Annie sprinkle

Some men can be very rude. On the other hand, some clients are absolute angels. One john always brought me a gift every time he came to see me. He brought me a pearl necklace, a ring, a bra or something. But eventually, as much as I really loved all the gifts, he fell in love with me, and he tried to weasel his way into my life. It was too much and I sort of had to 'break up with him."

My johns adored and worshipped me, therefore they empowered me. When I was 18, 19, and 20, I had a poor self-image and needed attention. It's hard for people who haven't been prostitutes to imagine, but I think it's often true. There can be a very symbiotic relationship happening.

It's a pity that there's such a negative connotation about paying for sex.

I've been putting out sexually explicit images of myself for years. I know this sounds bizarre, but somehow it makes me feel safer.

I usually kissed my clients if they wanted to kiss. I thought it was just way too weird to say "no kissing allowed," That to me was uncomfortable.

Whores do sometimes break up with their johns.

Blow jobs are okay, but kissing clients is still a taboo.

I'd like to see feminism really be more loving. Feminists have a lot of righteous anger, and have done a lot to fight for rights. But we need a lot of love and compassion - to embrace people, to educate people. I wasn't a feminist until l I was educated about what it was. I would love to see men attend, and transgender people. Everyone is welcome.

Feel free to cover your eyes at anything that might upset you

I met him when I was 18. We split up when I was 38. He saw me grow up too. He was a client, and also a friend. Such things are more common than people might think. This arrangement was not so different than many American relationships. That's why the laws against prostitution have got to go. They are totally unfair and mean.

The single most important key to sex that I've yet discovered is conscious rhythmic breathing; the more you breathe the more you feel and the more you come alive. Many of us breathe only enough to survive but not to live fully. Deep breathing is a door to waking up to healing and to more personal freedom.

I don't think being obsessed with sex is any stranger than being obsessed with stamp collecting.

Sex is normal and natural, and we've made it abnormal and unnatural.

My whole purpose is to bring what's hidden out in the open so people can look at it and discuss it. And sexually oriented material is very important to study in an academic setting. Controversy is part of the fun.

I had this client I'll call Samuel. Not his real name. I saw him steadily for twenty years, usually twice a month. Over twenty years you really get to know someone.

There's a lot of pain and suffering out there. I think there needs to be more joy, and love, and orgasms in the world. We are a pleasure-negati ve society. Suffering is much more acceptable. And I want to tell women that they are sexually powerful beings, but they often don't get in touch with it because they are socialized to please men.

I love to engage people who think differently than I do.

I had many clients who didn't respect me, probably because of how they were raised. We're all the walking wounded.

I had orgasms with clients, even though it was kind of a taboo at that time to admit it. Women weren't supposed to enjoy sex that much!

Whores have the ability to put up with behaviors other women would never manage to put up with. That's why we deserve to be generously compensated.

A lot of women I worked with didn't respect their clients. I had some clients who didn't respect me, but still you somehow made it work.

In my theater pieces, I would do "Tits on the Head" - Polaroid photos for $10 on the stage. There would be a line of folks paying me $10 for their turn. It was public prostitution. I turned my whole audience into johns. But because it was in a theater context, an art context, it was socially acceptable.

There have been times where I have definitely felt like I was a john. As a pin-up photographer for ten years, when I was photographing men and women, to be honest, sometimes I felt like I was a john, especially when I was shooting guys because they - you know - they had to have big erections in the photos.

People who have been prostitutes are ten times more willing to be johns than the average person. So, if you've been paid for sex you understand the value of that experience on some level.

Author details

Annie Sprinkle: Biography and Life Work

Annie Sprinkle was a notable American certified sexologist. The story of Annie Sprinkle began on July 23, 1954 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S..

Annie M. Sprinkle (born Ellen F. Steinberg on July 23, 1954 ) is an American certified sexologist , performance artist , former sex worker , filmmaker, and advocate for the decriminalization of sex work.

Legacy and Personal Influence

Personally, Annie Sprinkle was married to Elizabeth Stephens.

Philosophical Views and Reflections

Sprinkle's work has always been about sexuality, with a political, spiritual and artistic bent. In December 2005, she committed to doing a seven year long art project about love with her art collaborator and eventual wife, Beth Stephens. They called this their Love Art Laboratory. Part of their project was to do an experimental art wedding each year, and each year had a different theme and color. The seven-year structure was adapted to their project by invitation of artist Linda M. Montano . Sprinkle and Stephens have done twenty-one art weddings, eighteen with ecosexual themes. They married the Earth, Sky, Sea, Moon, Appalachian Mountains, the Sun, and other non-human entities in nine different countries including at Montreal's Edgy Women Festival in 2011.

The post-porn movement is a countercultural body of scholarship and ideals that were developed within Europe and the USA. Within the post-porn movement there is a critical lens applied to corporations producing pornography and non-corporate pornographic content is instead valued. The post-porn movement also values the production of pornography which centers queer and gender diverse folks and questions the racialization and reliance on stereotypes found in the pornography industry. Sprinkle has contributed to the post-porn movement explicitly in her now retired show Post-Porn Modernist and implicitly through her artistic body of work which engages in critical reflection and parody. Sprinkle has also contributed to this movement by challenging who can be represented in porn and which bodies are seen as sexual.

EQ
Empery Quotes
Inspire · Reflect · Repeat