It’s another firecracking 4th of July weekend in Bonoboville, and amidst all the all-American, hot-dogging, beer-busted, summer-hot affirmations of freedom, we explore the ins and outs of sexual freedom with an icon of sex and freedom, the one and only Nina Hartley, now celebrating her 30th year as the best-known, most enduring and beloved of American porn stars.
Yes, the inimitable, effervescent, eloquent, elegant, extremely intelligent, kinky, swinging and very bonoboësque Nina is still doing porn. She’s “a ho and proud of it,” with “sex partners younger than (her) breast implants.” But she’s branched out since she made her first of many great appearances on RadioSUZY1 back in 1994 (20 years ago!). This time, she joins us as spokeswoman for the Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance, “America’s leading sexual freedom and human rights organization” based in Washington, DC (where all the political ho’s hang out). Some of the important issues Woodhull focuses on include freedom of speech, reproductive justice, prison reform, anti-discrimination legislation, comprehensive nonjudgmental sexuality education, immigration equality and the right to define our own families. The Alliance’s mission is to “affirm sexual freedom as a fundamental human right.” And I say amen and awomen to that.
Nina and her “sidekick,” fellow Woodhull board member, businessman and erotic explorer, Danny O’Neill (a younger, slimmer doppelgänger for John McCain), are most excited about Woodhull’s upcoming Sexual Freedom Summit, August 14-17, a long lusty weekend of discussions, seminars, networking events, trainings and, of course, parties (what’s sexual freedom without parties?) in our nation’s capital. I call it Sexual Freedom Summer Camp for adults only (sorry kids, you’ll have to wait until you’re over 18 for a decent sex education in this society).
Speaking of sex education, just in case you don’t know your sex-positive feminist history… Victoria Woodhull, namesake of the Woodhull Alliance, was an extraordinary 19th century sexual freedom fighter, radical suffragist, spiritual visionary, “Free Love” advocate and newspaper publisher, as well as being the first woman to own a Wall Street investment firm and run for President of the United States (at a time when American women could not even vote). Though she rose to the top, Woodhull more than paid her dues at the bottom, and not just during her poverty-stricken beginnings. Even after her extraordinary success, she was depicted in the press as “Mrs. Satan” and jailed repeatedly on charges of publishing pornography, mostly thanks to the puritanical machinations of U.S. Postmaster General Anthony Comstock. Unfortunately, that’s where sexual freedom fighting sometimes takes you, as Capt’n Max, former publisher of The LA Star and longtime sexual freedom fighter, can attest.
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