Reflections on the Ecosex Symposium

I really enjoyed the Ecosex Symposium last weekend that was organized by Professor Elizabeth Stephens and Dr. Annie Sprinkle. I was very honored to participate and look forward to working more with the Ecosexual Movement in the future. My presentation was part of the activism/environmentalism panel and focused on environmental justice (EJ) and high tech industrialization, with a specific focus on the history of EJ movements in Silicon Valley. I initially really didn't know what to expect. I was initially worried my presentation would be too structured and perhaps slightly too structured and "social science-esque" for such a creatively open art-centered symposium. But I actually feel like the presentation went well, and I received extremely valuable feedback from my co-panelists as well as audience members, who seemed quite receptive to my ideas and the subject matter with which I was working. Amy Bliss, a sexologist co-panelist, gave a great talk on sexual impacts of toxics. Her presentation was entitled "Toxins Ate my Sex Life". Amy talked about the devastating impacts of industrial toxic chemicals on her sex life, impacts which eventually lead to the demise of her marriage. She incorporated ppt slides with audio, as well as her own voice and body into her presentation. It was a wonderfully creative and original presentation.

It also occurred to me during the course of her presentation that she was contributing to a conversation that was heretofore totally missing from the Environmental Justice paradigm. Amy's presentation helped me to realize that this 'ecosexual' movement to bring sex and sexuality more directly into the environmental movement is not only about making the environmental movement more sexy, diverse and playful (all of which I consider to be very important and timely endeavors) but also about understanding issues of sex and sexuality as serious justice issues. Amy and I have made plans to collaborate in the near future.

What kinds of worlds are made possible if we take seriously the ideas of sexuality--and sex--as environmental justice issues? Could we perhaps think of sexuality and sexual enjoyment as human rights? Not only the right to choose one's sexual identity/embrace one's sexual orientation without facing discrimination, but also the right to sexual pleasure. This would include freedom from sexually destructive industrial toxics. I find this very intriguing and challenging in a nontrivial way. Is this pushing things too far? I don't think so, but at the same time I know there would have to be limits, or at least a meaningful ethical framework in which to understand sexual enjoyment as a human right. How might we imagine an environmental justice movement that includes an ethics of sexuality which explicitly incorporates the right to sexual pleasure into a broader anti-toxics environmental justice framework? Perhaps the time has come to recognize sexuality as a site of intervention for democratic and social justice movements that must incorporate not only sexual identity/orientation but also the right to ethically grounded sexual pleasure. I find this project quite exciting and I look forward to collaborating with Amy.