If your creations are physical items (zines, books, illustrations, art pieces, worksheets, stickers, etc.)
Summer Tour Recap!8/21/2015 This August I traveled to Maryland and Virginia to be a part of two sexuality conferences, Amorous Revolt and the Woodhull Sexual Freedom Summit. It was awesome to meet so many people who are passionate about creating a more sexually accepting culture! My friends at The Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health let me use some of their table space for Pleasure Pie zines, and I am eternally grateful! It was a great opportunity to put my work out there in a community of enthusiastic, supportive sex geeks. Also, I put up the Thoughtful Penis Series on the wall behind the table, because why not? Photo from the CSPH Instagram. Unfortunately I didn’t think to take any photos at Amorous Revolt, and I haven’t seen any posted on the internet yet. But I’ll post some if I find any!
Thank you so much to everyone who donated to our Sex Positive Summer Tour fundraiser for making this all possible!!! Sunday was the Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health’s (CSPH) Body Positive Clothing Swap. I was there with my my Pleasure Pie merch table, chatting with some awesome sex positive advocates and regularly ditching my table to dig through the massive amounts of clothing. While I was there, I donated a copy of Choose Your Own Consensual Adventure to the CSPH’s extensive sex positive library (flip through it if you’re ever in the Pawtucket area!) and checked out the other zines. There were some awesome sex positive zines that I had never heard of! Here’s a quick review of 4 of my favorites. 4 Awesome Sex Positive Zines1. Talk Dirty. Cleanly. This zine is so good. It talks all about talking dirty, gives many examples, and has fun fill-in-the-blank exercises to get you started. It’s a great way to figure out how to engage in sexy talk that reflects your personality, as opposed to feeling like you sound like a cliche porn star (not that talking like porn performers is bad, I just mean that it’s nice to feel like you sound like you – an ultra sexy you). This zine was put out by ScrewSmart in Philly. 2. How to Disclose Your STI & Feel Good About It This friendly little zine offers some sound, nonjudgmental guidance for telling a partner about your STI(s). It feels way more realistic down to earth than most STI info on the internet. Plus, many of the communication tips are helpful for any conversation. Zine by Ess Elle. 3. Menstrual Cup, A Love Story Sorry to leave you out, penis owners, but this topic is close to my heart. Adelaide makes the discussion of menstrual cups fun and personal by briefly sharing the story of how she started using them after being a long-time tampon user. Next is a breakdown of how to use a menstrual cup, including some helpful tips that you won’t find elsewhere. Also, illustrations! This zine is totally worth reading for anyone who might be interested in trying a menstrual cup, or long time menstrual cup lovers. I’ve been using a menstrual cup for years, and I learned some new tips. Zine by Adelaide Barton of Lady Gardens. 4. Tips for Emerging Sexology Professionals: Networking and Nurturing
This zine is good if you’re trying to make a career out of your interest in sex positivity / sexual health. It offers practical tips for moving up in the field. And when I say practical, I mean practical to the point of possibly uninspiring if your vision of your sex positive career is based more on passion than on success. I recommend reading this zine to get a better understanding of the things you can do to succeed in the sexology field, while keeping in mind that your passion is most important – it’s why you’re doing this in the first place – and altering your path completely to be as hire-able as possible could get in the way of you fulfilling your full potential. Hold on to your passion and run with it! And learn some very useful tips for professional development in this zine. It’s available for free online! Bonus: I heard this (sexy) song for the first time at the clothing swap and have been listening to it nonstop ever since: Whatever You Like (cover) by Anya Marina Smutty consent performance9/21/2014 I know I’ve written a lot of posts that include the phrase “first ever” and its starting to sound gimmicky. But lately Pleasure Pie has given me a lot of opportunities to try things for the first time. About a week ago, I did my first ever performance! I wasn’t really sure how I could perform a zine, but the application specifically said that they were accepting zine performances, so I trusted that I could figure it out if I was accepted. I really wasn’t expecting them to accept my application because the description I gave of my performance didn’t sound at all smutty.
But they did! I was psyched because I’ve admired the CSPH’s work for a long time. And I was nervous because it was starting to hit me that I had never performed anything before, and I wasn’t that confident about the concept I submitted to them. So I started practicing with Eric and we quickly came up with ideas for making it funner and sexier. But those ideas required that I have a second performer. Eric isn’t a performer either, but he agreed to do it with me, so long as I don’t give him many lines. As the event neared, I started having flashbacks to the time I did a speech about polyamory at an event at Bridgewater State University. I was invited to speak by one of the event planners, but the other people in charge didn’t seem to want me there at all. Their approach to MCing was to goof around and tell borderline sex-negative and body shaming jokes. I think they thought that even a brief speech would be boring. They pretty much told me to get off the stage as quickly as I could. So I went up and started reading from my notes, and the (large) crowd kept chattering. I was really nervous, with it being possibly the first time I ever spoke in front of a crowd, and I felt completely unwanted. I rushed through what I had to say with little to no inflection in my voice, and left the stage wondering whether any of the 100+ people in the room got anything out of it. In planning for Smut Night I was really worried that I would freeze up again once I got in front of the crowd. I kept telling myself, “Say things with feeling! Be dramatic!” But in our practice sessions, I continued to be monotone because I couldn’t get past the fact that no one was actually watching us. When the night of the event finally came and Eric and I found ourselves in front of a real audience (which was a thousand times more welcoming and supportive than the one at Bridgewater, by the way) we both got so much energy from the crowd. We went all out with the over the top theatrics. My hands were visibly shaking with nervous and excited energy (someone from the front row later told me they noticed). I even knocked over the mic stand by pulling the microphone too far away during a chaotic fake-make-out scene. We improvised, goofed around, and ogled each other. I told people to buy the zine way too many times. We had a lot of fun, and I think the audience could tell. A bunch of strangers told me afterward that they loved our performance. :) Also, someone called my zine “a Puritan’s nightmare.” That was fun to hear. I just looked up the definition of Puritan and found “someone who follows a strict moral code and who believes that pleasure is wrong.” I didn’t realize how accurate that review was until now. Thanks so much to the Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health for putting on a great event and giving us the opportunity to be a part of it! I’m looking forward to possibly expressing my dramatic inclinations in future performances. Currently brainstorming new Pleasure Pie performance ideas. Did you miss the zine fest? Do you live outside of Boston? No problem! The internet and snail mail exist for this exact reason.
Check out the new Etsy shop to see everything that’s available! New England Zine Fest a huge success!8/18/2014 I put everything I’ve been working on out into the world yesterday! I spent the day tabling at New England Zine Fest in Cambridge, MA. It was an incredibly fulfilling experience! So many people loved my creations. It was really encouraging to get positive feedback. I’ve spent many hours working on all of this, and it meant so much to me that people were passionate about it. I’m excited to make more things! 7 Awesome Zine Fest Moments: 1. Someone told me that with all the controversy between sex positivity and feminism, my work is “exactly what [they] think sex positivity should look like.” 2. Someone from Papercut Zine Library liked my Choose Your Own Consensual Adventure zine and invited me to table at the Boston Zine Fair in October! 3. Another person from Papercut Zine Library liked the zine and asked if I wanted to donate it to the library for circulation. Yes! I donated one on the spot. 4. Someone from Support Boston asked if they could consign the zine to sell at shows. Yes! I gave them some zines and calendars. 5. Someone called Choose Your Own Consensual Adventure “amazing.” Someone else said that it is “an important thing to exist.” 6. Multiple people who work with youth bought the zine to use in their programs. 7. Someone that works with Bedsider bought the zine as a work purchase. So official! I gave them a free What’s Your Contraceptive Personality quiz because I referenced Bedsider when making it! I sold dozens of zines, calendars, quizzes, and postcards! Check back soon for information on buying my stuff online. :)
Yay! Choose Your Own Consensual Adventure8/1/2014 A new zine is in the works! See this and more at my table at the New England Zine Fest on Saturday, August 16 from 12-6 at the Cambridge YMCA.
Update: You can now find this zine on Etsy here! |