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Sex and Media, Medicine, Politics and Pop Culture Get their Due at Good Vibrations’ 2012 Sex Summit Conference

Great Minds Gather for Sexual State of the Union in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO (November 13th, 2012): Academics, authors, researchers, journalists, pop-culture commentators, and activists came together on October 27th in San Francisco for one information-packed day to paint a vivid picture of the USA's state of the sexual union. Presented by Good Vibrations, the Sex Summit featured sexuality experts and analysts from around the country, with four tracks -- censorship and politics, the media, health and pharmaceuticals, and popular culture -- each explored by a panel, plus three notable keynote speakers. Politics, pleasure, and the varying ways we learn about sexuality were on the table to be discussed, and insights abounded.

Author and Good Vibrations Staff Sexologist Carol Queen, PhD, welcomed and hosted the gathering, reminding attendees in her opening remarks that the November 6 elections hold enormous repercussions for those interested in sexuality-related issues: sex education, women's right to choose whether or not (and when) they bear children, marriage equality, censorship, and much more.

See more photos at goodvibessexsummit.com.

Keynoting the Sex Summit were three writers whose work, in substantially different ways, explores social elements of sexuality. 

Debby Herbenick, Ph.D., M.P.H., opening keynote speaker, is Research Scientist and Associate Director at The Center for Sexual Health Promotion and sexual health educator at The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction at Indiana University. She is the author of Because It Feels Good: A Woman’s Guide to Sexual Pleasure and Satisfaction and Sex Made Easy: Your Awkward Questions Answered for Better, Smarter, Amazing Sex. Herbenick wove discussion of new, research-derived insights into women's sexuality into the larger picture of this election cycle's politicized discourse about women's bodies and reproductive rights, emphasizing how much information we still need. "We're a long way from having a complete picture of the truth about sex in America," she said. 

Midday keynoter Dr. Marty Klein disagreed that Election Day particularly highlights women's issues; calling it a "war on women" is a mistake, Klein said -- "It's a war on sex." He warned that sexuality education, especially for youth, and sexual rights can be put at risk by a public and politicians prone to "dangerism": the notion that sexuality is fundamentally dangerous and needs to be controlled. Klein, a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist and Certified Sex Therapist for 31 years, has focused his "entire career toward a single set of goals: telling the truth about sexuality, helping people feel sexually adequate and powerful, and supporting the healthy sexual expression and exploration of women and men." 

Brian Alexander, closing keynote speaker, is an award-winning journalist and author who has been a contributing editor at Wired and Glamour magazines, and has written for The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, Outside, and many others. He is the author of America Unzipped: The Search for Sex and Satisfaction. His new book, written with neuroscientist Larry Young is The Chemistry Between Us: Love, Sex, and the Science of Attraction. Alexander's asserted that sex as a culture-war issue is in fact now largely irrelevant, or is rapidly becoming so; "most smart conservatives know we've won the battle" over sex-inflected social issues, he said, and the reason they still seem to loom so large has to do with how hard it is to grapple with issues having to do with economic change and displacement that are truly distressing us now.

A series of panels, each with four panelists and a moderator, delved more deeply into four key issues affecting the public's understanding and perceptions regarding sexuality.

Regulating Pleasure: Sex, Politics & Censorship featured Dr. Marty Klein, sex worker and HIV activist Maggie Mayhem, journalist and Harmful to Minors author Judith Levine, and community intellectual and LGBT activist Carmen Vázquez, moderated by Good Vibrations Education Program Manager Dr. Charlie Glickman. Censorship and about controversial sexual content -- from within one's own community or by the state, by the press or from financial institutions -- had been part of each panelist's experience, shutting down debate and making varying cultural perspectives about sexuality harder to access.

Outspoken/Unsaid: Sex & Media, with Brian Alexander, UC Santa Barbara Feminist Studies professor Dr. Mireille Miller-Young, sociologist, USC Visiting Scholar and Porn Valley Vantage blogger Chauntelle Anne Tibbals, Ph.D, and writer and founder/Executive Director of Women, Action & the Media Jaclyn Friedman, was moderated by filmmaker and correspondent Abiola Abrams. The discussion ranged from our expectations of media sources to tell diverse stories of sexuality (and, sometimes, their failure to do so) to the great range of media available now, from mainstream to online, from porn to popular, and how sex educators and activists can best access it. 

Pills, Profits and Pleasures: Sexual Health & Pharmaceuticals featured Dr. Debby Herbenick, Scarleteen.com founder/Executive Director and RH Reality Check columnist Heather Corinna, Orgasm, Inc. director and Dartmouth Visionary Award winner Liz Canner, and health educator and transgender activist Yoseñio V. Lewis and was moderated by Dr. Carol Queen. From the medicalized, "permission slip"-circumscribed life of transsexuals needing hormones or reassignment surgery to the so-far-fruitless search for a women's version of Viagra to the changing world of AIDS treatment and medications, pharmaceutical companies and doctors play a significant role in many peoples' sexual experiences.

The final panel, Sexual Stargazing: Sex & Pop Culture, included Salon.com sex columnist Tracy Clark-Flory, University of Nevada Women's Studies professor and Las vegas Weekly columnist Dr. Lynn Comella, Abiola Abrams, and Sex With Emily and reality TV personality Emily Morse, moderated by sex and relationship expert Reid Mihalko. Talk ranged from the ways stars and pop media outlets shape sexual perceptions to the popular culture that influenced the panelists as they grew up, since -- like many young people today -- they mostly had greater access to TV, movies and magazines than to actual sex education sources.

The Good Vibrations Sex Summit was live-tweeted by a group of sex educators and activists with substantial Twitter followings: Jayme Waxman, William Winters, Sabrina Morgan, Laci Green, and Jaclyn Friedman. Posts from the summit can be viewed through the Good Vibrations #SexSummit Storify: storify.com/GoodVibesToys/good-vibrations-sex-summit

The Sex Summit was made possible by co-presenter We-Vibe and sponsored by Aneros, Glyde Condoms, Trojan Vibrations, Blossom Organics, Vibratex, and the Museum of Sex, and supported by the Center for Sex & Culture. 

More bio information about Sex Summit presenters, as well as press mentions as they are received, can be found at goodvibessexsummit.com. Sex Summit participants are welcomed to offer feedback to conference organizers via the webform at goodvibessexsummit.com/feedback-form.

ABOUT GOOD VIBRATIONS
Good Vibrations is the San Francisco-based retailer trusted for more than three decades to provide a comfortable, safe environment for finding sex-positive products and educational materials to enhance one’s sex life. Good Vibrations offers its products through its retail stores and website, goodvibes.com.

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