May 31: The First Anniversary of Sex Out Loud

May 292013
 

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One year ago, Sex Out Loud radio began with interviewing Dan Savage for the very first episode. Join me this Friday, May 31st at 5 pm PT / 8 pm ET for an hour revisiting that first show as well as some of my favorite moments from the past 50 episodes, including talking with Real Housewives of Atlanta Kandi Burruss, adult legend Nina Hartley, gender outlaw Kate Bornstein, sex start-up powerhouse Cindy Gallop, rockstar academic Jack Halberstam, and many more. With highlights and behind-the-scenes stories, I look back on a year of talking about sex out loud and then take us forward into season two of the show.

The Feminist Porn Book and Conference

Feb 042013
 

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The Feminist Porn Book: The Politics of Producing Pleasure
is co-edited by Celine Parreñas-Shimizu, Constance Penley, Mireille Miller-Young, and me
and is published by The Feminist Press

The Feminist Porn Book brings together for the first time writings by feminists in the adult industry and research by feminist porn scholars. This book investigates not only how feminists understand pornography, but also how feminists do porn—that is, direct, act in, produce, and consume one of the world’s most lucrative and growing industries. With original contributions by Susie Bright, Candida Royalle, Betty Dodson, Nina Hartley, Buck Angel, Lynn Comella, Jane Ward, Ariane Cruz, Kevin Heffernan, and more, The Feminist Porn Book updates the arguments of the porn wars of the 1980s, which sharply divided the women’s movement, and identifies pornography as a form of expression and labor in which women and racial and sexual minorities produce power and pleasure. Check out the book’s official website to read the table of contents and see what people like Melissa Harris-Perry, Laura Kipnis, Jack Halberstam, Lisa Duggan, Carol Queen, Annie Sprinkle, and other luminaries have said about it. I am so unbelievably excited that The Feminist Porn Book is here! This is a project that is five years in the making, and I cannot believe it’s in print.

Inspired by the book, I am producing The Feminist Porn Conference, a one-day event on April 6, 2013 at the University of Toronto during the Good For Her Feminist Porn Awards festivities. Speakers include Lynn Comella, Ariane Cruz, Loree Erickson, April Flores, Kevin Heffernan, Tobi Hill-Meyer, Shine Louise Houston, Jiz Lee, Nicholas Matte, Mireille Miller-Young, Ms. Naughty, Nenna, Bobby Noble, Celine Parreñas-Shimizu, Constance Penley, Carol Queen, Dylan Ryan, Tristan Taormino, Courtney Trouble, Madison Young, and more to be confirmed soon. Registration is now open, and Early Bird Registration Rates are good through March 1, so register today! Our host hotel is the Holiday Inn; get our special discount code here. Special thanks to our sponsors Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies, Good for Her, The Feminist Porn Awards, and The Feminist Press.

Sept 28: J. Jack Halberstam on Gender in Pop Culture, the Occupy Movement, and Gaga Feminism

Sep 242012
 

This Friday, September 28th on Sex Out Loud radio, USC Professor and Cultural Critic J. Jack Halberstam joins me for a discussion as part of my “Live in Los Angeles” series, recorded in studio in LA. We’ll talk about Halberstam’s new book Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender, and the End of Normal (Queer Ideas Book) and how the well-renowned academic Halberstam brings sex and gender theory to a mass audience. Hear Halberstam riff on the lesbian baby boom, the divide between academics and activists, and gender representations in pop culture from Lady Gaga to Bridesmaids. Plus, Halberstam will confess how the Occupy Movement informed and inspired this book, how reproductive technologies have shifted the landscape of the family, and what “gaga feminism” is.

Jack Halberstam is Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity, Gender Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of Southern California. Halberstam is the author of five books including: Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters (Duke UP, 1995), Female Masculinity (Duke UP, 1998), In A Queer Time and Place (NYU Press, 2005), The Queer Art of Failure (a John Hope Franklin Center Book)(Duke UP, 2011) and Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender, and the End of Normal (Queer Ideas Book) (Beacon Press, 2012) and has written articles that have appeared in numerous journals, magazines and collections. Halberstam is currently working on several projects including a book on Fascism and (homo)sexuality.

Halberstam has co-edited a number of anthologies including Posthuman Bodies (Unnatural Acts: Theorizing the Performative) (Indiana University Press, 1995) and a special issue of Social Text with Jose Munoz and David Eng titled “What’s Queer About Queer Studies Now?” Jack is a popular speaker and gives lectures around the country and internationally every year. Lecture topics include: queer failure, sex and media, subcultures, visual culture, gender variance, popular film, and animation.

CONTEST TO WIN a copy of Jack Halberstam’s new book GAGA FEMINISM:

It’s simple: listen to Friday’s episode of Sex Out Loud. Listen either live at 5 pm PST/8 pm EST or on demand as a podcast. Then post your FAVORITE quote from the episode on Facebook or Twitter.

For Facebook: post on your public page in a public post. Tag my public page, Tristan Taormino, in your post so I can find it AND include this link to the show: http://www.voiceamerica.com/show/2096/sex-out-loud. (Note: you cannot use a shortened URL or FB will block it.)

For Twitter: include @SexOutLoudRadio and the link http://tiny.cc/SOLoud

You can enter a maximum of 5 times. Each quote posted during the live show will be entered twice, giving you up to ten chances to win! All posts must appear before this Sunday (Sept. 30) at midnight Pacific Time. Winner will be announced on Monday at 12 noon Pacific Time.