Annie M. Sprinkle is an American certified sexologist, performance artist, former sex worker, and advocate for sex work and health care. Sprinkle has worked as a prostitute, sex educator, feminist stripper, pornographic film actress, and sex film producer and director. In 1996, she became the first known porn star to get a doctoral degree, earning a PhD in human sexuality from the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco. Identifying as ecosexual, Sprinkle is best known for her self-help style of pornography, teaching individuals about pleasure, and for her conventional pornographic film Deep Inside Annie Sprinkle (1981). Through the production of feminist based pornographic content, include understanding of female genitalia and pornography based on women's desires, Sprinkle has contributed to feminist pornography and the larger social movement of feminism; she is also known for contributing to the rise of the post-porn movement and lesbian pornography. Sprinkle, a member of the LGBTQ+ community, married her long-time partner Beth Stephens in Canada on January 14, 2007.
A butt plug is a sex toy that is designed to be inserted into the rectum for sexual pleasure. They are similar to a dildo in some ways but tend to be shorter and have a flanged end to prevent the device from being lost inside the rectum.
Susannah Bright is an American feminist, author and journalist, often on the subject of politics and sexuality.
Sex-positive feminism, also known as pro-sex feminism, sex-radical feminism, or sexually liberal feminism, is a feminist movement centering on the idea that sexual freedom is an essential component of women's freedom. They oppose legal or social efforts to control sexual activities between consenting adults, whether they are initiated by the government, other feminists, opponents of feminism, or any other institution. They embrace sexual minority groups, endorsing the value of coalition-building with marginalized groups. Sex-positive feminism is connected with the sex-positive movement. Sex-positive feminism brings together anti-censorship activists, LGBT activists, feminist scholars, producers of pornography and erotica, among others. Sex-positive feminists generally agree that prostitutes themselves should not be criminalized.
Tristan Taormino is an American feminist author, columnist, sex educator, activist, editor, speaker, radio host, and pornographic film director. She is most recently known for her book Opening Up: A Guide to Creating and Sustaining Open Relationships, which is often recommended as a starter guide to polyamory and non-monogamy.
Cleis Press is an American independent publisher of books in the areas of sexuality, erotica, feminism, gay and lesbian studies, gender studies, fiction, and human rights. The press was founded in 1980 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It later moved to San Francisco and was based out of Berkeley until its purchase by Start Media in 2014. It was founded by Frédérique Delacoste, Felice Newman and Mary Winfrey Trautmann who collectively financed wrote and published the press's first book Fight Back: Feminist Resistance to Male Violence in 1981. In 1987, they published Sex Work: Writings by Women in the Sex Industry by Delacoste with Priscilla Alexander.
Circlet Press is a publishing house in Cambridge, in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It was founded by Cecilia Tan, who is also its manager. It specializes in science fiction erotica, a once uncommon genre, and its publications often feature BDSM themes.
The Masturbate-a-thon is an event in which participants masturbate to raise money for charity and increase the public awareness and dispel the shame and taboos that exist about this form of sexual activity. From 1998 to 2003, the Masturbate-a-thon raised around $25,000 for women's health initiatives and HIV prevention, education and treatment organizations, and has contributed to debates about safer sex and alternative safe methods of sexual expression. The event awards several honors for those who raise the most money as well as for multiple orgasms and endurance.
Joani Blank was an American sex educator, entrepreneur, author, videographer, cohousing enthusiast, philanthropist, and inventor in the field of sexuality. She used publishing, her sex store, and other endeavors to promote sex-positive feminism. Her papers are part of the Human Sexuality Collection at Cornell University Library.
Pegging is an anal sex act in which a woman penetrates a man's anus with a strap-on dildo.
Alison Tyler is the pseudonym of an American author, editor and publisher of erotica living in Northern California. She has authored over 20 explicit novels, hundreds of short stories and has edited more than 60 erotic anthologies. She runs her own publishing company, Pretty Things Press . Tired of getting mixed up with the porn actress with the same name, she now blogs on Patreon as Alison Trollop.
Violet Blue is an American journalist, author, editor, advisor, and educator. Blue wrote a weekly sex column for the San Francisco Chronicle until 2010. In her podcast, Open Source Sex, she reads erotica and discusses topics such as fetishes and oral sex. She also has a video blog. She lectures at San Francisco Sex Information. Blue is the author of several books on sex and has edited several volumes of erotica anthologies. Her first book, an erotic anthology she edited, was titled Sweet Life: Erotic Fantasies for Couples. It was published in December 2001 by Cleis Press.
Marco Ferdinand William Vasquez-d'Acugno Vassi was an American experimental thinker and author, most noted for his erotica. He wrote fiction and nonfiction, publishing hundreds of short stories, articles, more than a dozen novels, and at least one play, "The Re-Enactment," at the Caffe Cino in January 1966. Many of his works appeared as "Anonymous" in their first printings. In his study of modern erotic literature, critic Michael Perkins said that "it is not .. (Vassi's) imagination but the power of his ideas that make him the most interesting figure in recent erotic literature." He is most often compared to Henry Miller, has been called the greatest erotic writer of his time and "foremost of his generation," and praised by Norman Mailer, Gore Vidal, Saul Bellow, and Kate Millett.
Anilingus is an oral and anal sex act in which a person stimulates the anus of another by using the tongue and lips. It is also called anal–oral contact and anal–oral sex.
Megan Andelloux is a certified sexologist and sexuality educator, accredited through The American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT) and The American College of Sexologists (ACS).
Feminist views on sexuality widely vary. Many feminists, particularly radical feminists, are highly critical of what they see as sexual objectification and sexual exploitation in the media and society. Radical feminists are often opposed to the sex industry, including opposition to prostitution and pornography. Other feminists define themselves as sex-positive feminists and believe that a wide variety of expressions of female sexuality can be empowering to women when they are freely chosen. Some feminists support efforts to reform the sex industry to become less sexist, such as the feminist pornography movement.
Tess Danesi is an American sex educator, blogger, and writer of BDSM erotica who conducts workshops, courses, and events. She writes for the American erotica anthology market, has contributed to Time Out New York, and has been featured in Fleshbot, a sex-oriented weblog, founded by Gawker Media.
The Center for Sex & Culture is a non-profit located in San FranciscoIt closed its brick and mortar location in January 2019.
Down There Press is an independently run feminist book, DVD, and audiobook publisher that focuses on sexuality. It publishes both visual and literary erotica, and is known for its publications on youth and adolescent sexuality.
Jill Posener is a British photographer and playwright, known for her exploration of lesbian identity and erotica.
