YNOT – Academics, authors, researchers, journalists, pop-culture commentators and activists came together Oct. 27 in San Francisco to explore the politics of pleasure. Their presentations, seminars, and question-and-answer sessions — all part of the first-ever Good Vibes Sex Summit — are now online in streaming video format.
Broken down into four tracks — censorship and politics, the media, health and pharmaceuticals, and popular culture — are free to watch here.
“Politics, pleasure and the varying ways we learn about sexuality were on the table, and insights abounded,” said Dr. Carol Queen, staff sexologist for adult retailer Good Vibrations, which organized the summit.
Keynote speakers
Three writers whose work, in substantially different ways, explores social elements of sexuality presented keynote talks during the summit.
Debby Herbenick, PhD, MPH., opened the conference by weaving together a discussion of new, research-derived insights into women’s sexuality and the larger picture of the recent Presidential election cycle’s politicized discourse about women’s bodies and reproductive rights. In particular, Herbenick emphasized how much information society still needs.
“We’re a long way from having a complete picture of the truth about sex in America,” she said.
Midday keynoter Marty Klein, PhD, disagreed that attacks on reproductive freedoms constitute a “war on women.” Instead, he posited, “it’s a war on sex.”
In his closing speech, Brian Alexander asserted that the sexual culture wars are over, and the real struggles are based on economic change and displacement.
Panel Presentations
A series of panels, each including four participants and a moderator, delved into four key issues affecting the public’s understanding and perceptions regarding sexuality.
“Regulating Pleasure: Sex, Politics & Censorship” featured Klein, sex worker and HIV activist Maggie Mayhem, journalist and Harmful to Minors author Judith Levine and community intellectual and LGBT activist Carmen Vázquez, moderated by Good Vibrations Education Program Manager Dr. Charlie Glickman. Censorship of controversial sexual content — within one’s own community or by the state, the press or financial institutions — had affected each of the panelists, shutting down debate and making varying cultural perspectives about sexuality harder to access.
“Outspoken/Unsaid: Sex & Media” offered Alexander; Dr. Mireille Miller-Young, a feminist studies professor at University of California at Santa Barbara; sociologist, USC Visiting Scholar and Porn Valley Vantage blogger Chauntelle Anne Tibbals, PhD, and writer Jaclyn Friedman, who founded and serves as executive director for Women, Action & the Media, moderated by filmmaker and correspondent Abiola Abrams. The discussion ranged from expectations that media sources will tell diverse stories of sexuality to the great range of media available and how sex educators and activists can access it.
“Pills, Profits and Pleasures: Sexual Health & Pharmaceuticals” featured Herbenick, Scarleteen.com founder and executive director and RH Reality Check columnist Heather Corinna, Orgasm, Inc. director and Dartmouth Visionary Award winner Liz Canner, and health educator and transgender activist Yoseñio V. Lewis. Moderated by Queen, the panel explored the relationship between sexual identity, health and money. From the medicalized, “permission slip”-circumscribed life of those who need hormones or reassignment surgery to the so-far-fruitless search for a women’s version of Viagra to the changing world of AIDS treatment and medications, pharmaceutical companies and doctors play a significant role in many people’s sexual experience.
The final panel, “Sexual Stargazing: Sex & Pop Culture,” included Salon.com sex columnist Tracy Clark-Flory, University of Nevada women’s studies professor and Las Vegas Weekly columnist Dr. Lynn Comella, Abiola Abrams and Sex With Emily and reality-TV personality Emily Morse. Moderated by sex and relationship expert Reid Mihalko, the talk ranged from ways in which stars and pop-media outlets shape sexual perceptions to the popular culture that influenced the panelists as they grew up.
The Sex Summit was made possible by co-presenter We-Vibe and sponsored by Aneros, Glyde Condoms, Trojan Vibrations, Blossom Organics, Vibratex and the Museum of Sex, and supported by the Center for Sex & Culture.
