Feminism
Essays
Erika Lust is the founder of the groundbreaking ethical porn company Erika Lust films. Erika and her husband Pablo, are founders of The Porn Conversation, a company that provides guides for educators and parents to discuss and teach porn literacy to kids, speak here about how they discuss their work with their children; what ethical porn is; and how porn viewers can make better choices about what porn they consume.
The Sex Ed explores sex, health, and consciousness in the digital age. Liz Goldwyn leads a sex positive discussion with adult film star and author Nina Hartley and burlesque queen and author Dita Von Teese. Both prominent figures in their respective fields, each have helped demystify the fetish world for wider audiences and open up healthy conversations around sexuality
Founder Liz Goldwyn sits down with Girlboss and journalist Tierney Finster to talk about sex, health and consciousness.
Writer, filmmaker and founder of The Sex Ed, Liz Goldwyn, hosts an evening of conversation with Dr. Kate Lister, owner of Whores of Yore–a living archive of sexual history, and sexual anthropologist Betony Vernon, as they gather with guests to discuss erotic dress and accessories.
Watch Liz Goldwyn, writer, filmmaker and founder of The Sex Ed as she hosts a discussion with artist Genevieve Gaignard and curator Essence Harden at the inaugural Frieze Art Fair in Los Angeles. Presented by MatchesFashion.com.
How can we celebrate sex in ways that emancipate our desire from feelings of shame? Can pleasure, power and porn be redefined as a means to teach us about sex and connection?
Watch filmmaker and founder of The Sex Ed, Liz Goldwyn, in conversation with award-winning, international indie adult filmmaker, Erika Lust, moderated by journalist and editor Danielle Kwateng-Clark.
The trio address the responsibility of representing female sexuality across creative mediums, while reframing the dialogue around pornography and gender equality.
We are elevating our consciousnesses by connecting to Mother Earth. In this essay, Lei Wann, Director of Limahuli Garden and Preserve on the island of Kauai in Hawaii—one of the five National Tropical Botanical Gardens in the world—helps us honor our connection to the Earth and explore the mythology of nature and sexuality.
Sex launched my journalism career (in a good way!) Although I earn a majority of my living writing about sex, and do so all the time, I’ve hardly ever written about my own sex life. The last time I read something I wrote about my own sex life aloud was in the 11th grade when I read a spoken word poem about all the Smirnoff-scented oral sex I had performed the semester before for a huge assembly of students and staff.
My first real job was as a paid intern for Planned Parenthood. I was 13 and hadn’t gone “all the way.” I was working in the office at the Santa Monica clinic in Los Angeles in the thick of STD testing with anti-abortionists picketing outside—plunged into the deep end of my “professional” sex education.
Podcast
What does sex, love, intimacy and consciousness look like in the digital age? For the Season 2 finale, Liz talks to three experts about where sex and artificial intelligence intersect, and where we’re going: Gray Scott, a techno-philosopher; Stephanie Dinkins, a visual artist interacting with AI as part of a revolutionary ongoing project; and Bruce Duncan, the managing director of the innovative and mysterious Terasem Movement Foundation.
Joey Soloway is the creator, writer, and director of the groundbreaking Amazon series TRANSparent, I Love Dick, and more. Liz and Joey talked about Hollywood power dynamics, the importance of being awkward; navigating their own #MeToo moment on set - and, of course, toppling the patriarchy.
*In June of 2020, Soloway announced a preference to be referred to as Joey rather than Jill.*
This week’s podcast guest Lykke Li is a singer, songwriter, mother and co-owner of Yola Mezcal. She has been on tour supporting her record SO SAD SO SEXY and follow-up EP, STILL SAD STILL SEXY, which came out in 2018 and 2019. Lykke and Liz talk about creating art from pain; motherhood in the music business; why she’s over music festivals and how her personal definitions of love have evolved.
This week’s podcast guest is Carrie Goldberg— victim’s rights attorney and founder of C.A. Goldberg; a cutting edge law firm that helps victims fight pervs, assholes, psychos and trolls. Carrie details how her own experience with a vengeful ex changed the course of her career; why the internet is outpacing law enforcement; what to do if you are being harassed online and her new book, Nobody’s Victim, which is out now!
This week’s guest is Alia Shawkat. Alia is an actress, producer, writer and artist. Among her many credits are starring roles on Arrested Development and Search Party. She also wrote, produced and starred in 2018’s modern erotic love story, Duck Butter. Liz and Alia talked about navigating coming-of-age in Hollywood; her upbringing as a child of a strip-club owner; and how she is invested in changing depictions of sexuality on screen.
A practitioner of BDSM, Mistress Velvet often made their straight, white male clients read and write essays about Black feminist theory. In 2019, Liz spoke with Mistress Velvet about the “whorearchy,” their post-work self care routine, why sex workers are being excluded from traditional sex ed, and how their academic studies have overlapped with their professional life.
Our guest for this episode is Natasha Lyonne—actress, director, producer, writer and renaissance woman, whose most recent brainchild is the Netflix series Russian Doll. Longtime friends Natasha and Liz talk about the power dynamics of appearing nude on screen; their shared fascination with women like Mae West and Alla Nazimova; sexual appetite; and why the brain is a major turn-on.
Our guest for this episode is Sahar Pirzada, a social worker, organizer and educator. In this episode, Sahar and Liz talk about their own experiences of Islamophobia in the reproductive health care system; how to meet people where they’re at with sex education needs; and why faith and sexuality are not mutually exclusive.
Dita Von Teese is known as The Queen of Burlesque. She re-popularized the art form in the 90s and remains its most well-known performer. She is also an author, model and designer. In this episode, real life bosom buddies Liz and Dita chat about the first time she discovered kink, how working strip clubs can prepare you for the real world and the unbridled joy of taking a pie to the face. Follow Dita @DitaVonTeese. To see more Dita, visit TheSexEd.com for a talk we had at The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles.
Karina Longworth is the creator of You Must Remember This, a podcast about the secrets and forgotten histories of early Hollywood and the author of the book, Seduction: Sex, Lies and Stardom in Howard Hughes’s Hollywood. Liz catches up with Karina during her book tour to discuss sex on the silver screen in cinema’s golden age and the long history of Hollywood’s boys club.
What do you imagine when you hear the word celibacy? A monk taking a vow of chastity? Someone denying themselves pleasure? Do you imagine someone saving themselves for marriage or God? Do you think that if you go too long without penetrative sex, you’ll grow cobwebs? Do you consider celibacy the absence of all orgasms - including masturbation? Have you ever gone through a period of self-imposed celibacy? For our season three finale, Liz dives deep into the topic of Celibacy with the help of some friends and guests from this season.
This special episode pays homage to rock’n’roll of the 60s and 70s with legends Bebe Buell and Pamela Des Barres. Pamela and Bebe are icons who have written groundbreaking, NY Times bestselling memoirs about their wild times loving, and leaving, some of the biggest rock stars of our time. This week, Liz talks to Pamela and Bebe about the free-love innocence of days gone by for this special episodeon sex, drugs and rock’n’roll!
Ana de la Reguera is an actress, producer and activist. Liz talked to Ana about her new semi-autobiographical TV show, ANA, which she created, wrote, produced and stars in; her experiences in the telenovela world; why you need to find someone who’s got check, chic and shock; and how she’s coming of age sexually in her 40s.
Books
On Her Knees chronicles Brenda’s spiritual journey over the course of a decade in LA, through marriage, divorce, unlikely friendship, and sexual exploration. Through it all, she began tearing down the false idol of purity while refusing to abandon her faith. Told with raw honesty, sans obligatory shame, this is a story for anyone who wonders if it’s possible to love God without fearing sex, in all its shades of grey.
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Some Men explores the promise of men's violence prevention work with boys and men in schools, college sports, fraternities, and the U.S. military. It illuminates the strains and tensions of such work-including the reproduction of male privilege in feminist spheres-and explores how men and women navigate these tensions.
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Unbound is the story of an inimitable woman’s inner strength and perseverance, all in pursuit of bringing healing to her community and the world around her, but it is also a story of possibility, of empathy, of power, and of the leader we all have inside ourselves. In sharing her path toward healing and saying "me too," Tarana reaches out a hand to help us all on our own journeys.
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In a world that thrives on aggression and physical force, male violence has become an all-too-frequent response to the frustrations and anxieties that fill men's lives. Men's Work gives back to men the power and responsibility they need to unlearn the lessons of control and aggression. Going beyond the mythology of the current men's movement, this revolutionary work identifies and develops the social and political framework on which to place men's individual efforts to recover their humanity.
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Biographer Charlotte Chandler draws on a series of interviews she conducted with the star just months before her death in 1980, as well as interviews with people who worked or lived with her. Actress, playwright, screenwriter, and iconic sex symbol Mae West created a scandal-and a sensation-on Broadway with her play Sex in 1926. Her screenplays included some notorious one-liners that have become part of Hollywood lore, but behind the clever quips was Mae's deep desire to see women treated equally with men. She fought the double standard of the time that permitted men things that women would be ruined for doing.
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Today's feminist movement has a glaring blind spot, and paradoxically, it is women. Mainstream feminists rarely talk about meeting basic needs as a feminist issue, argues Mikki Kendall, but food insecurity, access to quality education, safe neighborhoods, a living wage, and medical care are all feminist issues.
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A powerful study of the women's liberation movement in the U.S., from abolitionist days to the present, that demonstrates how it has always been hampered by the racist and classist biases of its leaders. From the widely revered and legendary political activist and scholar Angela Davis.
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Staring unflinchingly into the abyss of slavery, this spellbinding New York Times bestseller transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby.
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An autobiographical erotic novel written by an observant Muslim woman in contemporary North Africa, The Almond is an extraordinary and pioneering literary work, a truly unforgettable journey into the sexual undercurrents of a world that is, outwardly and to Western eyes, puritanical.
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A is for Activist is an ABC board book written and illustrated for the next generation of progressives: families who want their kids to grow up in a space that is unapologetic about activism, environmental justice, civil rights, LGBTQ rights, and everything else that activists believe in and fight for.
Ages: 3-5
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HelloFlo founder Naama Bloom’s mission is to create informed, empowered young women who are unafraid to ask questions and make the best choices for themselves and their bodies. A celebration of women's bodies and all the confusing, uncomfortable, silly, transformative, and powerful changes that occur during puberty.
Ages: 10+
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A powerful, vibrantly illustrated story about the first day of school—and two sisters on one's first day of hijab—by Olympic medalist and social justice activist Ibtihaj Muhammad. Paired with Hatem Aly's beautiful, whimsical art, Olympic medalist Ibtihaj Muhammad and Morris Award finalist S.K. Ali brings readers an uplifting, universal story of new experiences, the unbreakable bond between siblings, and of being proud of who you are.
Ages: 4-8
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From Academy Award–winning actress Lupita Nyong’o comes a powerful, moving picture book about colorism, self-esteem, and learning that true beauty comes from within. Sulwe has skin the color of midnight. She is darker than everyone in her family. She is darker than anyone in her school. Sulwe just wants to be beautiful and bright, like her mother and sister. Then a magical journey in the night sky opens her eyes and changes everything. In this stunning debut picture book, actress Lupita Nyong’o creates a whimsical and heartwarming story to inspire children to see their own unique beauty.
Ages: 4-8
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Little Leaders educates and inspires as it relates true stories of forty trailblazing Black women in American history. Illuminating text paired with irresistible illustrations bring to life both iconic and lesser-known female figures of Black history such as abolitionist Sojourner Truth, pilot Bessie Coleman, chemist Alice Ball, politician Shirley Chisholm, mathematician Katherine Johnson, poet Maya Angelou, and filmmaker Julie Dash.
Ages: 8-11
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50 Real Heroes for Boys teaches young boys everywhere that being a man only requires being yourself―but your best self. Bright, colorful portraits by over a dozen international artists accompany true stories of men who knew that character―things like integrity, kindness, empathy, courage, respect for women, and more―mixed with their own unique gifts―art, athletics, creativity, dance, music, curiosity, and more―could make the world a better place.
Ages: 7-10
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Based on the rich collection of interviews and documentaries from MAKERS, this book introduces pioneering women from all walks of life. Readers will get to know these women's hopes, dreams, challenges, and accomplishments in chapters filled with personal stories, historical information, inspiring quotes, and much more.
Ages: 8-12
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An important book for readers of all ages, this beautifully illustrated and engagingly written volume brings to life true stories of black men in history. Among these biographies, readers will find aviators and artists, politicians and pop stars, athletes and activists. The exceptional men featured include writer James Baldwin, artist Aaron Douglas, filmmaker Oscar Devereaux Micheaux, lawman Bass Reeves, civil rights leader John Lewis, dancer Alvin Ailey, and musician Prince. The legends in Little Legends: Exceptional Men in Black History span centuries and continents, but each one has blazed a trail for generations to come.
Ages: 8-12
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Malala Yousafzai was only ten years old when the Taliban took control of her region. They said music was a crime. They said women weren't allowed to go to the market. They said girls couldn't go to school. Malala was taught to stand up for what she believes. So she fought for her right to be educated. And on October 9, 2012, she nearly lost her life for the cause: She was shot point-blank while riding the bus on her way home from school. Now Malala is an international symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest ever Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Ages: 12+
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Kid Activists tells these childhood stories and more through kid-friendly texts and full-color cartoon illustrations on nearly every page. The diverse and inclusive group encompasses Susan B. Anthony, James Baldwin, Ruby Bridges, Frederick Douglass, Alexander Hamilton, Dolores Huerta, Helen Keller, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Iqbal Masih, Harvey Milk, and more.
Ages: 9-12
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The The Come As You Are Workbook is a practical companion to Come as You Are: The Surprising New Science That will Transform Your sex Life. This workbook is filled with new activities, prompts, and thought-provoking examples to help you exercise and expand on the knowledge you’ve learned. This collection of worksheets, journaling prompts, illustrations, and diagrams is a practical and engaging companion for anyone who wants to further their understanding of their own bodies and sex lives.
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In this poignant memoir of personal transformation, season 2 podcast guest Jill Soloway takes us on a patriarchy-toppling emotional and professional journey. Jill pushed through the male-dominated landscape of Hollywood to create the groundbreaking and award-winning Amazon TV series Transparent.
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After earning a good living by stripping and working as a dominatrix at a sex dungeon, Asa Akira built up a reputation for being one of the most popular, hardworking, and extreme actors in the porn business, winning dozens of awards for her 330+ movies. In a wry, conversational tone, she talks about her experiences shoplifting and doing drugs while in school, her relationship with other porn stars (she is married to one) and with the industry at large, and her beliefs about women and sexuality.
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The sequel to Insatiable is a new book about turning thirty in the adult film trade. Internationally known as a porn star, Asa Akira's perceptive, funny, and straightforward writings on love, sex, death, marriage and celebrity come together in a surprising book of essays. Personally revealing as well as universal, Dirty Thirty marks the coming of age of a new literary star.
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Victim’s rights attorney Carrie Goldberg shares the diabolical ways her clients are attacked and how she, through her unique combination of advocacy, badass relentlessness, risk-taking, and client-empowerment, pursues justice for them all. With breathtaking honesty, Carrie also shares her own shattering story about why she began her work and the uphill battle of building a business.
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In Girls & Sex, Peggy Orenstein examines the ways in which porn and all its sexual myths have seeped into young people's lives; what it means to be the "the perfect slut" and why many girls scorn virginity; the complicated terrain of hookup culture; and the unfortunate realities surrounding assault.
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While for some, feminist porn sounds like an oxymoron, for others it reclaims the notion of erotic media, freeing it from its misogynist conventions and centering the pleasure of female subjects no longer bottled and battered within the confines of objectification. This survey considers their many stakes in this complex dialogue.
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Poetry is the medium via which Clifton confers this reckoning with the at once brutal and inspiring legacy of North American, African descendant slaves. Praised for her subversive use of biblical and mythological character tropes, she dissects the various ways the chattel system allowed for its chief commodity (people) to be seen.
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Widely considered for a cross section of Americans spanning multiple generations the "People's Poet Laureate", Angelou's "And Still I Rise" declare's a brazen resilience, located not only within herself, but within any and all women bold enough to summon it.
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For decades the comprehensive exploration of female bodies, minds, and sexualities has remained a definitive source of thoughtfully culled information for women ranging in age from early adolescence to late adulthood. Updates in 2005 and 2011 shed vital contemporary light on the book's many considerations.
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Ecstatic pleasure, consensual pain, and awe-inducing precision: traditional Japanese rope bondage is not for the faint of heart or short on time. That said, those up for the challenge will find Midori's tour of this storied tradition as mesmerizing as it is thoroughly informative.