I’ve wanted to meet Monica Shores since I first read her writing in the now defunct Carnal Nation. So, we dreamed up this amazing event and Monica came to us. Sometimes, life is really, really good. Seriously, how to be an ally to sex workers is something that I think about a lot. Never having been a sex worker, I realize that a huge part of my job as an ally is to LISTEN without judgement, but I want to learn more and so I am very much looking forward to this session and hearing what these fabulous panelists have to say.
Blogging the Gap: How Sex Workers and Sex Writers Can Work Together
Moderator
Monica Shores
Panelists
Christina Cicchelli
Sabrina Morgan
Christina Voss
Censorious and anti-sex rhetoric is a threat to all progressive individuals, not only those who make their living in the sex industry. And those who write honestly about sex, personally or objectively, are vulnerable to many of the same attacks and stigma as those who engage in various forms of sex for money. We’ll discuss how sex bloggers can better advocate for sex workers—and by extension, themselves—as well as ways of joining together to strengthen the sexually rebellious community as a whole. In addition to laying the groundwork for mutual respect and support, we’ll outline a list of talking points to be used in response to the most common, destructive cliches about sex and its advocates.
Monica Shores
Monica Shores has written and spoken about the sex industry, sexual rights, and sexual taboos for over five years. From interviewing “gay for pay” male escorts to writing about her own experiences with anal sex, she’s of the mind that there’s no such thing as too much information when it comes to sex. Her eternal goal is to de-stigmatize and de-mysticize consensual encounters.
Monica is a regular contributor to Alternet, The Rumpus, Ms., The Huffington Post, Filthy Gorgeous Things, and a former editor of $pread magazine. Her writing has also been included in The Best Sex Writing 2010.
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Christina Cicchelliwww.afantasticnightmare.com
In 2006, Christina first began to make waves in the adult industry as Simone Valentino. She started her porn career in Joe Gallant’s Avenue X and in that same year played lead in the ethno-erotic film Afrodite Superstar. Cicchelli also landed a lead role in Audacia Ray’s The Bi Apple, a sexy romp around one of NYC’s infamous sexhouses, and for this role she won a Feminist Porn Award for Best New Star.
Christina is creator of the blog A Fantastic Nightmare, where she writes about her experiences as a professional domme, as well as essays about feminism, fetish, and sexuality. She has read her work for Sex Literati and The Red Umbrella Project. She has also been interviewed by Time Out New York and has spoken at Yale about her experiences in the adult industry.
Sabrina Morgan
Sabrina Morgan is a dominant phone sex operator and camgirl, a fetish companion, and an occasional porn performer. She has been in the adult industry since 2005 and chronicling her experiences since 2006 at her blogsabrinainstockings.com. She considers it a personal mission to bring subtlety and the art of the tease back to our sexual consciousness one phone call at a time.
As a supporter of ongoing education for erotic professionals, Sabrina is involved in consulting and training fellow distance sex workers. She presents regularly at sexuality-related conferences on sex work and relationships (whether with clients or with partners).
A reactivated activist and a bi femme with a little nylon fetish, she spends entirely too much time on Twitter (twitter.com/SabrinaMorgan).
Christina Voss
Christina Voss is the editor of FilthyGorgeousThings, an online magazine dedicated to sex, art, and photography. She encourages contributors to write openly and thoughtfully about sexual experience on a variety of themes, from sex work to kink to monogamy. Her background is in the history of art and culture,with a focus on sexuality, and she writes a column for FGT on the history of sex in art.
Blogging the Gap: How Sex Workers and Sex Writers Can Work Together will be presented on Saturday, April 2nd from 10:30AM to 11:40AM.
