Entry: Ecosexuality
Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio,
PhD
Cont'd
As an emerging movement, Ecosexuality sustains the
initiation of the human species into a new phase of its evolution: from a needy
child accustomed to depending on a mother’s resources, humanity is called to
evolve into a responsible adult who treats the planet that generously hosts
human life as a lover deserving all reverence, equality, and reciprocity in love. The scientific origins of the movement can be
traced to what is known as the Gaia Hypothesis: a new epistemological paradigm
that establishes the interconnectedness of all life forms as a new foundation
for knowledge or episteme. This
integrated, self-sustaining web of life is made of interconnected ecosystems
and generates its own homeostasis. A key
principle in this new style of amorous expression is that bodies are ecosystems,
ecosystems are bodies: equally deserving
of love, care, and affection.
As a new galvanizing force in cultural transformation,
ecosexuality also means different things to different people. Two avatars of the movement, performance artists
Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle, expressed their ecosexual vision in
LoveArtLab, a seven-year project involving a series of ecosexual weddings where
the artists married the sun, moon, sky, rocks, coal, snow, sea, a lake, and
other nature entities. In these 17
performative events around the world, they “changed the metaphor from Earth as
mother to Earth as lover,” and vowed to “love, honor, and cherish the Earth
until death brings us closer together forever.”
This work seeded a number of cultural environments with the intent to “make
the environmental movement more fun, sexy, and diverse.” The bride-artists integrated activism for
marriage equality with the affirmation of ecosystems, natural elements, and
forces of nature as participants in the generation and fruition of the force of
love. The practice of ecosexual weddings
extended to the 1st EcoSex Symposium, which was organized as a honeymoon
after the Purple Wedding to the Moon in 2010 in Los Angeles. More symposia have come together in subsequent
years, along with convergences, workshops, festivals, courses, digital
discussion groups, more weddings, and intentional communities dedicated to the
exploration of ecosexuality as a central trope for the organization of cultural
action and energies.
A definition of ecosexuality would be premature at this
point, and would limit the cultural trope’s transformative potential, which is
largely untapped yet. One way in which ecosexuality
has been described is as “the style of love that reaches beyond genders,
numbers, orientations, ages, races, origins, species, and biological realms to
embrace all of life as a partner with equal rights.” This description has been adopted in the introduction
to a forthcoming reader tentatively entitled Ecosexuality: Notes for an Orgasmic Earth. It has the effect of supporting amorous
practices that interpret ecosystems as bodies, and bodies as ecosystems in an
interdependent network of interconnected nodes that auspicate a new planetary
consciousness.
Sources
Anderlini-D’Onofrio,
Serena. Gaia and the New Politics of Love.
Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2009.
Anderlini-D’Onofrio,
Serena and Lindsay Hagamen eds. Ecosexuality: Notes for an Orgasmic Earth. Contributed volume. Forthcoming.
Anderlini-D’Onofrio,
Serena and Robert Silber. “Ecosexuality:
A Course in the Arts of Conscious Love.”
Varallo, Italy. July 16-21,
2011. Poly Planet GAIA. http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/2011/01/ecosessualita-un-corso-sulle-arti.html,
November 28, 2013.
Anderlini-D’Onofrio,
Serena, et al. “Ecosex at U Conn. Course Production from Spring, 2013 Seminar
in Ecosexuality and the Ecology of Love.
Storrs Campus. http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/search/label/EcoSex%20at%20U%20Conn:
November 28, 2013.
Bernard, Tinamarie. “Fundamentals of Eco-Sexuality: Is Conscious Love the Way Towards Global Peace?” Green Prophet, May 22, 2011. http://www.greenprophet.com/2011/05/eco-sexuality-conscious-peace/: Novemebr 28, 2013.
Cordova,
Gabriella. “EcoSex Symposium.” Portland, OR.
June 29, 31, and July 1st, 2012. http://www.ecosex.org/index.html:
November 29, 2013 Dixon Luke, Annie Sprinkle, and Beth Stephens. “1st International EcoSex
Symposium.” Colchester, Essex, UK. July 14-18, 2013. http://ecosexlab.org/,
Novemebr 28, 2013.
Ecosexual. Definition in Macmillan Dictionary. http://www.macmillandictionary.com/buzzword/entries/ecosexual.html,
November 28, 2013.
“Ecosexuality,
a new sexual identity where you are lovers with the Earth.” Examiner.com.
April 10, 2012. N. A. http://www.examiner.com/article/ecosexuality-a-new-sexual-identity-where-you-are-lovers-with-the-earth,
November 28, 2013.
Iris Weiss,
Stefanie. EcoSex: Go Green Between the Sheets and Make your Love Life Sustainable. New York: Ten Speed Press/Random House,
2010.
Sexecology. Wikipedia definition. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexecology
Sprinkle,
Annie, and Beth Stephens. “Ecosex
Symposim I.” Highways Performance
Space. October 24, 2010. http://www.loveartlab.com/PDF/ecosex_sym1_program.pdf,
November 28, 2013.
Sprinkle,
Annie, and Beth Stephens. “Ecosex
Symposium II.” Center for Sex and
Culture, San Francisco. June 17-19, 2011
http://sexecology.org/ecosex-symposium-2/,
November 28, 2013.
Sprinkle,
Annie, Elizabeth Stephens.
LoveArtLab. www.LoveArtLab.org,
November 28, 2013.
Stephens,
Elizabeth. “Becoming Eco-Sexual.” Canadian
Theater Research: 144 (Fall 2010): 13-19.
Windward
Community. “Surrender: An Ecosexual
Convergence.” June 14-16, 2014. Windward, WA. http://www.ecosexconvergence.org/,
November 28, 2013.
Wagner,
David. “Beyond Tree Hugging.” San
Francisco Chronicle. 7/16/2011.
Sending
much love and all good wishes to all of you and your loved ones.
Thanks you for listening and opening up. Stay tuned for more coming.
With all good wishes for a happy spring and summer.
Thank you!
Namaste,
SerenaGaia
Namaste,
SerenaGaia
Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio, PhD
Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love Professor of Humanities, University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez
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