One sunny day afternoon, legendary retired porn star/pleasure activist/sexpert/performance artist and a woman Im proud to call a friend - Dr. Annie Sprinkle and I sat down for lunch and a chat on sex, music, art, and her recent marriage to the artist Elizabeth Stephens.
Spending time with Annie is always a delight and this day was no exception. Annie was busy as always buzzing around her new charming home in San Francisco. It was the day before the St. James Infirmary Anniversary Party, where Annie would be doing a performance piece in the VIP room with her intern. I was returning some of Annies tit prints, Polaroid transfers, and pleasure activist prints that I had shown at my gallery, Femina Potens. Annie was sweet enough to make time to sit down for a short interview and even made me a yummy lunch with tofu and sweet potatoes in between searching for a nurse costume, rehearsing, and tearing down an art show. Yes, Annie Sprinkle, is the Wonder Woman I eroticized as a youngster costumed in glitter and big hair.
Annie is an important part of the sex positive feminist movement and has been blurring the lines between sex work and art for decades with performance pieces like Public Cervix Announcement, where Annie toured to theaters and venues putting her cervix on display with a speculum for the crowd and inviting individuals up to take a gander with a flashlight.
Annie has been on both sides of the camera making and starring in over 150 adult films. In the last decade Annies material has become more educational and artistic in its nature with such films as Art of the Loop, Annie Sprinkles Herstory of Porn, Sluts and Goddesses Video Workshop, Zen Pussy and Rites of Passion.
Annie Sprinkle has devoted her life to sexual exploration and education. She is currently in the editing process of a film that she has composed on the function of the orgasm and is collaborating with her wife, Elizabeth, on college lectures, bronzing porn stars panties, photography, and the great art of baby making.
I sat down at the kitchen table with Annie feeling like I had just come home to family:
Annie Sprinkle: We should eat.
Tina Butcher: You wanna eat?
(I laugh, we had just sat down for our interview when Annie decided that it was officially lunch hour.)
TB: Are those sweet potatoes?
AS: Sweet potatoes, we have rice, tofu...
TB: Wow! You have giraffe chopsticks. I feel like Im back home.
So, are you doing a collaboration with Sex Positive Productions?
AS: Were looking into it. I have a woman editing. I interviewed 28 orgasm experts. Its a documentary about orgasms. There has never been a real documentary about all the multifacets of an orgasm. Its edu-porn. Its a lot of educational information. Its arty, not terribly mainstream. You know, its alternative, very alternative. Its a project that I started ten years ago and put aside and now its time to get it done. I have this woman, Sheila Malone, working on it. She is an artist and shes hopefully going to make a really nice edit.
So by the end of the summer I should have a new video.
TB: Ive noticed that lately more and more women are running erotic web sites, producing more porn, and even the guys that Im working with are wanting to get my perspective on it and wanting to know what appeals to women. Do you think that this is happening a lot more now than it was ten years ago?
AS: Oh yeah, totally. I think that its like a tree. There was like this made-by-man porn trunk and formula and there was just one kinda thing for a long time - 50s, 60s, and 70s. And now there are all these branches and different genres. Lots of different genres. Lots of different kinds of people making it. And there is room for lots more growth and branches. I think people are tired of the same old same old and want something different. And there are lots of opportunities to do something different. That's whats really interesting to me - coming up with more alternatives.
TB: Why is this happening now?
AS: Well i think feminism had a big... the feminist movement had a huge impact. Also the anti-porn feminist had some things to say.
TB: Im from Ohio. You dont talk about porn and sex in Ohio. How do you think we reach out of the San Francisco bubble into the east coast/midwest? How do we let women in those parts of the country know pleasuring yourself is a good thing? Porn doesnt have to be a negative thing thats about sexual objectification.
AS: I think Good Vibrations is doing some great stuff. A lot of it is just ignorance. People need an education about pornography. People think "youve seen one, youve seen em all". Thats not really the case. There are many different kinds. Theres some God awful trash out there and I wouldnt want to spend time looking at it. I think people are coming around. You see it all over TV now. You know, Real Sex. You're seeing a lot more sex stuff on TV so people's standards are also higher. They want the hardcore, but they still want the production value. Everyone wants different stuff. I think that's whats happening, instead of porn just reflecting one segment of society its reflecting a lot more people - different people - and that's the way it should be. People are very diverse, sexually diverse. so there may be a woman who really likes the really trashy degrading misogynistic porn and a guy who doesnt. You cant really generalize.
TB:What is your favorite production that youve worked on, directed or starred in? Or a couple of your favorites, I know its probably hard to narrow it down to one.
AS: Well I really like my two videos Sluts and Goddesses and Annie Sprinkles Herstory of Porn. I did one recently with old 8mm loops called Art of the Loop and I liked that one. In 1982 I made Deep Inside Annie Sprinkle which for that time was innovative.
TB: So how was your honeymoon?
AS: Oh the honeymoon was wonderful. I was invited to speak at the Museum of Modern Art in Barcelona.
TB: How long were you there?
AS: We were there about 8 days.
TB: Any wild sex?
AS: Oh my god! Yes, we had a lot of sex on our honeymoon.
TB: Was all the sex in the hotel?
AS: Im not that exhibitionistic where i have to have sex in public anymore, although it's in my hobbies to go to live sex shows all around the world. In Barcelona they put on a little sex show, about 20 people and that was pretty titillating. We were enjoying it and all of a sudden the lights come on and out came this woman that was real muscular, athletic and she was pole dancing. She just blew everyone out of the water and after her show everyone looked kinda wimpy. She was very empowered. Beth and I just totally flipped out. It was a hardcore live sex show.
TB: Ive never been to one. But Im a total exhibitionist and love to have sex in crazy places.
AS: I used to be. Ive been fetishizing the private.
TB: Whats the wildest place youve ever had sex?
AS: One of the oddest experiences I had was doing an anal massage workshop up at Wildwood, this retreat center up in Northern California, and we had about 40 people. It was a week long cosmic orgasm awareness week that I was facilitating with a couple of other people and my friend did an anal massage class so there were like 10 massage tables, 3 people on each table, one with their butt in the air and the other two were doing the massage. It was just outrageous. These group butt massages. And everyone doing the same thing at the same moment. That one stands out because the butt is just private, so people are very vulnerable.
TB: I love to have sex to music. Music is huge for me. Is there certain music that you like to listen to?
AS: Yeah. I feel the same way about music. Although I also really like quiet play. My key element is time. I like extended. I like long. The more hours the better. You gotta put on 5 cds. Generally I like world music. I dont want American words so much. I want different languages... something really soulful. I like devotional music because for me I really like spiritually oriented sex. Its very devotional. Its like having a baby, you know?
TB: Someone once asked me awhile ago what religion I was of and I said, I dont think I have a religion or if I do I think it might be masturbation. Its the only thing I do religiously.
AS: We call that medibation. Meditation and masturbation combined. I like being a wild animal too, but that can be totally devotional. Being a wild animal in total abandonment of the body can be spiritual.
TB: What are your views on polyamory?
AS: Whatever works. Right now im in a monogamous relationship. I can see where we may bring people in down the line. Right now we're in a monogamous relationship because we want to be. I believe there is no one way to go or one better way. Whats your way? What does the individual want? Find out who you are and what you want and do it your way.
TB: What do you think is the next big thing for porn?
AS: Well, one thing I'd really like to see... Id like to see more hardcore like Hollywood made films, which I really thought would have happened by now. It happened in the 70s. We thought porn was going to merge into mainstream but porn became more like porn and less like Hollywood.
TB: When you were younger, starting out in sex work, who were your heroes?
AS: Margo St. James, Betty Dodson, Linda Lovelace
TB: Working with male and female photographers and producers, how do you find they differ creatively? Do they differ?
AS: No, not necessarily. Everyone has their own style. People like Eric Kroll are definitely focused on the erotic. The goal is to make something erotic. Others are more documentary or arty. My work hasnt necessarily been erotic. Early on in the 70s it was, I mean that was the porn work I did, posing for pictures and stuff but at a certain point I wasnt that interested in whether people got turned on or not. I was more interested in whats interesting or funny or conceptual, what was behind the erotic image. I've been doing this for 30 years and I havent even come close to capturing what it is I want to capture, photographically or film-wise or anything. I think the best is yet to come. Im starting to work with my girlfriend on some projects. Im going to bronze my panties.
TB: Oh sweet! Any final words of wisdom?
AS: Yeah! Check out my web site, www.anniesprinkle.org. Org as in orgasm.
TB: Annie, I just want to say it makes me really happy to have people like you around.
by Tina Butcher
Spending time with Annie is always a delight and this day was no exception. Annie was busy as always buzzing around her new charming home in San Francisco. It was the day before the St. James Infirmary Anniversary Party, where Annie would be doing a performance piece in the VIP room with her intern. I was returning some of Annies tit prints, Polaroid transfers, and pleasure activist prints that I had shown at my gallery, Femina Potens. Annie was sweet enough to make time to sit down for a short interview and even made me a yummy lunch with tofu and sweet potatoes in between searching for a nurse costume, rehearsing, and tearing down an art show. Yes, Annie Sprinkle, is the Wonder Woman I eroticized as a youngster costumed in glitter and big hair.
Annie is an important part of the sex positive feminist movement and has been blurring the lines between sex work and art for decades with performance pieces like Public Cervix Announcement, where Annie toured to theaters and venues putting her cervix on display with a speculum for the crowd and inviting individuals up to take a gander with a flashlight.
Annie has been on both sides of the camera making and starring in over 150 adult films. In the last decade Annies material has become more educational and artistic in its nature with such films as Art of the Loop, Annie Sprinkles Herstory of Porn, Sluts and Goddesses Video Workshop, Zen Pussy and Rites of Passion.
Annie Sprinkle has devoted her life to sexual exploration and education. She is currently in the editing process of a film that she has composed on the function of the orgasm and is collaborating with her wife, Elizabeth, on college lectures, bronzing porn stars panties, photography, and the great art of baby making.
I sat down at the kitchen table with Annie feeling like I had just come home to family:
Annie Sprinkle: We should eat.
Tina Butcher: You wanna eat?
(I laugh, we had just sat down for our interview when Annie decided that it was officially lunch hour.)
TB: Are those sweet potatoes?
AS: Sweet potatoes, we have rice, tofu...
TB: Wow! You have giraffe chopsticks. I feel like Im back home.
So, are you doing a collaboration with Sex Positive Productions?
AS: Were looking into it. I have a woman editing. I interviewed 28 orgasm experts. Its a documentary about orgasms. There has never been a real documentary about all the multifacets of an orgasm. Its edu-porn. Its a lot of educational information. Its arty, not terribly mainstream. You know, its alternative, very alternative. Its a project that I started ten years ago and put aside and now its time to get it done. I have this woman, Sheila Malone, working on it. She is an artist and shes hopefully going to make a really nice edit.
So by the end of the summer I should have a new video.
TB: Ive noticed that lately more and more women are running erotic web sites, producing more porn, and even the guys that Im working with are wanting to get my perspective on it and wanting to know what appeals to women. Do you think that this is happening a lot more now than it was ten years ago?
AS: Oh yeah, totally. I think that its like a tree. There was like this made-by-man porn trunk and formula and there was just one kinda thing for a long time - 50s, 60s, and 70s. And now there are all these branches and different genres. Lots of different genres. Lots of different kinds of people making it. And there is room for lots more growth and branches. I think people are tired of the same old same old and want something different. And there are lots of opportunities to do something different. That's whats really interesting to me - coming up with more alternatives.
TB: Why is this happening now?
AS: Well i think feminism had a big... the feminist movement had a huge impact. Also the anti-porn feminist had some things to say.
TB: Im from Ohio. You dont talk about porn and sex in Ohio. How do you think we reach out of the San Francisco bubble into the east coast/midwest? How do we let women in those parts of the country know pleasuring yourself is a good thing? Porn doesnt have to be a negative thing thats about sexual objectification.
AS: I think Good Vibrations is doing some great stuff. A lot of it is just ignorance. People need an education about pornography. People think "youve seen one, youve seen em all". Thats not really the case. There are many different kinds. Theres some God awful trash out there and I wouldnt want to spend time looking at it. I think people are coming around. You see it all over TV now. You know, Real Sex. You're seeing a lot more sex stuff on TV so people's standards are also higher. They want the hardcore, but they still want the production value. Everyone wants different stuff. I think that's whats happening, instead of porn just reflecting one segment of society its reflecting a lot more people - different people - and that's the way it should be. People are very diverse, sexually diverse. so there may be a woman who really likes the really trashy degrading misogynistic porn and a guy who doesnt. You cant really generalize.
TB:What is your favorite production that youve worked on, directed or starred in? Or a couple of your favorites, I know its probably hard to narrow it down to one.
AS: Well I really like my two videos Sluts and Goddesses and Annie Sprinkles Herstory of Porn. I did one recently with old 8mm loops called Art of the Loop and I liked that one. In 1982 I made Deep Inside Annie Sprinkle which for that time was innovative.
TB: So how was your honeymoon?
AS: Oh the honeymoon was wonderful. I was invited to speak at the Museum of Modern Art in Barcelona.
TB: How long were you there?
AS: We were there about 8 days.
TB: Any wild sex?
AS: Oh my god! Yes, we had a lot of sex on our honeymoon.
TB: Was all the sex in the hotel?
AS: Im not that exhibitionistic where i have to have sex in public anymore, although it's in my hobbies to go to live sex shows all around the world. In Barcelona they put on a little sex show, about 20 people and that was pretty titillating. We were enjoying it and all of a sudden the lights come on and out came this woman that was real muscular, athletic and she was pole dancing. She just blew everyone out of the water and after her show everyone looked kinda wimpy. She was very empowered. Beth and I just totally flipped out. It was a hardcore live sex show.
TB: Ive never been to one. But Im a total exhibitionist and love to have sex in crazy places.
AS: I used to be. Ive been fetishizing the private.
TB: Whats the wildest place youve ever had sex?
AS: One of the oddest experiences I had was doing an anal massage workshop up at Wildwood, this retreat center up in Northern California, and we had about 40 people. It was a week long cosmic orgasm awareness week that I was facilitating with a couple of other people and my friend did an anal massage class so there were like 10 massage tables, 3 people on each table, one with their butt in the air and the other two were doing the massage. It was just outrageous. These group butt massages. And everyone doing the same thing at the same moment. That one stands out because the butt is just private, so people are very vulnerable.
TB: I love to have sex to music. Music is huge for me. Is there certain music that you like to listen to?
AS: Yeah. I feel the same way about music. Although I also really like quiet play. My key element is time. I like extended. I like long. The more hours the better. You gotta put on 5 cds. Generally I like world music. I dont want American words so much. I want different languages... something really soulful. I like devotional music because for me I really like spiritually oriented sex. Its very devotional. Its like having a baby, you know?
TB: Someone once asked me awhile ago what religion I was of and I said, I dont think I have a religion or if I do I think it might be masturbation. Its the only thing I do religiously.
AS: We call that medibation. Meditation and masturbation combined. I like being a wild animal too, but that can be totally devotional. Being a wild animal in total abandonment of the body can be spiritual.
TB: What are your views on polyamory?
AS: Whatever works. Right now im in a monogamous relationship. I can see where we may bring people in down the line. Right now we're in a monogamous relationship because we want to be. I believe there is no one way to go or one better way. Whats your way? What does the individual want? Find out who you are and what you want and do it your way.
TB: What do you think is the next big thing for porn?
AS: Well, one thing I'd really like to see... Id like to see more hardcore like Hollywood made films, which I really thought would have happened by now. It happened in the 70s. We thought porn was going to merge into mainstream but porn became more like porn and less like Hollywood.
TB: When you were younger, starting out in sex work, who were your heroes?
AS: Margo St. James, Betty Dodson, Linda Lovelace
TB: Working with male and female photographers and producers, how do you find they differ creatively? Do they differ?
AS: No, not necessarily. Everyone has their own style. People like Eric Kroll are definitely focused on the erotic. The goal is to make something erotic. Others are more documentary or arty. My work hasnt necessarily been erotic. Early on in the 70s it was, I mean that was the porn work I did, posing for pictures and stuff but at a certain point I wasnt that interested in whether people got turned on or not. I was more interested in whats interesting or funny or conceptual, what was behind the erotic image. I've been doing this for 30 years and I havent even come close to capturing what it is I want to capture, photographically or film-wise or anything. I think the best is yet to come. Im starting to work with my girlfriend on some projects. Im going to bronze my panties.
TB: Oh sweet! Any final words of wisdom?
AS: Yeah! Check out my web site, www.anniesprinkle.org. Org as in orgasm.
TB: Annie, I just want to say it makes me really happy to have people like you around.
by Tina Butcher
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