Upcoming
Making Sex Media for a Radical Future at Pinched: sex, love, and countercultures at Paradiso in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Saturday, June 21, 2008.
There are only a handful of companies that own the vast majority of media outlets. These media outlets treat real discussions and information about sexuality with kid gloves. At the same time, they aggressively pursue salacious scandal material and reinforce norms and taboos. Companies that focus on sexuality, like porn companies, also tend to reinforce cultural norms - yet there is a growing contingent of individuals, companies, and art collectives who are breaking the boundaries of sex and gender through sex media production and play. In this talk Audacia Ray, who is a producer and curator of sex media herself, will give a tour to some of these projects as they exist online, on DVD, in print, and in art spaces. The talk asks the questions: how can we challenge mainstream media representations of sex and gender? Is the feminist approach to these topics key? Are commercialism, personal expression, and art at odds with one another? What tools and communities are needed to create alternative sexual media cultures?
Past Appearances
Sex 2.0: the intersection of social media, feminism, and sexuality April 12, 2008 at 1763: A Deviant Place of Decadence in Atlanta, GA. I’ll be giving the keynote talk bright and early in the morning!
Women, Action and the Media. March 28-30, 2008 in Cambridge, MA. Saturday, March 29th 4:00pm-5:30pm:
Sex Workers and Media Representation
Sex workers and the sex industry are frequent topics in the media, whether as the center of a sex scandal, the subject of an expose, or as the source of discussion around sexuality and morality. This session, led by a former sex worker and editor of $pread magazine, is a combination of media analysis and brainstorming on ways to affect change in the ways sex workers are represented in the media. Anyone interested in sex workers rights, challenging mainstream media, and DIY new media is encouraged to attend. Notes from the talk are available here.
Porn: Made in New York Tuesday, March 11, 2008 08:00PM, at Babeland, 94 Rivington Street. FREE.
Meet some of the most exciting NY-based filmmakers, including adult film pioneer, Candida Royalle, and Venus Hottentot, director of “Afrodite Superstar”. They will talk about what makes a sex scene hot, how to incorporate lights, costumes and dialogue into your everyday sex life, and how to f*ck like a porn star! LES (Rivington) store.
Left Forum March 14-16, 2008 at The Cooper Union in New York City.
Sex Work, Trafficking, and Left Politics: Towards a New Vision on Prostitution and Justice. March 16th from 3 to 5 PM.
This panel will unite sex workers rights’ activists and professional intellectuals working on queer theory, feminism and progressive sexual politics to discuss the relationship between sex work and the Left.
Audacia Ray – $pread Magazine
Elizabeth Wood – Nassau Community College
Amber Hollibaugh – Senior Strategist, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
Moderator: Antonia Levy – Graduate Center, CUNY
Women Behind The Lens - Panel Discussion at CineKink. March 1, 2008.
Whether they call their work erotica, pornography or adult entertainment, a growing number of female directors have been carving out key positions for themselves in the adult sector of the film production world.
A panel of these directors will discuss their roles within the industry and the individual approach each takes in depicting sexuality on screen. How does each reconcile the creative work they do with a feminist viewpoint? What are the ingredients of a truly hot sex scene? Is spit really an effective form of lubricant? Additional questions from the audience will be encouraged and film clips will be shown!
Moderated by Rachel Kramer Bussel, panelists include Audacia Ray, Candida Royalle and Julie Simone.
Watch a video of the panel here (64 minutes).
Sex::Tech Focus on Youth. January 22-23, 2008 in San Francisco, CA.
Pop Culture and the Power of Social Media to Influence Sex Education
Moderator: Andrew Woodruff, ISIS, Inc.
*Audacia Ray, author of “Naked on the Internet”- Social Media and the Power of Peer Sex Education
*Regina Lynn, Wired Magazine - Relationships and Sex Online: How it All Works
*Pastor Karl White, eFFectual Fervent Ministries - Crossing Generational Lines: Embracing Technology to Reach Youth
*Cory Silverberg, Come As You Are/CAYA Co-operative Ltd. – The Place of Sexual Pleasure in Online Content for Youth
Book Tour - Readings and Talks for Naked On the Internet
June 4: SMUT reading, Galapagos Art Space, 8 pm at 70 North 6th street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
June 5: Bluestockings Bookstore, 7 pm at 172 Allen Street, NYC
June 6: McNally Robinson Booksellers Seal Authors Event with Jessica Valenti
and Helen Boyd, 7 pm at 53 Prince St, NYC
June 7: Brookline Booksmith, 7 pm at 279 Harvard Street, Brookline, MA
June 11: Museum of Sex panel discussion with Lux Nightmare, Ellen Friedrichs, Madeline Glass and Marie Lyn Bernard, 7 pm at 233 5th Avenue, NYC
June 12: KGB Bar $pread celebrates Naked on the Internet, 7 pm at 85 East 4th, NYC
June 18: The Wooden Shoe, 7 pm at 508 S 5th St Philadelphia, PA
June 19: Red Emma’s Infoshop, 7 pm at 800 St. Paul St Baltimore, MD
June 21: Internationalist Books, 7 pm at 405 W Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC
June 22: Passional, 6 pm at 704 S. 5th St. Philadelphia, PA
July 10: Audacia Ray and Violet Blue discuss sex, tech and mutual awesomeness at an event sponsored by the Center for Sex and Culture, 7 pm at the Center for Sex and Culture, 290 Division Suite 405 (cross 10th and Brannan), San Francisco
July 11: Modern Times Bookstore, 7.30 pm at 888 Valencia Street, San Francisco
July 14: Writers with Drinks with Ben Fong-Torres, Lynn Peril, Deborah Ross, Jimmy Chen, Kaya Oakes at The Make-Out Room, 7.30 pm at 3225 22nd Street, San Francisco
July 17: Freddy & Eddy, 8 pm at 12613 Venice Blvd, Los Angeles
C*lick Me Internet Porn Festival
June 2, 2007 at Paradiso in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
I Am Woman, See Me Nude: The Rise of the Independent in Online Porn
Over the last ten years, women have increasingly begun to harness the power of the Internet to start up their own adult businesses that feature them as talent but also develop their skills as business owners. Many of these women don¹t match up to mainstream beauty standards and have found that there is indeed a market for them online; others have discovered niche fetish markets like menstrual porn, foot fetish and hair fetish modeling from which they can make a living. For many women, the Internet has advanced the cause of feminist porn by making it easier to seize the means of production and distribution, and as a result, a culture of independent and alternative pornography has erupted.
This presentation, which is based on a chapter of the same name from my forthcoming book, will focus on the struggles of independent women in online porn who feel a personal and political connection to the work they do but also want to make their sites profitable. I will discuss the shift in beauty standards that has occurred as a result of amateur and online porn, the rise of porn models to Internet celebrity, the power of community in promoting independent and alt porn, and the interplay between “indie” and “alt” porn.
Video of my presentation - it’s about 30 minutes long.
