ABSTRACT
First a cautionary tale. In the Spring of 1995 I was writing a piece on pornography and performance. I had heard of Annie Sprinkle and her erotic forays into live art and knew she was still as much a focal point for academic feminists in the United States as Robert Mapplethorpe had been for queer culture in the 1980s. But I had no visual evidence in the shape of a video cassette. After all she had, to my knowledge, only performed once in the United Kingdom and then in the hermetic art-house ambience of Glasgow's Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA). I telephoned the director there, a former student from years back. She regretted that no video of the show had been made but gave me a contact address. One name led to another, that of Sprinkle's California agent, Roger Wharton of REW Videos: Videos of Erotic Educators who replied to my request in the following terms:
I have made a special PAL copy of the Annie Sprinkle video which you requested (Sluts and Goddesses Video Workshop). It will be sent unlabeled and marked as a gift to help it clear customs. I cannot, however be responsible if it does not clear. 1
