Madison Young

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Madison Young
Young Performing in Austin, TX, 2018.jpg
Young performing in Austin, Texas, 2018
Born
Height5 ft 2 in (1.57 m)

Madison Young is an American filmmaker, author, performance artist, feminist activist, and former adult film performer and award-winning erotic filmmaker. [1] [2] Young is a prominent figure in the feminist porn movement and is known for their work as a queer and kink-focused educator and an advocate of sex workers' rights. [3]

Contents

Young is the executive producer, director, and television host of the original documentary series Submission Possible, which was first released on Revry TV in 2020, [4] and is the co-host and co-producer of the feminist parenting podcast Wash Your Mouth Out. [5]

Early life

Young was raised in a small town in Ohio. They attended the School for Creative and Performing Arts in Cincinnati [6] and majored in theater at Columbia College Chicago and Antioch College. [7]

Young moved to the Bay Area in 2000 and founded Femina Potens Art Gallery, a nonprofit art gallery and performance space in San Francisco. [8] Femina Potens served the LGBTQ and kink communities and curated over 500 events and visual art exhibitions during its 14 year long run. [9]

They entered the world of erotic filmmaking in 2002, initially as a performer and subsequently as a director. [10] During this time in Young’s life, they founded the Erotic Film School, an annual erotic filmmaking intensive which sought to empower underrepresented queer and feminist communities to document their own narratives through erotic film. [11]

Career

Performance and curation

Young curated the Askew Festival, a three-night "experimental, interactive exploration of performance, activism, and counterculture through documentary and experimental film coupled with performance art, readings, and dance" that took place at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, CA in 2012, and again in 2014. [12]

They co-starred in the Queer X Tour, a sex positive cabaret show featuring explicit performance art by six performers who addressed sexuality through a feminist and queer lens. [13] French filmmakers Émilie Jouvet and Wendy Delorme followed the tour through Europe from Berlin to Malmö for their 2011 docudrama film Too Much Pussy! . [14]

From 2016 to 2019, Young co-wrote and performed their “one-womxn show,” Reveal All Fear Nothing: A Journey in Sex, Love, Porn, and Feminism, which examined their personal experience in the world of erotic film as both a feminist porn performer and director. [15] The script was inspired by Annie Sprinkle's Post Porn Modernist theater production and written in collaboration with Sprinkle. [16] The show influenced actress Maggie Gyllenhaal's work on the HBO series The Deuce. [17]

Young’s other performance art work has been showcased internationally by institutions including the Museum of Sex, [18] Highways Performance Space, [19] Grace Exhibition Space in New York, [20] and Max Black in Sydney, Australia. [21]

Directing and producing

Young founded Empress in Lavender Media, a production company working to bring queer, transgender, and sex worker stories to mainstream media through filmmakers within those communities. Their first series, Submission Possible, explores "the queer sexual underground worlds of kink, fetish, and BDSM” across the nation. [22] The first season of Submission Possible was released from 2020 through mid-2022, after delays in production due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and features New Orleans, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Oakland. [23] [24] Submission Possible was screened at the 2022 CineKink Film Festival and has been selected for screening at the 2022 San Francisco PornFilmFestival. [25] [26]

Other media ventures

Writing

Young’s memoir, Daddy, was published in 2014. [1] Young followed their memoir with The Ultimate Guide to Sex Through Pregnancy and Motherhood and The DIY Porn Handbook: Documenting Our Own Sexual Revolution, both published in 2016. [27] [28]

Young’s writing has also been published in anthologies including Rad Families: A Celebration, [29] Subversive Motherhood, [30] The Ultimate Guide to Kink: BDSM, Role Play and the Erotic Edge, [31] Ropes, Bondage, and Power: Power Exchange Books' Resource Series, [32] and the Routledge Porn Studies Journal. [33]

Speaking and guest appearances

Young is a noted expert on sex, BDSM, and feminist pornography. [34] Young has taught workshops, given lectures, and acted as a panelist at institutions such as Yale University, University of Toronto, UC Berkeley, and Emerson College. [35] [36] [37]

They have been featured on HBO, [38] the History Channel, MTV's Logo, and on Fusion TV with Alicia Menendez. [39] During their appearance on Viceland's Slutever, Young spoke on the topic of ecosexuality, a sexual identity and movement. [40] Additionally, they discussed gender neutral views on parenting and body positivity on Bravo's Extreme Guide to Parenting. [41]

Young has been interviewed for HuffPost , [42] xoJane , [43] The Rumpus , [44] Salon , [45] and Curve , [46] and has been written about in The Feminist Porn Book: The Politics of Producing Pleasure [47] and Pornography Feminism: As Powerful as She Wants to Be. [48] They have also appeared on Amanda Palmer’s podcast, The Art of Asking Everything. [49]

Awards

YearCeremonyCategoryWorkResult
2008 FPA Hottest Kink FilmBondage Boob TubeWon
2009 FPA Hottest Kink FilmPerversions of Lesbian Lust, Vol. 1Won
Indie Porn PioneerWon
2010 FPA Best Bisexual FilmFluid: Men Redefining SexualityWon
2010 AEBN Best BDSM Release [50] Perversions of Lesbian Lust, Vol. 1Won
2013 FPA Hottest Kink Film50 Shades of Dylan RyanWon
2014 FPA Best Lesbian Vignettes [51] Women Reclaiming Sex on FilmWon

Personal life

Young is married to James Mogul, a former adult filmmaker, BDSM educator, and photographer. They have two children together. [52] Young is non-binary and uses the term queer to describe both their sexuality and gender. [53] They use they and she pronouns. [53]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Annie Sprinkle</span> American pornographic actress and sex educator

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 bisexual/lesbian pornography. Sprinkle, a bisexual woman and member of the LGBTQ+ community, married her long-time partner Beth Stephens in Canada on January 14, 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Female submission</span> Sexual activities with a female submissive partner

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This is an index of articles related to the issue of feminism, women's liberation, the women's movement, and women's rights.

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 believe that prostitution can be a positive experience if workers are treated with respect, and agree that sex work should not be criminalized.

Patrick Califia is an American writer of non-fiction essays about sexuality and of erotic fiction and poetry. Califia is a bisexual trans man. Prior to transitioning, Califia identified as a lesbian and wrote for many years a sex advice column for the gay men's leather magazine Drummer. His writings explore sexuality and gender identity, and have included lesbian erotica and works about BDSM subculture. Califia is a member of the third-wave feminism movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tristan Taormino</span> American author, columnist and adult film director

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lesbian erotica</span> Visual art depiction of female-female sexuality

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erika Lust</span> Swedish pornographic film director

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Femina Potens Art Gallery</span> Art gallery in California, United States

Femina Potens was a non-profit art gallery and performance art space active from 2001 to 2016, and located in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 2001 by artistic director Madison Young, which sought to bring greater visibility and advancement to female artists, including queer and transgender ones. The gallery highlighted feminist pornography, as well as sex work.

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Shine Louise Houston is a filmmaker and the founding director and producer of Pink and White Productions, an independent production company creating queer pornography in San Francisco. Houston makes feature-length pornographic films in addition to producing, directing, and shooting hundreds of installments for her queer porn membership site CrashPadSeries.com. Houston distributes her own work and that of other indie adult filmmakers through PinkLabel.tv, catering to different sexual communities.

Jennifer Lyon Bell is an erotic film director/producer, curator, teacher, and writer. She is one of the early members of the feminist pornography movement and ethical porn movement, alongside Erika Lust, Shine Louise Houston, Tristan Taormino, and Maria Beatty. She is the founder and creative director of the independent production company Blue Artichoke Films in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

References

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