities are. To assume it’s all about whips, chains, bondage and spanking is to miss the point—of course it’s about those things, but it’s also about much more.

The educational lessons here are often much more personal. When Conner Habib opens his essay “Rest Stop Confidential” with, “I was fifteen the first time I found out that men have sex in public,” I must admit that, at thirty-seven, I have only seen men having sex in public at parties specifically designed for sex. The first of many firsts Julia Serano details in “Cherry Picking” begins, “The first time I learned about sex was in fifth grade.” We are all both capable of learning more, and impacted by what we did—or didn’t—learn about sex at a young age.

Some of what you’re about to read is sad or scary or disheartening; I cannot promise you a book of shiny happy sex bouncing off every page, because that is not the world we live in. There are laws to fight against, AIDS plaguing the gay community, internalized oppression, questions that may have no answers, or multiple answers. I didn’t select these essays and articles because they purport to have all the answers.

Last year’s guest judge, the noted sexual commentator Susie Bright, when asked about The Guardian’s Bad Sex award, responded, “There is no art without sex.” I think the same could be said for the news; sex is not a topic squirreled away on the back page of the paper; it’s on the front page, in the sports section, the business section, the editorials. It’s covered in fashion magazines and newsweeklies. In Best Sex Writing 2013, hot topics include New York Jets quarterback Tim Tebow’s virginity and the laws governing condom use in porn.

Sex education remains at the forefront of the news and continues to be “controversial,” though, like birth control, another political battleground of late in the United States, I would think it would be a no-brainer. Yet I can still read articles like one in Time about the Mississippi county, Tunica, with the highest teen pregnancy that is only recently getting on board with sex ed, via a law mandating it do so. “During the four years Ashley McKay attended Rosa Fort High School in Tunica, Miss., her sex education consisted mainly of an instructor listing different sexually transmitted diseases. ‘There was no curriculum,’ she says. ‘The teacher, an older gentleman who was also the football coach, would tell us, “If you get AIDS, you’re gonna die. Pick out your casket, because you’re gonna die.”’”

We should not be reading articles like this any longer, but we are, and it’s not just youths who are in dire need of sex education. Just today, I received an email from an acquaintance asking if I could chat because, “I have found a wonderful woman with whom i have begun to explore areas of my sexuality i really have never followed through on or even verbally fantasized about.” He has questions. So do many people, but they don’t know where to turn.

This book doesn’t purport to have all the answers, and is likely to raise many discussions and propose multiple answers to questions about open relationships, prostitution, sexual orientation and other topics. It cannot take the place of talking about sex—with your lovers, friends, parents, children, neighbors and coworkers. Those shouldn’t be the same conversations, but they can exist, and by making sex a topic we don’t shy away from, we start to educate ourselves about what others are thinking, feeling and doing. So I hope that you won’t read this book and keep it tucked away on your bookshelf (or e-reader); while you are more than welcome to do so, I hope you will introduce some part of what you’ve read into a conversation, take it off the page and into real life. You will very likely learn something, and that is a process that can easily snowball; there’s never an end, because it’s a lifelong process, one that I look forward to every day.

Rachel Kramer Bussel
New York City

Jonathan Lethem article kicks off Best Sex Writing 2013

Best Sex Writing 2013 will be here in, fittingly, 2013, January, to be exact. Stay tuned for a special pre-Christmas promotion I'm running, and if you like the sound of this lineup, please show the book some online love and click "like" on Amazon. Thank you! I'm very proud of and excited about this book and will be posting lots more about it soon. The book features several original pieces, as well as reprints from Playboy, The Atlantic, New York, East Bay Express, Jacobin, Salon, and elsewhere. It touches on nude models, sex toys, polyamory, aging and sex, public sex, BDSM, role-playing, AIDS, sex work, sexual identity, the porn industry and Jean Harlow, among other topics. See my next post for a free book offer related to this one and again, if you want to support this series, a "like" on Amazon and/or rating on Goodreads goes a long way and is very much appreciated. Bloggers and reviewers interested in covering the book, please email bestsexwriting2013 at gmail.com with your publication and mailing address. Thank you!



Best Sex Writing 2013 table of contents

Foreword by Carol Queen
Introduction by Rachel Kramer Bussel

Live Nude Models Jonathan Lethem
Can a Better Vibrator Inspire an Age of Great American Sex? Andy Isaacson
Sex by Numbers Rachel Swan
Very Legal: Sex and Love in Retirement Alex Morris
Notes from a Unicorn Seth Fischer
Rest Stop Confidential Conner Habib
When On Fire Island…A Polyamorous Disaster Nicholas Garnett
Cherry Picking Julia Serano
Holy Fuck Jon Pressick
Baby Talk Rachel Kramer Bussel
Dear John Lori Selke
Sex by Any Other Name Insiya Ansari
Enhancing Masochism Patrick Califia
Ghosts: All My Men Are Dead Carol Queen
Happy Hookers Melissa Gira Grant
Christian Conservatives vs. Sex: The Long War Over Reproductive Freedom Rob Boston
Porn Defends the Money Shot Dennis Romero
Lost Boys Kristen Hinman
The Original Blonde Neil Gabler

Purchase Best Sex Writing 2013 from:

Amazon

Kindle (ebook)

Bn.com

Nook (ebook)

Books a Million

Indiebound (independent bookstores)

Cleis Press

Sexual inspiration and The Woodhull Freedom Foundation

Last night I attended a fundraiser outside Washington, DC for the Woodhull Freedom Foundation. From their website:

The Woodhull Freedom Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that works to affirm sexual freedom as a fundamental human right by protecting and advancing freedom of speech and sexual expression.

WFF promotes sexuality as a positive personal, social and moral value through research, advocacy, activism, education and outreach.

I was really moved by the performances of Carol Queen and Nina Hartley. Carol performed from her show PEEP SHOW and talked about a man who came in and had a very specific, personal request. I kept thinking about her being in the peep show, being able to do that, being that comfortable with her body.

I think it was Nina who said that one way to get comfortable with your body is to take your clothes off, alone, and dance around to your favorite music. It's funny because there were a few things that were said, like sex tips (Nina was quite hilarious, showing off porn positions and how porn differs from real life), and sometimes they'd say, "But everyone here knows that."

What inspired me was that, actually, no, I don't really know how to be that comfortable with my body. It's not that I always hate it, and maybe I parcel out the love/hate, like I like my boobs and am happy to show them off (though not so much when strangers know mine are in the sex blogger calendar), but the rest of me? It's unnerving, and I've been working on eating better and exercising more, save for yesterday, when the stress of barely any sleep, leaving one of my bags in a cab, and generally running around had me stuffing Cheez-Its in my face in the car. The balance of working on liking my body, learning about it, like which exercises I like and when I have the most energy and taking care of my health (yay for being able to get my allergy/asthma prescriptions tomorrow), and being comfortable with exposing it, in private or public, is something I'm constantly working on.


me and Nina Hartley


How gorgeous is the new cover of Carol Queen's groundbreaking book Exhibitionism for the Shy? I kept picking it up and fondling it, even though that's actually a book I own and know where it is. I'm not seeing it come up on Amazon, and Carol told me the books arrived two days ago. Published by Down There Press. This is a classic book I plan to reread.

Book recommendations: In the bag I left in the cab (am calling 311 tonight to try to get it back), I had two books I was quite engrossed in and recommend: Butterfly Tattoo by Deidre Knight, a romance novel with a bisexual male protagonist (short version: widowed single dad, who'd had a kid with his male partner, falls for former actress who has scar on her face from being attached by a stalker) and Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter, How Today's Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves by Adam L. Penenberg, about how companies can tap into users making their product (or website) go viral. I'll have more on Butterfly Tattoo along with an interview with Deidre soon; I'm so into the book I ordered a new copy, though I'm hoping I recover my left-behind stuff.

When I realized I'd lost the stuff, the first thing that came up when I googled was a New York Times article about how many people don't get their stuff back and how the process doesn't work. I forget what search terms I used but now in the light of day with some sleep, I'm finding answers, which I will share.

NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission

Taxi drivers and owners must return property they find in a taxicab. If they cannot return the property directly to you, they need to bring it to a designated police precinct.

If you lose or find something in a black car, luxury limousine, livery (community car service), paratransit vehicle (ambulette) or commuter van, you need to contact the car service company you contacted for service...

The TLC will make every effort to assist you with your report. The TLC does not employ drivers or dispatch taxicabs. The more information you give us, the better we are able to help you track down your property. Please give us the following information if you have it:

• Date and Time of Cab Ride
• Pick up Location
• Drop off Location/Destination
• Taxi Driver’s Name
• Taxi Driver’s License Number
• Taxicab Medallion/License Plate Number
• Full Description of Item(s)
• Estimated value of the property
• How you paid for your cab ride; by cash or credit card

*Tips to Help You Find Your Lost Property:

* Try calling your cell phone as soon as you discover it is missing.
* Drivers frequently attempt to return property directly to its owner. So, if you were picked-up or dropped-off at a major transportation hub, including airports and rail stations, try calling the lost and found department at that location.
* If you were picked-up or dropped-off at a hotel, contact the concierge or security office to see if your property has turned up there.
* Keep in mind that another passenger may find your property and contact you directly.
* Every time you take a cab ride, take your receipt.

Reading with Carol Queen, Elizabeth Wood, Audacia Ray, and Sinclair Sexsmith on Monday June 8th!

Updated with new readers/info.


photo of Carol Queen by Phyllis Christopher






(I think the first logo is the official one, but I really like the second one, so am posting both!)

What: A Sex-Positive Soiree and Reading

Who: Carol Queen visits from San Francisco, joined by Rachel Kramer Bussel, Elizabeth Wood, and more!

When: Monday, June 8, 6-9 pm (reading will start between 7:30-8, last about an hour).

Why: Carol Queen's coming through town and wants to collaborate with her friends Rachel and Elizabeth to make a space for connecting, schmoozing, touching base, and furthering plans for sex-positive world domination! Her SF nonprofit The Center for Sex & Culture has hosted Rachel Kramer Bussel, worked with Elizabeth Wood on her online community Sex in the Public Square, and has plans to expand its educational and cultural offerings online as soon as we can (if we can't afford NY real estate, at least we can visit you via your computers). Come mingle with your fellow NY sex people and meet some new ones, then enjoy a reading that will surely be more salaciously smart/sexy brain candy than most people ever get on a Monday (and in some cases, sadly, EVER).

Cosponsored by the hotties at the NYC Sex Bloggers Calendar (www.sexbloggercalendar.com to benefit www.sexworkawareness.org). Free calendars! Signed! (The theme for the 2010 calendar, in production now, is sexual freedom -- yay NYC Sex Bloggers!) [From Rachel: I'm Miss May, freshly spanked ass and all!]

Open to everyone 21+ -- please pass it on!

Where: Happy Ending, 302 Broome Street, NYC
(B/D to Grand, J/M/Z to Bowery, F to Delancey or F/V to 2nd Avenue, http://www.happyendinglounge.com)
Between Forsyth & Eldridge. Look for the hot pink awning that says "XIE HE Health Club."

How much: No charge, but we have a bar guarantee to meet, so have a drink, and donations will be gratefully accepted for the Center for Sex & Culture -- no amount to big or too small, and tax-deductible!

More details:

Readers:
Carol Queen has authored or edited eleven books, including the Firecracker Alternative Book Award winner The Leather Daddy and the Femme. She's staff sexologist at Good Vibrations, the director of the Center for Sex & Culture, and just finished a rewrite of Exhibitionism for the Shy. Visit at http://www.carolqueen.com or come hang out at Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter.

Rachel Kramer Bussel (www.rachelkramerbussel.com) is the editor of over 25 sex-related anthologies, including the Best Sex Writing series, Dirty Girls, Spanked, Do Not Disturb, The Mile High Club, He's on Top, and She's on Top. She hosts the monthly In The Flesh Reading Series at Happy Ending, is Senior Editor at Penthouse Variations, and writes frequently about sex, relationships, and pop culture.

Elizabeth Wood is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Nassau Community College, a unit of the State University of New York. She received her Ph.D. from Brandeis University in 1999 for a study of gender, interaction and power in strip clubs. She writes about gender and sexuality, sex work, the use of online social networking technologies to create an Internet sex commons. She has published articles in Journal of Contemporary Ethnography and Feminism & Psychology. In addition to her academic writing she runs a web site, Sex In The Public Square, for more general discussions of sex and society.

Audacia Ray blogs at http://www.wakingvixen, wrote Naked on the Internet: Hookups, Downloads, and Cashing In on Internet Sexploration, directed/produced the award-winning porn film The Bi Apple and the comedic short Dacia’s Love Machine; she's an executive editor at sex worker magazine $pread, as well as a prolific writer, video blogger, and erotic art curator. Currently Dacia is the online strategist at the International Women’s Health Coalition as well as an adjunct professor of human sexuality at Rutgers University.

Sinclair Sexsmith writes Sugarbutch Chronicles: http://www.sugarbutch.net -- a personal writing exploration of sex, gender, and relationships, and attempts to celebrate queer theory, sexuality, gender, culture, and identity in ways that are expansive rather than restrictive, liberating rather than limiting.

Happy Ending, 302 Broome Street, New York, NY 10002

(212) 334-9676 T, (212) 334-9492 F

www.happyendinglounge.com

www.myspace.com/happy_endings

The Center for Sex & Culture: Founded by cultural sexologist/writer Carol Queen and her partner Robert Morgan Lawrence, the Center for Sex & Culture provides judgment-free education, cultural events, a library/media archive, and other resources to audiences across the sexual and gender spectrum and researches and disseminate factual information, framing and informing issues of public policy and public health. To that end we utilize our space in San Francisco to grow community, inform and inspire. Visit us online or when you come to San Francisco: http://www.sexandculture.org (also on Facebook and MySpace).

For more information: Carol Queen, carol at carolqueen.com

Nina Hartley's French Toast and other links

Nina Hartley shares her recipe for French Toast! (via fabulous Chicago sex toy shop Early to Bed))



Amazon's showing that Carol Queen's latest anthology, More Five Minute Erotica, is finally out! This collection of ultra-short stories features my stories "Nurse Feelgood" and "Our Little Secret" (hint: the "secret" is a butt plug).



Two more men freed in the Genarlow Wilson case: (AP)

Two more young men have been freed after serving time in jail for a case involving a 17-year-old who had consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl.

Ryan D. Barnwell and Cortez Robinson, both 22, were released from prison Friday morning after spending 3 1/2 years behind bars. The two pleaded guilty to child molestation after attending a 2003 New Year's Eve party with Genarlow Wilson, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for having oral sex with the girl.

Wilson, now 21, was freed Oct. 26 after the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that that his sentence was "cruel and unusual punishment." Georgia law at the time of his trial required a minimum of a decade in prison.

Slightly old (December 6th), but..."French erotica...at the library:"

Ribald and X-rated, a new exhibit at France’s national library is banned to anyone under 16.

The exhibit that opened this week offers a peek at France’s long-secret library of libido, where, starting in the 1830s, librarians hid books and other documents from the national collection that they deemed dangerous for public morality. They called it L’Enfer, or Hell, and kept it under lock and key.

In 1849, library director Joseph Naudet described L’Enfer as “a hiding place … in which we lock up certain books that are very bad but which are sometimes very precious for book-lovers and have a great monetary value.

There's been much ado about drag queen bingo in Tampa, Florida:

The drag queens were reined in and very nearly ladylike.

Succumbing to pressure from City Hall, prizeless drag queen bingo debuted at the Canvas Cafe on Monday night, to a capacity crowd of about 100 who came out to see the suddenly famous show.

But the bullhorns were gone after neighbors complained about the volume and the profanity of the trio of drag queen entertainers.


Photo of XuXu Fontana by Rod Millington

If there's a GLBT teen in your life (or you want to keep up on issues of relevance to them), check out my friend Ellen Friedrichs's About.com page on GLBT Teens, answering questions such as How Do Gay Teens Lose Their Virginity? and interviewing Muray Hill. You may also know Ellen from her webiste Sexedvice.com (also see my Gothamist interview with her)

And Happy Holidays to everyone! Here's another shot of me in my friend's Santa hat, taken by the fabulous Stacie Joy, who will be shooting me in January. I can't wait! My dream is to do a naked shoot in the snow, but that will require snow and extra courage. We'll see what happens...