Audacia Ray's Blog, page 78

Naked City Nostalgia (My Fave Videos)

Last night when I dug up the Naked City TV episode about Sex 2.0 I sat and watched a bunch of episodes of the show, and it made me feel all nostalgic about making the show and writing the Naked City blog for the Village Voice. It was a year ago this week that Naked City launched (not linking now because the site has been pulled), so I decided to re-post my top five favorite episodes of Naked City - I made 19 of them all told. And by “made,” I mean that I shot and edited everything, in addition t

What’s in a Word? Why Language Matters When it Comes to Sexuality and Gender

I have something of a love/hate relationship with language around sexuality and gender. Language can be used as a weapon, as a tool of oppression and dismissal (I think of the times I’ve seen trans friends visibly wince when someone pointedly uses the wrong pronoun at them); it can be used to liberate and expand people’s ways of thinking about gender and sexuality. It can also be used to jumble a message and bring productive conversation to a standstill. I’ve been thinking about striking balanc

Healing My Broken Feminist Heart

By which I mean, my heart was broken by feminism, and now I’m working on healing it. I have other fractured parts of my heart too: some fixable, some persistent shards, but this isn’t about that. Over the past few years my relationship with feminism has been difficult and sometimes bordering on abusive (I would say feminism has been abusive toward me, but every story has its sides).

Being a feminist was the first identity I knew absolutely belonged to me (or vice versa), when I first heard the wo

Event: Porn, the 1st Amendment and the State of Obscenity Law in an Online Society (4/14)

I’ve been invited to speak at a panel on April 14th at Brooklyn Law School with a pair of lawyers - should be really interesting. The event is free, and it’s the first of my Naked on the Internet birthday events.

Here’s the official blurb about the panel (did I mention its free?)

The internet has changed the face of pornography by allowing for unprecedented participation in the creation of explicit media. In addition, the internet has provided means for web proprietors to promote sex-oriented serv

Naked On the Internet at 2 Years Old

Check my Flickr set of tour photos (login needed)

Earlier this week I got asked to be a part of a panel taking place at Brooklyn Law School on the evening of April 14th: “Porn, the 1st Amendment and the State of Obscenity Law in an Online Society.” I accepted (I’ll give fuller details when I’ve got them), and then it got me thinking about the upcoming second birthday of my book, Naked on the Internet: Hookups, Downloads, and Cashing In on Internet Sexploration.

I think I would like to do a small

Book Review: Intersex

Intersex by Thea Hillman


This reviewed was originally posted on Goodreads
rating: 4 of 5 stars
Thea Hillman’s book is thoroughly beautiful, written in a way that makes you feel like you’re her one and only confidant, not just a reader. The book is structured as a series of short essays, some of which are obviously based on talks she has given in her career as an activist, performer, public speaker, and educator.

I think a bigger, more mainstream publisher (the book is published by Manic D Press

Building Networks of Support, or: My Own Private Alumni Association

(Role Models, Part 2)

Over the past month, I have had several experiences that have made my brain churn around the issues of movement-making, support, and community. When I went to the International Sex Worker Rights Day potluck dinner, I arrived a little late with my new pal and recent transplant to the East Coast, David Henry Sterry, and as soon as we walked in the room it hit me that I’m not exactly an outsider to the sex industry now, but my relationship to it has certainly changed. I knew mo

Getting Fangirly on Activist Filmmakers

I’m in syllabus brainstorming mode. Starting in late May I’ll be teaching my third semester of a Human Sexuality lecture course at Rutgers University in Newark. So: that’s Professor Ray to you. The summer session is 6 weeks long, 12 classes, each 3 hours long, and I’m planning on including a bunch of films, plus hopefully some guest speakers, in addition to my brilliant (cough) pontificating.

As part of my research, which as always is fun like whoa in my line of work, I’m checking out a bunch of

Book Review: Mutants

Mutants: On Genetic Variety and the Human Body by Armand Marie Leroi

This review was originally posted on Goodreads
rating: 3 of 5 stars
I’m not a dumb lady. But science hasn’t really ever been my thing (which is why it’s funny that I teach my human sexuality course in a biology department). I’ve been wanting to read more science stuff but also a little apprehensive about it, so a book about genetic mutations with a cover as awesome as this one was just what I needed. There were pieces of the

Grown Up Feisty and Amazing (Role Models, Part 1)

Left to right: Cory Silverberg, Melissa Gira, CJ Turett, Heather Corinna, Audacia Ray, Mark Price

So. I’m at the tail end of six days in San Francisco, most of which have been spent working. My work is in that delicious and amazing place where I’m not sure when I’m working and when I’m not (well, sometimes its obvious) - but there’s been a lot of synapse firing in the past bunch of days. More than the brain energies, though, I’ve been experiencing a lot of moments of intense personal and profess