Oregon State University

Sex Educator Tristan Taormino Will Speak At Oregon State University and the University Of Oregon

by Viviane on 02/07/2025

in Tristan Taormino

Posted online at http://www.puckerup.com/media_kit/osu_update

February 7, 2011

Contact: Tristan Taormino (asktristan@gmail.com)

Three weeks ago, Tristan Taormino’s keynote for Oregon State University’s Modern Sex Conference was cancelled by administrators, who cited her involvement in pornography as the reason (complete background at http://www.puckerup.com/media_kit/osu_press_release). Response from local and national media, bloggers and sex educators, and on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook was extensive, and the University received hundreds of emails and calls criticizing its decision to un-invite Taormino.

In response, OSU students organized to raise funds from student activity dollars, and they have succeeded: Taormino will give her original talk, “Claiming Your Sexual Power,” on Tuesday, February 15 at 7:00 pm in LaSells Stewart Center at Oregon State University. Her talk is presented by The OSU Memorial Union and open to all students, staff, faculty, and community members. The presentation will be held the night before the Modern Sex Conference. “I am thrilled at the outpouring of support and honored that the students worked so hard to bring me to campus. I want to thank Memorial Union President Craig Bidiman, his advisors, and the ASOSU for all their help,” says Taormino.

After Taormino was first uninvited from the OSU Modern Sex Conference, she was contacted by a professor at the University of Oregon who was interested in having her appear on campus. On Wednesday, February 16, she will give her talk “My Life As a Feminist Pornographer,” at the University of Oregon. She will talk about her definition of feminist porn, what she hopes to accomplish with her films, and the challenges she faces in her career in the adult industry and in her professional career as a sex educator. She will address the recent controversy at OSU and why she believes a feminist is the most “dangerous” kind of pornographer. Her talk is sponsored by The Center for the Study of Women in Society; Robert D. Clark Honors College; Departments of Women’s and Gender Studies, Sociology, Comparative Literature, and Cinema Studies; Oregon Humanities Center; The Women’s Center; LBGTQ Alliance; and The Sexual Wellness Advocacy Team. Professor Jennifer Burns Levin, who organized the event, says, “Tristan’s involvement with pornography made OSU administrators uncomfortable, but I think they missed the point. Tristan’s sex-positive, woman- and queer-friendly work in an industry known for its exploitation of women addresses exactly the kind of labor issues we should be discussing on college campuses. And preemptively withdrawing funds from a provocative speaker in a time of legislative budget cuts sets a bad precedent, in my view, for others speaking on controversial topics. So we’re very happy to have her at University of Oregon. It should be an energized and popular lecture!”

For more information about these events as well as her two appearances at She Bop sexuality boutique on February 13 and 14 in Portland, see http://www.puckerup.com/tristan_on_tour/.

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Bookmarks for 2011-01-24

by Viviane on 01/24/2025

in del.icio.us, sex

  • OSU Cancels Keynote Speaker Payment for LGBT Conference | KEZI – News video, with interviews with Tristan Taormino and OSU Modern Sex Organizer Rachel Ulrich
  • Tristan Taormino, Ann Coulter, And The Disgrace Of Oregon State University | violet blue ® :: open source sex – Oregon State University is doing a huge disservice to its students. Not only in missing the opportunity to have Taormino speak (an already-vetted speaker at dozens of universities) – but in assuming the students are ignorant about how taxpayer-speaker money is spent. Tristan Taormino takes private money to make pornography (among other sex ed products). OSU does not give speakers money to make products – unless OSU has something they need to tell us about paying for the creation of Ann Coulter’s 2002 book “Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right.”
  • Sex Conference Un-invites Keynote Speaker For Being Too Racy? | The Bilerico Project – There is speculation that the reason for the cancellation is due to her work in the porn industry. If so, the university has overstepped significantly in this case. First off, the talk is not about porn whatsoever and to make hiring decisions based on a contractor’s other unrelated employment sets a dangerous precedent around academic freedom. Secondly, if there was ever a conference where it is appropriate to invite a feminist pornographer to talk about their work, it would be a feminist conference titled Modern Sex. And finally, to turn away a feminist pornographer while allowing Playboy to annually spend a week on campus recruiting for the “Hottest Girls of the Pac-10″ smacks of a horrific double standard.<br />
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    The ironic part is that while Tristan’s speech was not about feminist porn, I will be presenting at the conference on that exact topic – and showing clips.
  • Pucker Up – OSU Press Release – Sex Educator And Speaker Tristan Taormino, Set To Give Conference Keynote, Uninvited By Oregon State University Because Of Her ‘Resume And Website’
  • Tristan Taormino, Modern Sex conference organizers weigh in on OSU controversy – National Sex & Relationships | Examiner.com – Oregon State University’s Intercultural Student Services (ISS) and Office of the LGBTQ Outreach and Services are presenting Modern Sex: Privilege, Communication, and Culture on campus, February 14-16, and controversy around the conference and its invited speakers came to a boil this week. Since my own coverage of the hubbub around Tristan Taormino’s canceled keynote lecture — and the university’s response — has been garnering significant attention, I took the opportunity today to speak at length with Taormino and Rachel Ulrich, co-organizer of the Modern Sex conference, for more on the story.
  • Oregon State U Shuts Tristan Taormino Out | Charlie Glickman – Second, it’s not clear to me how making porn invalidates Tristan as an educator or as a speaker. She is a porn producer AND a sex educator. And from talking with her, I know that each informs the other. But if anything, that makes her a better speaker on the relationships between feminism, sex and porn than most people. (Which is absolutely not meant as any slam against Tobi Hill-Meyer, who is also one of the best folks to talk about these topics.)
  • State Budgets, Higher Education, and Sexual Freedom | Sex In The Public Square – When experts are rejected because their work is controversial, we should be worried not only about sexual freedom but also about academic freedom more broadly. There are places where evolution is the hot-button issue, or where the politics of Israel and Palestine is the main cause of political concern.  We can’t ignore this instance of self-censorship simply because it has to do with sexuality. Once “we can’t afford to offend the legislature” becomes a widely accepted rationale for canceling or refusing to fund programs, we can expect to see many more threats to the foundation of public higher education in general.
  • Got a WordPress blog? This plugin tells you if any of your readers are on the Gawker hacker list | TNW – With Shared User Checker, WordPress admins are now able to detect which users have been compromised, making their own sites more secure but also giving the option to alert the users that they may have had their details stolen in the Gawker attacks.

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