Closing Keynote Plenary

Sex in America: Changing the Conversation Beyond Smut and Sanctimony

Panelists

Dr. Joycelyn Elders
Esther Perel
Lara Riscol

Adultery, abortion, homosexuality, transgender rights, teen sex, female promiscuity, virginity campaigns, sex ed, pornography, prostitution and family values all clog public debate, especially in an election year. Despite America’s hypersexualized consumer culture, the practice of policing and demonizing sexualities continues unabated, while an Ozzie and Harriet, Sandra Dee nostalgia binds us to sexual myths that harm us as individuals, as lovers, as a society. As today’s infotainment era churns out a “smut and sanctimony” narrative that divides our nation regardless of sexual lives lived, how do we change the conversation?

When we’re taught that sex is dirty but save it for the one we love, is it any surprise that so many couples become erotically alienated? How do the politics of sex enter the bedroom? Join three bold thinkers–known for challenging the sexual status quo–in a thoughtful and provocative conversation about sex, pleasure, desire, eroticism, infidelity and monogamy.