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

by Nelson, Jill C.

  I have a friend who had an idea about doing the first burlesque film festival and I thought, “God, yeah, you have to do that. Why don’t you call so and so and do it this way or that way?” Giving advice or suggestions really depends upon the individual project or person. Today, a lot of my work is collaborative — most all. Then again, so was making porn films. It’s a group effort; group fun, actually.

  If I have a legacy, it’s probably creating the genre called “Post-Porn”. I like to think of myself sort of as the “Yoko Ono of Porn” and making porn more spiritual and conceptual. I guess I’m kind of still creating this idea of Post-Porn. I’ve always been a great admirer of Yoko Ono. She has long been a huge inspiration to me. I love her work and I adore the art and activism John and Yoko did together. I’m on Yoko’s Twitter feed and she consistently delights and amazes me.

  One would be remiss not to mention some of Sprinkle’s additional alternative and symbolic one-woman performance art conceptions as they further demonstrate her talent for educating the public how to adopt eroticism and sensuality into an individual’s life in a fun and non-invasive manner. In addition to her “Public Cervix Announcement,” Annie also devised “The Legend of the Ancient Sacred Prostitute” incorporating a magical masturbation ceremony during her act. Other theatrical pieces include “Peace in Bed-In” which took place within four major cities.“Peace in Bed-In” is a sex educational statement emulating the work for world peace first manifested in Montreal in 1969 by John Lennon and conceptual artist Yoko Ono.

  Numerous other events have been conceived by Annie over the years to convey the marriage of sex, peace, and enlightenment detailed on her website. Sprinkle continues to lecture and pen articles and has been the editor of various magazines. Annie is also the author of several publications similarly themed to her films and art expressions: Dr Sprinkle’s Spectacular Sex — Makeover Your Love Life (2005), Annie Sprinkle, Post-Porn Modernist: My 25 Years as a Multi-Media Whore (1998), and the 2006 publication Hardcore from the Heart: The Pleasures, Profits and Politics of Sex in Performance (Critical Performances). There is a graphic comic book and other interesting dissertations underscoring her seemingly tireless work in the area of sexology, not to mention, a selection of sexually oriented self-help videos. Without a doubt, Annie is most definitely the Queen of all multi-media, and she knows how to work it. With a sense of humor, Sprinkle prefers to keep her focus on the here and now.

  I’d rather talk about today. Like my artist friend Kembra Pfahler said, “I don’t like to yesturbate.” I do like to masturbate!

  Eco-sexuals: Annie and Beth & Bob

  For the past ten years, I have been with a wonderful woman Elizabeth Stephens. Beth is an academic. Beth is a West Virginia girl. She’s an artist as well as a tenured art professor at University of California in Santa Cruz. She’s also a graduate student and getting her Ph.D. We live in Bernal Heights, [San Francisco] along with our dog Bob. Beth has wonderful academic friends and I have wonderful porn star and whore friends. Our parties are so much fun because academics and sex workers are a great mix. They’re so different. I’m with the love of my life.

  I’m crazy about her. I never expected to have a good, healthy, mutually satisfying relationship. I was never that interested in relationships, just having lots of different kinds of lovers. I treasure love. I’ve really found a life partner so that’s been very satisfying. I didn’t even know I was looking for someone. We have been lovers and collaborators for ten years. We work together, so we’re together almost every single minute of every day. Most days, I feel like the luckiest girl alive. It’s been an amazing journey.

  On January 14, 2007, Sprinkle and Stephens officially tied the knot in a non-traditional wedding ceremony on the west coast of Canada.

  She was interested in ecology and I was interested in sexology. Then we got excited about the combination of both and it works out nicely. Beth and I have done some experimental sexually explicit art projects. We call it “Eco-sexuality.” I don’t feel like I stopped doing anything; I’ve just changed what I do. As I changed, the work changed. The audience changes and my reasons for doing things change. Thank goodness, things change. In the beginning, it was filmmaking and sex, and then of course, it all turned to video. Now it is ecology and sexuality. Beth and I have a new theater piece called “Dirty Sexecology — 25 Ways to Make Love with the Earth”. In it, Beth sings a song while I do a ballet striptease to a Yo-Yo Ma piece at the same time. At the end, we get naked, and we get in these two big breast-shaped piles of dirt and have sex. It’s very dirty. It’s about loving the Earth. I feel like my best is yet to come in the Eco-sex Movement I’m helping to co-create.

  Sprinkle and Stephens are a team generating innovative and improved ways of enlightening inhabitants of a vulnerable planet. They teach that a greener mindset can be sexy and even erotic with the right attitude. In 2005, the pair made a commitment to devote seven years to projects signifying love which is part of their “Love Art Laboratory.” Their recent collaborative piece titled “Dirty Sexecology — 25 Ways to Make Love with the Earth” might seem preposterous to some, but even skeptics can’t deny the two women are consciousness-raising with ingenious buzzwords like “Eco-sexual” as they challenge the population to protect and provide nourishment to the earth. Sprinkle and Stephens have even written their own version of “Commandments” for those to adapt into their daily lives if they wish to comply. As part of the ongoing celebration of earth, Annie and Beth have staged a series of weddings as a metaphor, symbolizing a special and treasured union with various elements of the planet: the sky, sea and soil.

  We have done some very cool, eco-sexual wedding performances. In the last one we did, “White Wedding to the Snow”. Ninety people helped create the wedding. We did it in this huge cathedral and four hundred people came. During our vows, we got rings made of ice; then we got penis-sized icicles and we consummated our marriage with the snow by inserting them in each other. Afterwards, we lifted our wedding dresses, and put our pussies into the snow and kissed. It was hot and cold both! It’s not your usual live sex show, but it is live sex on stage.

  Since Annie and Beth launched their Love Art Laboratory project, the weddings have clearly become the centerpiece of related art projects. Each one constitutes a uniquely crafted idea — such as their first marriage to the earth. Specific fabrics and colored hues are worn by the couple and their guests, mirroring the seven chakras recognized in Buddhism and Hinduism traditions and employed in modern yoga practices.

  We have had eleven big performance art weddings. Eight have had environmental themes. First, we married the earth, then we married the sky, and there was another one where we married the sea. We have also married the moon and the Appalachian Mountains. In March 2011 [in Ottawa, Canada], we married the Snow. When we went to Vienna [in 2010], we had sold out one hundred and seventy seats. The audience was very enthusiastic. We’d worked on the show, and it had gotten better since we did it the first time in Boston so we had a great crowd, and it got good reviews — it’s a process. We are doing a second Eco-sex Symposium this summer [2011]. A lot of people resonate with our concept of Earth as Lover. You can make love with the earth through the senses. We’re actually quite emotionally connected on an energetic level at least with nature. We don’t really know for sure how much the earth feels our love; maybe they’re just symbolic gestures, but we feel connected and in love with nature.

  Earth Mother, Lover, Mate and Friend

  I have always been aware of various nature fetishes like dendrophilia, which is the erotic love of trees. People have sex in trees, or with trees, or hug trees. I also like wind play, fire play, and airplay using breath or the wind from motorcycles. I love getting pounded by waterfalls. I find it incredibly ecstatic. A certain hotel in Vegas has a pool with a waterfall that you can stand under. I go to that hotel and stand under the waterfall just to get high.

  I am an Eco-sexual, Sex-ecologist. “Eco-sexual” was a dating term people would
use to describe the fact that they were interested in “eco” things. Beth and I have usurped the term to describe actually being lovers with nature. In addition to eco-sex weddings, we’re doing eco-sex walking tours; we made an eco-sex bumper sticker, we have an eco-sexual theater piece. We’ve created some fun charts and graphs which explain eco-sex. They’re on our web site: loveartlab.org. Also at sexecology.org. It was recently re-launched on Valentine’s Day 2012. We’re not really inventing anything; we’re repackaging it.

  As Annie conceded, the brand of Sex-ecology practiced by she and Beth isn’t an original tenet. “Pagan” is translated from the words “country dweller,” often used to describe a non-Christian. In ancient civilizations such as Greece or Rome, a pagan worshipped many Gods, and believed a specific deity was associated with various facets and spirits contained in nature: a God or Goddess of the sky or of the natural world. Later, people connected spirit Gods and Goddesses to their various occupations. Also considered a fertility religion, the feminine component of the Pagan faith is traditionally revered and exalted. Sprinkle and Stephens have effectively improvised the primitive practice, modernizing it to fit their mandate as a means to engage people in a unified and positive way.

  Eco-sexuality is truly about exploring the places where sexology and ecology intersect. Beth and I are switching up the metaphor from Earth as Mother, to Earth as Lover. We are trying to make the environmental movement more sexy, fun, and diverse. We’re trying to create a whole new sexual identity and area of research and sex education. We’re really having fun, and it’s satisfying to do something that’s much bigger than I am. It feels important. I’m recreating myself as an environmental activist, and having a blast. Green is sexy!

  Early in January 2011, on a cold, snowy afternoon, Annie was scheduled to present her “Eco-Sexy” lecture at the University of Toronto. I booked off work and drove downtown against traffic to the campus where I hoped to have an opportunity to chat with Annie prior to sitting in on her presentation. About a half hour before her lecture, we relaxed in the teacher’s lounge drinking herbal tea and nibbling homemade Canadian maple fudge while Annie organized her power point presentation. She showed me various photos she planned to use spanning her life and career. I marveled that she hadn’t yet finessed her speech prior to her trip to Toronto, but she reassured me she liked to “change things up.” A few minutes after 3:00pm, Annie was introduced to a packed house of students enrolled in a Sexual Diversity course. Described by the Master of Ceremonies as a “prostitute, porn star, and sexual intellectual,” Sprinkle took the stage, enthusiastically entertaining the captive audience as she utilized sensual imagery on a screen depicting environmental intimacy. Fond embraces between flowers and foliage in lush forests were juxtaposed with more erotic nature photographs suggesting the presence of genitalia. While educating the students about the many ways in which the world can be cherished as a sexy, precocious, precious companion, Annie competently conveyed the message that everyone can become better caretakers of one another and of the earth once our “E” spot is identified.

  Eco-sexuality is sensual or spiritual and it can be very emotional too. Beth and I actually made breast cancer fun. I was diagnosed with it six years ago. It wasn’t bad at all. We dressed up in costumes for chemo and made art projects out of the experience. I’ve been all healed and in great health now. You know, we both got chubby for a while. We travel a whole lot for our work — internationally. I get tired of traveling, but the work entices me. We were traveling all of the time and doing stressful work so we both gained some weight. Even that was an interesting experience that I don’t really regret. We both just lost fifty pounds. It wasn’t too bad losing it either, we were ready.

  How many husbands or wives would be okay with the history that I’ve had? Beth’s very cool about it. She’s up there on stage having sex with me. Here she is a fully tenured professor. She’s really a wonderful artist, she’s so sex positive and she has got balls. Not actual ones, but she is a perfect, perfect mate. Porn stars lives don’t all have tragic endings.

  COURTESY OF ANNIESPRINKLE.ORG

  COURTESY OF ANNIESPRINKLE.ORG

  COURTESY OF ANNIESPRINKLE.ORG

  COURTESY OF ANNIESPRINKLE.ORG

  COURTESY OF ANNIESPRINKLE.ORG

  PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANNIE SPRINKLE

  COURTESY OF ANNIESPRINKLE.ORG

  Public Cervix Announcement. COURTESY OF ANNIESPRINKLE.ORG

  Annie, Bob and Beth. COURTESY OF ANNIESPRINKLE.ORG

  White wedding in Ottawa, Canada. COURTESY OF ANNIESPRINKLE.ORG

  Annie Sprinkle in Toronto.

  12.

  Sex “Kitten” Natividad

  COURTESY OF KITTENKLUB.COM

  “I consider myself a liberated woman. I still like men, and I like to take care of them. As far as respect, I believe people have certain roles to uphold, and that applies to both sexes. I will tell you that I am very proud to be a female. I like to show my tits and show off my ass.”

  — Francesca Natividad

  Brazen, buxom and brassy, “Kitten” Natividad, former burlesque queen, Pin-Up girl, and adult film actress, has delighted in arousing male sexual fantasies for four decades.

  Born in Mexico in 1948 to a teenage bride, Francesca Isabelle Natividad was three years old when her parents divorced. Before the age of ten, Francesca and her mother immigrated to El Paso, Texas where they settled in with her new stepfather. Natividad adapted easily to her congenial surroundings and dutifully assisted with her younger siblings. While engaged in secondary school studies, a relative hooked the young teenager up to keep house for actor Stella Stevens in Hollywood for summer work where Natividad flourished. After graduating from grade twelve, Francesca was hired as a key punch operator but quickly became unfulfilled by the monotony of her work. At the advice of a friend, she decided to audition as a Go-Go dancer, and ultimately became an exotic dancer, a profession she found to be gratifying and profitable. During her early years as a stripper, Natividad adopted the stage name “Kitten”.

  While married to her second husband, Kitten was introduced to sexploitation director, Russ Meyer. She became a star prodigy after her provocative debut as an orator in the cult classic Up! (1976). Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixons (1977) followed as did a lengthy relationship with Meyer, and subsequently, several breast augmentation surgeries that provided Kitten with a forty-four inch chest.

  Once well established in the entertainment industry, Natividad appealed to a greater male audience potential in mostly softcore appearances in blue screen features. She also tantalized audiences as a sensuous busty hellcat in several mainstream projects, and accepted roles in hardcore sex films in order to increase her stage value after earning a name for herself in various Gentlemen’s clubs in California and Nevada. Flaunting her stuff with self-assurance and flair, Kitten is also famous for her trademark champagne bath repertoire as part of her stage show. Her notoriety as a large breasted beauty often presented unusual fringe benefits: in 1985, Natividad was invited to entertain Oscar winner Sean Penn and guests during Penn’s bachelor party on the eve of his marriage to Madonna.

  Although plagued by alcohol and drug addiction for many years, Kitten adheres strictly to her sobriety regimen today and faithfully attends Alcoholics Anonymous. After three husbands and several relationships, at age sixty-four, Natividad is happy to be single and content to have her pets as loyal companions. She is the proprietor of multiple apartment houses in Los Angeles, and remains selective about the people whom she chooses for tenants.

  When her long time lover and friend, Russ Meyer, was diagnosed with dementia, Kitten acted as a caregiver for him until his death in 2004. Natividad regards Meyer as a trusted advisor, and an enigmatic personality within what she considers an unimaginable life.

  I interviewed Francesca Natividad in March 2010.

  Humble Beginnings

  I was born in Ciudad, Juarez, Mexico. My mother was very young when she had me. I think she got married at
fourteen because she got pregnant with me. My father was a very tall and handsome man. I was born, and then they were divorced around three years later and my grandmother took care of me. I had a wonderful childhood because I was spoiled rotten by her. Both of my grandmothers spoiled me. They would dress me up, so I always wanted to dress up and be the center of attention.

  My mother remarried a Mexican who was American citizen and we moved to El Paso, Texas where I became an American citizen, but that didn’t happen until I was about nine years old. I didn’t speak English when I moved there but they wanted to put me in the fourth grade. I refused and I said, “Put me in second grade.” I went into second grade and I learned English in one month.

  My mother went on to have other children and my stepfather was working and going to college. He became an engineer later on; he was a wonderful man. I took care of my younger siblings, made the dinner and so on, but I was also very good in school. I was very smart.

  It was a normal childhood. My mother started working at the same time my father worked and went to college. I came home from school, did homework and made the dinner — there were no hobbies. I did like to put on the radio and dance around the house doing housework. My childhood was definitely not the life that kids have today. I was very responsible as a child. I can’t say anything terrible about my childhood. I don’t feel bad about my childhood because it taught me one thing: I didn’t want any children when I grew up. I remember those two a.m. feedings. My mother would go to work so she called on me — I’m the oldest one — to go get the baby and change his diaper; give him his bottle. I thought, “Is this what I have to look forward to?” Not for me. I’m from the era of baby boomers and we are different from other generations. We started doing things differently and we behaved differently.