Kitty Stryker’s stunning video interview at Sex on Trial

Sex worker Kitty Stryker tells in an intimate video interview by Lola Sparkle for Sex on Trial that the policing of sex takes place “multiple different levels” including through the state and the self.

She says:

You have a government deciding what is acceptable practice in public and in private, you have schools deciding what is appropriate to teach and what is not appropriate to teach. You have society deciding what sort of sexual practices are acceptable to promote or to encourage or to advertise and which ones are not… and of course we police each other [via] cultural biases

She argued that sexual hegemony is an obstacle for many disabled individuals and there sexuality. On her own experiences, Stryker comments that as a sex worker, there seemed a discomfort from society regarding the fact that she received money for sex.

Kitty has a major in Psychology and Anthropology, and has used her education to become what she describes as a ‘contemporary courtesan’. Over the last few years has aided people with discovering or rediscovering their sexualities, including those with disabilities of various kinds.

Kitty also writes for the recommendable blog Purrversatility, which addresses sexual issues in the manner that all decent and proud people should do- with no holds barred.

Kitty describes herself as “an advocate for sex and disability activism and a fierce queer femme, a happy broke-ass ho working with the Sex Worker Outreach Project in Oakland, California”.

She has additionally worked with the Bureau of Erotic Discourse and is a founding member of Kinky Salon London. Furthermore, Stryker has received an Erotic Award for her London-based Ladies High Tea and Pornography Society groups and has have done multiple documentaries and interviews about her work.

The video interview was shown during the ‘Sex Police’ discussion that has raised a plethora of vital questions: What counts as ‘normal’ or ‘healthy’ sex? Who decides this? How is it regulated? What happens if one is outside these boundaries?
Mutiny and Critical Sexology’s Sex on Trial is still going as this blog goes online and the night is still young.

Mutiny and Critical Sexology is well under way at the Resistance Gallery in Bethnal Green, east London. The Mutiny evening will kick off with speed debating at 6.30pm but you are welcome to pop in any time tonight. Tickets £5 and £3 concession on the door.

 

Xanthe Whittaker talks sex under socialism at Sex on Trial (Xanthe not able to attend because of sickness – sorry)

Journalist Xanthe Whittaker will be speaking on the nature of sex in an ideal society at Sex on Trial tomorrow at Bethnal Green’s Resistance Gallery. 

Xanthe along with academic Gareth Dale published an article in The International Socialism Journal entitled A Response to the Sex Work Debate which examined the role of sex workers with regards to capitalist wage labour.

They argued:

many [sex workers] are wage workers within a capitalist labour process, including workers in brothels, escort agencies, lap dancing clubs, and the pornography industry.

The articles concludes that it is the role of activists to form solidarity with sex workers and encourage their involvement in trade unions, using the International Union of Sex Workers (IUSW) – now a branch of the GMB union – as an example. In the same year as the article sex workers led the May Day march in London, after many faced police interrogation beforehand.

Sex on Trial will see the above issues raised alongside such areas as sexual consent, ‘healthy’ and ‘normal’ sex, and sex education. ‘Speed debating’ will accompany live music, poetry, theatre performance, postcard artwork from artist Alex Brew and an accepting and open debate amongst equals. Xanthe’s area of discussion will also be accompanied by the artist and activist Nor, and Ms Tytania speaking on Urban Chick Supremacy and the SCUM Manifesto.

The subject of the sex industry will also play a major part, with a pre-recorded Skype interview with Kitty Stryker – sex worker and activist and a founding member of the Kinky Salon London and worker for the Bureau of Erotic Discourse – being shown.

For those have not yet purchased their tickets, please do so here. There will be free food goodie bags provided for all mutineers.

Entry to the afternoon seminar is free. Tickets for the evening event are £5 buy-one-get-one-free in advance online or £5/3 on the door. If you attend the afternoon seminar event you will be entitled to concession price entry to the evening event (£3).

Cari Mitchell joins the jury at Sex on Trial

 Cari Mitchell will join the Mutiny tomorrow, Thursday, December 8, at Mutiny and Critical Sexology present Sex On Trial, held at the Resistance Gallery. The spokesperson for the English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) will be addressing the issue of police raids on sex workers. 

With government legislature increasingly criminalising prostitutes, Mitchell has publicly emphasised the importance in addressing the motives behind individuals’ involvement in the sex industry. In April 2010, Mitchell published an article in The Guardian entitled Sex Work Should not be a Crime, arguing that:

Police powers to arrest women deemed to be loitering or soliciting have been reinforced [and] raids have escalated… the financial reasons driving many women [into prostitution] have been ignored

The English Collective of Prostitutes campaigns for the decriminalisation or prostitution, financial alternatives, and the rights and protection of sex workers. Through this organisation Mitchell provides information, support and a voice for those working in the sex trade- both on the street and indoors.

From prostitution to pornography, the sex industry will be a broadly covered area at tomorrow’s Sex on Trial, in which 150 people a set to attend the event organised by Mutiny and Critical Sexology.

‘Contemporary courtesan’ Kitty Stryker – who has previous received an Erotic Award for her London-based Ladies High Tea and Pornography Society groups – will also be addressing the Mutineers (by pre-recorded video interview) in Part II, which questions what – or who – determines ‘normal’ sex and sexuality.

Thursday evening will see these above matters incorporated into a night of great sociable atmosphere. Like previous Mutiny events – which have seen Democracy, Violence, Love, the Media, and Money (amongst others) brought into the dock- there will also be free food provided, general discussions on the old ‘S word’, music, art, performance and ‘speed debating’- where all are free to engage in exhilarating exchanges of perspectives with fellow Mutineers. The event will open at 3pm at the Resistance Gallery in Bethnal Green.

Entry to the afternoon seminar is free. Tickets for the evening event are £5 buy-one-get-one-free in advance online at jointhemutiny.org or £5/3 on the door. If you attend the afternoon seminar event you will be entitled to concession price entry to the evening event (£3).

To Gaze at a Postcard: Alex Brew Puts Sex on Trial

By Alex Montague

Exhibiting artist Alex Brew has published a series of tongue-in-cheek postcards subverting the traditional British obsession with sex to add a LGBT twist. The postcards have been supported by Mutiny and will be given free inside the now famous goody bags at Sex on Trial.

Brew will also be presenting a talk on the Michel Foucault based theory of the gaze – the assertion of power through glaring or ‘ogling’. Mutiny’s Sex on Trial will be held at the Resistance Gallery in Bethnal Green on December 8 2011, as a collaboration between Mutiny and the London based seminar series Critical Sexology.

Brew has done a lot of work incorporating the subject of sex into the world of art. Her photography has been displayed at universities, galleries and squats across the UK. Her creativity has delved into areas often uncomfortably for many female, or even male, visual artists, and her project Asking For It, which was held at the 2008 Ladyfest London, experimented with making male strangers the subject of human-form based photography.

Her 2010 exhibition Me Maskuline focused on a variety of artists spanning three decades who all focused on their own relationships to masculinity. Brew has spoken on the subject of sex before, including the 2010-2011 seminar series ‘Pornified: the sexualisation of culture?’ The British Library and the Women’s Library have both catalogued her work.

For her Sex on Trial postcards, however, Brew has taken to using old images and editing the dialogue to entirely change the meaning and the socio-political and cultural connotations. The culture and powers roles are reversed.

The postcards in question are all of the typical British seaside ‘blue’ humour; documentations of the ‘How’s Yer Father’/Carry On side to the national character. Yet the speech bubbles Brew has superimposed entirely revolutionise the images’ meanings. This beautifully emphasises the impact of the new attitudes- which Sex on Trial will in itself demonstrates- upon how one’s evaluation of sex.

Sex on Trial will be a carnivalesque mix of ‘speed debating’, video interviews, and alternative egalitarian discussion, along with music, poetry and theatre performances. The evening will see lively and informative discussions asking: What is ‘healthy’ or ‘normal’ sex is? Who decides this? Matters such as sex education, consent, sexual revolution, and activism through appreciation of each other’s sexual and relationship differences.

For those attending Sex on Trial, Alex Brew’s Postcards will be available for all in the goody bags that previous Mutiny Trials have also involved. For those that have not yet purchased tickets, please do so here. Sex on Trial will also provide free food for attendees, alongside the food-for-thought feast that shall dominate the evening.

Entry to the afternoon seminar is free. Tickets for the evening event are £5 buy-one-get-one-free in advance online or £5/3 on the door. If you attend the afternoon seminar event you will be entitled to concession price entry to the evening event (£3).

Youth practitioner Ester McGeeney puts Sex on Trial

by Alex Montague

Youth practitioner Ester McGeeney will discuss pleasure and sex education at Mutiny and Critical Sexology present Sex on Trial at Bethnal Green on December 8.

Ester is currently studying her PhD in Sexual Pleasure, Young People and Sexual Health, in a studentship funded by the Open University and the young people’s sexual health charity Brook.

Laura Harvey, who is on the organising committee, said: “Ester’s work has concentrated on the dominant view of young people and practitioners towards ‘good sex’ and the impact this has on the delivery of sexual health services for the young. McGeeney examines sexual pleasure with regards to ways in which it can be incorporated into understanding sex and sexuality.”

Ester has also been involved with such projects as the British Sociological Association funded Researching Inequalities: A Theory for Everything?; a one day conference in May 2011 which created a forum exploring the current state of inequality and ways for researchers to consider the practices and methodologies.

Sex on Trial is a collaboration between Mutiny, who have previously hosted various ‘On Trial’ events including Love, Violence, Money, Sexual Education, and Democracy, and the seminar series Critical Sexology, which is approaching its tenth anniversary.

Sex on Trial will see Mutineers calling to question such issues as ‘healthy’ and ’normal’ sex, consent, and sexual revolution. This will all be brought into a night of general discussion, music, art, performance and ‘speed debating’- where all are free to engage of swift but fruitful exchanges of perspectives.

The trial will also incorporate Skype interviews with the likes of Kitty Stryker and Sara McClelland into a group discussion that differentiates with the norm of seminar and speaker-and-audience style meetings, instead taking an egalitarian approach to a subject matter many feel our society still needs to come to grips with.

The event will open at 3pm at the Resistance Gallery in Bethnal Green. In the first half of Sex on Trial, hosted by Critical Sexology and supported by Mutiny, Ester will adapt this broad and extensively researched knowledge of sexual pleasure towards the subject of sex education. This ability will succeed in being beneficial for all attendees in discussing sex freely amongst the one hundred plus gathering.

For those that have not yet purchased tickets for Sex on Trial, please do so here. Sex on Trial will also provide free food for attendees, as well as generally succeeding as a thrilling social event with an impression menagerie of minds, beliefs and openness.

Entry to the afternoon seminar is free. Tickets for the evening event are £5 buy-one-get-one-free in advance online at jointhemutiny.org or £5/3 on the door. If you attend the afternoon seminar event you will be entitled to concession price entry to the evening event (£3).

 

Kitty Stryker and Dr Sara McClelland put Sex on Trial

by Alex Montague

Academic Dr Sara McClelland and erotica legend Kitty Stryker will both appear for Mutiny and Critical Sexology present Sex on Trial through the magic of pre-recorded Skype interviews.

Their contributions will be part of the Mutiny mayhem with debate, discussion, performance, art and poetry beginning at 3pm and lasting until 11pm on Thursday December 8 at the Resistance Gallery in Bethnal Green, London. Tickets are £5 on the door with discounts online.

Kitty is a bright spark

Dr McClelland has dedicated herself into research regarding the socio and psychological aspects of health, sex, and relationships. In essence she raises the honourable question of how individuals’ sexual well-being is affected by society and its conditions.

As Dr McClelland’s previous studies have included analysing the effects of race, illness, gender, sexual minority status and age, it is a thrill to announce that we shall also have, from Berkeley, California, Kitty gracing our ears and minds on the subject of Sex and Disability.

Kitty has a major in Psychology and Anthropology, and has used her education to become what she describes as a ‘contemporary courtesan’; over the last few years has aided people with discovering or rediscovering their sexualities.

Kitty also writes for the recommendable blog Purrversatility, which addresses sexual issues in the manner that all decent and proud people should do- with no holds barred.

Kitty describes herself as “an advocate for sex and disability activism and a fierce queer femme, a happy broke-ass ho working with the Sex Worker Outreach Project in Oakland, California”. She has additionally worked with the Bureau of Erotic Discourse and is a founding member of Kinky Salon London. Furthermore, Stryker has received an Erotic Award for her London-based Ladies High Tea and Pornography Society groups and has have done multiple documentaries and interviews about her work.

The video interviews will be shown during the ‘Sex Police’ discussion that will raise a plethora of vital questions: What counts as ‘normal’ or ‘healthy’ sex? Who decides this? How is it regulated? What happens if one is outside these boundaries?

What fascinates the mind more is that Stryker and McClelland’s video interviews are only a fraction of the grander discussion of the night. A full timetable of Sex on Trial held at Bethnall Green’s Resistance Gallery is available online.

As with previous Trials, there will be live music and artistic performances and food served for free. So please join the Mutiny and Critical Sexology and purchase your tickets for Sex on Trial here:

Entry to the afternoon seminar is free. Tickets for the evening event are £5 buy-one-get-one-free in advance online or £5/3 on the door. If you attend the afternoon seminar event you will be entitled to concession price entry to the evening event (£3).

When Professor Nutt put Drugs on Trial…

by Alex Montague

Over the last two years, Mutiny has been blessed with wide-ranging trials. Violence, Love, Education, Democracy, Work, Fashion, Money, and the Media have all previously been in dock, and on Monday 10 of October 2011, a remarkable collection of Mutineers gathered in Bethnal Green’s Resistance Gallery to divert its attention towards another subject that, much like Education, Fashion, Love, and the Media, really reflects society’s relationship with people and the mind.

‘Drugs on Trial’ laid bare the questions that, it soon appeared, urgently required debate: why are addicts criminalized, and does this work in the prevention of narcotic abuse? Is substance usage pathological? Why are some drugs prescribed, other prohibited? And who is really winning the ‘War on Drugs’? All these were addressed in three sections: Consumption, Production and Prescription.

Such a varied discussion was met with a broad range of contributions. Comical yet provocative anecdotes were followed by strikingly honest yet important recollections from previous drug users, and then by stunning reminders of drugs’ damage upon the most marginalised and vulnerable people, communities and nations.

Appreciating the larger arena for debate, former government drugs advisor Professor David Nutt attended the trial and entered a constructive dialogue with attendees. Nutt’s previous claim that cannabis use was less harmful than alcohol consumption had been too much for then Home Secretary Alan Johnson, and Nutt’s employment in the British government was terminated over his objections to the government’s drugs classifications, imprisonment of users, and dismissing of scientific evidence and advice. His presence alone was enough to inform the crowd, and us all, that a review of Drugs is desired amongst a broad section of society and expertise.

The cultural impact of drugs amongst alternative culture has been revaluated over the last few recession-ridden years, and this was reflected at the event. Their appeared neither knee jerk loyalties nor principled prejudices on the subject.

What was apparent soon after the opening ‘speed debates’ was how well overdue the matter was in meeting a broad and balanced discussion.  Aside from the aforementioned anecdotes, there also appeared possible antidotes. Naturally, the discussion on drugs in our current society soon progressed into the egalitarian crowd questioning how, or if, mankind’s tendency to escape via mind-altering substances would remain in a different- a better- world.

Mutiny has always prided, and differentiated, itself from the average group socio-political discussion via its employment of live artistic performance, and ‘Drugs on Trial’ did not disappoint. Engaging poetry performances stole the hearts and attention of all Mutineers, and the intelligent and witty lyricism of musical duo Coffee Maggots/Commie Faggots closed the night perfectly.

So with the theme of drugs, and the night’s entertainment rocking and rolling, the next step would for Mutiny could only be sex, and on December 8^th 2011 Mutiny will next place this very subject on trial.