1 of 6 - EcoSex @ U Conn - Weiss's EcoSex - Student Responses: John's Take

Dear Earthlings:

The EcoSex course at U Conn is in process.  It's a great experience.  We are reading amazing books.  Thinking out of the box and across disciplines.  Students are sending their responses in, with discussion questions.  In class, we connect the dots: a holograph of what we've read together, the "required readings."  Multiple perspectives and good synergy.  Here, we offer a glimpse.  Stefanie Iris Weiss's EcoSex: Go Green Between the Sheets, was one of two introductory books.  We got five responses: from John, Alex, Adam, Rhiann, Alissa, and Michael.  

Here's John's take:

Response to Stefanie Iris Weiss's EcoSex: Go Green Between the Sheets

Weiss wrote a very intriguing book that sent me to my cabinet on numerous occasions. I found that all the items I use in my shower – my shampoo, conditioner, soap, and even my shaving cream – all contained various toxins she listed. I was too afraid to reach into the fridge and check those out as well. But I did start drinking my coffee black.

That said, Weiss makes me hate my life. Reading her book thoroughly makes you want to inspect every aspect of your existence, from not only reducing your general carbon foot print, but checking the brand of your shower curtain. At some point it just gets to be too much, though the general philosophy and spirit of the book is something I can get behind, I don’t have time for my class schedule never mind going through my house and checking every material good to make sure it has been eco certified. While I will certainly make a conscious effort to try and get the more intimate things of my life (shaving cream, for example) from a more eco-friendly source, the sad truth is that I, like most of society, simple can’t afford a perfectly ecological lifestyle. I worked (and am still involved with) a permaculture farm in Old Saybrook. The farmer is one of the most ecological and least consumptive people I know. His diet consists mostly of what he grows, and feeds his chickens with restaurant scrapings. He lights his house with candles, but I’m pretty sure they aren’t from Rawganique. That doesn’t make him unecological (not that Weiss is making that argument). The Weiss book is a handy companion to find alternatives to our consumptive lifestyle, but I couldn’t slug through every single word of her recipes and alternative finds (I don’t use dildos, and I’m very comfortable with my mattress and pillows, thank you very much).

The recipes (the food sounds delicious) weren’t all that bad. What bothered me were all the statistics that precluded the recipes. Weiss wrote a 203 page book and included 40 citations. For a work that cited as many alarmist statistics as she does, that’s not nearly enough citations. For a published work making pretty declarative claims, that’s a big deal. Especially since we, as students, would get an F for making as many unsourced claims as she does. I can’t account for the veracity – or falsity for that matter – of most of her claims, but for example, my Dad replaced all the pipes of our house once with copper piping. It was a big deal because most developers are using some new plastic “flexi-pipe” because it’s cheaper than copper. The reason flexi-pipe is cheaper than copper is because we’re very quickly approaching peak copper in society. But on page 135, Weiss calls copper “an inexpensive and readily available metal.” My red flags waved and a quick Internet search for “peak copper” yields thousands of results and sources for the rising price of an increasingly rare metal. While I’m on board with the environmental movement, Weiss seems to make the argument that everything in our homes will give us cancer and murder us while we are sleeping.

I enjoy her bit on Tantric Sex and intimacy. As someone who’s practiced those things, it’s definitely an awesome inclusion and a nice sigh of relief in a book that’s filled with mostly lists of alternatives to our deadly cosmetics.

To contrast the Tantra, I wasn’t on board with her Abortion section on pages 139-40. I consider myself a quiet Pro-Life advocate. I’m a man, so I won’t ever have to make that decision personally, therefore I try to keep my opinions to myself and just try to help in any way I can. I think the truck that Conservative organization drives around campus is insane and should be criminal. I think our society needs to not stigmatize bastard births, unmarried parents, and most importantly, needs to get on the adoption train. Reading a lot of “Green Literature” already makes me feel like an outcast: the overwhelming use of the pronouns “her” and “she” automatically directs environmentalist literature toward women, labeling her section on abortion “Your Choice” and automatically saying “Yea abortion, not a big deal” makes me feel even more so. I don’t know any Pro-Choice advocates who say abortion isn’t a big deal, or something to do on a whim. Instead of coming off with a sympathetic eye to readers who might not be on board the abortion train, Weiss assumes her reader is female and doesn’t mind having an abortion. As a man who already feels outcast in this genre of literature, she doesn’t have to rub it in.

Overall, I found the book’s philosophy fascinating and a lot of the methods and suggestions innovative. But I felt self-conscious the entire time knowing I was not her target audience, and now understand why so many of my peers are resistant to this subculture. Not only that, but her lack of citations calls her credibility into question and doesn’t inspire confidence.

Questions for Discussion

1.     Is abortion an environmentalist issue?

2.     Why does (or doesn’t) an environmentalist have to be Pro-Choice?

3.     How can we introduce Vancouver’s 100-Year Sustainability Plan to local communities? 

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John D. Nitowski

Published with permission

WGSS 3998 - Ecosexuality and the Ecology of Love

Prof. Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio

U Conn, Storrs, Spring 2013

Course Announcement and Description

Dear Earthlings:

Let "nature" be your teacher in the arts of love.  Education is the heart of democracy, education to love.  Come back for more wonders: Students Responses to appear every Tuesday.  Book Reports to be scheduled soon.  Check out our summer offerings:  Ecosexuality in Portland, OR, July 17-21.  Info and Registration here! 

Namaste,
 

Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio, PhD

Gilf Gaia Extraordinaire

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Professor of Humanities

University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

   

Follow us in the social media

Poly Planet GAIA Blog: 
http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/ 

Website: www.serenagaia.com 

Be Appraised of Ecosex Community Project PostaHouse 
Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings 

Author's Page/Lists all books: 

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA 

YouTube Uploaded Videos: http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini
 

 

 

UCHI, Feb 28, 4PM - Amorous Visions: The Gaze of Love for Love, or Erotophilia, in Cavani and Bertolucci

Dear Earthlings, 

The presentation of the year is coming up for me soon.   You're invited.   I can't wait to see you!
 

The Night Porter

What guides a director’s gaze into the web of memories shared by lovers whose circumstances were extreme?  Does the fear of love dissipate when an auteur looks whose sense of sexuality is fluid and style of love inclusive?  This presentation will discuss cinematic techniques of memory retrieval in two Holocaust-themed art films of the 1970s produced in Italy: Bernardo Bertolucci, in The Conformist (1970), and Liliana Cavani, in The Night Porter (1974).  Each presents a gendered perspective on what happens when a species acts against its own best interest--when it becomes self-destructive.  How can this behavior be exorcised?  Can love for love prevail over the pall of fear? These are, I claim, the main questions the films posit for 21^st century viewers.

Amorous Visions:  The Gaze of Love for Love of Erotophilia.   

The Conformist

Presented by Serena Anderlini, PhD, and Research Fellow at U Conn's Humanities Institute.

Where: UCHI, CLAS/Austin Building # 301.  215 Glenbrook Road, Unit 4234.  Storrs, CT 06269.

When: Thursday, February 28h, at 4:00-5:30 PM.

Free of charge and open to the public.

For more information call: 860 486 9057

Note: The presentation will be enhanced by numerous selected clips from the movies under discussion.

Bernardo Berolucci, director of The Conformist, Last Tango in Paris, and many other films, including, recently, The Dreamers.  

Liliana Cavani, director of The Night Porter, Beyond Good and Evil, and The Berlin Affair, known collectively as The European Trilogy, and many other films. 

Note: The presentation will be followed by an open questions and answers period. 

About the Presenter:

Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, Ph.D, is a Professor of Humanities, Italian, and Cinema at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez.  She is a current Research Fellow at UCHI.  A UCR graduate, she is the author and editor of numerous award-winning books, including Gaia (2009), Eros (2006), BiTopia (2011), Bisexuality and Queer Theory (2011), Plural Loves (2005), Women and Bisexuality (2003), and The ‘Weak’ Subject (1998).  She has charted new fields, including ecosexuality and the arts of loving sustainably and inclusively.  Her new work includes a study of sustainable practices of love and a collection of writings on ecosexuality.

Find out more about UCHI's presentations, programs, and activities:  UCHI

As a comment: I feel an immense gratitude for this Fellowship research year.  My spirit feels rejuvenated and revitalized by the inspiration and creativity that it's been immersed in.  It has been a wonderful gift to be in the company of fellow Fellows and their projects, and to have access to the abundant research resources of U Conn, Storrs.  Also, it's lovely to be immersed in discourses across disciplines and a campus abundant with Centers and Institutes where these conversations flourish.  

This is the most important presentation in my Fellowship year.  It's a public presentation designed to offer the pulse of where my project is at and where it's headed to.  It's been a pleasure to prepare it, with abundant technical assistance at the Institute.  And I hope it will be well received and inspire a generous amount of questions and genuine debate.

Thank you, U Conn.  Thank you, UCHI.

Photo by Mina Bast

Education is the heart of democracy, education to love.  

We offer a seminar this summer:  Ecosexuality: Becoming 

a Resource of Love. Join us in Portland, OR, July 17-21, 

for this amazing experience.  It's still early-bird time for 

those interested.  Register now here!

Come back for more wonders. 

Namaste,
 

Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio, PhD

Gilf Gaia Extraordinaire

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Professor of Humanities

University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

   

Follow us in the social media

Poly Planet GAIA Blog: 
http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/ 

Website: www.serenagaia.com 

Be Appraised of Ecosex Community Project PostaHouse 
Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings 

Author's Page/Lists all books: 

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA 

YouTube Uploaded Videos: http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini
 

Ecosexuality: Becoming a Resource of Love - Join Us in Portland, OR, July 17-21, for an Enchanting Summer Course

EcoSexuality: Becoming A Resource of Love - Portland, OR: July 17-21

Photo by Teri Ciacchi

Would you like to know how to generate all the love you want in your life and the lives of your beloveds, families, and communities?  Join us for this five-day residential intensive and learn how to become a resource of love.  EcoSexuality is the art of loving beyond genders, numbers, orientations, ages, races, and species to embrace all of life as a partner with equal rights.  It’s the art of becoming a resource of love for Gaia.

         Super Early Bird: 1st 3 Sign-Ups at 50% Tuition

Offer expires on April 1st

Photo by Mina Bast

How can EcoSexuality help one become an abundant resource of love?  This summer program brings together activists, scholars, students, professionals, educators, and practitioners of the arts of loving and living ecologically who are interested in co-creating a culture of Gaian-centered, life-positive, sex-positive living.  Avatar of EcoSexual theory Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, Reverend Teri D. Ciacchi and Bruce Bartlett of Living Love Revolution come together as co-facilitators, anchors, and hosts to bring this unique experience to you.  We understand EcoSexual Love as the art of loving beyond conventional limitations to embrace love as the ecology of life.  We are passionate about empowering fellow humans to become resources of love who generate together all the love we, and our elective families and communities can use.  As resources of love, we can turn scarcity into abundance, fear into hope, hatred into love.  

The location of the course is the White Oak Retreat Center nested in the forested hills of North West Portland, OR.  An eco-centric design community home with high green metrics, it hosts up to 25 participants.  It features multiple wings, floors, multiuse day rooms and bedrooms, private and shared spaces, bathrooms, and lavatories.  The outdoor amenities available for EcoSensual and EcoSexual experiences include meadows, forests, trees, bushes, marshes, and liminal spaces like multiple balconies, a lanai, fire circle, and Jacuzzi.  Indoor facilities include a wide cooking, food preparation, and dining area, multiple workshop spaces, lounges, and massage areas.  We will cater healthy meals with vegetarian options.  The center offers various combinations of shared and semi-private overnight arrangements in accordance with the versatility of its interior spaces.  We invite participants to express their preferences so we can match them with available resources.

Super Early Bird: 1st 3 Sign-Ups at 50% Tuition

Offer expires on April 1st

Room and Board: Add $ 200 per person

Payable by May st to Teri Cacchi at

livingloverevolution@me.com

Mina Bast

In the course, we will explore EcoSomatics, Embodiment, and EcoPsychology as tools to transform into resources of love.  As we understand the inherent connection between our bodies and the planetary body of Gaia as ecosystems, we will explore the dynamic relationship between our inner landscapes and the forces of nature that map the outer landscapes we’re part of.   Exercises will facilitate the body’s energy centers resonance with waters, lands, mountains, forests, bacteria, the animal world, air, winds, astral, aural, and energetic bodies.  We understand erotic energy and love as immanent life forces that can be sourced when reverence for the forces of nature is activated.  This reverence transforms into the source of one’s power to generate love.  

Mina Bast

Transformative tools will be used in a wide range of effective small group experiences designed as community sustainability practices. Participants will gain a better understanding of the complex social, emotional, cognitive, behavioral and experiential dynamics inherent to becoming a resource of love for themselves and their communities.  They will become aware of EcoSexual practices designed to sustain communities as we all learn to become resources of love for ourselves, for each other, and for third planet Gaia or the Earth.

The course includes small group learning, individual mentoring, real-world case studies and field experiences.  Skills we will engage with include workable definitions of love, solo ecosexual stewarding of natural places, peer counseling practices for working holistically with emotions and self care practices that include, meditation, yoga and ecstatic dance.  There is a specific focus on developing the ability to be a present and grounded resource of love.  You will learn to generate oxytocin, the hormone of love and connectedness, through aural, visual and vibrational energy exchanges in a safe and consensual container.

Teri Ciacchi

Our daily EcoSensual practices will include solo, small and large group processes from many spiritual lineages.  The initial focus is enhancing your capacity for intimacy, creating unity consciousness and embodying love.  The next step is an initiation ritual with sacred sexuality practices culminating on Saturday evening.  Participants will practice various consensual degrees of sexual fluidity and amorous inclusiveness that open the inner landscape and chakra system to the planetary embrace of EcoSexual Love.  The art of EcoSexual Love will expand the range of sensations participants experience as pleasure and the range of emotions they experience as love.  

 Super Early Bird: 1st 3 Sign-Ups at 50% Tuition

Offer expires on April 1st

Room and Board: Add $ 200 per person
Payable by May st to Teri Cacchi at
livingloverevolution@me.com

Who will benefit from this program?

1. Activists, scholars, students, professionals, educators, and practitioners of the arts of loving and living ecologically.
2. Individuals who see love and building communities around a shared value of love as a foundation of sustainable relatedness.
3. Environmental and sustainability advocates interested in learning how to apply the principles of permaculture to human relatedness and social fabric remediation.
4. Practitioners of the arts of loving in its infinite forms of expression.
5. Participants in styles of love based in sexual fluidity and amorous inclusiveness and other forms of open relating.  
6. Green entrepreneurs and organizers with a desire to expand their earth loving practices to the infinite forms of expressions Gaian love can take.
7. People interested in learning how to host spaces of love in the guise that third-planet Gaia does for its multiple beings.
8. People skilled in being a resource of love for themselves and in their intimate relationships who want to extend that ability to large communities and ecosystems.
9. People who wish to extend their nature-living skills and practices to human communities.

Photo credits to Mina Bast, thank you!

Who we are and why we bring this to you

Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio, PhD, heralded the EcoSexuality movement with her book Gaia and the New Politics of Love.  She was invited to keynote at EcoSexuality Symposia in San Francisco and Portland.  She believes that "a world where it is safe to live is a world where it is safe to love," and that "love is the ecology of life."  She interprets love as an art and teaches practices of love that honor amorous inclusiveness and sexual fluidity.  Her first course in EcoSexuality was taught with Robert Silber in Italy. 

Reverend Teri D. Ciacchi MSW is the founder of Living Love Revolution and has created a system of EcoMagicks and EcoSexual practices called the LLR Aphrodite Priestess Training.  She is a holistic healer and sex educator who merges specific lineages of Wicca, Tibetan Buddhism, Ceremonial Magick and psychiatric social work to create accessible daily practices grounded in love. She specializes in rituals that honor the Divine Feminine and manifest the presence of love in the practice of EcoSomatics, Embodiment and EcoPsychology.

Bruce Bartlett is the creator and caretaker of the White Oak Retreat Center in Portland, OR.  He advocates an EcoSexual approach to life, including holistic living, inclusive hospitality, land stewardship, permaculture, ritual music, ecstatic movement, and green metrics.  He is a food system activist and an all-around dedicated practitioner of the arts of living and loving in Portland. 

Dear Earthlings,

You can't miss this opportunity to become an abundant resource of love.  Join us in Portland for an enchanting summer course, July 17-21,2013. With EcoSexuality: Becoming a Resource of Love, you will learn how to generate all the love you want in your life and the lives of your beloveds, families, and communities.  Space is limited, so sign up now.  Be one of the first three participants to benefit from the limited offer of a 50 percent tuition discount.  The offer expires on April 1st.  Meals and residential arrangements are an added $ 200 payable in full by May 1st. We look forward to welcoming you at the White Oak Retreat Center in July!  

Super Early Bird: 1st 3 Sign-Ups at 50% Tuition

Room and Board: Add $ 200 per person 

Payable by May 1st to Teri Ciacchi at

livingloverevolution@me.com

Namaste,

Serena