Sunday, I had a much smaller than usual tea party – mostly the confessional bloggers.
The occasion was an interview by a Craig Collinson, a director affiliated with Nobles Gate, a production company that makes documentaries for BBC’s Channel 4. I guess it’s their equivalent of PBS. He’s making a documentary with the working title of A Sex Blogessy, which “examines how the Internet has provided women with a forum to discuss their sexuality in a way that is more frank and explicit than ever before.”
I had spoken to a few other TV producers, but I felt they got it. Abby Lee and Suzanne Portnoy were interviewed in London (with Selina egging them on). Craig was coming to NY to interview us and Jessica Cutler. We were pretty on guard. Some of us remembered well the public reading at Galapagos. We all had reactions (even me, and I didn’t read). We felt incredibly exposed and vulnerable.
My big concern was protecting our anonymity. I stowed away the personal photographs in a big camphor wood chest in the bedroom. At Ricky’s, I bought an auburn wig. Turns out I didn’t need it. The camera crew accommodated us by filming parts of our bodies. We could see Calico and Rachel’s mouths, Tess and Selina‘s cleavage, Sinclair’s grey vest, my hands, Lolita‘s overalls, Jefferson‘s knee. The monitor shot above shows the intentionally fuzzy group shot. (More pictures)
We did a roundtable, with Craig posing questions off camera. His original assumption is that because of the internet, we’re all away behind our computers, in these little boxes. If anything, we are just the opposite, and treasure the community we have. And reading the blogs helps you to know a person before you meet. He had good questions and they kept us discussing them long after they had to leave to interview Jessica Cutler (she stood them up). He was very amused that perverts can get together and have a civilized gathering and talk so freely.
I could be taking tea with my grandmother, on a Sunday like this Craig said.
Except you wouldn’t be talking about pegging, now would you? I said.
What’s pegging? he asked. So we told him. ;-D (Link to the excellent Savage Love article, co-written with Violet Blue).
Afterward, we agreed that it had gone quite well. Maybe because we’ve known each other longer, were in a private space, we weren’t onstage, we’ve been living with these identities longer. I used the expression, “real pseudonym,” which got a big laugh, but after several years, we have more established blog personalities As Lolita said, it was just a lively discussion among friends. In a safe space.
The real hijinks happened after the crew packed up. I served mint juleps and strawberry shortcake. We somehow started talking about flogging (I had Twittered about how the percussion class I was taking was good for my flogging arm.) Next thing you know, Sinclair’s flogging Jefferson, with Lolita coaching. We all took turns. And no, you can’t see the pictures of his boxers with rubber duckies!
I’ll let my guests do the talking, because they’re much better writers than me.
- Sinclair posts about the heteronormative paradigm and gender imbalance in the sexblog community.
- Tess writes about blogging and flogging.
- Lolita’s says It’s all British to me
