GOLDEN GODDESSES: 25 LEGENDARY WOMEN OF CLASSIC EROTIC CINEMA, 1968-1985

by Nelson, Jill C.

  Everything has worked out pretty well. If I died tomorrow, I’d die very happy. I’ve already had a full life. If I had gotten AIDS and died in my thirties, I would have been really bummed. After the “Great Dying,” the waves of death, everything after that was gravy. It’s a miracle that I didn’t get AIDS.

  Post-Porn Modernist

  During the epoch of AIDS and its relationship with the adult industry, as Annie’s filmography shows, she continued to make occasional appearances in videos, but there arose a great need to validate and make her work more meaningful. It was at this stage Sprinkle felt a new sense of self, beginning to cocoon. Her alter ego “Anya” emerged. “Anya” is defined as an introspective peacemaker — a wise, spiritual, eco-centered persona rather than the more egocentric “Annie” — the self-described narcissist, porn star/people pleaser. Anya was a way for Annie to resurrect and bridge the gap between Ellen and Annie as she moved fluidly toward an authentic frontier as a Post-Porn Modernist. One of the tangibles distinguishing Annie Sprinkle from her female associates in terms of how her past has influenced her present is that Annie is constantly unfolding and in motion. Everything is a learning experience.

  Were there a few missed opportunities for me? Maybe — I would have taken more financial courses in my twenties so I would have been better at money management, although I wouldn’t have been interested. Money has never been that big a motivating factor, but it sometimes has been an aphrodisiac of sorts. My mom made me take typing in high school even though I didn’t want to do it. I wish she’d said, “You’re going to need this financial course. You’re going to need to know how to balance your check book.” Of course, now it’s even more complicated with the computer. It’s hard to get the banks to send you a statement on paper nowadays.

  Because my dad was a Professor of the University Southern California (USC), I had an opportunity to go to USC for free to get a good college degree. Instead, I went to the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in Manhattan so that I could live in New York City. It was a private college and I had to do a lot of burlesque to pay for it all because I paid for most of it myself. The USC degree might have been more beneficial, but I didn’t value college education as much as life experience. Now, I really value a good college education more than I did back then. Again, I had a great education at SVA too.

  I’m proud of all of the prostitution. I really enjoyed that very much. I had over three thousand clients. When I stopped enjoying it, I got out, but it was an exciting and satisfying experience for twenty years. Sometimes I’m still tempted to go back into prostitution! As far as porn, I have no regrets at all.

  One missed opportunity was when I did my first one-woman show “Post-Porn Modernist” in the late 1980s. It was very controversial and I became part of the debate about the government funding of art and the NEA [National Endowment for the Arts]. I didn’t get a grant, but The Kitchen where I performed, had. My show was debated on the Senate floor. It’s in the Congressional Record. That attempt at censorship really launched my career, but I was uneducated about the issues. I was so used to being censored and controversial. I didn’t understand the significance of the arts censorship issues. I got calls from news shows, and Larry King and I was getting a lot of attention. I didn’t do it, because I didn’t know how to debate the issues. That was a missed opportunity, but that’s okay. I generally don’t like doing TV shows, but they are such good exposure. That’s often what counts in business these days, but not to me.

  “Post-Porn Modernism,” an offshoot of the expression “Post-Modernism,” is a term with a broad definition. It generally applies to the spectrum of literature, art, philosophy, architecture and is probably best described as a “personal truth” as it denies the absolution of existing principles as finite, challenging the idea that one size fits all with respect to how we perceive “reality.” Annie’s original Post-Porn Modernist show contained accounts of her many personal experiences before and during her work as a prostitute and in porn. The event also incorporated intimate nudity and explicit acts with some interactive audience participation.

  A Post-Porn Modernist makes sexually explicit media that is more arty, conceptual, experimental, political, and/or humorous than mainstream porn imagery. It often has a critical sensibility and while it usually contains some hardcore sex, it is not focused on being “erotic.” Post-Porn Modernism is the genre a Post-Porn Modernist works in currently and more popularly called “Post-Porn” for short. Today, numerous American and European artists, performance groups and some pornographers define their work as Post-Porn such as Charles Gatewood, Post Op, Carole Queen, Orgia, Girls Who Like Porno, Tina Butcher [aka Madison Young], Tristan Taormino, Sadie Lune, María Llopis and Del LaGrace Volcano.

  Tristan Taormino, probably the most well known of the group referenced by Sprinkle in the above quote was born in 1971 and has several articles, books, and a few sex films (in which she participated) under her belt. As a feminist pornographer, author, columnist, and sex educator — like Annie, Taormino has established herself as one of the world’s foremost authorities and keynote speakers on the subject of human sexuality and its diversities.

  I’m kind of the mother or grandmother as it were of Post-Porn. I’m very proud of that. I also helped pioneer other genres of sexually explicit films. I did some varieties of “gonzo” porn before it was called gonzo porn, in films like Consenting Adults (1983) with Gerard Damiano. I did feminist porn early on and then educational porn, and now eco-sex-porn, so I’m still going. I love pioneering new genres of explicit material and making bridges from porn to art and back again.

  One of Sprinkle’s most popular art pieces in the relatively new class of Post-Porn Modernism is her “Public Cervix Announcement” theatrical performance in which she sat spread-eagled on a stage (sans panties) and invited audience members to inspect her cervix using a speculum and flashlight. The event incorporated a clever slogan “Cervix with a smile” attached to an image of a happy face sporting two eyes and a hole in place of a mouth. The purpose of the piece was to break down barriers and fears surrounding the naked human physique while inviting guests to celebrate the female body.

  In 1990, Annie’s documentary-style film Linda/Les and Annie illustrated an affair with boyfriend Les Nichols who was born female (as Linda), and through the advent of modern medical advancements underwent surgery to obtain male genitalia. In her usual upbeat and idiosyncratic manner, Sprinkle divulged the intimacies of her first sexual experience with Linda as Les throughout the feature.

  After having sex with three thousand-plus men, I felt like it was time for a change. I had a couple of relationships with transsexuals: a female to male, and a male to female. I think of myself as what I call “Metamorphosexual” — always in a state of change.

  A few years later, Sprinkle was ready for an environmental change.

  For twenty years, I lived and worked in Manhattan — in prostitution and mainstream porn, then transitioned into the art world doing art projects about my life in sex. In 1994, I left the Big Apple and made my way back to California to be closer to my family. I was ready to move out of New York. I had a longing to be near nature. I had a girlfriend who had a house on the beach and at that time, I just needed the ocean. We were in Scotland and it was cold, and I said, “I feel so disconnected from nature.” I had lived on the eleventh floor and she said, “Well, it’s winter, I’ll take you to my house in the summer.” I started going to the beach with her in Long Island and then I knew I had to move and get out of the city, and be near the beach and beauty. At that point, the city was very predictable and nature was this exotic adventure. I moved to live on the beach. I had lived in cities all my life. Being in nature suddenly was so much more exciting. Now I live in San Francisco which I call the “Clitoris” of the USA. It’s small and electric. Two blocks from our house is a great hill that is a park and feels like being out in nature.

  It seems perfectly fitting with Annie’s love and respect for all things natural, green,
and erotic, she would find herself residing in a city nestled on the beautiful San Francisco bay welcoming and even encouraging of eccentricities. For those who believe in karma Annie is a living example of a person who can’t be knocked out. When the chips were down after a devastating life experience, Sprinkle concocted a big batch of lemonade and decided to get her Ph.D. She also got back in spades.

  I’m very lucky. I have wonderful friends that I’ve had for years and years that I adore. About thirteen years ago, I was living on a beautiful houseboat in Sausalito. When I was out on the road, my house sitter accidentally burnt the place down. I lost most everything I owned, my two cats died, and it was pretty disorienting. Without asking for any help, people started doing benefits for me all over the world. There were about twenty benefits. People started sending me all this money to help me get back on my feet. It was the most beautiful experience. I’m so glad I got to experience so much love. It was intensely physical, like sex, but a different flavor. I took the money, and went and got my Ph.D. I was so touched by all the people who wanted to help me from the porn community to the BDSM community to the porn fans to the art folks to the spiritual communities I had connected with. It was deeply touching and life changing. I realized the importance of community and of love.

  I really have been blessed to have been part of a wonderful community of women who created a sex-positive, slut-positive, porn-positive movement. Not all porn is something to be positive about, that’s for sure. The freedom to make it and to see it is precious. Sure, a lot of the women in porn had some self- esteem issues, but what group of women didn’t? It’s a bit better now. With Club 90, we showed that we can be slutty, we can be raunchy, and we can still be smart, powerful, integral, successful and interesting women. Certainly, as a whole — pun intended — the porn stars of the seventies and eighties helped pioneer a new kind of pornography: “The Golden Age of Porn.” Before that, it was very much the male bastion — they were mostly eight-millimeter loops.

  I was recently at the memorial service for Jamie Gillis here and I was nostalgic for the old days, but at the same time, I was glad that I don’t have to do that again.

  For Annie’s legions of fans, Sprinkle’s decision to stretch beyond the confines of sex films probably felt like the end of too much of a good thing. To this day, Annie and all aspects of her vintage work will infinitely remain entwined. She presides over the golden age era with a dominant voice and presence, and is indubitably one of the classic legendary females.

  I’m the “Golden shower Queen”. I’m the “Golden shower Goddess”. I’ve been in alternative sexually oriented art for almost as long as I did films. Theater, visual art, performance art, writing, but still almost all sex related.

  Herstory of Porn

  Derived from an expansive collection encompassing twenty years in the making, Annie’s authoritative piece Annie Sprinkle’s Herstory of Porn (1999) resonates with many fans of the erotic medium. Based upon a theatrical performance Sprinkle did by the same name showcasing montages extracted from her massive body of work, Herstory of Porn encapsulates Sprinkle’s infinite status as the spiritual and artistic “Green” Goddess of the present age.

  Some of my older films are just god-awful. The older films are more of a crapshoot. I don’t do mainstream porn movies now, but I still sell some of my old porn films on my website. I definitely still do some sexually oriented media. For example, for five years I did a theater piece Annie Sprinkle’s Herstory of Porn where I performed live together with some clips from my old porn movies. I made a video of that show. It’s available at Anniesprinkle.org. Herstory of Porn (1999) has clips from twenty-five years of my sex life, the best and the worst.

  Herstory of Porn is nothing short of luxury for the senses and contains three special disks. Annie Sprinkle graces the opening sequence with a backdrop resembling a movie house. Decked out in her customary porn star glitz and glam, Sprinkle greets the audience with her trademark sparkling, capricious personality that adult fans have grown to expect and admire. Annie invites the audience to accompany her on a journey through her “herstory of porn” beginning with a tongue-in-cheek commentary about Sprinkle’s novice years in adult entertainment initialized by loops in 1973 (she appeared in approximately fifty in total) and eventually, feature productions, many of which were grindhouse in nature.

  Annie’s 1970s experiential performances are comprehensive and assorted: hippie-dippy porn, horror porn, disco porn, S&M, genital piercings, “investigational” porn comprising of vaginal sausage insertion (as an example), fisting, anal beads, tampon envy, little persons, and last but not least, the infamous golden shower. Sprinkle conceded that once she established herself as the girl who was willing to try anything — mainstream adult film directors were no longer interested in hiring her. The star explained that although she generally enjoyed her work overall, occasionally, situations arose on set that were uncomfortable. Annie cited the film The Devil Inside Her (1977) as an example of an experience where she was overcome by the film’s extreme improvisational aspect while playing a young woman besieged and raped by a group of men.

  The second section of “Herstory” focuses on the 1980s. It is marked by Sprinkle’s transition toward experimental, enviro-sexual frontiers spanning into her Post Porn Modernist years and beyond. Sprinkle revealed how in 1984 her life took on a different course when she met Jamal, a tantric sex guru who taught her how to unify energy, sexuality, and spirituality in order to achieve a more intensive and meaningful orgasm. Armed with this newfound knowledge, Annie proceeded to direct her own film for Femme Productions titled Rite of Passage which incorporated some of the techniques gleaned from her relations with Jamal.

  In 1990, Annie experienced another awakening of sorts when she reconnected with her childhood passion for inventive undertakings personified by her performance in the arty porn film War is Menstrual Envy (1992). Sprinkle also collaborated with Canadian filmmaker Cynthia Roberts to create Docu-porn, which inevitably opened the door for Annie’s Post Porn Modernist chapter. At this stage of her life and career, Annie became a lesbian and believed the inauguration of several Post Porn Modernist pieces would gain her entry and acceptance into the gay and lesbian community — it did. Sluts and Goddesses (1998) touted as the cornerstone of Sprinkles’ milieu, is a “Goddess-in-the-making” workshop. In other words, the video excerpt is an instruction on how one becomes a slut/goddess in several easy steps. A few highlights of this practicum are shown, and it certainly appears to be outrageous, exotic fun. Simultaneous to the “Sluts and Goddesses” phase was Annie’s decision to bond once again with nature. Subsequent scenes reveal Annie unplugged as she “medibates” beneath a cascading waterfall, followed by the release of emotion and the sanctity of prayer.

  In the final segment of Herstory of Porn, Annie teaches viewers how to make their own porn. She weaves together a vibrant and fascinating mermaid story signifying the passing of the torch from one Goddess to another and dies a symbolic death.

  The two bonus disks are also educational and enlightening. The first is a fifteen-minute highlight reel from Annie’s “Post Porn Modernist” show filmed live at The Kitchen in New York City. The passages play like a mini version of Herstory of Porn as Annie walks the audience through the various stages of her career (including a snippet from her now famous “Public Cervix Announcement”), but with a more informal and interactive focus. A resonating element from her signature show is Sprinkle’s stark appearance on stage dressed down in a dressing gown without make up. Drawing comparisons between her fundamental self, “Ellen Steinberg,” and her public persona, “Annie Sprinkle,” Annie proclaims:

  “Ellen Steinberg is shy.”

  “Annie Sprinkle is an exhibitionist.”

  “Ellen Steinberg is fat.”

  “Annie Sprinkle is voluptuous.”

  “Ellen Steinberg wears sensible shoes.”

  “Annie Sprinkle wears spike heels.”

  When the self-assessment concludes, Annie c
onfides to the audience: “I’ll tell you something you might not know…Ellen Steinberg is Annie Sprinkle…” “Now I’ll tell you an even bigger secret…” “Annie Sprinkle is Ellen Steinberg.”

  The third disk on the DVD collection is a discussion between Annie and sexologist, Jeff Fletcher, about the advancement of eight-millimeter loops between the 1950s up until 1985. The two explain what the shorts represented for society in terms of sexuality, morality, politics, education, and liberation. As various loops flash across the screen including some familiar faces such as Mai Lin and Sharon Kane, Annie comments about the purity and simplicity of the performers and performances during the primitive years of adult filmmaking, and draws parallels to the contemporary era.

  There are definitely more options for sex workers today. There are so many ways to do things and reasons to do things. I love to do career counseling with sex workers who are in transition and do it quite often. There is not really “one size fits all” kind of advice I give. It’s about “What do you need and want, and how do you go about getting it?” I find myself asking advice from young people such as “How do I do Facebook?” and “How do I twitter?” So much of it now is about the computer and marketing.

  If you want to do a book, that’s one thing, but you have to really be able to market a book now. Young people know that. I used to know how to write a good press release, and put it in the mail and put a stamp on the envelope. Now, you’ve got to know how to do search words and buttons, and social networking constantly. I love to come up with names for new businesses, help brainstorm titles, publicity stunts, actions and ideas. I love to collaborate with others.