sexcon
One thing that always fascinates me about working in the field of sexuality is how not sexy our work and the presentation of our work can be. As I have sat and listened to several presentations about various sexual issues, I am amazed at how dry and bland the presentations can be. Not to say that there isn't some great work being presented and some really wonderful ideas being explored - it's just how it's being delivered.
I mention this for a couple of reasons. One is that there is a constant concern about the so-called greying of the field. I often find this confusing as a (relatively) young, recent PhD who has many friends and colleagues who are also young - and I'm considering young to be under 40 or so. What is not confusing is how these conferences are not appealing to young, hip, cool, and otherwise interesting folks. I mean more exciting and cool people go to comicon than come to AASECT or SSSS. We're talking about SEX people. It's supposed to be something that is hot, fun, pleasurable, good, right? Which brings me to my second point. Part of being at conference in a different city than where you live is that you go out and explore the bars and nightlife and culture. So while sitting in a bar last night where there was a strip competition, lots of hooking up taking place, and some sexual activity even taking place right at the bar, I started noticing how many of the songs and videos that were playing were about sex. I am a sex conference that isn't very sexy (informative and important, yes) and out watching all of this hot sexy stuff taking place just down the street. It starts to dawn on me that if we want to attract all of those smart, interesting, cool, fun, and creative young people then we need to start making studying sex a little more sexy.
In the future, I want to hear people getting excited about going to sexcon because it's not only interesting and informative but it's fun and sexy and a good time. To close, I leave you with one of my favorite songs about sexuality by billy bragg. enjoy.
I mention this for a couple of reasons. One is that there is a constant concern about the so-called greying of the field. I often find this confusing as a (relatively) young, recent PhD who has many friends and colleagues who are also young - and I'm considering young to be under 40 or so. What is not confusing is how these conferences are not appealing to young, hip, cool, and otherwise interesting folks. I mean more exciting and cool people go to comicon than come to AASECT or SSSS. We're talking about SEX people. It's supposed to be something that is hot, fun, pleasurable, good, right? Which brings me to my second point. Part of being at conference in a different city than where you live is that you go out and explore the bars and nightlife and culture. So while sitting in a bar last night where there was a strip competition, lots of hooking up taking place, and some sexual activity even taking place right at the bar, I started noticing how many of the songs and videos that were playing were about sex. I am a sex conference that isn't very sexy (informative and important, yes) and out watching all of this hot sexy stuff taking place just down the street. It starts to dawn on me that if we want to attract all of those smart, interesting, cool, fun, and creative young people then we need to start making studying sex a little more sexy.
In the future, I want to hear people getting excited about going to sexcon because it's not only interesting and informative but it's fun and sexy and a good time. To close, I leave you with one of my favorite songs about sexuality by billy bragg. enjoy.
posted by christopher at
1:33 PM
1 Comments:
Having worked at a retail sex site, and having attended lots of events where people went the other direction (formal does not mean a bow tie on your downtown, socks, wingtips, and nothing else on!!!), your post is really interesting to me. I think it's the fascinating part of creating spaces to talk/think about sexuality: people (even those immersed in its study), are so unfamiliar with what the boundaries are (since we never talk about it in the 'real' world) that they either are scared to make it sexy, or feel like they don't need to have any boundaries at all. Another perfect example of un-integrated sexuality is into the rest of our lives/experiences!
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Unknown, at Fri Jun 27, 02:20:00 PM PDT
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