Anatomy of a pinup

Posted at 14:26 on 8 Jun 2011 by Pandora / Blake

Tags: Annie Sprinkle, Body positivity, Performers and producers, polyamory

I love this recent interview with sex performer and educator Annie Sprinkle, in which Annie talks about sex work, polyamory, ecosexuality and taboos with refreshing frankness. I particularly enjoyed these snippets.

On bad sex:

When I was very promiscuous, I liked all kinds of sex. I could enjoy bad sex on a bizarre level. Bad sex can be interesting and fun. Ive said it before, theres junk sex, health sex, and gourmet sex. I have a range of tastes. If youve never have bad sex, then you probably have played it really safe, and havent tried hard enough to find the really great sex. Bad sex happens.

On prostitution:

I was very into the sex overall. I did kiss, I certainly did have orgasms why not? I usually enjoyed the sex. I particularly liked clients that would touch my heart differently abled or socially immature over the young jock stud types.

On whether all sex workers are "inherently polyamorous":

I think many sex workers are generous and generally loving, but they arent necessarily loving everyone they have sex with. Polyamorous to me implies that you are having multiple relationships, or multiple lovers.

On taboos:

Ive done a lot of taboo things, according to a lot of folks, but the most taboo thing is being older and chubbier and being naked on stage having sex. Old and chubby are the biggest taboos. Its interesting, transgressive. I like to think of myself as fixing taboos, not breaking them.

But I think my favourite line was this one, summing up so many of my frustrations with the generalisations people try to make about sex and sexuality: "The answer to any question about sex is simply, it depends."

Anyway, it reminded me of an image which I saw in Filament Magazine a little while ago, and have been meaning to share with you ever since. It's called "Anatomy of a 1980s pinup", and I think it brilliantly characterises the tension between the (often hilarious) staged/unreal aspects of adult modelling, and the fact that the staging doesn't have to lessen the very real joy and excitement of it.

Comments

Posted by Quai at 17:06 on 8 Jun 2011

Annie Sprinkle is fascinating. Thanks for bringing her up. I haven't thought about her since the mid-1990's when I was first educating myself about BDSM and polyamory.

Regards,
Quai

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Posted by Pandora at 14:06 on 10 Jun 2011

I hadn't even heard of her until that Filament article, for which thankyou Filament! My friend Penny encouraged me to find out more, too. Annie definitely seems to be a force for good. I'd love to see one of her live shows one day :)

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