Cult Of Gracie Radio Presents One Of The Foremost Activists For Sexual Pleasure

I've got two words for you for this week's Cult of Gracie show: Nina Hartley.

If you don't know her from the 600+ videos and films she's made, two decades of dance tours, and thousands of personal appearances (including Oprah), then you must have been living under a rock to have missed the woman who is arguably the most enduringly popular star in the history of the adult entertainment industry.

A dedicated student of human sexuality for over thirty years, Nina Hartley is more than an entertainer. She's a sex educator, whose book, Nina Hartley's Guide to Total Sex, was called "the best book written about sex, ever" by Margaret Cho (and several other reviewers). Hartley also co-produces Nina Hartley's Guides, her own line of instructional videos for men and women. As Hartley says to women, "Sex isn't something men do to you. It isn't something men get out of you. Sex is something you dive into with gusto and like it every bit as much as he does."

Hartley wins my admiration and affection for being such a valiant public advocate for sexual self-awareness, sanity and literacy. A leader in sex positivity, during the "porn wars" of the 80's, Hartley became a founding member of the Feminist Anti-Censorship Task Force, and today, among other things, she is a member of the Board of Directors for the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, an organization that works to advance sexual freedom as a fundamental human right by protecting and advancing freedom of speech and sexual expression.

Here's one of my favorite quotes from Nina Hartley, activist for sexual pleasure:

I definitely think that sex is natural and healthy, and that people have the absolute right to pursue their sexual preferences with other consenting adults without government or church intervention. I can do what I do to share my enjoyment of sex with all my viewers out there. If I can help any person or persons have a great sex session, then I've done a good job! I believe that society changes and that we can take what is good from the world's religions and leave behind what isn't so good, and forge a new day. I'm one of the forgers, I like to think!

I know she is ~ and I can't wait to speak with her.

If you'd like to speak with Nina Hartley, live on-air calls will be taken, as always, at 1.646.200.3136.

You can listen to the show live here. (If you missed the show, the same link will let you listen to the archived show & download the podcast.)