Former porn star discusses transition to sex education

Let's talk about sex, baby.Such was the topic of self-proclaimed "feminist porn activist" Annie Sprinkle Thursday in the Union Building Ballroom.

Sprinkle presented her life story, held a discussion and performed her "bosom ballet" to a near-capacity group of students and professors. The event was sponsored by United DePauw and the Students Art Council.

At the beginning of the night, Sprinkle warned the audience that "sexually explicit material" would be shown and that the event would be "informal." She kicked off the presentation with her own training video of how to make a pornography video and called making it a "creative process."

Her advice for those wishing to make pornography is to "make sure films show hot, safe sex."

But Sprinkle does not view sex and pornography as an inappropriate subject, calling sex the "elephant in the room."

"Pornography and sex is a big part of our world," Sprinkle said to the audience. "Why not study it?"

Sprinkle, a native of Los Angeles, was raised by her parents to be an activist. Her parents did not talk to her about the "birds and the bees," let alone about pornography.

Sprinkle lost her virginity at age 17 and had 50 sexual partners in the course of one month, keeping notes on all of them.

"I was very shy about sex at first," Sprinkle said, but was still intrigued by the pornography industry.

"Being in the sex industry, I was able to recreate myself," Sprinkle said. "I was interested in the filmmaking and sex, and it went together."

In her early films, Sprinkle said she was "exploring and experimenting." However, acting proved more of a challenge.

"It was the sex that was easy; it was the acting that was hard," Sprinkle said.

Sprinkle also discussed the changes in the pornography industry. She said when she first started, the men in the films went after the women, who did not really want to have sex but ended up enjoying themselves. A shift occurred as women started creating more pornographic films and taking control of their images. Films also became more diverse with the Internet.

Sprinkle expanded her work: She has performed a one woman show and used her breasts to create pictures, noting that "they make lovely Easter gifts."

After receiving her bachelor's degree in photography, she started to combine performance art, visual art and sex to help further her causes, such as the legalization of anal sex.

"Who's to tell us what's sexy?" Sprinkle said about the topic. "If we have a part of our body that we find sexy, who is to say we can't use it?"

She took photographs of her "sex worker friends" in an effort to "decriminalize" prostitution and fight for prostitutes' rights.

In the '80s, when instances of AIDS started to increase, Sprinkle decided she wanted to teach people how to have safer sex.

"I didn't want to lose any more people," Sprinkle said.

With her transition to a sex educator, Sprinkle earned her doctorate in human sexuality and began giving out awards, called Aphrodite Awards, to those who do "sexual service to the community."

The recipients may range from sex educators, like her, to nude models. At the event last night, she invited people who thought they had accomplished this and presented awards to members of United DePauw, other students and professors.

After battling breast cancer, she and her partner now "use performance art in our life" including putting on performance art weddings every year with a different color and different theme - this year's color is blue and the theme is "Marrying the Sky" -- called Love Art Laboratory, and Nude Aid, a live erotic event for charity in which artists and nude models participate.

Sprinkle will be a part of sidewalk sex clinic today and will be at the showing of one of her movies tonight at Peeler Art Center.

After the showing of the scene from her film about how to make a pornographic film, some students left the presentation feeling uncomfortable, but the majority stayed throughout, laughed along with Sprinkle's jokes and asked questions regarding her presentation. After the presentation, there was an open discussion with students, which revolved primarily around her role as a sex educator.