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The Explicit Body: Feminist Performance as Sex Education

Rosenberg, Tiina LU (2009) "Critical Feminist Dialogues on Sex Education, Violence and Sexology: Between Agency, Pleasure, Shame and Pain": a conference for GEXcel Themes 4&5 “Sexual Health, Embodiment and Empowerment: Bridging Epistemological Gaps”
Abstract
In 1990 the performance artist, porn star, photographer and sex workers’ rights activist Annie Sprinkle presented her Post Post Porn Modernist: Still in Search of the Ultimate Sexual Experience. This show included the section “Public Cervix Announcement” (PCA) in which Sprinkle presented the audience with two large, oval shaped, colored drawings: one a cartoonish rendering of the female reproductive organs (cervix, uterus, fallopian tubes and ovaries), the other a bubblegum pink drawing wit a dark, round cervix with a dark dot in the middle (the os). Sprinkle asked the asked to repeat the anatomical names in a sing-a-long-style. After the lecture Sprinkle invited her audience to take a closer look at her vagina and cervix on stage.... (More)
In 1990 the performance artist, porn star, photographer and sex workers’ rights activist Annie Sprinkle presented her Post Post Porn Modernist: Still in Search of the Ultimate Sexual Experience. This show included the section “Public Cervix Announcement” (PCA) in which Sprinkle presented the audience with two large, oval shaped, colored drawings: one a cartoonish rendering of the female reproductive organs (cervix, uterus, fallopian tubes and ovaries), the other a bubblegum pink drawing wit a dark, round cervix with a dark dot in the middle (the os). Sprinkle asked the asked to repeat the anatomical names in a sing-a-long-style. After the lecture Sprinkle invited her audience to take a closer look at her vagina and cervix on stage.

This paper discusses the feminist tradition of presenting explicit bodies on stage. Forty years of feminist explicit body performance, from its early manifestations in the late 1960s and 1970s until the day feminist artists and activists have provided theirs audiences with a sex education of their own. Using Sprinkle’s work as a point of departure this paper addresses some of the important sex educational and ideological issues reflected in feminist performance art in order to show how closely these are connected with feminist sexual politics and sex education in a broader sense. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to conference
publication status
unpublished
subject
keywords
performance, explicit body, Annie Sprinkle, feminism, sex education, sexuality
conference name
"Critical Feminist Dialogues on Sex Education, Violence and Sexology: Between Agency, Pleasure, Shame and Pain": a conference for GEXcel Themes 4&5 “Sexual Health, Embodiment and Empowerment: Bridging Epistemological Gaps”
conference location
Linköping University, Sweden
conference dates
2009-11-24 - 2009-11-26
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
4742bfc4-1c1a-47dc-9145-a5a34d0e7382 (old id 1502928)
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 14:29:55
date last changed
2018-11-21 21:20:40
@misc{4742bfc4-1c1a-47dc-9145-a5a34d0e7382,
  abstract     = {{In 1990 the performance artist, porn star, photographer and sex workers’ rights activist Annie Sprinkle presented her Post Post Porn Modernist: Still in Search of the Ultimate Sexual Experience. This show included the section “Public Cervix Announcement” (PCA) in which Sprinkle presented the audience with two large, oval shaped, colored drawings: one a cartoonish rendering of the female reproductive organs (cervix, uterus, fallopian tubes and ovaries), the other a bubblegum pink drawing wit a dark, round cervix with a dark dot in the middle (the os). Sprinkle asked the asked to repeat the anatomical names in a sing-a-long-style. After the lecture Sprinkle invited her audience to take a closer look at her vagina and cervix on stage. <br/><br>
 This paper discusses the feminist tradition of presenting explicit bodies on stage. Forty years of feminist explicit body performance, from its early manifestations in the late 1960s and 1970s until the day feminist artists and activists have provided theirs audiences with a sex education of their own. Using Sprinkle’s work as a point of departure this paper addresses some of the important sex educational and ideological issues reflected in feminist performance art in order to show how closely these are connected with feminist sexual politics and sex education in a broader sense.}},
  author       = {{Rosenberg, Tiina}},
  keywords     = {{performance; explicit body; Annie Sprinkle; feminism; sex education; sexuality}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  title        = {{The Explicit Body: Feminist Performance as Sex Education}},
  year         = {{2009}},
}