Sex Education: Violet Blue

 

Ms. Blue is an author, blogger, sex educator and sex columnist. She has contributed to a number of publications over the years in various formats: a weekly sex column for the San Francisco Chronicle, podcasts, a video blog as well as a regular blog and a feature about porn for woman in the magazine O, The Oprah Magazine. She has written 11 books on various sex topics; edited 9 anthologies of erotica and a half a dozen audio books plus writes for, edits and manages several web sites. However she does work outside the area of sex itself by contributing tech articles for ZDNet and both writes for and edits her own tech blog called techyum. Forbes named her one of The Web Celeb 25 in 2007. A busy woman indeed.

On the main page of Violet’s web blog Tiny Nibbles, she delves into various aspects of sex in the section "Accurate Sex Information" which lists:

Ms. Blue cover the details of the topic with talk of the pros and cons, health advice and "how to" recommendations. All is knowledgeably presented.

Her Books
As a sex educator, Ms. Blue doesn’t stop with a single column in a newspaper or a blog entry with a list of tips. She has written entire books on specific topics. Obviously she must have thoroughly dealt with the issue as I had no idea anybody could write an entire book on fellatio or cunnilingus.

Pro-porn
Violet Blue is a feminist however, I should point out that she is a pro-porn feminist. In my blog Pornography: Defended by… What? Feminists!?! I list the 3 types of feminists as defined by the feminist author Wendy McElroy:

Violet Blue is very much "pro-porn" and has written extensively about adult entertainment. As well as books on the subject, she has contributed articles to newspapers and Oprah Winfrey’s O Network. Not only does she talk about this entertainment, her own web sites sometimes feature women’s erotica.

She is an advocate for the freedom to choose and writes on her web site Our Porn, Ourselves:

We women are tired of people trying to control our sexuality by telling us what we should or shouldn’t like sexually (porn) based on what someone else thinks is best for us. It’s like keeping women in a perpetual state of being children about sex. And women who say they are feminists make it worse by discounting all the women who find porn to be an empowering sex toy. Or if not, to at least give us the benefit of the doubt that we can make that decision for ourselves, thank you very much.

OurPornOurselves.Org
This site set up by Violet Blue is described as:

Our Porn, Ourselves is a resource that aims to create an alternative and constructive conversation on the use of pornography by women, and in turn offer balance to the anti-porn feminist agenda.

In the page Origins, Ms. Blue describes how the name of the web site in a tribute to the book Our Body, Ourselves, the classic standard on women’s health and sexuality first published in 1973.

Okay, while at first glance someone may say that this is merely a pro-porn web site. However in digging, one finds another aspect to all this which looks at the larger question of sexuality in America.

In the entry A Look at “War on Pornography” and “Shock and Awe” Tactics written by Ms. Blue on June 20, 2010, she talks about how the anti-porn movement uses a campaign of misinformation and shock to push forward their agenda of completely eradicating pornography from the planet. As I pointed out in my own investigation (Pornography: Does it lead to crime? Part 2), such misinformation does not in any way account for this scientifically proven inverse correlation found in society: as the availability of pornography increases, the rate of sex-related crimes decrease.

Ms. Blue has included two videos with her article. One of them from Penn and Teller humorously (and sometimes viciously) points out how the scare tactics used by some so called professionals spouting anti-porn rhetoric come with no scientific studies to them up. (Watch the Penn and Teller video. It is funny and very profane.) The other, a clip of Gail Dines, described by the Guardian newspaper as "the world’s leading anti-pornography campaigner", shows a speech which is disturbing in both its assessment of the world and its lack of empirical evidence to back up its claims.

Final Word
Violet Blue is a very, very busy woman. She is passionate about her work and that passion has transformed itself into a substantial body of work. Her sexuality is "out there" and that may be refreshing for some, it may be intimidating for others. The manifestation of this sexuality is her involvement with the pro-porn feminist side of the debate and an interest and creative inclination for women’s erotica.

As a sex educator, she is knowledgeable, writes about topics expertly and is very comprehensive in her handling of a subject.

Whatever anybody’s take of Ms. Blue may be, there can be no denying she is a force to be reckoned with.

Click HERE to read more from William Belle

References

Wikipedia: Violet Blue (author)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violet_Blue_%28author%29

official web site
http://www.tinynibbles.com

compilation of articles, pictures and videos
http://violetblue.org

techyum :: news • tech • gadgets • shiny things
http://techyum.com

Excerpt from The Smart Girl’s Guide to Porn: Chapter 3: I Was a Porn Virgin
By Violet Blue – The Oprah Winfrey Show  |  November 17, 2009
http://www.oprah.com/relationships/Excerpt-from-The-Smart-Girls-Guide-to-Porn-by-Violet-Blue

AllBookstores.com: 40 titles with Violet Blue as author or editor
http://www.allbookstores.com/Violet-Blue/author

Wikipedia: Our Body, Ourselves
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Bodies,_Ourselves
Our Bodies, Ourselves is a book about women’s health and sexuality produced by the nonprofit organization Our Bodies Ourselves (originally called the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective). First published in 1973, it contains information related to many aspects of women’s health and sexuality, including menopause, birth control, childbirth, sexual health, sexual orientation, gender identity, mental health and general well-being.

Now in its 12th edition, and published in over 20 languages and braille, the current edition, calling itself "a new edition for a new era," contains 832 pages, including new pictures, diagrams, and interviews. The New York Times has called the book "America’s best-selling book on all aspects of women’s health" and a "feminist classic."

Our Porn, Ourselves
http://ourpornourselves.org/