Former porn star and sexologist Annie Sprinkle warned her audience to cover their eyes if they were offended by her multimedia talk about her life in the sex industry in Ward 1 Monday night.
"Sex was easy, the acting was hard," she said.
Sprinkle, an artist, sexologist and former prostitute who spent much of the '70s and early '80s as a porn star, spoke to around 300 people in an event sponsored by AU Queers and Allies and the College of Arts and Sciences Graduate Student Council. Sprinkle complemented her speech with clips from her porn films, explaining how porn has changed from a male-dominated industry to a form of art.
Although Sprinkle said she has had over 3,500 sexual partners since her career began in 1973 - when she was 18 - she said she has been monogamous with her partner, Elizabeth Stephens, for 12 years. "To be in a monogamous relationship is kinky in my world," Sprinkle said.
CAS-GSC President Aaron Tobler said he wanted people to come to the event, even if they came to protest. "People have the right to be offended. ... We brought Annie here to stimulate discussion," he said. "It wasn't anything other than educational. ... [The roles our bodies play in our lives] are things that are being discussed in our classrooms."
Michelle Carnes, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Anthropology who helped plan the event, said she was happy with the number of people in attendance. "The campus is ready. The campus needs it. It's about time," Carnes said. "It's such an honor that people responded to this."
As a former prostitute and advocate for sex workers, Sprinkle said prostitution should be decriminalized and that trafficking laws harm sex workers who want to travel. After many of her contemporaries contracted AIDS in the 1980s, Sprinkle began practicing safe sex on film.
"We are a wild, kinky society," Sprinkle said, citing that other places in the world don't have the sexual freedoms Americans have. However, she also said she thinks society must adopt a more sex-positive culture where women are more aware of their bodies.
Sprinkle showed clips of her "Post Porn Modernist" presentation, in which she invited audience members to look at her cervix.
Since there are few honors for sex workers, Sprinkle decided to create her own "Aphrodite Award," which she offered to any member of the audience involved in the performance, advocacy or education of sex. Fifteen audience members received the award, including a nude model, dancer, massage therapist and some artists and educators.
In another of Sprinkle's clips, from "Metamorphosex," a group of women from Sprinkle's sex workshop performed personal pieces in a theatre. Sprinkle said this "created a safe supportive environment for women. ... Needless to say, the work was controversial."
Sprinkle ended her presentation with a "breast cancer ballet," in which she moved her ample bosom to classical music as a way to address her recent recovery from breast cancer.
"Older women need to show their tits, too, when they want to," she said. "Our sexuality is a treasure trove of possibilities."
Nick Marino, a freshman in the School of Public Affairs, said the event was a necessary counterpoint to the many cultural barriers that exist regarding homosexuality. "[The event was] not only a sign of progression, but a really great event that will help break down cultural boundaries and taboos," he said.
Tuesday afternoon, Sprinkle and her partner, Stephens, who is a professor of art at the University of California, offered free sex advice on the quad, saying they would "answer anything."
People asked about "everything from losing their virginity to keeping their sex lives going," Stephens said. "We get to hear a lot of people's stories. It's really beautiful, people are very vulnerable," she said.
