There's a lot of pain and suffering out there. I think there needs to be more joy, and love, and orgasms in the world. We are a pleasure-negati ve society. Suffering is much more acceptable. And I want to tell women that they are sexually powerful beings, but they often don't get in touch with it because they are socialized to please men.

Annie Sprinkle

Categorized in : Men Powerful Pain

The single most important key to sex that I've yet discovered is conscious rhythmic breathing; the more you breathe the more you feel and the more you come alive. Many of us breathe only enough to survive but not to live fully. Deep breathing is a door to waking up to healing and to more personal freedom.

Annie Sprinkle

keys healing sex

I don't think being obsessed with sex is any stranger than being obsessed with stamp collecting.

Annie Sprinkle

stranger sex thinking

My whole purpose is to bring what's hidden out in the open so people can look at it and discuss it. And sexually oriented material is very important to study in an academic setting. Controversy is part of the fun.

Annie Sprinkle

important fun people

I've been putting out sexually explicit images of myself for years. I know this sounds bizarre, but somehow it makes me feel safer.

Annie Sprinkle

bizarre sound years

I usually kissed my clients if they wanted to kiss. I thought it was just way too weird to say "no kissing allowed," That to me was uncomfortable.

Annie Sprinkle

kissing clients way

I love to engage people who think differently than I do.

Annie Sprinkle

people thinking

I'd like to see feminism really be more loving. Feminists have a lot of righteous anger, and have done a lot to fight for rights. But we need a lot of love and compassion - to embrace people, to educate people. I wasn't a feminist until l I was educated about what it was. I would love to see men attend, and transgender people. Everyone is welcome.

Annie Sprinkle

fighting compassion men

In my theater pieces, I would do "Tits on the Head" - Polaroid photos for $10 on the stage. There would be a line of folks paying me $10 for their turn. It was public prostitution. I turned my whole audience into johns. But because it was in a theater context, an art context, it was socially acceptable.

Annie Sprinkle

pieces would-be art

It's a pity that there's such a negative connotation about paying for sex.

Annie Sprinkle

pity sex negative

Feel free to cover your eyes at anything that might upset you

Annie Sprinkle

upset over-you eye

There have been times where I have definitely felt like I was a john. As a pin-up photographer for ten years, when I was photographing men and women, to be honest, sometimes I felt like I was a john, especially when I was shooting guys because they - you know - they had to have big erections in the photos.

Annie Sprinkle

guy men years

People who have been prostitutes are ten times more willing to be johns than the average person. So, if you've been paid for sex you understand the value of that experience on some level.

Annie Sprinkle

average sex people

A lot of women I worked with didn't respect their clients. I had some clients who didn't respect me, but still you somehow made it work.

Annie Sprinkle

respect-me clients made

Blow jobs are okay, but kissing clients is still a taboo.

Annie Sprinkle

kissing blow jobs

My johns adored and worshipped me, therefore they empowered me. When I was 18, 19, and 20, I had a poor self-image and needed attention. It's hard for people who haven't been prostitutes to imagine, but I think it's often true. There can be a very symbiotic relationship happening.

Annie Sprinkle

self people thinking

Sex is normal and natural, and we've made it abnormal and unnatural.

Annie Sprinkle

natural

I had orgasms with clients, even though it was kind of a taboo at that time to admit it. Women weren't supposed to enjoy sex that much!

Annie Sprinkle

clients kind sex

I met him when I was 18. We split up when I was 38. He saw me grow up too. He was a client, and also a friend. Such things are more common than people might think. This arrangement was not so different than many American relationships. That's why the laws against prostitution have got to go. They are totally unfair and mean.

Annie Sprinkle

growing-up mean thinking

I had this client I'll call Samuel. Not his real name. I saw him steadily for twenty years, usually twice a month. Over twenty years you really get to know someone.

Annie Sprinkle

real names years

I had many clients who didn't respect me, probably because of how they were raised. We're all the walking wounded.

Annie Sprinkle

respect-me raised clients