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Ecosexual: a conceptual and mythical reframe
Written by Admin Crew
April 18, 2022
‘Ecosexuals’ Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens suggest a powerful conceptual and mythical reframe, from ‘Mother Earth’ to ‘Lover Earth’. Consider how we relate to our mothers vs our lovers. Lovers inspire reciprocity, equality, maintenance, a desire to tend. The truth is, we don’t take our lovers for granted in the same way we do our mothers. So as you read this, consider how you might treat the world around you differently from the vantage of a Lover? Kinda fun, right?
Water Makes us Wet: An Ecosexual Adventure
With a poetic blend of curiosity, humor, sensuality and concern, Water Makes us Wet chronicles the pleasures and politics of H2O from an ecosexual perspective. Travel around California with Annie, a former sex worker, Beth, a professor, and their dog Butch, in their E.A.R.T.H. Lab mobile unit, as they explore water in the Golden State. Ecosexuality shifts the metaphor “Earth as Mother” to “Earth as Lover” to create a more reciprocal and empathetic relationship with the natural world. Along the way, Annie and Beth interact with a diverse range of folks including performance artists, biologists, water treatment plant workers, scholars and others, climaxing in a shocking event that reaffirms the power of water, life and love.
Goodbye Gauley Mountain
Protest and sexuality come together in Goodbye Gauley Mountain, a rollicking documentary following campaigning "ecosexuals" Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle. Returning home to the Appalachian mountains of West Virginia to protest against the environmentally devastating practice of mountain top removal (MTR), which involves blowing up the local environment, they preach their doctrine of "Earth as lover" with its literal embrace of the natural world. As they put their bodies on the line, bringing sensuality and spirit to the environmental movement, Goodbye Gauley Mountain demonstrates how the fight for environmental justice can be inclusive, sexy and fun, even in the face of environmental tragedy.
About Annie
Annie Sprinkle was a NYC prostitute and porn star for twenty years, then morphed into an artist and sexologist. She has passionately explored sexuality for over forty years, sharing her experiences through making her own unique brand of feminist sex films, writing books and articles, visual art making, creating theater performances, and teaching. Annie has consistently championed sex worker rights and health care and was one of the pivotal players of the Sex Positive Movement of the 1980’s. She got her BFA at School of Visual Arts in NYC was the first porn star to earn a Ph.D.. She’s a popular lecturer whose work is studied in many colleges and Universities. For the past 12 years she has been collaborating on art projects with her partner, an artist and UCSC professor, Elizabeth Stephens. They are movers and shakers in the new “ecosex movement,” committed to making environmentalism more sexy, fun and diverse.
In 2013, Sprinkle proudly received the Artist/Activist/Scholar Award from Performance Studies International at Stanford, and was awarded the Acker Award for Excellence in the Avant Garde.